[Beyond Borders]

I need to get my visa and thought I might head down to Malaysia and spend 2 or 3 weeks in Kuala Lumpur...

...then I realized it's Ramadan.

Probably a stupid question, but I'm guessing that's a shit time to go. Confirmation?

[TheBulldozer]

I wouldn't go to KL for 2-3 weeks even if it wasn't Ramadan.

[Beyond Borders]

(07-10-2013 12:41 PM)MaleDefined Wrote:  

I wouldn't go to KL for 2-3 weeks even if it wasn't Ramadan.

Ok.

It's an easy visa and I have nowhere to be for the next 50 years, so I don't see how burning a couple weeks there could kill me. I also have friends in the city - and possibly a few new web clients.

I've heard very mixed stories on the place to be honest. Some people love it.

I personally feel it takes three weeks or more to even get a vague sense of a place. Most guys blast through cities or even countries in a week and pretend like that's enough to form any kind of opinion, but I personally don't buy that.

[TheBulldozer]

Fair point. I was there for only 4 days, but it was enough for me to determine it wasn't the place for me.

The food is fantastic. The women and nightlife, not so much. The heat is oppressive. Felt it was much hotter than BKK, and that's saying something.

[anamericaninbangkok]

One night in KL is plenty for me.

[Sp5]

Why not Penang? Probably the most Chinese city in Malaysia, so not very Muslim.

[Northern]

Come to Bali, Indonesia, it is Buddhist. You can get a visa on arrival (depending on your passport country) for US$25. I have not seen many cute local girls here but there are a lot of nice European / Australian chicks here in Kuta.

[Balboa]

(07-11-2013 12:55 AM)Northern Wrote:  

Come to Bali, Indonesia, it is Buddhist. You can get a visa on arrival (depending on your passport country) for US$25. I have not seen many cute local girls here but there are a lot of nice European / Australian chicks here in Kuta.

Hindu actually, but yes, it's a good place to be in SEA during Ramadan.

[Beyond Borders]

(07-10-2013 06:13 PM)anamericaninbangkok Wrote:  

One night in KL is plenty for me.

I feel like these one-liners would be a lot more helpful if you guys at least qualified your opinions.

That's great, but why? Did you spend a few weeks there before and find it appalling? Are you just going off a few nights there, or the opinions of friends and general consensus of Thai expats?

I know KL gets a shit reputation from some but Thailand also gets a reputation for a scene that is very easy to avoid in-country. I don't travel just for vaginas and partying, for one - I'm more about the cultural experience and new flags are just icing on the cake.

But I've been told that if you know how to really get out there you can find a very good club scene in KL and very liberal, hot women. Most guys just never find that scene. Just like most guys never find the normal girls in Thailand. Or the all-night local discos spread around the various cities of Laos.

These things take time and/or a unique approach to travel to find.

No matter what your opinion, it would be a lot more helpful if you guys dropped some knowledge or advice rather than just saying the equivelant of "would not bang."

In any case, I will probably give Kuala Lumpur a miss since it's Ramadan but will definitely head down there later.

[T and A Man]

KL, and most of Malaysia doesn't offer much unless you're a foodie.

For most of us here, it has cultural elements which are the antithesis of what we are after.

The prime culture factors are Islam, and that seconds into its pervavsive legislative influence via bumniputra.

Thus, the women aren't something to go for, and I say this as someone who reckons the two most beautiful women I've ever seen have been in Malaysia.

Not lacking so much in looks, though they are getting affluent and their diet sucks. Low fibre, poor quality protein, heaps of carbs and vegetable fats. The overarching islam makes a lot of them averse to what we want, and this is particularly high lighted by the fact Thailand is to the immediate north. Last time I was there in 2011, I noticed the women are fatter from when I first went there in 2003.

There is an overarching, slightly negativity sentiment and ill-will, with bumniputra basically being a light form of apartheid that benefits the muslim malays, at the expense of everyone else. The recent elections showed how divided they are.

This segues into the government becoming more authoritarian as they attempt to preserve power.

Now Malaysia does have ethinic diversity, roughly 25% of chinese heritage and 10% Indian, and these figures are higher in the peninsula where we all tend to think of 'Malaysia'.

The Indian chicks are not good targets, and one reason amongst many, Indians are over-represented in petty level crime gangs, and the guys, virtually all with oneitis, have been known to escalate to violence and even stabbings over outsiders are just even talking to 'their' women.

The chinese are probably the prime targets for women in Malaysia, amongst the locals. Overall, Indonesian and filipinos working there are the best to target.

As far as seeing shit, whilst having a distinguished malayasian culture, it really is Urban, and their tourism industry isn't that mature.

The national cultural sites in KL and Melakka, both containing the largest overall historical content are pretty mediocre. the best cultural site in Malaysia, IMO, surprisingly isn't indigenous. It is the Batu caves to the north of KL. A hindu site to Murugan (sic), and it is a big event for a festival called thaipoosam (sic). It's Luna based, I think 14 days before Chinese new year IIRC.

The club scene isn't overly good. When I was there it used to be centred around Bangsar, I believe the prime scene has now moved to Bukit Bintang, just east of KLCC.

It does have great food however, though not the heathiest. I prefer Thai and Vietnamese myself. Malay food would have a greater diversity and broader range of flavours though.

It's really more of a country to do business. They do seem to aid companies that want cheap land, they do tend to educate their people more that most in the area, thus access to skilled labour and there is better hard infrastructure there.

[Beyond Borders]

Thanks for your breakdown T and A Man.

On another note I just read that it's becoming a habit for people to actually overindulge during Ramadan. lol I didn't realize they only fasted until nighttime - hell, I only eat once a day these days anyway. And then huge buffets at night where they overdo it. That's funny.

Not how it translates with the party scene though. I wonder if the non-Muslims go out more during this time because of the holiday feel.

[T and A Man]

The other races tend to ignore it really. There is a feel for feasting when the sun goes down by the muslims, but that's really it. The erst get on with their day to day lives, it doesn't really impact them.

How it translates with the muslims though, well I don't know this for sure, but from what I gather how it has historically been, can be summed up by a Malay guy I once saw drinking a beer.

"There's muslims, and then there's muslims".

Malaysian and Indonesian muslims haven't historically been terribly observant, and really cultural ties from centuries ago had the Malay peninsula and Sumatra as kin, a unified Borneo, and Java by itself. The Aceh independence movement is really about this.

Modern day Indonesia is more about a Javanese empire, over people who haven't regarded themselves as linked with Jakarta/Java.

So what you have as the cultural memory is actually quite liberal people. The fervour of post WWII independence has often used (exploited) Islam as a unifiying force amongst disparate people, or in the case of the non-bumniputra in malaysia, something that pushes them out of the national conscience for being "un-Malaysian".

So while I've taken a tangent, my regard is I would say the observance of Ramadan in contemporary Malaysia isn't really an overwhelming thing, due to as i say the population not tending to be that strict in their practice of Islam.

Malaysia is tending to get more hardline with Islam sure, and I think more to doing with a ruling class attempting to impose divde and conquer amongst the locals.

Indonesia however is moving at a rapid rate in the other direction. It probably has the most liberal media in SE Asia now, and during a Q&A broadcast from Jakarta last week (a forum for ordinary folk to question politicians), it was refreshing to see the openess, the lack of media spiel, and naivity of proganda even, amongst them.

I see good things for Indonesia, and not the least of it will be their women being rather promiscuous in a generations time. If the christians amongst them get left alone, I can see them being the new Thai women.

[Vicious]

It's not that KL is bad. It's just that with Vietnam, Thailand and The Philippines just a few more hours away by air KL pales in comparison.

It is a cool city though and I wouldn't mind returning just for the great food, cheap luxury hotels and access to perenthian islands.

[JayD]

Ramadan doesn't effect anything in Malaysia except more traffic jams.

The food is great in Malaysia, a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay(all very spicy food).

The bad:

Traffic jams everywhere
Low cleanliness
Very dry humidity
Any relations with people will be them trying to hustle you

The Good:

Food is great, shops close late. Stores are mainly all lined up on one street
Malaysia has huge shopping centres that you could visit - Sunway Pyramid(indoor skating ring), KLCC, Midvalley, 1utama
Genting Highlands a resort with casino
The Petronas twin towers - which were the tallest buildings in the world
A lot of street markets where you can buy fake watches, shirts, jewellery, shoes
There are also night markets which sell fresh seafood, dvds, toys, miscellaneous stuff - anything goes basically
Venture to Langkawi - beautiful island. You can take a ferry
People are chill, majority speak English

If you get bored in KL you can train from KL to Singapore about 8 hours length. Or you can drive to Johor Bahru, a upcoming town in Malaysia then drive over to Singapore.

And from what others have said, I would say the easiest lays are the Chinese. Night life is mainly consisted of chilling at cafes or pubs.