Thinking about checking out Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia? We don’t blame you one bit. This place is amazing and modern for South East Asia. This isn’t much of a destination for girls but that’s okay every once in a while. The main reason this places isn’t very good for girls is because of the Malaysian culture and that’s in part due to the religion. That’s no reason to stop you from checking it out and there are always exceptions to the rule. Maybe Malaysia will be one of the better pick-up destinations for you but it just wasn’t true in our experience. Our review of MalaysianCupid will tell you much more about the women here. Okay, so let’s hop into the cost of living and see if it’s affordable for you.
The only things that’s kind of expensive in Kuala Lumpur is rent. The cost of this is on par with some nice but smaller cities in the U.S. For a 1 bedroom apartment you’re looking at around $650 per month plus utilities from our experience. This is only going up as more and more people are deciding to move here for business as they have decent paying jobs in the city for foreigners. For a 3 bedroom in the city center it’s going to be over $1,000 per month plus utilities. These can get really expensive if you want something modern and luxury and would cost upwards of $2,000 per month. We assume that you’re reading this all you would need is a 2 bedroom at most because let’s face it, our readers aren’t exactly taking their families there.
The cost of utilities here is really cheap as it is in most places in SEA. You’re looking at around $60 per month if you’re using the air conditioner a lot and trust us, you will need to. Internet here is great with decent speeds and connectivity but you’re going to pay a normal Western price for it. 10mbps internet is going to be $45 per month.
Here’s where you’re going to save some money. Transportation is quite cheap as you can just hop a cheap local motorbike or taxi and they will take you anywhere in the city for less than $1. Another place that you’re going to save is on food. Meals here are amazing and cheap. For local food it’s going to be less than $2 for a whole Asian style meal. Where the price can start getting high on food is when you start buying Western food. It’s still cheaper than in the West for the most part, depending on what you like, but it’s generally going to be $10 or less for a regular Western style meal.
Like to workout? If your apartment doesn’t have a gym then you’re going to be paying $45 per month at a place which is quite cheap depending on where you’re from. If you’re from a bigger city somewhere than this is really cheap. Like going to the theater to watch new movies or taking girls out on dates? This is going to be fairly cheap as well coming in around $4 per ticket and they definitely have English speaking theaters that show movies in your native language!
If you’re a beer or alcohol drinker than we have bad news for you. You should probably put your habbit down here. This was hard for me for sure but there’s a big conflicting issue with my budget here because one domestic beer is almost $3 and imported beer is almost $4! You do the math here and think about how many it takes you to get drunk. If you’re anything like me then it’s going to be close to 10 beers which would come in for $30 on one night out just having a few beers.
If you’re planning on buying a car then don’t! For $40,000 you can get a new entry level car with no bells and whistles. If you decide to get something halfway decent you’re looking at $80,000 plus because of their import taxes. You’re much better off taking public transport here even though it can be a little frustrating at times. It’s definitely worth saving the $10,000 per year.
So our overall thoughts on the cost of living in Malaysia is that you can do it for $1,500 per month pretty comfortably but your money will go much further in places like Thailand and the Philippines and they are much better destinations for finding hot girls that are willing to date foreigners. End result – only live here for the experience of saying you lived in Malaysia and check out the culture. Don’t do it to be extra cheap and find a girlfriend!