Malaysia Backpacking Tips – Everything You Need to Know!

Malaysia is one of the cleanest and most developed countries of South-East Asia. It’s a perfect place to start backpacking in this part of the world, making the adaptation period as smooth and pleasant as possible. Today we’d like to share with you some essential Malaysia backpacking tips.

Why Choose Backpacking in Malaysia?

Malaysia is a country of contrasts. On the one hand, many people still live in bamboo houses; on the other hand the downtown of Kuala Lumpur, the capital, can easily compete with Manhattan. Rich Malaysians eat oysters in French restaurants, whereas their poor compatriots have only rice and noodles to feed their families. No matter what part of Malaysia you are going to visit, you meet poverty and luxury, the past and the present, the third and the first worlds mixed together. Malaysia consists of two separate parts, West and East Malaysia, separated by South China Sea. The Western part is more developed, the capital and big cities are situated there. The West part is perfect for seaside vacations, nature trekking and diving.

Malaysia backpacking tips

Somewhere on Malaysian Islands

This country used to be a British colony. Nowadays Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country, which makes it particularly interesting in comparison to the rest of Buddhist South-East Asia. In our Malaysia travel guide we’ll try to cover all essential information you need.

MALAYSIA SIGHTSEEING

Kuala Lumpur. The capital and the biggest city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur has lots to offer. Werecommend visiting Perdana Botanical Garden (gorgeous!), Kuala Lumpur Bird Park (the zoo without a single cage, since the whole territory is covered with a net), downtown gardens with kids swimming pools, twin towers and local markets. There are many museums and mosques, as well as a tourist shopping mall, but we usually avoid these places when we travel.

Petronas Twin Towers

Malacca City. An old town, the capital of Portuguese colonizers and cultural center of Malaysia, is known for its old Catholic churches, lovely river tours, old mill and Chinese restaurants. To be honest, it is overrated, but it’s a nice place to explore a Malaysian province (2-3 days maximum).

Malacca

Pulau Besar. A ghost island, abandoned by people, is situated not far from Malacca. It is forbidden to live on the island, as well as to stay overnight, but one might see occasional guides here and there (actually, some say there are several hotels on the island). The whole island is covered with ruins of a five-star hotel, the owners of which were forced to leave the place due to religious considerations of Muslim and Hindu communities.

Langkawi.

Paradise island in the north of the country, it offers the best palm-and-beach resort options. We really enjoyed staying there, sunbathing, swimming, watching monkeys and riding the bicycles in the jungles.

Taman Negara.

It is a national park and nature reservation in the West of East Malaysia. Here you can walk along the bridges, constructed at the rainforest tree top level, meet wild animals and enjoy all beauty of the tropical wood.

HOW TO GET THERE?

By plane. Air Asia is the cheapest airline, flying almost everywhere around Malaysia and Asia and offering really good deals. We used it exclusively and were completely satisfied. Anyway, you should check flight aggregators to find the best deals.

By bus. Buses are very clean and very cheap. The ticket can be bought at the bus station. Meals are often included in the price. If you’re in Singapore to come to Malaysia by bus is probably one of the best options (that’s how we did it).

By train. It’s worth using train when going to Malaysia from Thailand. There are three traditional classes of tickets and we must admit that the third class is completely fine.

Tuk-tuk. There is little sense in tuk-tuk and taxis here, since the public transportation is very developed. We used metro in Kuala Lumpur and buses in Malacca.

HOW TO GET A VISA?

The majority of nationalities get visa on the border for 30 days (for Europe and North America it is 90 days). The process of getting visa is super easy: you do not have to fill in any forms or answer any questions. You just get stamp into your passport and that’s it!

WHERE TO STAY?

Malaysia is a very clean country and it refers to accommodation too. We mostly stayed in guest houses and were completely happy about it. Here’re some of the accommodations we either stayed at or heard great things about