Malaysia blends culture, nature and comfort, ideal for multigenerational family travel. Photo / 123rf
Malaysia’s unique fusion of ancient temples, jungle adventures and surprisingly affordable luxury hotels makes it a family-friendly gem, writes Tim Roxborogh.
There have been a few surprises in my life. Like the time my wife unveiled a Barry Gibb-signed guitar – my lifelong hero – as a wedding day present in 2017.
That will take some beating, but seeing Kathy and Alan Palmer at the top of Kuala Lumpur’s Batu Caves’ 272 steps is right up there too. Being retirees with knees and hips who tend to misbehave, my in-laws had said they’d wait at the bottom of those famous colourful steps. There, they’d admire the colossus that is the 42.7m statue of the Hindu god Murugan and chat to the monkeys and pigeons.
In the meantime, I was front-packed with our almost 2-year-old son Austin, his random bouncing legs to his father’s groin a real hoot while I navigated the steps and those long-tailed macaques.
My wife Aimee was holding our 6-year-old daughter Riley’s hand, and the four of us joined the throngs of tourists and faithful who make the pilgrimage here on any given day.
At the top of those steps – the equivalent of scaling a 10-12-storey building – you’re rewarded with the marvel of nature and mankind.
The jagged, jungle-draped limestone of Batu Caves formed about 400 million years ago and the main chamber leaves you in little doubt as to why humans have long chosen it for awe-inspiring mass worship.
We avoided the vendors selling snacks and souvenirs that can make you a target for the monkeys, and instead just craned our necks at the enormity of the place.
A secondary lot of stairs passes another temple and takes you to an opening where shafts of sunlight and drips of water come through. Everything is vast and the right kind of overwhelming and never did we expect to turn around and find the grandparents had also made it to the top. But according to my father-in-law, once they started on those stairs, they figured they just had to keep going.
They will only come to Batu Caves once in their life. Indeed, they may only get to Malaysia once in their life, so the time was now.
This whole Malaysian trip was about a homecoming for me and showing our children and their grandparents the place that still defines me and a place I love with an almost evangelical passion.
Not yet a Malaysia convert? Allow me! Forty-two years since my parents relocated me and my three sisters to the steamy, exotic metropolis that is Kuala Lumpur (greater population now close to nine million), and 35 years since we returned to New Zealand, I was back.
Only this time, with my wife, our children and the grandparents in tow.
Aimee has loved Malaysia since our honeymoon in 2017, where we spent three weeks seeing everything from the orangutans, elephants and proboscis monkeys in the spectacular jungles of Malaysian Borneo, to the snorkelling and diving paradise of Tioman Island, to the culture, history and natural beauty of Penang and Langkawi. And of course, Kuala Lumpur. Most trips to Malaysia invariably begin and end in KL, but don’t for second dismiss it as a mere transit or springboard.
I wanted to wow the kids and ease the grandparents in, given this was their first Asia trip.
The controlled chaos of KL-must-sees like Jalan Alor (one of Southeast Asia’s most-photographed street food destinations) and Chinatown could wait a couple of days, first up? Well, first up, we didn’t even leave the hotel.
KL knows how to do hotels and for not much more than the price of a small-town New Zealand motel, you can find yourself in a marble ‘n’ chandelier masterpiece the likes of which you’d never dared dream you could afford. I’d done my research, and in a city where you really can’t go wrong, one place stood apart when looking for something family-friendly.
The Renaissance has 406 rooms across one of two 1996-built high-rises and we found ourselves on level 27 with – quite frankly – insanely great views of the 421m KL Tower and the surrounding urban green lung of Bukit Nanas.
We also found ourselves in a gigantic family suite where Riley and Austin’s bedroom had an outer-space theme complete with a rocket ship for bedtime stories. Speaking of which, the room comes not just with storybooks for the kids, but with toys and bean bags and even Fluffy & Friends toiletries in case you forgot the toothbrushes.
Other family suites have a jungle or safari theme, but thankfully, it’s confined to the kids’ room. And so outside of that hall-of-fame-worthy outer-space room is a large kitchen and living area befitting a more traditional upper 5-star property, and then a separate bedroom for the parents of a similarly conservative yet sumptuous standard.
Was the whole thing squeal-worthy? Oh yes. It might’ve been late at night after a long flight with delirium setting in, but when the kids first saw their rocket ship bedroom, they squealed and ran and laughed and expressed pure unconstrained joy. The adults weren’t too many notches below them either.
The next morning, we deliberately blocked out any activities beyond the hotel so we could explore what the Renaissance is really about: one of the most striking hotel swimming pools I’ve seen anywhere in the world. As in Olympic-large, but with curves as well as corners, a float-up bar and multiple waterslides.
There’s even a specific children’s splash zone with additional slides and a dumping bucket; essentially, a luxury central city hotel but with its own not-so-mini waterpark.
Add to that a 1200sq m Paradise Trail and adventure zone where there’s a full dry-land playground in case you want a break from your togs, but also a series of climbing walls and even a Jack & the Beanstalk climbing stalk.
Riley adores climbing and waterslides in equal measure and the Renaissance was as if it had been designed with her specifically in mind: even down to the chocolate sauce-draped waffles and the mountains of watermelon at the breakfast buffet.
Eventually, we did leave the hotel. The 452m Petronas Towers are just a 10-minute walk away and while the former tallest buildings in the world (1996-2004) have slipped to 21st place, few skyscrapers are as stunning. The fact that they’re surrounded by a multilevel mall almost as photogenic – not to mention the beautiful KLCC park – makes them worth the hype.
In terms of hype though, it’s the under-the-radar KL Forest Eco Park that really jumps out. A series of raised canopy walkways that showcase the wonders of Malaysia’s rainforests – widely regarded as the single most biodiverse on Planet Earth – this 10ha slice of jungle lies directly across the road from the Renaissance.
It was here as my children ran across the swing bridges and my wife and her parents gazed at the wilds of an equatorial jungle right in the heart of massive city that my love of Kuala Lumpur crystalised.
It’s everything. It’s the best of nature’s designs and the best of man’s designs. It’s my old family church – St Andrews – poking through the forest leaves, as well as all the surrounding temples and mosques that quietly taught me as a child that multiculturalism works and different races can coexist in close proximity. It’s malls and alleyways. It’s old and new. It’s my home. And I’m so thrilled my family have seen it.
For more about Malaysia Airlines and its new A330neo aircraft, visit malaysiaairlines.com.
The journalist travelled courtesy of Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines.