Melaka or Malacca, Malaysia is a city of just over a million people located about a 4 hour drive north of Singapore and a 2 hour drive south of Kuala Lumpur on the Malay Peninsula. It's the perfect place for a weekend getaway on your slow travels from either of those cities. There is such a fun energy here and lots of delicious food to try. There are also plenty of hotels to meet all different budgets and interesting sites and markets to check out. And we found the prices here to be very reasonable. We loved our time here and hope this blog post helps you think about planning a trip here too! So let's talk about prices, what we did, where we stayed, and the bus ride from Singapore to Melaka and then onto Kuala Lumpur.

Let's start with the food. Because I can't wait to tell you all about the amazing street food and great restaurants we tried.

Jonker Street has their famous night market every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night from 6pm to midnight. The market is over half a kilometer in length and has souvenirs to buy and great food to try. Like this jackfruit that cost RM3 (3 ringgit or less than $1 CAD).

If you can't get here on the weekend though, don't worry. Most of the food stalls still have store fronts open during the week too. But try to get here on the weekend if you can. We loved the energy and bussle of it all. And all the new foods to try like this extreme crab cake, priced at RM5.

And let's not forget the cendol or flavoured shaved ice. They do things a little differently here in Melaka. The shaved ice gets topped with corn, beans, green jelly, and palm sugar making their cendol famous. We went all out on the signature cendol for RM8. It tastes very interesting and we think we liked it!

Just a 10 minute walk from the market is the famous Indian restaurant Pak Putra. Pak Putra is known for their tandoori ovens that make the perfect tandoori chicken and naan bread. They offer regular naan and variations like garlic naan or garlic naan filled with cheese. It was delicious and probably the best naan I've ever had! Our entire meal there was just RM24 (about $7 CAD)

And if you're looking for more traditional Malaysian dishes. There is plenty of that here too in Melaka.

This city has such a fun vibe and really comes alive in the evenings. There are so many lights and the bikes taking people on rides really add to the great energy here. Everyone talks about Jonker Street but there is a whole other market on the other side of the river. Just go past the Dutch Red Square and you'll find a market that seems to cater a little more to locals. And it gets packed later in the evening.

You might be wondering what the Dutch Red Square is that I just mentioned. Melaka, like many places in the world, has a colonial history. You can see evidence of Dutch, Portuguese, and British colonisation just by walking around the city.

We can also see evidence of a big upcoming celebration: Chinese New Year! I just loved all the red lanterns everywhere.

Now that we've hopefully convinced you to come here on your slow travels, let's talk logistics. Where we stayed, how we got here from Singapore, and how we left to get to Kuala Lumpur.

We booked our 3 nights here at the Aava Malacca hotel using Booking.com. We wanted a nicer room, so we booked the Advantage suite, which cost us $1062 Ringgits for 3 nights. A simple breakfast was also included in our stay. The hotel is a bit older but I really loved the decor of the room. I thought the entry way and reception area was pretty cool too with all the tiling. It was also in the perfect location right on the river and near the main attractions like Jonker Street.

Now let's talk about how we traveled here from Singapore:

We booked on the 707 bus line using EasyBook.com. Our two tickets cost us $53 Singapore dollars. We grabbed the bus from the Queen Street Terminal in Singapore. Once we arrived at the border we got off once for exit control out of Singapore. Then after another 5 or 10 minutes on the bus, we got off again to enter into Malaysia. It was really important that we had filled out our Malasian entry declaration ahead of time. The bus driver checks that each person gets back on the bus before continuing. Though they only will wait about 30 minutes, so if you have trouble at the border the bus could leave without you. So don't forget to fill out that entry declaration ahead of time. Otherwise, it's all very straight forward. Just remember to check your bus number so you get back on the right bus! There are no bathrooms on the bus, so make sure to go when you cross the border. We also stopped a second time a bit later in the trip, where you could buy more snacks and go to the bathroom again. We found one stall that took a credit card, but having ringitts would be helpful here. Especially as you need to give a few coins to use the toilet in some places. Though we didn't see anyone collecting when we were there. The entire trip from Singapore to Melaka took almost 5 hours as we got stuck in some traffic.

Let's also talk about leaving Melaka to go to Kuala Lumpur. To do this, we first had to get to Melaka Sentral Station, so we took our first ever Grab, which is South East Asia's version of Uber. The 15 minute ride cost us 8 ringitts. We had booked the KKKL bus leaving from Melaka Sentral station on EasyBook.com a few days ahead of time. We paid 32 ringgit for 2 tickets. Even though we bought our tickets online, we still needed to get our physical boarding tickets at Melaka Sentral station. And it was a bit confusing to figure out where to go: We needed to check in at the yellow Ticket Counter Booth to get our physical boarding passes.

Once we got our boarding passes, we just went through the turnstyle into the boarding area and got on the bus. The bus ride took us two hours and dropped us off at the Kuala Lumpur TBS station. From there, we just followed the signs for the LRT and got off the train to the stop that was closest to the apartment we rented in Kuala Lumpur.

And that's our fantastic time in Melaka, Malaysia and all the food we ate and how much it cost us.

Chris and I are currently slow traveling through South East Asia and right now we're spending some time in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is often called out as being a city with affordable luxuries. We've rented an apartment here so we can spend time exploring this vibrant city without feeling rushed. While we're here, in addition to exploring, we're working on our projects and just living our daily lives. This blog post is all about the cost of living we noticed here as slow travelers, including the cost of food,accommodations, transportation, health care, and products for daily living like clothing and electronics.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has a population of just over 2 million people. It has a climate that's hot and humid and the weather seems to move between rainy to sunny on almost a daily basis. But what are the prices like here? Let's start with rent. Like any city, there is a big range of rent prices depending on the location, age, and size of the apartment.

A one-bedroom apartment near the center of the city under a longer term lease will run about 2200 ringgit or $500 USD per month with utilities. But again that can vary quite a bit depending on amenities and apartment style. And as a slow traveler or digital nomad, getting those prices might not be that easy. Chris and I don't stay in places long enough to sign a long term lease, so we often rely on booking sites to help us find a furnished apartment rental.

So for us as slow travelers, we're paying close to about $1300 USD per month for that convenience of a furnished apartment with no long term lease. And everything is included like internet and weekly cleanings. Our current rental also has Netflix which is a nice perk as Chris and I don't subscribe to streaming services to save money. And the building comes with a gym and pool too, so we don't need to spend extra money on a gym membership here.

And if you feel like doing an outdoor workout, you can checkout KLCC parkIt's also a beautiful park just to walk around, explore, and look up to admire the famous Petronas twin towers.

Or you can climb the 273 steps at Batu Caves, which is also free to visit. But more about this and other amazing places to check out in Kuala Lumpur in our next blog post, so don't forget to check back.

Now let's talk about grocery store prices. We found that Giant grocery store is one of the cheapest places to buy food.Here we get passion fruit for 3 ringgit a jar of peanut butter on special for 14 ringgit, a loaf of bread for under 5 ringgit, and 13 ringgit for 30 eggs, which works out to 5 ringgit for a dozen. Overall, we found ourselves spending less than $70 per week on groceries. Though we ate out a lot too. How could we not with all this amazing food around us! Overall, we found we could eat out for around 40 or 50 ringgit for the two of us at a nicer restaurant. And cheaper street food could be as little as 5 ringgit.

Now let's talk about transportation and how we got around Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur has several different public transit systems including the monorail, light rail, and buses. Each one takes payment slightly differently. Some are cash only and others are credit cards, so it's best to have both ready. You can also get a tap n' go card, which is required if you want to take a bus. Most of our trips cost less than 2 or 3 ringgit each, so it's definitely a cost effective way to get around the city.

Grab, a prominent ride hailing app in South East Asia, also makes it easy to get around the city if you don't want to walk or take public transit. A 10 minute ride would usually cost us about 8 or 10 ringgit. Though prices are higher during rush hour and later in the day.

Onto daily living costs for things like electronics and clothing. The malls have plenty of electronics stands with lots of selection. If you do find yourself needing a new phone while you're here, the basic iPhone 16 starts at about 4000 ringgit.

Clothing prices, like everywhere in the world, vary quite a bit. If you're shopping at a market or basic store, you can get clothing items starting around 10 or 20 ringgit. But higher end stores are also very popular here. Like this lineup in front of the Louis Vuitton store at the Pavilion mall.I did check out the Lululemon store and noticed their prices were about 40-50% higher than they are in my home base of Vancouver, Canada.

Kuala Lumpur also has cool shopping experiences, like one we found in Chinatown. It starts on the first floor with food options, then the second floor brings us to this really cool market. I really loved this top. And then the upper floors brings you to this elaborate bookstore with lots of nooks and levels to discover.

And lastly, let's talk about health care. There are lots of clinics and hospitals here offering a wide range of health care services. Depending on the country you're from and your health care insurance options, you may find the pricing here to be very good. We went to one of the clinics to get the rabies vaccine for our upcoming rural adventures.

Our clinic experience was excellent. Everything was well organized and the doctor explained what we needed to know about the vaccine and even followed up with us on WhatsApp after our visit. Each dose of the rabies vaccine cost 180 ringgit, which is a fraction of the cost we would have paid for it in Canada.

Between rent, grocery store food, eating out, transportation, and buying a few items to support our slow travels, but not including our health care, we spent about $1800 in a month of slow travels in Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is an amazing and vibrant city and there is so much to see and do. This is our list of our top 10 things to do in Kuala Lumpur based on the time we're spending here as slow travelers, along with prices and how we got around.

First up is Batu Caves. Batu caves are a series of caves with hindu temples located just north of Kuala Lumpur and it's easy to get here by train by getting off at the Batu Caves train station. Public transit tickets in Kuala Lumpur will cost about 2 or 3 ringgit per person. The main cave is free to enter, you just need to climb up the 272 fantastic and colourful steps and past the monkeys that try to steal your snacks to get there.

Once up the steps we're able to look into the main cave at Batu caves. And we're here on a day when the cave is very busy as it's a holiday.

In addition to the main cave which is free, there are also some other caves to visit. Though the other ones charge a small fee to enter. We paid 10 ringgit to enter the Ramayana cave. The cave has stations that explain the story or ramayana and it's beautifully lit up. You can climb up some very steep staircases to get to other sections of the cave too.

Next up are food streets. We tried this amazing sandwich from a food stand on Jalan Alor, which is a very popular food street in the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur. The sandwich was 13 ringgit on the pricier but super fun Jalan Alor. It was chicken and veggies with an excellent sauce inside a roti bread.

Don't feel like you need to come to Jalan Alor early. This street doesn't really get going until dinner time and stays open well into the night. Or early morning....

But what if you want to get away from the touristy food streets like Jalan Alor? The food streets in KL are awesome but go a few blocks in any direction away from the touristy food streets to buy food for a fraction of the price.

Let's move onto number 3 on our list of top 10 things to do in Kuala Lumpur, which is the Petronas Twin towers. With 88 stories, these are the tallest twin towers in the world. They were actually the tallest buildings in the world from 1996 - 2004, but then they were surpassed by Taipei 101, which was then surpassed by several other buildings. We went up Taipei 101 a few years ago and loved the experience. Now we're going to try to go up the Petronas Twin Towers.

You can buy tickets online directly from the Petronas Twin Towers website, but they do sell out a few days in advance. For non-Malaysians, it's 98 ringgit per person. Of course the day we booked had quite a bit of cloud in the end.

Some of the clouds parted a bit, so we did get a slightly better view. Maybe?

Next up is KLCC park. The park is a great spot to go for a run, relax by the water, and enjoy the city's skyline. We love being slow travelers at we were able to get to this park several times during our time here.

Number 5 on our list of things to do in Kuala Lumpur is the botanical gardens and butterfly park. This is a large area, so you might need to do some walking to get here or take a Grab, which is one southeast Asia's major ride-hailing apps. The botanical gardens are free to walk around but the butterfly park costs 10 ringgit to enter. It's not a big space, but there are lots of paths to look at the butterflies.

Next up is the Thean Hou Temple. The Thean Hou temple is one of the largest temples in southeast Asia and is very cool to look at. It's not very close to a train station, so a Grab or walking from a farther station might be your best option. The temple itself is free to enter. It's got great views of the city, a pretty garden to walk through, and ornate decorations to enjoy.

Next up is Chinatown with Petaling Steet, the Central Market and other areas to wander around. On Petaling Street you have tons of options for clothing and accessories and plenty of food and juices to try.

Walking distance from Petaling street is Kasturi Walk and the Central Market. These are great places to look for artisnal products and stay cool.

The area also has lots of cool art. Like the Kwai Chai Hong alleyway. Let me show you how Chris gets his hair cut.

Onto number 8: Not too far from Chinatown is Independence Square, the Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque, and the River of Life. You can visit all three of these together as they are all very close. The River of Life gets busy at night with the 9pm fountain show.

Next up is Brigfields, also known as Little India. Get off at the Bangsar train station to get here. There are plenty of shops to check out and great places to get food. This area is worth visiting if you're slow traveling and spending a bit more time in Kuala Lumpur.

And number 10 on our list of things to do in Kuala Lumpur is the central area of the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood with Pavilion mall. To get here, walk or take public transit to the Bukit Bintang station. As slow travelers, we found ourselves in this area quite a bit. It's quieter on weekdays but it can get very busy here, especially on weekends with lineups in front of popular restaurants. This area has plenty of places to get food and so some shopping. We loved this area for it's great energy and places to eat. We're glad our apartment was walking distance from this area.