Even though we have traveled through Malaysian airports many times before (having flown in AirAsia to various destinations), we never gave Malaysia a serious thought as a destination in itself. Being an easier destination to plan the travel, I guess we always knew at the back of our mind that we could do it any day we want, even with a kid if need be in future. As luck would have it, by late 2019,  my wife was carrying a baby and we thought Malaysia would be a perfect destination for a short babymoon (also our customary anniversary vacation).

It has a good infrastructure yet the  prices are reasonable, access to vegetarian/Indian food isn’t an issue, there are good high end accommodations for safer stay, there isn’t a ton of strenuous things to do like hiking etc., visa requirements aren’t too strict, there are short direct flights to KL from Bangalore which are reasonably priced thanks to AirAsia and we can plan the travel as late as a week before departure. Since this was our babymoon, expect this blog to be much different to the rest of our blogs.

Our high level itinerary is as follows –

7th Nov: Reach Kuala Lumpur in the morning.
8th Nov: Fly from KL to Langkawi.
9th Nov: Langkawi
10th Nov: Langkawi
11th Nov: Take the flight back home

Where we stayed –

Kuala Lumpur – The Andaman
Langkawi – Traders Hotel

Useful information to plan your travel –

Visa requirements

Indians have to apply for a eVisa at this website. You have to apply individually and can’t apply as a family so that means everyone has to create separate logins and complete applications separately. The cost of the visa was about 3000 Rs per person and the approval was almost instantaneous (except on weekends and public holidays), you will get an email confirmation when the visa is approved. Your application has to be made atleast 24 hrs before your travel begins so no last minute applications at the airport! You have to carry printout of the visa during your travel as soft copies are not accepted at the immigration counters.

Best time to travel

Malaysia enjoys a tropical climate so it gets plenty of sunshine, a fair amount of rain with high humidity throughout the year. Don’t expect completely dry days while you are there. That said, places like Langkawi enjoys best seasons from December to February. During our travel in November, we had short spells of rain at both Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi. But that didn’t hamper us much. Whatever time you choose, rest assured, it won’t be a complete disaster. One other thing to note is at certain months in the year (like September), because of crop burning in the neighboring country of Indonesia, the pollution levels increase significantly in KL. Those are the months to avoid if you can.

Language

Even though the official language is Malay, almost everyone we encountered were comfortable enough in speaking English. We didn’t experience any difficulty at all finding our way through things during our stay in Malaysia.

Currency

The Malaysian currency is the Ringgit. 1 Ringgit is (or was) close to 17 Indian Rupees. As with most of our travels, we took the USD to Malaysia and converted it to Ringgit for better exchange rates.

Food

Malaysian cuisine is mostly meat based with lots of flavors. But there is a lot of Indian cuisine influence too. You will find sufficient number of Indian restaurants all around, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi which are popular destinations for Indian travelers. The cost for a meal is roughly around 50 Ringgit for 2 people at many of the Indian restaurants we tried. We also tried out few different cuisines with vegetarian choices.

Here are some of the restaurants we tried

1. SkyBar (Bar) [Kuala Lumpur]
   1. This is the most recommended place to visit for dinner for excellent views of the twin towers. We had our dinner here while in Kuala Lumpur. Incidentally, the views from our room (Trader’s hotel) also were pretty much the same as this one.
2. Sangeetha Veg Restaurant (Indian) [Kuala Lumpur]
3. Maharaja Restaurant (Indian) [Langkawi]
4. Indian Palace Restaurant (Indian) [Langkawi]
5. Yellow Beach Cafe (Western) [Langkawi]
   1. This one has tables on the beach and is excellent for experiencing sunset while in Langkawi. The menu also was quite good. The french fries we tried were amazing.
6. Art Cafe  (Western) [Langkawi]
7. Gallo Nero Italian Restaurant (Italian) [Langkawi]
   1. This one turned out to be a hidden gem, you get a 3 course Italian meal for lunch for reasonable price.
8. Tepian Laut [Langkawi]
   1. We had our anniversary dinner here, but it turned out a little underwhelming for vegetarians like us.
9. My French Factory (French) [Langkawi]
   1. We wanted to try this little place ever since we got to know about it. It serves some amazing authentic french crepes. It turned out as good as we heard it was. Seating is very limited though which is a pity.

Getting by

The Kuala Lumpur airport is located quite far from the city and getting a taxi to the city will typically cost you around 120-150 Ringgit on metered taxis. We tried Grab which was offering flat rate of 65 Ringgit (excluding toll). Everything included, it came to about 80 Ringgit for our hotel at the center of Kuala Lumpur. All in all, Grab turned out to be a good choice not just for airport transfers, but also for intra-city commute. The waiting times are typically around 5 to 10 mins.

For Langkawi, since we were staying far off from the city (30 km away from the city), taking taxi would have cost us a lot of money each time. Hence, we decided to hire a rental car instead which turned out to be a lot cheaper. The online prices for car rental at Langkawi lists around 100 Ringgit per day. But if you take it from one of the airport counters (one among 20 or so that are open for business at airport), they start at around 100 Ringgit per day and quickly drop the prices to about 170 Ringgit for 3 days for the small car we rented. The insurance they provide has an excess of about 1000 Ringgit. If you need to get it to zero, you need to buy external insurance which typically isn’t needed.

For renting the car, Indian driving license works just fine, no need for International drivers license. They only accept cash at the counter and collect extra 50 Ringgit which is refundable when you return the car. The fuel prices in Malaysia is (or was) quite cheap (about 2.5 Ringgit per litre) and we filled our car for 20 Ringgit initially which turned out sufficient for our entire stay in Langkawi.

Shopping

The Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur is a popular street market for many things cheap including those knock offs of dry fit t-shirts, handbags etc. from popular brands. Needless to say, you need to haggle a lot (almost to about 40% of their initial ask) to get to the real price. There are many high end malls in Kuala Lumpur such as the ‘Suria KLCC’ at the Petronas towers which you can try too.

Langkawi, being a duty free island (explained later in the blog) is a haven for shopping specific things like chocolates and liquor which come at dirt cheap prices. We did go around a lot, hopping from mall to mall checking prices and buying stuff. Here are a few places you should try –

1. HIG Duty Free Complex
   1. Excellent choice for variety of chocolates. Parking could be a problem though.
2. Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall
3. Cenang Mall
4. Zon Duty Free shopping

Things to do Kuala Lumpur

The top attraction in Kuala Lumpur is the Petronas Twin Towers. Once the tallest building in the world (from 1998 to 2004), it continues to attract a lot of tourists around the world. The entry to the twin towers is two staged – the skybridge at the 41st floor and then to the Observation deck on the 86th floor. Overall, the visit lasts around 45 mins to 1 hour and make sure to book your tickets online since they get sold out fairly quickly. The waiting times to the tower visit discouraged us from making an attempt at it considering my wife’s situation, so we decided to just settle for the nice views of the tower from our hotel window.

The other (not so famous) tower in KL is the KL tower (aka Menara tower) which offers slightly cheaper, less crowded and better views of the city (considering you also get to see the twin towers). You can give that a try if you are interested. The fountains at the KLCC park adjacent to the twin towers gets lit up and dance to the music starting at 8 pm every day. The spectacle lasts around 10 to 15 mins and repeats a few times through the late night.

The other famous attractions in KL are the Batu caves and the Genting Highlands. The Batu cave is the limestone hill and a series of caves and cave temples near KL. It is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India and attracts a lot of tourists every year. Genting Highlands is a local hillstation and Malaysia’s only Casino resort. You can spend a day there shopping, gambling and riding the Genting Skyway over the rainforest. Most people tend to club both these attractions together and make it a day tour from KL. Besides the above mentioned attractions, you can also shop for those cheap knockoffs as mentioned earlier in the blog.

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Things to do Langkawi

The long cable car ride is one of the top attractions in Langkawi. The entry to it can get pretty crowded (upto 2 hours wait time sometimes) and there are more expensive skip the line tickets (which we took) which you can explore. The cable car ride is multi staged and you can stop by at different stages to get different views of the rainforest and the sea. Once you reach the top, the SkyBridge itself is a SkyGlide (elevator train) away which is charged separately. The lines at the SkyGlide is even worse since the capacity of the cabin is very less. There is also an alternate stairs route to the SkyBride which takes you through the jungle which is about 10 mins steep climb down. You can then take the SkyGlide back to the top if you wish to conserve energy (which is what we did). The SkyBridge has been used as shooting location in some of the bollywood movies like Don (new). Overall, there were some wonderful views of the island and its rich flora/fauna from different points along the cable car ride.

Pantai Cenang is undoubtedly Langkawi’s most popular, vibrant, and exciting beach with lots of things to do, see, and eat in along its long stretch. The beach is lined with restaurants, duty-free shopping complexes, resorts and massage parlors. You could spend the evening in one of the restaurants there while enjoying the sunset. Other beach you can try out is the Pantai Tengah, just below the Pantai Cenang. This is a little more relaxed and longer stretch of sand compared to the former. If you want a completely laid back experience, go to Tanjung Rhu beach on the other side. We stayed in the Andaman Resort, which was located in the Datai region/beach. Even this one had a beautiful, albeit smaller stretch of private beach, probably one of the best beach properties we have ever stayed in.

Watersports are popular here, and you’ll be spoilt for choice with so many fun activities available for you to choose from. These are available on almost all busy beaches of Langkawi. We also went to Dataran Lang which is a popular photo spot featuring a huge eagle statue perched over a scenic waterfront plaza.

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Duty Free shopping at Langkawi

Langkawi is a shopper’s delight as it is a designated duty free island in Malaysia. As a tourist, as long as you are staying in the island for more than 48 hours, you can buy items free of duty at many designated Duty Free shops around the island. You could score cheaper prices on items like Liquor, tobacco, chocolates etc. Just be mindful that there are restrictions to carry them out of the island or in to your home town, especially true for more obvious purchases like liquor and tobacco. Make sure to carry your passport for purchases at these stores.
You have to buy alcohol at airport stores only for you to become eligible to carry them on a flight as they seal them in a specialized plastic container allowed for pass through, during airport security. Some of the popular duty free stores include Jetty Point Complex, Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall, Perniagaan Haji Ismail Group Sdn. Bhd., Cenang Mall, Teow Soon Huat Duty-Free, The Zon Shopping Paradise.

Parting Thoughts

We didn’t have a lot of expectations from this trip considering it was our babymoon, but we did do a lot of things that surprised us. Overall, we felt having a baby in the tummy didn’t hinder us much, especially in Langkawi. Having a rental car in Langkawi helped a lot and highly recommended. Overall, we felt safe travelling around in our condition, with good access to infrastructure, restaurants, good stays overall, prices were also not too heavy on the pocket. We felt this was a perfect Babymoon destination, which we would recommend for others as well.