My two and a half week Malaysia trip has been one of my favorites so far.

Hello there! Welcome back to Part Two of my Malaysia travel post, and if you’re new here through the depths of Google or some other search engine, welcome here to my corner of the Internet for the first time. This is my second blog post on my Malaysia trip in January 2024, as the first one would have been incredibly long if I kept including everything I had done on this trip.

I went to Malaysia in 1/2024, which meant it was pleasantly warm compared to where I was living, and it rained in the afternoons. My professional tip after spending some time here is that if you kind of want to go outside of Kuala Lumpur, a car might be the ideal mode. It’s the British system, so if you know how to drive and have time, you’ll have more autonomy with a car.

I was staying with my cousin in Petaling Jaya, which was pretty nice in the way that we weren’t directly inside of Kuala Lumpur. We got to see more local things rather than touristy sometimes, and her apartment complex had a gorgeous pool, Turkish spa, and Japanese hot baths. AKA: it was pretty nice tradeoffs in the end.

People did look at us a lot because it definitely wasn’t an area where you would find foreigners in.

Let’s get into the meat of t his trip!

Colmar Tropicale and the Japanese Tea Garden were pretty interesting.

When my cousin told us that there was a Japanese tea garden in the tropical forest along with a fake European village, we were intrigued. My sister had been to the real village in Europe, so she was the one who ended up telling my cousin that she wanted to go see these things.

From where we were staying in Petaling Jaya, the drive was a little over an hour along the highways. It was in another state of Malaysia, so we passed the exists for the Genting Highlands (another tourist attraction in these parts of Malaysia), before arriving oft he window road to the top of the mountain.

We first stopped in the Japanese Tropical Garden. There, one could rent kimonos and parasols to walk through the gardens with. When we went, the one section was closed, so we turned left and ended up just going to the section that has a little stream and wooden structure.

Honestly, this wasn’t that exciting. We posed for some pictures, then headed up to Colmar. Basically, it’s a replica of the European village, and my sister said it looked the same minus all the Western brands that were here. We sat down for lunch at the Italian restaurant up there (which was a bit pricy), and ordered two pizzas. I enjoyed the mushroom pizza, but the other one not as much.

All in all, we spent about two hours at Colmar Tropicale. Basically, it was really nice to take pictures of the buildings and the surrounding greenery (there are gorgeous mountains surrounding the entirety of the village, and it was simply stunning). I wasn’t highly impressed with Colmar itself, and couldn’t fathom how there was a hotel up there.

If you’re interested in architecture, drive down to Putrajaya.

Another one of our bigger drives was down south to Putrajaya, which is the administrative capital of Malaysia. This was about a forty minute drive, and it was incredibly hot on this day. Our first stop was the Putrajaya Mosque, which is this incredible shade of baby pink. There’s a picture I attached above of the mosque.

After admiring the outside, we ended up checking in (they have QR codes right at the entrance where you have to put your name, contact information, and country of origin) and grabbing our robes. Everyone entering the mosque, especially women, grabs these red long robes in order to enter the holy site.

This is an active place of prayer, but the tourists are brought in through a different entrance after taking our shoes off. As we put pins in where we were from, a guide came up to us with the Qur’an and explained the motifs around the pink decor inside. Turns out they took certain verses, such as everyone being from the same place, and incorporated Iranian, Moroccan, Turkish, etc. motifs to reflect that.

He kind of was trying to convert us lowkey and was awkwardly continuing to talk as we stared up at the motifs, wanting to take pictures, but we were polite and kept talking to him. Eventually he just wandered away randomly, then we continued looking around.

After that, we wandered the outside perimeter. There are some restaurants and shops below, so we picked up drinks to bring back to the car, then headed to the Moroccan buildings nearby. There’s a beautiful structure designed like a Moroccan riyadh, so we wandered around for a bit to see that.

The place we chose for lunch nearby was on the water, and served Vietnamese food. We were all impressed with the flavors they had, and my cousin told us she wanted to take her husband there. It was her first time having Vietnamese food!

Perdana Botanical Gardens was the perfect place to walk through and unwind.

Perdana Botanical Gardens was one of our last stops before we headed back home to the United States, and while I was kind of in a terrible mood while we were there, it was such a nice place to walk through. There was also an interesting amount of diversity here—we saw a lot of foreigners just enjoying the weather and scenery.

This park is massive, and it’s probably so easy to get lost inside of. We spent about two hours there just looking at all of the trees, flowers, and structures they had built within the park. My cousin’s son, the source of my foul mood, also found a playground at some point and then went to play off in there.

I wish I could say more about Perdana, but it was tranquil. It was a place you could go to inside of the hustle and bustle of the city just go think. I’d recommend going there if you’re interested in nature and what the world has to offer in terms of natural beauty.

Kuala Lumpur has some incredible food/dining and mall options.

These last two points aren’t exactly specific ones, but they’re highly relevant towards the experience of visiting Malaysia. We spent a lot of time in malls throughout Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, and they’re such cornerstones of life here if I observed correctly. Apartment buildings often have bridges to malls, and pharmacies, gyms, and grocery stores are located inside of most malls throughout the region.

My favorite malls that we went to throughout our time in Malaysia were Mid-Valley Megamall, KLCC beneath the Petronas Towers, and the Pavilion. Because the US dollar was 0.21 USD to 1 ringgit, we could buy a lot more for our money here, and my sister and I ended up going a lot of clothes shopping throughout our time in Malaysia.

I specifically stocked up on UNIQLO items, as they were up to half the price they were in the United States. I got a major deal on some of these items I had been eyeing up, and I even bought pants and shirts from local brands as well. I didn’t care for designer and high end, but if you’re into Korean, Chinese, or Japanese beauty, this is the place to buy it.

In addition to the malls, there are some fantastic food places throughout the region as well. I had the opportunity to not only eat at a ton of local, off the beaten path restaurants, but some nicer places as well. Some of the best food I had were Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Chinese food. Some of the produce items here are just incredible.

Do head to a grocery store when you get the chance while here and pick up some local fruit. My favorites were the jackfruit, longgan, and snake fruit. We ate a ton of these items while we were out and about. I also ordered a lot of boba when I was here because of how cheap it was compared to the United States. I’m used to New York City prices!

Some of the best experiences were local spots and cultures.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really glad we stayed outside of Kuala Lumpur. This gave us the chance to head to local malls, street fairs, markets, etc. and it was so worth it. Outside of my cousin’s apartment there was a street fair every Tuesday, and I had the most incredible sticks of chicken satay there for dirt cheap. It was just two guys with sticks of meat, a charcoal grill, and a hell of a lot of love.

I had some incredible experiences just talking to and meeting locals in these kinds of settings. I even got to meet a online friend from a writing organization—someone I never expected to meet in real life!

Whether it was talking to girls in Mandarin at my cousin’s apartment complex, taking in the Lunar New Year decorations with a kind of awe and how the malls set up elaborate decor to reflect the holiday, or doing mundane chores like grocery shopping with my cousin, there were so many experiences I’ll take away with me. I’ll never forget hearing the call to prayer every morning, or feeling parched in the mid afternoon sun before a downpour.

Despite the long journey of getting there, I truly loved Malaysia. If I’m ever in the area, I’d come back. Do visit if you get the chance—I thought this was such a mesmerizing place.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.