MY · Curated travel guide
Petronas Towers, Mount Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur Tower and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
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Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Malaysia and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. One is on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
Interlinked supertall skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Also called the Petronas Twin Towers, and informally the KLCC Twin Towers, two linked supertall skyscrapers of 88 floors in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 451.9 m (1,483 ft) high. From 1998 to 2004 they were the world's tallest buildings, until Taipei 101 in Taiwan overtook them.
Photo: AwOiSoAk KaOsIoWa, CC BY-SA 3.0
Highest mountain in Malaysia
The highest mountain of Malaysia and of Maritime Southeast Asia, in Sabah on Borneo. At 4,095 metres (13,435 ft), it is the third-highest island peak on Earth, the 28th-highest peak in Southeast Asia and the 20th-most-prominent mountain in the world.
Photo: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0
Telecommunication tower in Malaysia
Informally called KL Tower, a telecommunication tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 421-meter-tall (1,381-foot), the seventh-tallest of its kind on Earth.
Photo: Formulax, CC BY-SA 2.0
Cave system in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia
Limestone caves in a mogote 325 m (1,066 ft) tall at Gombak, Selangor, roughly 13 km (8.1 mi) north of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital.
Photo: Chainwit., CC BY-SA 4.0
Megatall skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Officially Merdeka Maybank Tower, and once called Menara Warisan Merdeka, KL 118 and PNB 118, a megatall skyscraper of 118 floors in Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka Precinct, Malaysia. At 678.9 metres, it is the world's second-tallest building and structure, behind only the Burj Khalifa, 829.8 m (2,722 ft).
Photo: Ahmad Ali Karim, CC0
World Heritage
National park in Sarawak, Malaysia
A national park in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, home to the Niah Caves, an archaeological site.
Photo: Starlightchild, CC BY-SA 3.0
Mosque in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia's national mosque, in Kuala Lumpur, with room for 15,000 worshippers, surrounded by 13 acres (53,000 m²) of gardens.
Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0
National park in Malaysia
A national park in Peninsular Malaysia. Theodore Hubback had lobbied the sultans of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan to reserve land across all three states for a protected area, and in 1938 and 1939 the park was created, named the King George V National Park.
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0
Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Officially Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque, one of Kuala Lumpur's oldest mosques, where the Gombak and Klang rivers meet, reached from Jalan Tun Perak.
Photo: Ariyanto, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Mosque in Putrajaya, Malaysia
The main mosque of Putrajaya, Malaysia, begun in 1997 and finished two years later.
Photo: Azuladnan, CC BY-SA 4.0
A Southeast Asian federal constitutional monarchy of 13 states and three federal territories, split by the South China Sea into Peninsular Malaysia, on the mainland, and East Malaysia, on Borneo. The peninsula has land and sea borders with Thailand and sea borders with Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore; East Malaysia has land borders with Indonesia and Brunei and sea borders with Vietnam and the Philippines.
Officially Malaysia. Known locally as Mǎláixīyà 马来西亚, Malaysia, மலேசியா.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Petronas Towers, Mount Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur Tower and Batu Caves and others. Niah National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Malaysia that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
1 of the 10 in this guide: Niah National Park. That is not the full count for Malaysia, only the listed sites that made this guide.
Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil. The currency is MYR.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $2.47 for 2GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Maxis and CelcomDigi. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
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| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2GB per day Cheapest | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.47 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.67 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.69 | Get it → |
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| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $3.04 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $3.22 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
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