Shopping in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is a shoppers paradise. There is a wide range of shopping establishments and modern air-conditioned shopping malls, department stores, handicraft centres, duty-free shops, bazaars and night markets. Among the items high on the shopping list of tourists are pewter, batik, duty free items, electrical products, sportswear and handicrafts. For a very different experience visit the night markets or 'pasar malam' which begin their trading activities in the late afternoon. These open-air markets feature hawker stalls that sell a variety of local produce, foodstuff, clothing and cakes. Bargaining is a common practice. One can see a number of street artists and traditional medicine vendors.

Sungei Wang Plaza, which is integrated with the adjacent Bukit Bintang Plaza, is a magnet for all shoppers. Its retail outlets offer an incredible assortment of goods catering to all tastes and budgets.

Most shops are open 0900-1700 daily, with the malls open later 1000-2200. Some shops close on Sundays, but all of the malls are open.

It would be difficult to overstate the attraction of Malaysia for anyone who appreciates the natural world. Its primal forests, ranging from shoreline mangrove to mountaintop oak, are of the sort that most of the world now knows only in myth. Although Malaysia's size is similar to that of Norway, natural trees and forests cover almost three quarters of the land, an area equivalent to almost the entire United Kingdom. One can walk for hundreds of miles in Malaysia under a continuous canopy of green, marveling at an abundance of plant and animal species equaled by no other location in the entire world.