8-Day Quick Trip to Malaysia – Itinerary and Travel Report

I was truly delighted when Air Asia finally branched out to the Philippines. It certainly is one of the best airlines in South East Asia that offers discounted flights in the neighboring countries and the announcement of the plan was definitely the time for me to snag cheap tickets to its airlines’ home country, Malaysia. I had to cut my trip short though as I decided to postpone my plans for Sabah and Kota Kinabalu because of the conflict with the Philippines during that time.

Travel Report: 8 Days in Malaysia

Wat Chayamangkalaram & Dhammikarama Temple - Day 8 in Malaysia

I was left alone alone on my third day, and also left with no plans on what to do, I consulted our host who recommended going to Batu Feringghi. I really wasn't up for it as the weather seemed a bit gloomy (even looked like it might rain) so I discarded the idea. After an hour or so of browsing the internet, I came upon two unique temples located just north-east of Penang that has piqued my interest.

Hunting for Street Art in Penang! - Day 7 in Malaysia

While we were enjoying our town and seeing George Town, we also noticed tons of art displays on the walls and streets nearby tourist spots. They were very interesting to look at especially since I thought they were only vandals at first. I later found out that there many of these scattered around the city, but we only found two types of these artworks. While we didn't get to see all the art displays of George Town, it was sure fun to compile and post this collection of artworks that we were able to appreciate and at the same time, enjoying this heritage area of Penang.

Exploring George Town, Penang - Day 7 in Malaysia

We literally had no itinerary for Penang aside from visiting George Town and sampling different cuisines in Malaysia's food capital. We took a 6-hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur to Sungai Nibong, Penang and for our first day there, we saw Kek Lok Si which was majestic and the Botanical Garden that had perfect landscaping and nature setting for runners but nothing much of interest for tourists like me and my friend (except for the pesky monkeys in the area). For the next day, we solely planned to explore Georgetown and discover why the place is famous with tourists local and foreigner alike.

taken from a unique store in George Town

What to see in Kek Lok Si Temple, Penang - Day 6 in Malaysia

After a very relaxed travel from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, we decided to do a little research on what to do in this city located north of Malaysia. Penang, a state in Malaysia located in the northwestern coast of Malaysia is very rich in multicultural history and highly diverse in ethnicity, culture and language.

For our first day, we had our host with us as it was his day off and he decided to tour us around Georgetown and be our guide to Kek Lok Si. Going up to the temple from the bus station was not a problem, we passed by a market aimed for tourists and good thing it was not crowded that day. After half an hour, we were able to reach the temple proper.

lovely old colorful building

Heritage Buildings of Kuala Lumpur - Day 5 in Malaysia

After our tiring tour of Malacca, we ended up spending the night at Central Station. After a couple of hours and without any sleep, we decided to complete our KL checklist by seeing some of the tourist attractions around the city. This series would appear as something like a Heritage walk that will feature some of KL's oldest buildings. This was our last stop before we head for Penang.

overlooking the magnificent building of Old Kuala Lumpur Station

Chillin' and Food Trippin' in Malacca - Day 4 in Malaysia

Aside from the awesome sights and tourist spots to see, me and my friend were particularly interested in trying out tasty and unique dishes that Malacca can offer. Our day trip to the city was surely able to help us gain a huge appetite to look for good and cheap food, fortunately they are dime a dozen here so we did not have any problems at all.

yum yum yum for cheap eats at Melaka!

A Massive Post on our Day Trip to Malacca - Day 4 in Malaysia

We really didn't have anything planned for our fourth day. We turned to our host and she said "Why not go to Malacca?" I have heard of the place from a friend but didn't really look it up on the internet, not until the day before we were supposed to go. We didn't have an itinerary for Malacca, but just some notes on the must-eat food and must-see museums. Nevertheless, we were excited and took the 2-hour bus ride from B'spadu Selatan Station Terminal in KL to Malacca.

relaxing view of the Melaka River

Pink Mosque, Putrajaya and Blue Mosque, Selangor - Day 3 in Malaysia

Seeing mosques were a special part of this trip. I really had no idea that non-Muslims can go inside them unless you had a permit or want to convert to the religion. I was curious on how mosques look like inside and was even more curious about the religion and beliefs. I grew up as a Catholic and studied at a Catholic school until high school so I only had ideas about the Muslim religion during our History class. I knew of mosques that were open to tourists while researching for our trip to Malaysia so I definitely had to include on going to at least one on our itinerary. We planned to visit this one famous mosque in Putrajaya so we specifically went there for a day trip.

Putra Square and Putra Mosque, Putrajaya, Malaysia

One Hot Afternoon at Putrajaya - Day 3 in Malaysia

We felt that we already saw almost all places on our bucket list for Kuala Lumpur, so the next two days would be side trips to nearby cities. First on our list was Putrajaya, just located south of KL. We have seen of a pamphlet on a tour bus that offer tours every weekend for only 1 RM! I couldn't believe we could avail of something as cheap as that so we decided to take the KLIA Express Train for KL Sentral to Putrajaya Sentral station. Unfortunately, “The Best of Putrajaya Tour” operates only during 3 PM every afternoon and we arrived past 12 in the afternoon so we decided to tour the place by ourselves as not to waste more time waiting. Buses from the train station called the Nadi Putra buses, charge for only 50 cents to any location you may wish to be dropped off. Cheapest bus fare I've ever had so far.

a view of Perdana Putra surprised us as soon as we got off the bus station

The sights at Merdeka Square, Kuala Lumpur - Day 2 in Malaysia

After going to Batu Caves, we decided to get a let the rain stop first as it would have been difficult to go around and take pictures with the rain and all. It was already past 4PM when we felt it was okay to go out and head to our next destination which was Merdeka Square. We were supposed to go here after our visit to Chinatown on our first day but we eventually forgot so we decided to push through the next day.

Kuala Lumpur's beautiful cityscape - on a scale model

Climbing up Batu Caves! - Day 2 in Malaysia

I was pretty excited to see more of Malaysia on my second day. After exploring Chinatown and seeing the Petronas Twin Towers, I was starting to like the city! Batu Caves was out first destination for the day, though not exactly part of Kuala Lumpur, but we went to see it as it was very close to KL.

Batu Caves, Malaysia

Day to Night at Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur - Day 1 in Malaysia

One of Malaysia's famous icons is the Petronas Twin Towers and has been one of a traveler's top priority places to visit while in Kuala Lumpur. Petronas used to be the world's tallest skyscraper for the duration of 1998 and 2004. Since then, there have been a number of buildings that have surpassed it on the list. This did not prevent us from visiting this from seeing these towers with our own eyes and we even planned to see it on different times of the day.

Petronas Twin Towers

A walk around KL's Chinatown - Central Market, Petaling St, Sultan St, Guan Di and Sri Mahamariamman Temple - Day 1 in Malaysia

My friends call me an expert on booking promo flights. I was able to book flights going to Malaysia via Air Asia for less than 650 pesos. How nifty! I later found out that they were cancelling the Kota Kinabalu-Clark route which I have previously booked. After tons of calls and emails via their customer support, I was able to have my money refunded on the cancelled flight. I am not sure if I will be flying through Air Asia again because of that. So anyway, I ended up booking a more expensive flight (Singapore-Manila), no thanks to Air Asia, since I decided to push through with the trip regardless of what happened.

Me and my friend decided to Couchsurf, because sincerely, I love traveling and meeting locals at the same time. We planned to travel through 8 days to Malaysia and 3 days in Singapore. We didn't have an itinerary since it was a very busy time at the office so what we did during our trip was to ask our hosts for recommendations and if we had time, look for something in the Internet.

overlooking the grand Kuala Lumpur Menara or KL Tower