Not sure how it flew under the radar for me, for so long, but it's just awesome.

Positives

• Friendly people
• Cheap, amazing food. varied price points.
• Great infrastructure
• Diverse: lots of western retirees, Indian, Chinese, & native Malay loads of Koreans
• Parks dedicated walking areas (walking itself isn't feasible as a mode of transportation)
• 80% of people speak English to some degree
• Cheap flights, criminally cheap Grab/Taxi
• Maybe the best visa situation in SEA for westerners
• High-quality, affordable housing
• Safe & Clean
• No obvious creepy sex tourism/trafficking (looking at you Thailand/Vietnam)
• Tourist friendly, but not tourist-centric. No overcharging/scams/targeting. You're just another resident of Kuala Lumpur when you're here.
• USD -> Ringgit exchange is very favorable. & their currency is beautiful to look at.

Negatives

• Weather isn't great
• Car-Centric & really, really bad traffic
• Drinking culture doesn't look great, drug culture non-existent

We had intended to come here for 1-2 weeks, then back to Thailand, but our family loves it and are planning to do another month in KL then on to Penang.

In our research, it got a really bad rap as boring/racist/Islamic/expensive/conservative/etc. I can't attest to how friendly it might be to LGBT or how racism may affect some people, but our experience has just been fantastic:

• Everyone seems to mind their business and with the exception of Indian security guards (who can be overly serious), everyone is very friendly when engaged. We've seen and experienced zero restrictions in our clothing (wife wears sports bra yoga pants to gym/bikini to pool/tank tops shorts out & about).
• The Islamic thing is visible (halal/non-halal, the coverings, calls to prayer), but it's ignorable. Muslims seem quite friendly.
• We're on a bit of a health/fitness kick at the moment. The gym culture here is varied & great. Gyms everywhere, high-quality foods available, and supplement/health shops around. Lots of tennis courts.
• Lots of things to do: not only the normal big city stuff (museums, zoo, parks, markets, malls, tall buildings), but also cultural sites (Batu, mosques, temples, etc) theme parks nearby day trips (highlands) little India/little China.

Overall, just a wonderful place that I initially only regarded as a quick stop before heading back to Thailand.

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