Crossing the causeway from Singapore to Johor, Malaysia was a cheap and easy experience, only NZ$11 for all of us.

We arrived at our lovely Airbnb which was an apartment in a tower above a big mall.

We were directed to a hawker centre with great food for dinner. The following day we had a quiet day which was spent at the pool, doing laundry, buying BK some jandals and generally resting after a very full on time in Singapore.

It was then time to fly up to Kuala Lumpur, remember those flights I mentioned in an earlier blog that were only NZ$3 each? This was that flight! It left 10 minutes late but arrived 7 minutes early! I was lazy and booked a transfer which scooped us up from the airport and drove us most of an hour into central KL to our next Airbnb which was another apartment in a tall tower. We arrived in the early evening and were greeted by an amazing view of the KL tower.

Out exploring the next day we saw the Petronas towers, the kids had a play at the park right beside them and then we had a good wander around the mall which is under them. That evening we had our first google fail leading us (or not in this case) somewhere to eat. Not good when hot and hungry. Eventually we found an average place in yet another mall and quickly ubered home to bed.

BK worked in a coworking space the next day so it was time for Kidzania for the kids and I. If you aren’t familiar with Kidzania, it’s a mini town where kids do jobs and earn ‘kidso’ money then they can spend it on getting things like their driver’s license and driving a car or getting nails done or buying things at the store. There are several of them around the world. It’s all about the kids, so the parents aren’t allowed to interact/help with the ‘work’ so I just ended up being the bag lady and standing with a bunch of other mums trying to peer through the windows at your cute kids. It wasn’t cheap but it was totally worth it, our kids had a ball!

This was followed by another mall food court for dinner. There are a lot of malls here in KL!

We had heard Batu Caves were an interesting place to visit so it was up early the next day to get there before the heat really set in for the day. The 272 steps to climb while watching out for monkeys was a challenge but it was interesting in the caves. We were back at our apartment before 10am for a rest and more mall visiting for lunch and dinner!

In front of our apartment block was a monorail station, having never been on one before we chose another mall to visit for lunch that was one stop down the line. At NZ$3 for all of us return it seemed like a great idea! It wasn’t as smooth as proper rail but fun all the same. The mall and lunch were great too!

Two days of rest followed that with quite a lot of lazing round our apartment. More mall food courts for lunches and dinners, yep that’s getting old already. We did manage a visit to the next door hotel’s pool, since we could see how awesome it looked from our balcony we invited ourselves over, well the kids and I did, BK stayed home as he was horrified!! Ha!!! Oh we also dug out the maths books, first 6 pages ✔️

So Malaysia, you’ve been interesting, I can see you are trying and wanting to be like your beautiful little sister Singapore to the south. Your food has been amazing, so cheap yet so yum, my favorite – coconut steam bun for 59 cents.

I’ve enjoyed the slower pace of life, I probably could have packed our week full but it was nice to relax.

See you again Malaysia on our way out to Sri Lanka in a few months time.

 

Till next time!

 

Claire

 

 

Budget update

Malaysia $90 under!

That is amazing as it includes $65 for some new glasses for Connor since his got lost somewhere between leaving my parents place and Auckland airport. 🙄😩

 

Total budget update : $75 under.