Good Bars-Jalan P.Ramlee area

Jalan P.Ramlee is one of the main party-streets in Kuala Lumpur. There's a couple of good bars and lots of clubs that don't get going until late.However, food options are a bit limited.Most places have live music and if you get there after 9pm expect to pay a cover charge.It's easy to walk the length of the street in 15 minutes or so and is a good bar-hopping street.
Negotiating a taxi home will probably be the only hassle you have.

Some places worth a visit include:

Hard Rock Cafe at the Concorde Hotel-almost an institution and a tourist attraction in it's own right having been around for over 15 years. Some people just visit to buy the T-Shirt. Sometimes it can resemble a McDonald's with Beer,complete with kiddies parties and balloons...but as the evening turns into nigh time the crowd changes as does the level of music.Drinks are fairly pricey but they do a good Happy Hour,buy-one-get-one-free.
It can get a bit too smoky and claustrophobic.A live band generally comes on around midnight.

Beach Club Cafe-another institution having been around for over 10 years.Has an "interesting" mix of patrons.Depending on your mood,you may see it as a bit of a pick-up joint,or just somewhere to have a bit of fun and a good night out. The girls are pretty friendly, relatively harmless and will leave you alone once they know you're not interested. Live music.

Similar to the Beach Club but with less obvious working-girls there is Sangria Bar,Thai Club and Rum Jungle. They all look strikingly similar to one another.
Modesto's and Retro Club are relaxed drink-dining places,whilst for a more "clubby" feel there is Aloha and,at the end of the street Poppy Garden,whilst the up-market 7atenine bar and restaurant around the corner is more chilled-out.
A short walk away towards the Novotel you can find the Borneo Barak Club or BBC,a huge barn of a place that offers food and live music.

Across from KLCC in Avenue K shopping mall is a bar complex Quattro that offers 4 themed places under one roof (Spring,Summer,Winter and Autumn) it even "rains".Slightly further afield and just within walking distance is the rooftop bar atop Traders Hotel which offers great views of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.The staff here will do their best to ensure that you don't fall into the central swimming pool.
If bars with swimming pools on top of hotels are you thing there is also Luna Bar atop Menara Pan Global at the other end of Jalan P.Ramlee.

Nightime

After a hard-day's sightseeing,getting hot, tired and thirsty you may want to find somewhere to relax and look for some fun things to do.
There are quite a lot of bars in Kuala Lumpur...but not too many good bars.And even fewer Really Good Bars!
Unless you're coming from Singapore or Scandinavia you'll find prices ranging from a moderately expensive RM 10 for a mug, to downright exorbitant. RM 20 and upwards!
Most places have a Happy-Hour policy until 9pm-or sometimes 10pm when drinks are often half-price.Midweek Ladies' Nights are quite popular in many establishments where ladies can drink selected sweet and sickly concoctions for free...

Most of the larger hotels have lounges which usually comprise a cover band belting-out renditions of popular songs and can be very popular with the more mature crowd and have a relaxed ambience.

The main areas for bars and clubs within the City Centre are Jalan P.Ramlee,Changkat Bukit Bintang and Heritage Row (Jalan Doraisamy)
Further afield and a cab-ride away are the suburbs of Bangsar,Sri Hartamas and Petaling Jaya

Getting Around Town

Kuala Lumpur City Centre is compact enough to walk around but any attraction more than about 30 minutes away may leave you feeling drenched and exhausted.

BUS. There is a pretty good-value bus service using (mostly) clean,fairly new buses with aircon
Around the city,RapidKL http://www.rapidkl.com.my/ is the main operator.The service can be a bit overwhelming and best avoided at peak-hours but they go just about everywhere,and at RM1 per trip it may be worth getting lost every now and again.

TAXI. If you are very,very lucky you may find an honest taxi-driver who has a clean cab,uses the metre and knows where he's going.Otherwise you'll get overcharged by about 3 times the meter rate-or higher if you look very wealthy or very gullible..or both.
Taxis should,by law use the metre but few in the city do,mainly because the fares are so cheap that the driver wouldn't make any money if he used the meter (they say)
Fares will be increasing from 1st August- by about 40% let's see if the situation improves.
If you're selected cab refuses to use the metre,you can walk away and try another one,or you can try negotiate the fare.Anything more than RM10 around town should be questioned

MONORAIL. http://www.monorail.com.my/ Although it's a confusing walk from KL Sentral, the monorail is an interesting way to traverse the town but apart from Bukit Bintang station for Shopping,Medan Tunku station for Kampung Baru and Bukit Nanas station for Hard Rock Cafe and the bars on Jalan P.Ramlee it doesn't really serve the visitor that well.But you do get an interesting "roof-top" view.

LRT. There are 2 LRT lines serving the city centre and suburbs.It's fast and efficient (most of the time) and inexpensive.The 2 lines are not very well integrated except at Masjid Jamek station

KL Hop-on Hop-off. http://www.myhoponhopoff.com/ Is a bus service specifically aimed at visitors.The buses run in a continuous loop around the city covering 40 attractions,served by 22 stops.There is an audio commentary and you can get-on and off as many times as you want.First bus is at 8.30am and the last at 8.30pm. and run at 20-30minute intervals.It's a good way to get an overview/orientation of the city.A day ticket costs RM 38,whilst a 48hr ticket is RM65

KL Aquarium

If you can't make it to the islands but would like to see some fish,KL Aquarium http://www.klaquaria.com/ is a first-class alternative.
It's one of the newest and smartest attractions in Kuala Lumpur.
You can swim with sharks,get your toes nibbled by garrufa fish and learn all about water in different environments.
There are Discovery Zones with screen projectors with information and facts on the animals exhibited within the Aquaria. Interactive kiosks are also available for visitors to go on a virtual adventure in exploring other exciting creatures that inhabit the world’s oceans.
You can also view the spectacular ocean reef and its inhabitants through a large acrylic window at the Aquatheater. Witness daily fish feedings as well as diving sessions with the sharks.
It's a bit pricey at RM 38 and upwards, but very well done.

Kampung Baru

Kampung Baru is the oldest Malay residential area in Kuala Lumpur and still has authentic traditional Malay wooden houses set against a backdrop of the downtown KL sky-scrapers.
If you're not able to venture out of the city and want to see what an old Malay settlement looks like,then Kampung Baru can make an interesting visit.
Although lots of property developers are eyeing the place,for now at least you can see some nice old wooden houses and wander the streets in safety (but watch-out for the motorbikes)
Lots of restaurants and stalls with Malay food - Saturday night: Pasar Minggu (Sunday Market) 6pm - 1am, jewellery, clothes, fabric, Malay cooking, handicraft- Take Putra LRT (e.g. from KLCC) to Kampung Baru station - Monorail to Medan Tuanku station (5min walk from there) - 30min walk from Bukit Bintang or RM5 -10 by Taxi

Lake Gardens KL Birdpark and Butterfly Park

At the edge of the city,this area of landscaped gardens,statues and parks can be a welcome respite from the concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur,or it can be a hot and sweaty walk....

The main attractions are the Butterfly Park,Bird Park and National Monument

The Bird Park houses more than 3,000 birds and 200 species from all over the world.If you've a few hours to kill and quite like birds or you just want to escape Kuala Lumpur and see some greenery the Birdpark is worth a visit. You'll come across miniature gardens, pools and water cascades, bridges, flowering plants ...and bird feeding stations. Divided into zones you'll find, a Flamingo pond, Pelicans, Hornbill Park, World of Parrots, a Waterfall Aviary, Amphitheatre, Children's playground and Seminar Room.Birds here include Flamingos, Hornbills, Water hens, Parrots, Cockatoos, Storks, Pheasants, Mynahs Pigeons, Macaws, and Ducks.


The Butterfly Park and insect museum is OK,especially if you like Butterflies and Insects.

The nearby National Monument looks suspiciously like the Iwo Jima monument in Washington DC and not surprisingly was designed by the same sculptor

National Mosque

The National Mosque is the main house of worship for the inhabitants of Kuala Lumpur ,as the hundreds of cars parked outside on a Friday will testify.It has a 73-metre-high minaret and an 18-pointed star concrete main roof. The umbrella design of the dome gives the mosque a unique contrast to other onion shape domes and minaret of the buildings within its vicinity. Based upon the Grand Mosque in Mecca it has with 48 small domes and a grand prayer hall that is topped by the main dome with folded-plate roof in the shape of "semi-opened umbrella"

Pools and fountains are spread throughout the compound.Situated among five acres (13 hectares) of gardens, the building consist of a prayer hall, multi purpose hall, the warrior mausoleum, a library, offices, open courtyard and the minaret. The upper deck houses the main prayer hall and a pool.The Grand Hall which easily accommodates up to 8000 people, is surrounded by deep verandas which are screened off by white grilles of traditional Islamic designs.A very serene place to walk around for an hour or so

A short walk from the mosque is the Islamic Arts Museum,which contains amongst it's exhibits scale models of many famous mosques from around the world and exhibits from the days of the Ottoman Empire.

Exhibits are well labelled,the collections are quite extensive and the museum is definitely worth a visit