EasternTraveler

Title says it all.

Ozchinois

Not that I'm aware of. They have a newish bus ticket system. All day for RM$2, not sure how easy it is to use.

Melosh

Yes there is one. Google Hop on Hop off KL for the link.
I see it all the time around town. Usually half filled with bored looking tourists stuck in traffic.

dsquared37

Yes, it's a double decker with a back outside viewing area. There are 20 or so stops all around the city and you can buy a ticket good for 24 hours. Never have used it, but it would be an interesting way to get around town.

I believe you can purchase tix onboard. Just look out for the 'hop on hop off' signs in touristy areas.

http://www.myhoponhopoff.com/

EasternTraveler

Just got back from Malaysia. Here is my experience and trip report, maybe it will help someone else.

Arrived on Thu night KUL used the airport taxi service since the train would be shutting down at 11 and that would not be enough time to make it all the way to the hotel in PJ Hilton. The first rate quoted was 120 ringit, I said no thanks and started to walk off. She then offered 75 MYR and said (but it's not a mercedes) I said I don't care about a Mercedes I want to get to the hotel the cheapest possible way and go to sleep. She then said the cheapest I have is budget and it is 58 MYR. Took it and was zipped away in a taxi that looked exactly like the ones in the Mid priced section. It is a long ride when you are tired to Kuala Lumpur from the airport as the airport is not in Kuala Lumpur and is actually in another town a good 30 plus minutes south.

Got up the next morning and took the train from the hotel station Taman Jaya to the end of the line and then hired a taxi for meter rate from there to the Batu Caves at 7MYR. The caves are covered in Monkeys that are NOT friendly so DON'T try to pet them. Keep your distance, take photos and don't feed them. The climb was 273 steps to the top. There was a lot of construction materials everywhere with no apparent construction going on. But there was plenty to photograph. Prices for drinks were 1.50MYR at the bottom and 2MYR at the top. I got tired of hearing the repeating Dark Cave loudspeaker, but if you have not been in a cave this was not very expensive. Understand that this place has not been maintained or preserved in any way. They have commercialized and painted the walls. This is used as a Hindu temple and that is its main purpose. There are several other tourist traps and even a chinese temple nearby. It is still a must see because of its uniqueness even though a lot could be done to clean this place up. It looks as if there was a furnicular at one time on the left side of the steps, but is long gone. The big statue at the bottom of the steps is impressive as well as the green gin looking statue over to the left. When you get ready to go back they charge a flat rate of 15 MYR and will not use the meter. If you are willing to stand there all day you might find one that will. There is no charge for climbing to the top and seeing the batu caves. When we got back we went to the local mall that is the Amcorp Mall, quite interesting but you will get tired of seeing American Restaurants like McDonald's, KFC, A&W, Kenny Rogers, Pizza Hut, Outback, Starbucks, Subway, etc... Being Diamond we ate in the hotel for free and they had Chicken Satay which was great.

Sat we took the all day tour with Tour 51 that we found at the travel agency in the Amcorp Mall. It was 120 MYR to Malacca which was the same tour offered by the hotel concierge for 250 MYR. This was an all day trip which included a guide in English, A/C bus and Lunch. We got to get off and visit 6 different places including a Portugese Church, Red Church, Monastery, Governors House, Sultans Palace, Budha Temple, Chinese Temple, Muslim Mosque and the Straits of Malacca. They then drop you off in town at your choice of location. We chose sentral station so that we could take a 1.60 MYR train ride back to the station.

SUN we got up and took the train to sentral and then took the Kommuter to Port Klang and then for 17myr we took a high speed a/c ferry to crab island where everything is on stilts and you can get a real feel for how the locals live. We returned the hotel after a 6 hour round trip. We then hired a cab by the hour to take us to the blue mosque, petronas towers, kings palace, independence square, the monument, a Hindu temple, a Budhist temple and then back to the hotel to pick up our bags and some drinks from the lounge while he waited to run us to the airport by way of a restaurant in a small community about halfway between the hotel and airport to buy some more satay. Everyone recommended this restaurant and they were right, it was the best satay I have ever had. The driver was very friendly and helpful and when he got us to the airport after a short visit by all of their government offices he told me the price which was 180 ringit. I considered it a super bargain as the hotel quotes 75 ringit just for the airport version.

That is my experience and there are still some things left to see and do in Malaysia on my next visit like the rain forest, zoo and more time at the government offices area along with the fort out near the ocean and the fire flies hailed as the 7th wonder of the world which happens to be a river boat ride at night.

jpatokal

Instead of a hop on/hop off bus, I'd recommend the KL Monorail. It's impervious to traffic, zooms about amusingly above the streets in a rollercoasterish way, runs every few min, and connects together KL Sentral, Chinatown (Maharajalela stn), Berjaya Times Sq, Bukit Bintang, the nightlife of Jalan Ampang and is a short stroll away from KLCC, which is a pretty good listing of central KL's points of touristic interest. I'm not sure it has a day ticket, but at around US$0.50 a pop, the fares are so cheap it hardly matters.

SkyTeam777

Is it possible to take the hop-on/hop-off tour bus from the airport? I will be at the Pan Pacific, but am very interested since I will be there just for the day. For some reason, I cannot get the site mentioned above to work. Thanks!

mario33

No

YVR Cockroach

Your question has been answered.

As one of the above posts has mentioned, KLIA is a very long way away from the city. Think of Narita-ish distances.

jiejie

Second the monorail suggestion, as I hate being stuck sitting in traffic in any sort of vehicle. For a city that by Asian standards isn't that huge and has good road infrastructure, KL ground traffic surprised me by how slow it can be at times. Also, for some strange reason, me and KL cabbies don't seem to get along--I cannot recall an Asian city like KL(including dealing w/Bangkok, all over Vietnam, as well as the various Chinese city taxi mafias) where I've had so many drivers try to stick it to me, or refuse to take me on the meter, or bargain for anything close to a reasonable rate. Obviously I need to be clued in to the secrets of taking KL taxis but until that happens, public mass transit + feet works pretty well for me 75% of the time. From KLIA, I swear by the Sentral Express train, but I've always been able to catch it during operating hours.

fiona

I know exactly what you mean about taxis. we never knew if the driver would take us or not. Hop on hop off- there were lots of irate passengers the day we took it. It ran nowhere like the times it was supposed to. Can't say I was impressed. And its one of the few hop on/offs I would never recommend.

k_sheep

There's a bus that's even cheaper than the train from the airport - RM10. Operates 24 hrs too.

fiona

Skyteam
if you are only there for a day take the train- it takes just under half an hour. We made the mistake of taking a taxi the first time and it took us an hour and 40 minutes. Most of that time was at a standstill in the horrendous traffic.

mario33

There wont be much saving in time between taxi and train.

While they advertise the journey as 28 min; you have not taken into account wait time for the train which could be up to 20min if you just miss one & the express service can sometimes be substituted by a transit service adding another 10min to the journey. Do note Sentral is not located in the CBD, thus you will still need to go thorugh the worst of the traffic jam into the city.

The only advantage of the train over taxi is that you wont be at the mercy of the taxi driver and the company running it which has a monopoly at the airport, sort of a legalised mafia.

And I second the recommendation for the bus service, at MYR10 its extremely good value and I feel a lot safer than being in the taxi.

fiona

In our case there was a huge difference.