Kuala Lumpur Trip Report - Single Entry Tourist Visa

[wynzlo]

Just got back from a very nice trip to KL and figured I'd post a report...

Instead of flying direct from Chiang Mai with AirAsia, I flew to BKK Saturday morning to visit some people, then Saturday evening flew BKK to KL.

Saturday

• Purchased some ringgit at Bangkok airport to cover transportation. Had tried to purchase some in Chiang Mai, but the banks I tried had none to sell.
• Touched down in KL around 9:45pm, long lines at immigration took about 45 minutes
• At a little counter near the exit, purchased an AirAsia bus ticket to KL Sentral station for 90B. Lots of buses running, left in under 10 minutes. The nonstop bus trip took about 1 hour.
• Arrived at the lower level of KL Sentral. My hotel was within walking distince – so close that taxi drivers weren't interested in taking me, but they were happy to offer directions. Hotel ended up being a 5 minute walk from KL Sentral station.

Sunday

• Spent the day touring around the city after picking up maps and info from the tourist information center inside KL Sentral station

Monday

• Woke up late and headed for the KL Sentral train station at around 9:30am (when the Thai embassy opened). The LRT train to Ampang Park cost 20B and took about 15 minutes. The Thai embassy is a 10 minute walk straight down the same street the Ampang Park train stop is on.
• There were maybe 40-50 people waiting inside the consular area of the embassy. Took a queue number (friendly guy reminded me to grab both copies of the ticket) and sat down.
• Number was called after about 45 minutes. Went up to one of the two counters handling visas, handed over the following: visa application form, photocopy of passport picture page, copy of AirAsia receipt for return flight, one passport photo which was a leftover from Chiang Mai immigration. No questions asked, the guy handed me a receipt and told me to return at 2pm next day.

Tuesday

• Returned to the Thai embassy at 2:15 to find a group of 20-30 people outside the gate. Turns out they don't even open until 2:30pm. They did open the gate on time and everyone flooded in. It was first-come-first-served, they didn't use the queue numbers from the day before. It still only took 10 minutes to get my passport back with its shiny new single entry tourist visa

Wednesday

• Around 10am I took the same AirAsia bus, from the same spot at KL Sentral station, back to the LCCT airport. There was no ticket booth, I just bought a 90B ticket on the bus.

Some notes:

- I have a U.S. passport with 1 non-B and 1 double tourist visa

- I assumed I was flying into the main international airport terminal, but I was wrong. AirAsia typically flies to a different terminal, LCCT, which is 20km away. This means there is no train direct from the terminal.

- Buying ringgit at the KL airport is crazy expensive. Bangkok airport was significantly cheaper, and of course banks in the city are cheapest.

- There is a 1 hour time difference! When it's 8:45 in Bangkok, it's 9:45 in KL.

Accomodations:

I stayed at a place called Hotel Summer View right near KL Sentral for 1300B/night. It was simple, clean, and cheap, with edible buffet breakfast and friendly staff.

Staying near KL Sentral is super convenient as it's the transit hub of the city. The area nearby is called Brickfields, a.k.a. Little India. I had the most amazing Indian food of my life there. One great restaurant was called Jassal, a few shops down from the monorail station near KL Sentral . It's the place that has display cases outside full of Indian desserts.

However, other than Little India, there's not a whole lot else in this area. If you don't feel like dealing with public transportation, KL Sentral area is probably not a good place to stay. If you want to get out and explore the city and outskirts, then it's very convenient.

Material i found helpful:

- The Wikitravel page on Kuala Lumpur has great information, particularly the descriptions of various districts within the city

- This transit map PDF proved quite handy. It's from 2006, so there have been some minor changes since then, but the information is useful

Attractions:

There is tons to see around KL. People who say it's boring obviously haven't made an effort. Two highlights for me were the Batu Caves and the Lake Gardens.

Batu Caves is one of the famous tourist attractions and definitely worth a half day trip. There is now a train station right outside the park entrance, so you can go direct from KL Sentral. The train ride is about 30 minutes each way and it costs only 30B round trip. There's no entrance fee at the park either. Perhaps more fun than the park were the hoards of monkeys.

The Lake Gardens is a one of the most beautiful city parks I've ever seen. The plant life is stunning and they maintain the park well, with hardly any garbage to be seen (same can't be said for the Brickfields area where I stayed). There are great walking paths throughout the park. I wish I had brought some running shoes. At the north end is a nice little sculpture park alongside the national monument. At the south end is the national museum. It's easy to spend an entire day wandering around these places.

Impressions:

One more thing worth mentioning is that KL is not Thailand. I found that I'm quite accustomed to smiling at people and seeing a smile returned. Well, this often doesn't happen in KL. That, combined with the constant and blatant stares from people, was a little unnerving at first, but I quickly realized that's just the way it is.

View from hotel, KL Sentral station is under the twin hotels on the right

Lake Gardens park

Batu Caves

[lopburi3]

Thanks for the very useful report.

[Raddo]

Thanks for a very good and detailed post!

I have done the visa run to KL myself some time ago and really enjoyed the city.

Cheers!

[Atmos]

Thanks, a nicely written report; I've been to KL twice for visas, go each year in October for MotoGP, last time we made a holiday of it dropped off the passport the day after arrival and headed off on the train to Klang then out to Pulau Ketam a little fishing island, back to Klang a few days, then KL for passport and a weekend of motorbike racing. We both like the KL area, once you get the hang of the trains they are so good, and cheap too.

You mentioned the embassy not opening in the afternoon till 2.30; first time I went I got there about 2.15 and they were already open for collections, second time the same (but that was last Oct) - wasn't an issue as both times wasn't flying out till days later. I've found the embassy staff OK to deal with, efficient and have no complaints. I absolutely cringed, as did other people waiting, in October when a young man lost his temper with the woman behind the counter, yelling about his rights under the United Nations. He was taken away by security, poor woman was quite flustered he was very loud, very rude. One of those instances where one wonders whether to intervene but security got there quickly enough.

Have not been to Batu Caves - one for next time.

Thanks again for your detailed report, and the links.