A four-day break in Kuala Lumpur was a great way to celebrate Angus’ birthday and explore another part of Malaysia other than Langkawi. Kuala Lumpur is an extremely sophisticated city, with great public transport, shopping centres, street food, parks and gardens, mosques and temples. Here are five really cool things to do in KL which are very inexpensive or free.

1. Use public transport rather than Grab (the Asian equivalent of Uber). There is a train station at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, which operates a fast train into KL Sentral which is a shopping centre and public transport hub. The trains were clean, fast and efficient and it was very inexpensive. 100 ringits ($37 NZ) bought us a return ticket from the airport to the central city. It was about 50 minutes on the train which was travelling at 160km per hour. We then caught the monorail (called the Rapid system) to our apartment, which was three stops from KL Sentral. The cost to ride the monorail was between 1 and 5 ringits (between 50c and $2 NZ), depending on how many stops to your destination. There is 14km of monorail with 22 stops. It takes 20 minutes to complete a loop through the bustling commercial centre of Kuala Lumpur. It’s great for people watching too.

2. Find yourself some accommodation with a swimming pool. You could expect to pay under $100NZ per night for a four star apartment or hotel. We paid 119 ringits  ($44 NZ) a night at the Opus Residence, and it had the most amazing infinity pool overlooking the Merdeka Tower (which is the tallest tower in KL). There are a few extra little hidden costs over and above the advertised price. There is a tourist levy which is 10 ringits per room per night ($3.75 NZ). We booked through Booking.com, securing my booking with a credit card online. I expected to check in at the reception desk of the apartment block, so I was surprised when the security guard told us to wait to talk to the agent. It seems that many of the apartments are privately owned and an “agent” collects the money and handles the check in and out process. It looks so dodgy to see the (mostly Indian) men with their bags of cash lurking around the lobby. They also insist on a 200 ringit ($75 NZ) cash deposit, which you must pay before they give you the room key. Alarm bells were ringing for me by this stage, so I said I wanted to see the room first before I paid any money. It was fine, we settled up with cash and got our 200 ringit deposit back at the end of our stay. Apparently, this is often the way it is done here in Malaysia. The building was new, it had a comfortable bed, fantastic bathroom, mismatched furniture and a kitchen. Most importantly it had air-conditioning and big ceiling fans. It was a great deal even for the view from the 15th floor and that pool!