Our first experiences in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia went a little bit rougher than our flight into Incheon, South Korea. Briana was getting over a cold from Korea, as well as got some food poisoning in the airport which made for to her have an uncomfortable flight. I was a little disgruntled that Air Asia did not offer complimentary water on the 7-hour flight in. I also came down with a little cold in the airport.

First Experiences in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2

Once we landed at KLIA2, we luckily got to use carts to push our baggage around until we got through immigration which luckily went off without a hitch. We entered into a huge duty-free area.

Money Problems

A problem arose when I tried to withdraw money from the ATM. None of my cards worked, and Briana had to resort to converting some of her cash to Ringgit (RM). I sat for a while trying to get through to customer service with my bank, which they ultimately dropped me after nearly twenty minutes on hold. And Briana luckily managed to go grab our heavy packs before they got carted off.

We then managed to grab a taxi for 75 RM to our Airbnb at Riana Green, Petaling Jaya. Technically, we weren’t staying in Kuala Lumpur – but only just barely.

Taxi Confusion

The taxi driver had no idea where to go and just drove in the general direction while he was trying to find out where we were going from his handler. Luckily, he managed to get there without too much issue. Briana had been in contact with our Airbnb host at the airport via WhatsApp, but once we got away from wifi we weren’t able to contact him.

Once we pulled up to the condominium complex – it was past midnight at this point – we realized that we had no idea how to contact our host. The complex was much too large to simply go looking. After about fifteen or twenty minutes though, our host came out, realizing that we probably didn’t have phone service to contact him.

But Wow, What A Great Spot

But aside from the initial arrival, we’ve actually had a pretty great first couple of days here in Malaysia. Though to most of the outside world, we’d appear to be in Kuala Lumpur, we’re actually in Petaling Jaya, which is right next to Kuala Lumpur. The Airbnb is fantastic, it’s a great condominium, with resort style pools, great amenities, and even a little restaurant at the main gate. (See our post: Our First Airbnb.)

We enjoyed ourselves with the pool quite a bit, with several to choose from. They have fountains, vanishing edges, waterfalls, and jets to enjoy. The weather was a wonderful change from Korea as well. We did like the cold, but we really enjoy being able to walk around in shorts and flip flops. And I really like all the coconut trees here.

Delicious Food Everywhere

The food has also been a great change of pace for us here as well. While I enjoyed the Korean food, it was lacking in variety and offered Briana nothing to eat as a vegetarian. Here, however, the assortment of food leaves so many choices for both of us.

Briana has gotten to eat many vegetable dishes, and fruit is readily available. We couldn’t cook at the place we stayed so were limited to snacking at home. We could keep things in the fridge or heat items up.

The pricing for food is very cheap, so we splurged. A meal of fried rice or noodles with vegetables and meat for both of us comes out to about 10RM on average (~$2.50), and a buffet for both of us can go for around 14-20RM (~$3.50 – $5). The first meal pictured below was about $0.60. Drinks do cost more though, and we have to consider that bottled water is a must here because there’s no drinking from the tap.

You Can Only Walk Downtown

We’ve found that at least this part of Petaling Jaya is not very walkable. There are only a few sidewalks, and the roads are a little too crazy to want to try and walk around like we could in Seoul. So we’ve had to rely on Uber a few times here.

The prices really aren’t too bad, we’ve used them to go to 1-Utama Mall and I’ve used them a few times on my own. The pricing hasn’t been too bad either, typically ranging from 7 – 18 RM ($1.75 – $4.50).

So, Why Kuala Lumpur?

The catalyst to our coming here though was actually a job opportunity at a local animation studio. Malaysia was not originally high on our list of countries to see, but once I applied and they wanted me for an interview, we began to get excited about coming here.

Some people online tend to say that there isn’t much to do in Kuala Lumpur. But already we seemed to have a full itinerary and had to cut some out for lack of time. We ended up visiting again a few months later. Unfortunately, I did not get the job, but my rides with Uber drivers gave some great insight into the community.

What’s To Know?

Driver Number One

English is commonly spoken here, and to some extent, most everyone can speak it. The accent may be a little thick at times, but it’s easy to have a full conversation. My first driver was a younger guy, who was quite interested in why I was here. It is apparently not that common for Americans to travel here, especially in search of jobs. Most caucasians here are from Australia.

We had a bit more of a small talk between us, primarily discussing the beautiful weather they have here, and how much I was enjoying the heat and humidity. He was surprised to find out that the US is not, in fact, a cold country. He was under the impression that the US was a cold-climate country similar to the Scandinavian countries.

I told him that while the northern states get very cold, during peak winter, we actually have a warm climate in general. Especially in the southern states (such as Florida). He did say somberly, that due to the lessening power of the Ringgit, which he blamed on the government purposely lowering to deter locals from traveling abroad, that he and many local Malays did not have the ability to travel as much as they would like.

Driver Number Two

My second driver was a more elderly man who was also quite talkative and had a bit more substance to his conversation. He had been living in Kuala Lumpur for 25 years but was originally from Penang in the north. He informed me a great deal about the culinary experiences to be had in Malaysia.

It was also very interesting to him the way we traveled, commenting that I was quite young. He was also thrilled at the idea of being a Digital Nomad and thought it was a great idea that made sense. He had traveled a fair bit as well, mainly to India, so told me a bit about the differences between here and there.

When he noticed my ring, the conversation turned to marriage. He said he had been married for 49 years. He was also, again, surprised due to my age. Many Malays were waiting to get married at much later ages, closer to their mid-30s, due to financial concerns. Towards the end of the ride, he had to reconfirm that I was in fact from the United States. He said he was so surprised because I was different from the Americans he had previously met.

He said that typically, they were “loud”, “arrogant”, and “boastful”, and that I was far more soft-spoken, insightful, and culturally interested than he had met. In fact, he said he would have thought I was Hungarian, Ukrainian, or some other smaller Eastern European citizen. I apparently had changed his mind on Americans, to which I told him I was happy that I was able to show him a different side to Americans. My ride ended, and we bid each other farewell.

A Gracious Host

Our host has also been gracious and given us some insight into Malay culture as well. He studied in Australia and traveled to several places in the US including California, Vegas, and New York. He has been quite interested in discussing politics and internal goings-on within Malaysian life.

American Culture Dominates

The first thing he had to say was that in Malaysia, American culture dominates: music, movies, art, etc. is everywhere and they love it. Marvel and DC are big here, and they can’t wait for the next Avengers to come out.

He says that there are a lot of things Malays admire about the US. Most particularly the freedom that he says he can literally smell in the US. At the same time, they are amazed at how uninformed Americans are not just about the world, but about themselves as well. He’s up to date on American politics, as are many people here apparently – and while they admire how much the US wishes (and does) help out around the world, they wish that the US would stop trying to force our views down everyone’s throats.

Democracy Is Not That Important To Malays (Apparently)

He told me that many Asians do not want democracy, they actually see it as inefficient, cumbersome, and weak. They don’t mind monarchy, authoritarians, or dictatorships if they have the freedom to live and work as they see fit. This I found to be interesting since we think of democracy and freedom as going hand-in-hand.

So long as they can earn their money, and achieve a good standard of living, they do not particularly care how their governments manage things. Another notable mention is that he believes Americans are far too PC, despite saying we’ve done wonders for racial equality.

Malays find it quite odd at just how afraid Americans are at offending other people and each other. He says that in Malaysia, people are quite forward and offensive to each other – though it isn’t considered taking it to far. In his words, “You have to be able to take a joke here, no one sympathizes with you being offended.”

The Country May Be Just A Little Bit Corrupt

And with that being said, he then followed on by talking about the Malay government being apparently corrupt. And then going into the social and ethnic divisions within Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur.

There are three main groups: local Malay, Indians, and Chinese. The local Malay are Muslim – even Chinese who convert to Islam are considered local Malay. They receive benefits due to religious preference in forms of better taxes, interest rates, rent, acceptance to the school, healthcare, etc.

Malaysia is a Muslim country, so the reasons are obvious as to why this is. But due to its very multi-cultural history, the many ethnic groups get along quite well. The Indians get along quite well and don’t face too much discrimination according to him, though they are by far the smallest ethnicity making up only 11% of the population.

The Chinese, to which our host belongs, do apparently get discriminated against – but he said that they are also the best off financially, with most bosses and higher-ups at companies belonging to Chinese origins. So it’s kind of an odd trade-off in his opinion that works fairly well for them.

There was much more to see, do, and learn – but the first takeaways are that the people are very friendly. They seem happy to talk and they’re quite opinionated. They have some wonderful food. I can’t wait to see what’s next.