Malaysia, Middle Child of Southeast Asia?

Malaysia! One of the most developed countries in Southeast Asia, only next to Singapore. It is such a wholesome destination, no matter what you expect from your vacation. You want mountains, beaches, Modern architecture, historical sights, you name it, Malaysia has it. I have never seen a sunset so mesmerizing on the beach in Langkawi or a skyline so vivid and amazing from the Infinity pool at the top of Regalia residence, Kuala Lumpur. The best part is that you don’t have to spend a fortune on the amazing sunset or for that phenomenal view at Regalia. Hopefully we get past the COVID pandemic soon enough and begin exploring the world again!

In my opinion, Malaysia is a solid competitor for the perfect mix of being a developed country and phenomenal experience on a budget. You can experience so much for so little and there is literally way too much to explore on a single trip to this Asian tiger. As with my prior posts, I will break down the series in 3 posts. In this one, I will give a broad breakdown of my budget and how best to do Malaysia on a budget, the second post will contain the key tips for visiting Malaysia and how to make the most of it and last but not the least will cover what unique experience that I had while in Malaysia. That last post is the very reason that I travel, for those type of experiences and to meet people like these on my travel! This time around, I decided to make a travel movie as well, my very first attempt at it, hope you guys enjoy it. 

Do comment for what you think of it and any suggestions are more than welcome!

Okay starting off with my itinerary for the 6-day trip, 1 day for a flight, so effectively 5 days.

Day 1: Kuala Lumpur

– Petronas Towers
– Aquaria KLCC
– Suria KLCC
Catch a Bus to Kuala Perlis

Day 2: Langkawi + Kuala Perlis

– Roam the city of Kuala Perlis
– Pantai Cenang Beach

Day 3: Langkawi

– Skybridge
– Pantai Cenang Beach
– Dataran Lang
Ferry to Perlis and overnight bus to KL

Day 4: Kuala Lumpur

– KL Tower
– Batu Caves
– Jalan Alor

Day 5: Kuala Lumpur

– Sunway Putra Mall
– Chow kit Market

So this was my precise day to day itinerary. The idea was simple, cover 2 cities as efficiently as we can. As a group of 6 friends, it took a long sitting and arguing to zero in on the 2 cities. Both the cities are absolute gems and you wouldn’t want to skip either one of them. There is plenty to see and do in the 2 cities as can be seen from the itinerary above. 

I spent a total of Rs. 40,000 ($540 as on Dec’20) during those 6 days including everything, end to end. It might seem like a lot but just hear me out! Read till the end and I assure you, you’ll realize that it isn’t too much and how it can be reduced further with a few hypothetical scenarios.

We will break down the Budget starting off with some overhead costs.

1. Flights
   The flights are the one thing that will eat into your budget if not planned well. So we booked our flight 2 weeks in advance from Kolkata to KL on AirAsia and we got one of the best deal we could have gotten at just Rs. 13,000 ($175) for return tickets.
   
   
2. Visa
   Next, we had to get our Visa and thanks to the eNTRI program by Malaysia, it was super easy to get out visas. All we required was out flights, our passport, a passport size photo and Rs. 2000 ($27). It is technically not a visa but a registration which gives you visa free access to Malaysia for 14 days. It really makes it easy to travel the country and maybe India and other countries can take a cue from them too.
   
   
3. Souvenirs
   If you want to avoid brooding faces when you come back from the trip, you better have some souvenirs for your friends and family. I spent around Rs. 2000 ($27) on them but you can go as high as you want with one of my friends pushing the Rs. 15,000 ($200) mark.

Now we will look at the variable cost for the trip,

1. Stay
   Depending on who you ask, it is either the most or the second most costly affair of your trip (apart from flights). But when it comes to Malaysia, don’t be fooled by the skyscrapers, the accommodation can be as cheap as you want it to be. So out of the 4 night of our travel, we were travelling in inter city busy overnight buses for 2 nights and for the remaining 2 nights we booked some rather nice places as a few of us wanted to compensate for the money saved due to overnight buses (I am always a stickler for the cheaper option though :P).
   
   We also booked 2 hostel as well for us to freshen up once we reached Kuala Lumpur before we took the bus towards Langkawi. So I will share my expenses for all of them here in order of stay.

   First, we had booked a place by the name Step Inn too Guesthouse.
   Price: Rs. 275 / person / night ($3.7)
   I assure you, the place offered you amenities what you simply cannot imagine for just Rs. 275. A hot shower, clean rooms, a great location (walking distance from Petronas towers) and overall a good vibe to it with people hanging around in the common room, talking, having a drink, playing games etc.

   Next we stayed at this place by the name, Bambü Getaway. I must say, although a bit expensive specially coming from a $3 stay, it was very well worth it. It cost the 6 of us at Rs. 6000/night or Rs. 1000/person/night ($13.5). They had a full size boxing ring, a great cafe and the room for 6 was amazing to say the least. No door in the washroom (only curtains) and 6 of us was a bit of a concern but yeah, we got around it. Here I’ll add a few photos too!

   

Our 3rd location of stay was Regalia Suites and the sole purpose of staying there was the infinity pool and the view. Again, the cost came to around Rs. 6000/night or Rs. 1000 ($13) per person per night. I will just let you see the view now.

 

 

and finally we stayed in yet another hostel, for Rs. 200/night just to freshen up and rest for our remaining time in Malaysia.

2. Food

I will have to say that Malaysia has some of the best cuisine I have ever had in my lifetime. I thoroughly enjoyed their food. Although not for someone who is a vegetarian, the use of fish oil in every dish might be a deterrent for you. But yeah, Food in Malaysia is authentic, cheap and absolutely phenomenal. From the Mee Gorengs to Nasi Lemaks to trying out deep friend squids, there is no comparison of their food with any other, it is just so unique. If you do go to Kuala Lumpur, don’t miss out on the food that you get at Jalan Alor, absolutely amazing.

 

 

 

The food costs vary vastly. I will list down a few items we had and remember the same thing might cost different based on where you but it at.

Mee (noodles): Rs. 20 ($0.3)
Mcdonalds Meal: Rs 220 ($3)
Cold Coffee: Rs. 38 ($0.5)
Nasi Lemak (Buffet): Rs. 180 ($2.4)
Fried Squid: Rs. 216 ($2.9)

The major costs left are intercity transportation and attraction.

The buses cost us around Rs. 1000/person/side and they were absolutely plush, luxury buses with super sized seats. You can not ask for a better bus to travel in

The Final expense was that of visiting attraction. we visited quite a lot of attractions which run us some money although we were using a lot of coupons to save up some money too. Here is a list of attractions we visited:

1. Aquaria KLCC (RM 69 / Rs. 1260 / $17)
2. KL Tower (RM 85 / Rs. 1530 / $20)
3. SkyCab Glass Floor (RM 100 / Rs. 1800 / $24)
4. Batu Caves (FREE!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this gives you a good idea of how inexpensive is Kuala Lumpur s you can avoid all the extravagant costs like going to the top of KL tower and rather enjoy the day at the amazing sitting area they have made at the bottom or avoiding the expensive stays and sticking to the cheaper options, you can be done in half the amount than we did.

Hope you guys enjoyed it, and if you did, do leave a small like down below!