Malaysia

The Penang Snake Temple is one of Penang’s outstanding tourist attractions and a must-see for many domestic and international visitors. It is a little way south of George Town Penang (The state of Penang’s capital) and on Penang Island. The snake temple’s full name is Fu-Xing-Gong but most visitors simply call it The Snake Temple. …

There is a very good selection of places to stay in Penang with family to suit every budget, there are some very nice hotels, particularly resort hotels on the beach at Batu Ferringhi, plus other family-friendly hotels in and near Georgetown, and in other spots popular with travellers and holidaymakers in Penang. You will also …

Travel between Penang and Langkawi is easy and cheap, with options including bus, ferry, air, and taxi or car. Except when your ferry breaks down. This post is about how to travel between Penang and Langkawi, both Penang to Langkawi and Langkawi to Penang. You have plenty of options and we’ll tell you how to …

If you’re planning a business trip, short stay, or full vacation in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, where should you stay? We give you the best tips on where to stay in Kuala Lumpur, for your needs. These locations in KL, with accommodation at multiple price points, should give you the best Kuala Lumpur experience possible! Where …

We’ve had no problem finding things to do in Kuala Lumpur with kids, almost three weeks here now, something new every day. If you scroll to the bottom of the page you’ll see my kids’ top 5 things, chosen by them. We’ve checked out Chinatown and its temples, seen the roller coaster in a shopping …

It’s possible to visit Malacca from Kuala Lumpur on a one-day tour or day trip allowing sightseeing in this beautiful UNESCO listed city. You can book a one day trip to Malacca from Kuala Lumpur here, for an air-con vehicle with guide, or here, for a private tour. These 8-10 hour round trips are perfect …

You’ve probably heard of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, but have you heard of Kuching, its capital, which is also known as Cat City?  Kuching Sarawak is one of our favourite destinations in the world, find out why in our post. The word Kuching actually means “cat” and cat-related landmarks abound. That has to …

Ipoh Malaysia is a popular destination in Malaysia, with history, street art, food and more, it is popular to visit Ipoh as a day trip or one day tour from Kuala Lumpur, or Ipoh makes a great place for a weekend away or short break suitable for family or with kids. This post covers family-friendly …

Batu Caves lie about 11km from central Kuala Lumpur. The caves are very easy to get to and there are multiple options including, bus, train, taxi, Grab cars, and (partly) by monorail (Rapid KL). If you’re looking for the cheapest way or the fastest way, we can help you with that. If you are a …

We’ve been to Malaysia, I don’t know how many times. After multiple visits to Kuala Lumpur it’s one of our favourite cities in the world and our trip to Kuching and Sarawak to stay with the Iban tribe in their longhouse was magical. I thought Malaysia was becoming our thing. I thought we should do …

We didn’t plan it, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Thaipusam is a once-a-year Hindu religious festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is one of the most spectacular, unusual, and awe-inspiring religious festivals in the world. A post about Thaipusam, with pictures and information on the Thaipusam celebrations …

You’ve probably heard of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, but have you heard of Kuching, its capital, which is also known as Cat City?  Kuching Sarawak is one of our favourite destinations in the world, find out why in our post. The word Kuching actually means “cat” and cat-related landmarks abound. That has to …

Is visiting Kuala Lumpur with kids a good idea? Yes it is! Kuala Lumpur Malaysia is a busy modern city bursting with things to do with kids of all ages. Choose between cultural experiences to educate and broaden young minds, attractions designed purely for child-friendly fun, nature and wildlife experiences, plus more. KL with kids …

The Iban tribe of Borneo are unique and special people. These are the former head hunters of Borneo but headhunting days are now long gone. More or less. Some groups of Iban still live traditionally in communal longhouses where dozens of families share a large covered communal area. These traditional longhouses are in remote areas …

 Sarawak is a state in north-west Borneo, part of Malaysia. The Malay part of Borneo is sometimes called Eastern Malaysia. Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan are the three Malaysian states and federal territories in Borneo. The rest of Borneo belongs to Indonesia and Brunei. In times gone by Sarawak changed hands regularly before becoming a part …

Malaysia is a fantastic destination for families boasting beaches, culture, wildlife, great food, and plenty of child-friendly attractions. It’s not the cheapest place in the world, but being in South East Asia, prices for family travel and vacations are moderate. There are 2 parts to Malaysia, Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo) and the …

There is an incredible selection of things to do in Penang with kids along with family-friendly resort hotels, good food, and reasonable transport options. Penang is a popular vacation or holiday destination for local and international family travel. This post is about places to visit in Penang with family or with kids, with ideas on …

This Malaysia travel blog section is getting huge and with so many posts on Malaysia travel, we need to pull them all together in one page for you to find everything easily. This Malaysia travel page will help you plan your trip to Malaysia and let you know what to expect. We cover how to …

We were lucky enough to be able to visit the brand new Legoland Water Park Malaysia near Johor Baru just a couple of weeks after it opened. We spent the previous day at Legoland Malaysia (review here) and loved it , time for round 2, a day of splashy, wet family fun in the tropical heat of southern …

Kuala Lumpur is a wonderful city, in one moment ultra slick and modern, the next ancient, traditional and cultured. Its a city everybody should experience at least once, and a city that many of us these days visit because of the great connections Air Asia offer. Prices seem low at the moment, they’re lower than …

Legoland Malaysia is outside Johor Bahru in Malaysia. It is just north of Singapore, in the far south of Malaysia south of Kuala Lumpur. We visited this Legoland park with our kids, then 7 and 9 years old, making a special trip south from Kuala Lumpur and Melacca, just to visit Legoland Malaysia and the Legoland …

By popular demand, here are our experiences of hotels near Legoland Malaysia Johor Bahru. We had a really good time at Legoland Malaysia and at the Legoland Water Park, right next door. You will certainly need an absolute minimum of two full days in the parks here, a 3 night hotel stay.  You could easily …

This post is about how to get to Legoland Malaysia from Malacca, the bus journey, where to stay near Legoland and more. It’s also about our experiences of travelling in Malaysia. I’ve been really struggling with travel in Malaysia lately. After the first couple of days in Malacca, loving the ancient buildings and churches, I …

Keeping the children happy in Malacca isn’t hard at all. Malacca with kids is a great destination with plenty for them to see and do. The town is bright, colourful and filled with interesting sights, tastes and smells. There are forts and canons to climb on, great museums and great shops, plus indoor and outdoor …

Malacca doesn’t seem to be much of a backpacker town, most of the tourists we see are local and/or considerably richer than us, which isn’t hard. Maybe all the backpackers are in other districts rather than the Old Town. Finding cheap accommodation (for a family of 4 in particular) in Malacca has been tricky. We …

Malacca is a strange place. Arriving on the bus from Kuala Lumpur, on motorways that could easily have been in Surrey, I felt as if we’d left Asia. It was all a bit too Western. We got off the bus at Malacca Sentral, not to be greeted by touts, but by helpful people pointing us in the direction …

This is for anyone out there, like me, who is stressing about travel vaccinations. The crazy cost of them in Australia and wondering what it’s like to get them in Malaysia or Kuala Lumpur specifically. If that’s not you, don’t worry, you can go and read something else like our guide to Kuala Lumpur with …

There are many and varied places to eat out in Batu Ferringhi, from Mc Donalds to The Hard Rock Hotel and everything in between. You’ll also find numerous region specific speciality restaurants including Thai and Lebanese. It’s a lovely spot and well worth a stay. We spent 10 days in Batu Ferringhi on a fairly …

Kek Lok Si Temple is the largest Buddhist temple in this region of Malaysia, and is one of the best places to visit on Penang Island.  I think it’s possibly the prettiest Malaysian temple I’ve ever visited, each section of Kek Lok Si  has its own charming style and the temple, and its compound, were …

I thought this photo of huge spiders came out pretty well, so I’m making it photo of the week. This was part of  Penang Butterfly Farm, it’s a nice little place, you can wander around among the glorious tropical butterflies, hold giant millipedes ( we had another drama there, Facebook page followers would know all about that …

Can you stay in a hostel with kids? Yes, you can, many hostels today have private family rooms but a few “party” hostels do still only take guests over 18 years old. Is it cheap to stay in a hostel with kids? No its not, a hotel or guest house is often cheaper with kids. …

Fort Cornwallis is a historic fort and tourist attraction on Penang Island, part of the state of Penang, in Malaysia. The fort is on the outskirts of the state capitol George Town, and makes an interesting place to visit on the island of Penang. Your visit won’t take long, and there is an admission fee …

Malaysia is in the middle of an environmental catastrophe. If you read my last post, things we didn’t like about Kuala Lumpur, you’ll remember me mentioning the air pollution.  I didn’t realise what was going on back then. Vast quantities of smoke from fires on Sumatra are blowing across the straits of Malacca engulfing Singapore …

Kuala Lumpur isn’t perfect. We’ve had a great time, seen some cool and interesting things, enjoyed excellent cheap and free public transport, eaten some fantastic Indian food and stayed in top-notch accommodation, but all cities have their drawbacks. Kuala Lumpur has some not-so-nice bits, too. This post is about the negatives of Kuala Lumpur that …

Scary, isn’t it? The idea of spending so much time alone with your kids in a strange country. Truth is, I love it, life is nicer, generally. OK, so we’ve only been on the road for two weeks, we’re new at this, but we haven’t been treating this time as a holiday, we’ve started as …

I love India and I love Indian food, South Indian in particular, it’s light, fresh and usually vegetarian. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia can be a food heaven if you enjoy Indian food. It’s also pretty easy to find Indian food in most big cities in Malaysia. In this post we’ll look at traditional Indian food and places …

Yesterday we checked out modern Kuala Lumpur, today we stepped back in time. Chinatown is on our doorstep here at the fabulous Back Home Kuala Lumpur just a short walk up the road, which is good. The heat, the traffic, the uneven pavements and the exhaust fumes don’t make walking much fun for the kids. This …

Boy it’s hot in Kuala Lumpur! But somehow it’s quite a pleasant hot, the sun isn’t beating down on us as it does in a Queensland summer, the sky is mostly overcast here and it’s very easy to get around the city using shady covered walkways. This post is about visiting a Kuala Lumpur roller …

This post is from our first day of travel, our first day as a nomadic family, not quite digital nomads yet, our travel blog wasn’t making enough money for us to call ourselves that. These early months of travel were funded by savings. We’d saved for a year, planned for a year, and now we …

Air Asia had a fantastic flight sale on, we are going to Malaysia from The Gold Coast for just under $800 for all 4 of us. The flight sale was about to end, so we clicked the “buy” button. At that price we really couldn’t turn it down. We leave to travel the world in …