ABOUT
Lissie is originally from Minnesota and has lived in Kuala Lumpur for almost a year. She is a high school math teacher and has taught in 4 different countries, other than the US, at various international schools. She loves to travel and teaching math is her passion, so being able to combine the two is amazing for her. Her husband is also a teacher and they have a daughter who is in Kindergarten.
Moving to Kuala Lumpur
Why did you move to Kuala Lumpur?
There isn’t necessarily a specific reason why we moved to KL – we just were ready to move countries and some great job opportunities opened for us here. In addition to teaching, I also have an instagram, @planet.points, which is all about how to travel for less using credit card points. It’s primarily useful for people who are eligible to open US credit cards, whether they live in the US or not, however, I do add some travel content and general money saving travel tips.
What did you bring with you?
We didn’t bring a lot with us. Since we move so much, we’re pretty good and limiting the stuff that we bring. We’ve found that we can pretty much buy anything we need in KL. There’s a website called Lazada that is also very reliable and you can usually get things delivered within a couple days. There are also so many malls all over the city for all budgets, so shopping is very easy to do here.
How did you get set up?
Since I always move for work, I’m very fortunate that the school always helps me get things set up. However, Kuala Lumpur has proved to be very efficient and easy to get things done. I did do my phone on my own and it was incredibly straightforward – I went to the Maxis shop at the mall and someone helped me set everything up. I just needed my passport. It’s super affordable too. My husband and I share like 100gb of data for around $45US/month. I can pay my bill online through my bank account and add any roaming that I need when I travel (at a very affordable rate – about $10US/week for roaming outside of Malaysia). Medical insurance was also included in my teaching package, so I don’t have any advice on insurance, but I have had to go to various doctors and dentists and they have all been amazing and very affordable. If you don’t have insurance, you can just pay with a credit card or cash on the spot (this is actually what I do and then get reimbursed from insurance – it’s more convenient and I can get credit card points in the process!). We had to take my daughter to the ER a couple weeks ago and she was checked out by a couple doctors, had a full blood panel done, had an x-ray, and an IV and the total cost was $230, without using any insurance (and this was at the top hospital in the city, Prince Court). So if you’re moving to KL, and don’t have insurance through an employer, I think just having a high deductible plan would be enough (for anything catastrophic) because all routine/basic things are super affordable.
How did you find an apartment in Kuala Lumpur?
We did a lot of research online before moving on the website property guru and just looked at apartments through each listing agent. We pay around $1300US for a 3 bed 3 bath apartment that’s about 2000sf. Apartments and houses vary a lot in quality, so therefore prices do too. I think ours is on the nicer end, so if your budget is less, you’ll still be just fine. Or if you have a much higher budget, there are some pretty sweet places!
Living in Kuala Lumpur
What surprised you about life in Kuala Lumpur?
I was honestly surprised at how modern and efficient everything is. I’ve lived in Panama and Hong Kong too and I was expecting KL to be more similar to Panama, but it’s actually more like Hong Kong. The public transit is very cheap and efficient (though it doesn’t run near our apartment, so we don’t use it often) and almost everything is cashless, which is great for earning those credit card points! Another thing that surprised me is how not dog friendly things are. Many locals are scared of dogs, so they are not welcome really anywhere. I was surprised by this because I feel like in most countries, dogs are welcome in parks and on patios of restaurants, but that’s not the case here. Luckily our dog is pretty lazy, so just getting his 3 walks a day (and plenty of attention around the apartment) is good enough for him.
What is Kuala Lumpur like, culturally?
KL is a big melting pot. The local population is mostly Malay, Chinese, and Indian, however there are expats from all over the world. Because it’s so international, everything is in English, and also most Malaysians speak English really well too. I might just be the parts of the city that I go to, but I definitely see more English than Bahasa (the local language). Not knowing Bahasa hasn’t been an issue at all. When I’m in public, no one has ever spoken to me in Bahasa (probably because I’m blonde hair blue eyes, so it’s pretty obvious that I’m foreign), whereas in Panama, I was constantly being spoken to in Spanish and not being fluent in the language made it difficult to get around. But that’s definitely not the case here. If you know English, you’ll be fine.
How much money do you need in Kuala Lumpur?
As far as budget, it just depends on your needs/wants for lifestyle. Many people live on under $1000/month, but I would say you’d need more like $3000/month to live comfortably and take advantage of travel opportunities. If you want to only eat local and you don’t drink alcohol, food is very cheap – like $1-3 per meal at a restaurant. Alcohol is taxed heavily here, so it’s similarly priced to small town USA. $6-8 for a beer, $9 for a cocktail, $30 for a bottle of wine (these are restaurant prices, but it’s about cut in half for supermarket prices).
Can you tell us about Transportation in Kuala Lumpur?
We don’t have a car and we just use Grab all the time. Grab is like Uber and it’s super affordable. We live close to the city center, so it’s usually only $2-3 for anywhere we want to go. To get to the airport, which is about an hour outside the city, it’s about $20. You can also use the same app to order food or groceries and it’s not really marked up from the prices at the store and the delivery fee is usually under $1, so we take advantage of that a lot. It’s also really convenient that most of SE Asia uses Grab, so I don’t have to set anything new up when traveling to a different country in the area.
Do you feel safe in kuala Lumpur?
Overall, I feel very safe here as a woman. I walk around and take Grabs a lot by myself and I’ve never felt unsafe. People talk a lot about bag snatching when you’re walking, but I don’t know of anyone that it’s happened to. I definitely feel a lot safer here than I do in the US.
Final Thoughts
What are your favorite things about Kuala Lumpur?
One of the things I love about living here is the abundance of cheap travel opportunities. Since KL is the AirAsia hub, we can usually find round trip flights for under $100 to other places in Malaysia or other SE Asian countries. So combining the cheap flights with free hotels from credit card points makes traveling around the area super affordable. There are also a lot of places within a couple hour drive of KL that are great to explore. Our favorite is Genting Highlands because it has a theme park, and we love theme parks! It’s also up in the mountains, so the weather is a lot cooler – around 65-70°F, whereas KL is usually around 85°F. You can take buses to these areas or take a Grab or hire a private driver. Private drivers are super common and easy to find just on facebook or Google. They’ll have a variety of cars and are usually a pretty comparable price to Grab. We’ve always traveled just by bus or Grab, but if you want to have something booked in advance for planning, hiring a driver might be a good idea.
Overall, I absolutely love living in Kuala Lumpur. It’s a very diverse and safe city with plenty to do.
Thank you Lissie for sharing your experience of moving to Kuala Lumpur! I loved how you compared to the other places you have lived in before that, it’s definitely a unique perspective! All the best with your family in Kuala Lumpur!
