20 Things to know BEFORE Vistiing Malaysia in 2026 🇲🇾

Today we're going to be sharing with you the top 20 things to know before visiting Malaysia. Malaysia is one of the most beautiful countries in Southeast Asia and it is such a special place. Somehow it took me 32 years to finally make it here and this year just a couple months ago I had made it over and I want to share with you all the things to know before visiting. There's going to be a whole bunch of necessary things that will make your trip so much smoother so let's go ahead and jump right in to 20 things that you should know before visiting Malaysia. Number one on the list is going to be digital payments and cards. So some of you are probably wondering do I bring a lot of cash with me or can I use my credit card debit card? Well the great news is Malaysia especially in Kuala Lumpur is a very advanced city. Pretty much everywhere you go will accept digital payments whether you're at 7-eleven or you're at one of the malls or a restaurant they're pretty much all going to accept them. One thing I want to mention is when you go to night markets or some of these other more local ma and pa type of shops those are great to have cash. So what I would do if I were you when you get to the airport either exchange a hundred US dollars or go to an ATM and pull out the local currency worth like a hundred USD and have that with you and that should be more than enough. Then you can make the majority of your purchases with your credit or debit card and then you have that cash as a backup and you have it ready to go. Number two is greeting etiquette. So this one is an important one to know because you might accidentally disrespect someone if you're not aware of this. Essentially if you are a man you can shake hands with another man. If you are a man you cannot offer your hand to shake a woman's hand because it's a predominantly Muslim country they typically don't do that. Now if the woman extends her hand first you can of course give her a handshake but it's better to just say hey put your hand over your heart and say nice to meet you. That's a great way to be respectful amongst them but yeah men to men no problem and I believe women to women they can shake hands because there's no problem there but cross-gender you want to stay away from that. So number three on the list is the banana leaf etiquette. Eating with a banana leaf is one of the coolest culinary experiences that you can do in Malaysia and most likely you're going to try it at least once or twice while you're there. Something that you should know is depending on the way you fold your banana leaf over which is your plate where your food was on can change a lot on how they interpret if you enjoyed the meal if you liked it if you didn't. You fold this thing towards you that means you liked it yeah yeah you you only fold it away from you if you didn't like it or if it's a funeral. Does that sound about right? Yeah you are right. All right so you got to be very careful when doing that because you could have absolutely loved the meal and sent them the message that something was wrong with it. The reality is it's a subtle detail but locals will notice it and another thing to mention is you eat the food on the banana leaf with your hands. For some of you that might be completely normal but for others it might not be. For me I'm not a huge fan of eating with my hands personally I just never have been for my own personal reasons but when in Rome or in Kuala Lumpur or somewhere in Malaysia I definitely will. And by the way guys I hope you are enjoying today's video on the top things to know. It'd be awesome if you could smash that like button as well as hit the subscribe button down below because just those two actions right there support this channel so much. Both of those helpful things make it possible to make more videos both here in Malaysia as well as all around the world. Number four on the list is when is the best time to visit Malaysia. The reality is Malaysia is hot and humid all year round so get ready make sure you pack appropriately because you're going to need some clothes where you're not burning up in. But you do want to make sure that you try and avoid the times when there is tons of rainfall. The west coast where Kuala Lumpur, Langkai and Penang are those typically have the most amount of rain during the times of September and November. The east coast with islands like Redang and Perihentian has a heavier monsoon season between November and February. So if you're island hopping make sure you check the calendar before you go. That said there's truly no bad time to visit Malaysia even during the rainy season the rain comes in short bursts and you'll get some good weather in other parts of the day. So number five ride hailing apps. You're probably used to Uber but in Malaysia that's not the case. You're going to be using the app known as Grab. It's essentially identical to Uber just another one of these apps that have copied it and then taken over that market of the world. It's a very inexpensive way to get around and you can call them and they arrive just as quick as an Uber typically would. But make sure you download that app so you have it in advance so you can call grabs from the airport between different destinations whatever it might be. I personally always recommend ride sharing apps because I don't know enough about Malaysia whether or not you're going to find taxi scammers but from my experience in pretty much every country I've been in around the world most of the time when I try and get a taxi it's almost always more expensive than just using one of the ride sharing apps which gives you a true market rate. And if you want to pay a little bit more because you got the extra money to do it then just leave a tip in the Grab app and that's going to be one of your best ways and it'll ensure you're not faced with any issues with maybe a taxi taking the long way to get you somewhere and charging you double or one of those other scams where they just end up giving you a much higher rate simply because you're a foreigner and don't know your way around. Number six is going to be having a sim card or a phone plan in Malaysia. So here's the thing for me I have my U.S. phone number and if I go abroad and I don't have any sort of other data plan on my phone then I have to pay 11 or 12 dollars per day which adds up very quickly if you're in Malaysia for 10 days that's an extra 100-150 bucks depending on your phone provider. So the best way to go about that is either getting a local sim or getting an e-sim. A local sim you can grab from the airport maybe it's going to be the cheapest option but an e-sim is going to be the most convenient and almost the cheapest option. The company that I typically use most of the time when I travel is Aerolo and I actually have a code where you can get three dollars off. This video is not sponsored by them I do get a small kickback if you use my link below and it does support this channel but of course you don't have to if you don't want to and I would recommend them either way. So that is the great news you can get a great data plan for a very low price or you have the option to pick up a sim card locally. But just remember if you have a U.S. iPhone that has come out in the last maybe one to two years they no longer have physical sim card slots so you won't be able to get a physical sim card you would actually have to get the e-sim. Number seven is nightlife and drinking in Malaysia. I want to be straightforward and honest with you Malaysia is a more conservative country than its neighbor Thailand which is going to be crazy with parties, clubs, finding alcohol everywhere and very cheap just because you can find it everywhere. In Malaysia you can absolutely still drink you can get yourself a couple beers downtown in Kuala Lumpur as well as the other cities as well. Some places like for example when I went to Gopeng Glamping in Ipoh they are a place that does not allow you to have alcohol there but it just depends on where you're at. Most of the resorts hotels you know bigger cities they're going to have most locations that allow beer vodka whatever you want to have some spirits these types of things. They might be a little bit more expensive in terms of pricing in Kuala Lumpur just simply because it's a little less popular but you'll find nightclubs you'll find bars rooftop areas where you can go have a nice delish beer. So when Paul said about drinking alcohol even though Malaysia is majority Muslim thanks to Chinese and the Indians, one naughty Malay can drink a bit of beer. Number eight is going to be food variety. If you want pretty much any type of cuisine in the world in the capital city Kuala Lumpur you'll be able to find it all so no worries there if you want Italian if you want Japanese if you want Mexican you'll probably find many options for all of those but expect to find your top three cuisines Malay, Indian and Chinese and that's just simply because of the strongest cultural diversity and populations fall within those three areas. The great part is that means you can almost always have some sort of different culinary experience if you don't like Chinese food and you love Indian food or vice versa you're always going to be able to find something you like. Number nine is going to be the people. What can you expect from them? Malaysian people are very warm welcoming soft people they are kind and respectful you're going to experience the hospitality from them if you need directions if you need help finding something. People from my personal experience have been so open to help out and take care of you the hospitality is great. Malaysian is one of the most friendly nation. Yes definitely. I know you've been to many countries like Pakistan very friendly I heard you were talking about and then all those countries are also very friendly but we want to be also on the top there. You guys want to take the number one spot all the way up top there yeah all right. Let me tell you I can give you a hundred different examples of how that is but just know you'll be in good hands that people are very friendly and nice and so respect their cultural boundaries and barriers and you'll have an amazing time. Thank you so much la. No la no problem la. I speak mushroom la. Oh you know mushroom la that means there's a lot of mushrooms in there. And this is the book. Number 10 is going to be can I get by if I only speak English? The great news is you absolutely can because it's such a diverse country and they have so many different foreign ethnic groups living in the country as well as visiting. Kuala Lumpur is an international city you're going to absolutely have no problem at all getting by with English. First time here for national day? Yeah for the first time last year I got maize around like two hours late. Two hours late? Yeah two hours late man. And this is popular in Malaysia? Yes yeah in Kuala Lumpur I have just three stores. Oh this is your store? If you do have any sort of issues open up that translator app in case someone doesn't speak but personally during the time I was there I never had any issues with finding someone who could speak English. Number 11 is going to be should you travel outside of Kuala Lumpur? Some people just want to check off the country maybe only visit the capital city and Kuala Lumpur is truly an impressive city you've got the Petronas Towers you've got so many different landmarks all around and tons of restaurant options it really does have it all I could I could actually live in a city like Kuala Lumpur but it's not the only place to visit. For me personally I can only tell you what I've experienced and give you some ideas in case you had more time than I did but there are tons of other places you can go to Penang you can go to you can go to Ipoh which I did have the opportunity to visit that's only a two-hour train ride and you'll already be in Ipoh and there's tons of other spots there's the Borneo island there where it's three different countries on one island Sabah all of these places are going to be great options of course in the Borneo area it's going to be a little less developed compared to mainland Malaysia but that being said if you have time to explore it all I absolutely would. Number 12. How safe is Malaysia? Well Malaysia has one of the lowest crime rates amongst all of its neighboring countries so you should feel pretty safe at all times of the day and night when I walked around I never felt like someone was going to rob me things of course can always happen but I felt very safe the whole time when I was in Malaysia. In general the infrastructure is modern they have subway systems they have great highway infrastructure great international airports and trains as well to get around the country so the infrastructure alone can really give you that feeling of how modern of a civilization the entire country is. Number 13. Where should you fly into? For some this might be a very obvious question for others maybe not but Kuala Lumpur is typically where you're going to find the most amount of flights in and out of the country then you can take cheap domestic flights between the other locations once you're inside of Malaysia but if I were you I would use Kuala Lumpur as your base to fly in and out of and then you can book your round-trip tickets from there because you're typically going to find the best prices rather than if you put your final destination as maybe one of the islands it might cost a ton to fly let's say from the United States all the way to one of those islands booking directly to Kuala Lumpur spending a day or two there and then taking a separate domestic flight one way there jump between some of the islands some of the different locations is going to be probably the most strategic efficient as well as cost-effective way you can explore Malaysia. And number 14 on the list is going to be being able to store your luggage so for a lot of you you might arrive to Malaysia let's say Kuala Lumpur or one of the other destinations on a domestic flight early in the morning and you still have like five to eight hours until you need to check into your hotel or Airbnb well the great news is there's actually an app that has blown up over the last few years known as Bounce Luggage Storage so you can literally open up the app find the closest location let's say you just took the train from the airport in Kuala Lumpur you arrive directly into the downtown area and you're like oh no I have literally six hours until they're gonna let me check into my Airbnb boom open up the Bounce app find a spot as close to maybe a block away from where you're literally standing downtown bring your bags there drop them right off they're going to be typically convenience stores, gift shops, restaurants, anywhere that has an extra space that is fully secure and then you're able to store your bags and there's like up to $10,000 per booking bag insurance so you have great peace of mind in the nearly one in what a billion chance that something happens to your stuff you're covered by the baggage insurance so I actually have a special code that will give you a discount this video is not sponsored by Bounce and using my link doesn't cost you any extra money it actually saves you money so I would highly recommend it and it will save you so much you'll probably use it in every country you go to since they're in 32,000 different locations so you're going to be able to find them everywhere around the world. Number 15 the cultural diversity in Malaysia so we already talked about it briefly that there's the strongest influence of Malay then you have Chinese and you have Indian and the reason behind all of this is because large populations have emigrated over generations and have set up their lives in Malaysia and have kind of created this melting pot of cultures but people who have come from China and India for example and many other cultures as well have really done a great job in maintaining their culture maintaining their religion their identity their food you come to Malaysia you visit the major part of Asia yeah you find the Chinese people representing the Chinese culture yeah you have the Malay representing the Malay culture and the Islamic culture and we have the Indian here as well so outside India the single country has highest number of Indian is Malaysia outside China the highest number of Chinese settle down in one place is Malaysia wow so yesterday we went to a temple I highlight to you the Chinese maintain the Chinese culture better than the China Chinese the Indian here also maintain a better traditional culture than India India so in places like Kuala Lumpur you can find little India you can find Chinatown and there you'll be able to experience those countries without even leaving Malaysia so I find that to be one of the really cool parts and I really loved that when I explored all over Kuala Lumpur but of course you're going to find that in other cities as well number 16 the religious customs in Malaysia now Malaysia is a predominantly Islamic country so typically the dress is going to be more conservative and that probably lies the most on women so especially if you're visiting a mosque women will typically be asked to wear a headscarf cover their shoulders and then their knees and at least down to their knees so that's something to keep in mind dress modestly at some mosques they might have additional clothing for you to use so when you're at beaches and things like that I think things are a little less conservative it really depends on which part of the country you're in but just keep in mind they are going to be a little bit more conservative than neighboring countries like Thailand as an example number 17 are you supposed to tip in Malaysia or not well I have my own philosophy and then I have my information that I found online so in Malaysia tipping is not necessarily expected and restaurants will sometimes add a service charge so you can check the bill it might be like 10 extra that they added for service charges and so in general tips aren't going to be expected or required but I'm an American so tipping is almost a second nature to me I really can't go places and not tip so most of the time I'm tipping unless I see it already included in the bill leaving a couple bucks from my personal experience in most cultures around the world is genuinely appreciated especially because the world becomes so much more globalized and who doesn't like to make a few extra bucks so if you have great service use that as your benchmark someone treats you really well they take good care of you maybe leave them a few bucks but just know it's not required number 18 is going to be public transportation in Malaysia the great part is it is very efficient public transportation whether you're taking the electric train you can get up to Ipoh for example in just about two hours and it's very inexpensive it's efficient it's on time and if you're going around the city there are tons of buses to get around there's a subway line that connects all the different areas it's fast and it's also on time so the infrastructure is impressive like I said already once or twice in this video I could live in Malaysia and it's because of this infrastructure making things possible making things low cost all of those things that make a city really attractive to me comes down to things like public transportation being able to get around without having to think too much about it if you're coming from the airport and you're on your own I would recommend taking the KLIA express it's a fast train that connects directly I think it's maybe like twelve dollars or less and if you're coming with a group of people then maybe a grab might actually be cheaper because if you're buying individual tickets for the train and you're multiple people that's going to add up quickly whereas if you take a grab that's going to be more expensive for one individual but if you're in a group of people and you share the grab and you split that cost amongst three people it might actually be cheaper than the train number 19 is currency and costs so in Malaysia they use the ringgit that's the type of currency and the conversion rate between a one US dollar to a ringgit comes out to 4.09 Malaysian ringgit equals one US dollar so how I can keep up with what the price is for things I'm pretty good with math in my mind so whenever I see a price if something's 400 ringgit then in my mind I divide that by four 400 divided by four that's 100 so then oh that's about 100 US dollars roughly right and so if you're not very good at math you don't or you don't want to have to keep up with that just open up an app I use globe convert and I will put in one US dollar and then it'll show me the exact amount or I'll put in the I don't know 25 ringgit and that will convert then directly to how much that is in USD or British pounds or Canadian or Australian dollars wherever you might be from but in general Malaysia is a very affordable country compared to western countries prices you can go to some of these street stalls and eat dinner for like two or three US dollars and a comfortable hotel room in Kuala Lumpur can cost under 50 US dollars you can stay at the Ritz Carlton in Kuala Lumpur for like 150 dollars and while 150 dollars is a lot Ritz Carlton typically in most cities is going to be like three or four hundred dollars minimum starting per night so you can even get luxurious experiences without spending an arm and a leg and that for me is one of the top reasons why I could live in this place if you look on Airbnb you can probably find an amazing one-bedroom apartment two-bedroom apartment for the month for under a thousand dollars which is crazy cheap comparing to other short-term rental costs in other major cities around the world last but not least number 20 are the local laws in Malaysia in general if you're not doing anything stupid you probably don't even have to worry about this but if you're someone who likes to do things a little sketchy like let's say partying a little too hard maybe using substances I would think again about doing that in Malaysia and not recommend doing it because it is a very strict country of course because it's a religious country close to Singapore all these types of things all add up to having very strict laws so just stay away from all those types of things if you're someone that's into that type of stuff save it for another place or just simply don't do it at all because Malaysia's strict laws make it not the place that you want to risk getting caught because that could literally sometimes mean life or death and so guys that's pretty much all the things that you need to know before visiting Kuala Lumpur Malaysia really hope this video was helpful and by the way if you want to know what things to do in both Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh make sure to check out this video and this video right here because they will show you the top 30 things in Kuala Lumpur and the top 15 things here in Ipoh so both of these will give you a great idea on what you can do and also drop a comment below if you want to see other cities or islands or places around Malaysia with the top things to do and I'll make sure I add them to my 2026 list on places to visit so thank you guys so much for watching once again smash that like button if you enjoyed it hit that subscribe button so you don't miss more and we will see you in the next Nomad Guides video