First Impressions of Malaysia | Why I’m Already Planning My Return Trip

I spent six weeks in Malaysia on my first visit, mostly in Kuala Lumpur, and left already planning my return. If you’re thinking about your first trip, here’s what stood out: the green, the prices, the service, how easy it is to get around, the food, and above all, the people.

It’s greener than you’d expect. Flying into KLIA, you look down on a sea of palm trees, which isn’t a surprise since the airport sits well outside the city. What surprised me was how green it stayed all the way into the city center. There’s construction everywhere and KL is clearly growing fast, but someone has made a real effort to keep a balance with nature.

It’s not as expensive as people say. I’d heard that KL costs more than Thailand, Vietnam or the Philippines, and that’s fair. But “almost as expensive as the US”? I can’t get behind that. Imported brands cost about what they do back home (a ball cap ran me about $30), but food and lodging aren’t even close. The InterContinental Kuala Lumpur was about $100 a night cash while I was there; the same brand in Chicago was over $250. When you do spend a little money in KL, the value is outstanding.

The service is top-notch. I needed a dentist while traveling, walked into an office near my hotel expecting nothing, and was in the chair about four hours later. They keep open slots for emergencies and new patients. Anticipating what your customers need: what a concept.

You don’t need a car. If you stay near the city center, plenty is within walking distance. For everything else, Grab rides mostly cost me $4 to $8, and even the two-hour ride down to Melaka was about $60.

Several trips later, that hasn’t changed. I use Grab for both rides and food delivery, not just in Malaysia but in Bali, Thailand and Vietnam too. As a first-time visitor, it’s really all you need.

The food. Malaysia’s Chinese, Malay and Indian influences add up to incredible food. With an open mind and a local’s help, I tried dishes I never would have back home: Pakistani barbecue, Arabic meat skewers with garlic sauce and fresh pita, and Indian food, which somebody should have described to me years ago as naan and gravy. As a Southerner, I have a deep appreciation for all things gravy. And the Malaysian food? I don’t think I tried anything I didn’t like.

If you only try two things, make them nasi lemak and nasi goreng. Honestly, anything that comes with sambal.

The people. I started traveling Southeast Asia hoping to make connections I never would have made otherwise, and Malaysia delivered. My dentist gave me a list of places to try in town. And in Melaka, I kept running into a man on vacation with his mom, something my sister and I had just done with our parents. That was Shum. We ended up talking long enough to make his mom wait about ten minutes, swapped numbers, and he’s since shown me parts of Malaysia I never would have found on my own.

After a few years in Wyoming, where people are polite but reserved, it was a shock to find myself on the other side of the world making friends as easily as I did back in Florida. After several return trips, that’s the part of this video I got most right. It’s easy to strike up a great conversation in Malaysia, and people open up quickly. Being from the South, I really appreciate that, especially since people in much of Asia tend to be more reserved.

If you’re a Westerner planning your first international trip, I highly recommend Malaysia. Between how much English is spoken and how friendly people are, Kuala Lumpur is Southeast Asia on training wheels. At least it was for me.