Vancouver or Kuala Lumpur

[keyboardjam]

I have a choice of a week next summer of one of these places.

Any advice?

"Well, I lived in one and spent a lot of time in the other. They have similar food and shops, similar Chinese/malay/Indian culture, similar shop house architecture combined with modern office buildings, identical climate.what are the major differences to you?"

Same 😆 and the major differences to me are one is much safer, much cleaner, and with the closeness of everything it's easier to experience the multiculturalism there as well as the mega resorts on Sentosa and the beaches. No ripping off of tourists with a different price for them to the locals either. The city planning is excellent versus the sprawl in the other (stunning still but very much a chaotic sprawl).

Yeah, they've got the same climate, similar foods and office buildings 🤔 but they are worlds apart in many ways

Singapore is amazing. So clean and safe.

I Haven't been to Kuala Lumpur but I read that it's unsafe?

KL has plenty going for it but it's like comparing the safest place in SE Asia with the least safe IME

What’s with the chinny emoji re office buildings?

@ItWasOnAStarryNight you think KL is the least safe place in SE Asia?

Over Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh? Seriously?

KL is perfectly safe, and I personally prefer it to Singapore, which is pretty sterile.

However for tourists visiting for a week I would pick Singapore. First it is on the coast so sea breezes. Then it has more history compared with KL which started as a mining town. After that is the complete organisation in Singapore: super clean, great public transport, fantastic shopping, some interesting tourist attractions. Plenty to occupy you for a week. (A personal favourite, the little known Changi Prison Museum.)

Kuala Lumpur translates as "muddy estuary".

Been to Singapore already!

It's definitely a choice between KL and Vancouver.

Baffled by people saying KL isn’t safe? It felt VERY safe when I went.

i went to Kuala Lumpur on a stop over on the way to Borneo. It was hot, sweaty and very humid! The Batu caves is worth a visit. The bit by the fountains/mall/petronas towers is very similar to Dubai but a bit older. It’s a nice city but it feels quite dated now. You can tell it’s hey day was mid 2000s!

Jalan Alor is a must do for food/people watching!

I haven't been to Vancouver, but have been to KL. It was fine. Definitely go to the Batu caves. I think KL is better if teamed with somewhere else such as Langkawi. Just going for KL itself isn't the most interesting. A lot of it is just giant shopping malls. 3 days KL, 3 days Langkawi would work.

This. DS (13) was really affected by it and it made it quite unpleasant to walk around summer areas. Yes, lots of good points in the surrounding area, but if you're planning on staying in the city, it's essentially Stanley Park and that's it. We wouldn't go back.

I didn't say it was the most unsafe place. And I should've said Singapore is one of the safest places in the world, not SE Asia. Maybe not worded it the best way but it's not that hard to get my drift. Also doubt she's going to look at office buildings for a week!

I've been plenty of times, to both, as I said. Within moments on one trip a colleagues bag was slashed from her shoulder in KL. A common occurrence that just does not happen in Singapore.

Tbh, I'd choose neither KL or Vancouver so pointless me commenting 🤣

I loved loved Vancouver - such a fun place and a week gives you enough time to get out and see some of Canada's nature. Haven't visited KL in a decade but I found the city itself pretty grim when I went - odd mix of super shiny mall stuff and quite tacky night markets. Maybe I didn't go to the right places but I wouldn't want to do a week in the city. Other places in Malaysia are beautiful.

I visited this summer - had heard this before I went and was braced after finding San Francisco quite grim but saw no signs of it at all! Literally I don't think I saw a single homeless person.

Sorry - I just reread that and to be clear am not questioning either of your guys' experiences there! Just funny how people can have such different experiences of same place.

Don't worry, I didn't read it that way. I think it just depends on the area - it seemed worse around Gastown and Chinatown. But it was definitely there, as was the overwhelming stench of cannabis, and it just made it uncomfortable all round.

Maybe without an emotionally immature teenager we would have found it easier to ignore. But he really struggled with it and it just made it a difficult experience.

Wildlife watching at the top end of Vancouver Island though, absolutely! But I didn't think that was what the OP was suggesting.

The recent Lisbon threads demonstrate just how varied people's experiences are.

I live on the outskirts of KL. It's very cheap when you get here , lots of parks and the public transport is clean and cheap. No beaches nearby but can drive to port Dickson which is ok in about an hour and a half , or fly internally to Penang or Langkawi. It's very humid during the summer and remember your mozzie spray. The food is amazing too !

Hello, Vancouverite here. I think it depends on when you go and where you stay: if you visit in May or June, that's generally a good time of year to visit. In recent years, we have often had forest fires in the area that make air quality quite bad in August (last summer was fine, but next summer might not be). The downtown area is where you will find the most people with drug problems, and I've heard of tourists from cruise ships venturing into the Gastown or Chinatown areas and being shocked.

And I've only ever been to the Kuala Lumpur airport for a layover. The airport toilets were so filthy that I feel nauseous just thinking about it 10 years later. But maybe the city is nice.

I suppose you could take flight times and flight paths into consideration when deciding? The flight between Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur is quite long, and might take longer than usual so that the flight can divert around Russia and Ukraine.

What month? Is weather a consideration?

As someone who has lived in BC for the last 19 years, I have to say...are you sure you were in Vancouver??

I love the place but Vancouver's homeless and addicted population is very large and very visible, considering the relatively small size of the city...

I thought Kuala Lumpur was awful, just loads of oppressive concrete is all I remember so on that basis I'd chose Vancouver because I've never been

I don’t do humidity so I would pick Vancouver. Plus you’ve been to Singapore already.

I liked KL but only for a day or two. Good food, safe, but found it a bit chaotic and dull. However onward flighrs to Penang are plentiful and cheap and we had a great time there

I really wouldn’t want to spend a week in KL.