Malaysia Tour Packages from Nepal

Three nights is enough for Kuala Lumpur with a day at Batu Caves and Genting Highlands, and because the flight from Kathmandu is direct, that fits into four days of leave. Four nights adds a day in Malacca, two hours to the south, or a theme park day for a family. Everything on those trips is a day out from one hotel.

Langkawi and Penang are each about an hour from Kuala Lumpur by air, which takes half a day with the transfers. Five nights is the least that makes a second place worth it: two nights in Kuala Lumpur and three on Langkawi, or three in Kuala Lumpur and two in Penang. Seven nights covers all three. A trip that goes on to Singapore needs five nights or more, because the coach between the two cities takes most of a day.

Nepal is on the Immigration Department of Malaysia's list of countries whose citizens need a visa, and for a holiday that visa is the eVISA. You apply for it yourself, or we do it for you, on the department's eVISA portal. There is no interview and no passport to hand in. It must be approved before you fly, because the airline checks for it at the counter in Kathmandu.

The fee for a Nepali passport is RM 125, about NPR 4,750: a visa fee of RM 20 and a processing fee of RM 105, the amounts listed by the Embassy of Malaysia in Kathmandu. The portal adds a small charge for paying by card, and no payment is refunded if the visa is refused. The fee is charged in ringgit, so it needs a dollar card.

The embassy asks for a studio photo on a white background, the passport's data page, a confirmed return ticket, a hotel booking, and proof of money, which is either the record of at least USD 500 bought from a bank or your recent bank statements. The passport must be valid for more than six months from the day you travel. A child's application also needs a birth certificate, with an English translation if it is in Nepali.

The portal gives its decision in two to seven working days and asks you to apply at least 14 days before you travel. The visa is for one entry. The dates it is valid for are printed on it, so check them as soon as it arrives, along with the spelling of your name and your passport number.

Every foreign visitor also fills in the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card within the three days before arriving. It asks for your passport number, your flight, and the address of your first hotel. It is separate from the visa, and a Nepali traveller needs both.

Only one address is official for the visa, malaysiavisa.imi.gov.my, and the portal says so itself. Search results are full of look-alike sites that charge several times the government fee for the same visa, or charge for the arrival card. If the address does not end in imi.gov.my, you are not on the Immigration Department's site.

Kathmandu has non-stop flights to Kuala Lumpur, which take a little under five hours. Langkawi and Penang have no flight from Nepal; you change in Kuala Lumpur for a flight of about an hour, and we book that flight to match your arrival. Fares from Kathmandu rise sharply around Dashain and Tihar, so book early for those weeks.

Before you leave Nepal, immigration at Tribhuvan airport checks that a traveller on a visit visa is a tourist. The airport immigration office lists what it asks for: your passport and visa, a two-way ticket, a hotel booking, and USD 500 or its equivalent with the stamp of the bank that sold it. Carry all four in your hand luggage. We give you printed copies of the bookings with your tickets.

Malaysia's eVISA lets a Nepali passport enter once, and it is used up when you leave the country. A second entry means a second application and a second RM 125. So a trip with Singapore has to run in one direction: fly into Kuala Lumpur and home from Singapore, or the other way round. A route that returns to Kuala Lumpur for the flight home needs two Malaysian visas.

Singapore itself is simpler. Nepal is not on Singapore's list of countries whose citizens need an entry visa, so there is nothing to apply for before a short visit. You submit the free SG Arrival Card within the three days before you arrive, and the officer at the border decides how long you may stay. Book the flight home from Singapore on a route that does not pass back through Kuala Lumpur.

Take US dollars and change them in Malaysia. A bank in Nepal sells you dollars against your passport, ticket and visa, and its record of the exchange is the proof of money that both the visa application and Tribhuvan immigration ask for. Our guide to how much dollar you can carry from Nepal explains what the bank needs to see. Licensed money changers in Kuala Lumpur's malls give better rates than the airport counters.

Nepal Rastra Bank's exchange rate list puts one ringgit at about NPR 38, so RM 100 is roughly NPR 3,800. Hotels, malls and larger restaurants take cards. Food stalls, markets, small shops and boat jetties take cash. Restaurant bills often add a 10 percent service charge and 6 percent tax to the menu price, and tipping beyond that is not expected.

One charge is collected on the spot. Hotels take Malaysia's tourism tax of RM 10 per room per night from foreign guests at check-in, about NPR 380, charged for the room and not for each person. It is not in any package price, ours included, because the hotel has to collect it from the guest.

Distances from Kuala Lumpur are short. The airport is about an hour from the city centre by road. Batu Caves is half an hour north, Genting Highlands about an hour, Malacca about two hours, and the Cameron Highlands about four. Langkawi and Penang are each about an hour by air. Between Penang and Langkawi we fly, about 35 minutes, because the direct ferry no longer runs.

Several sights close one day a week, and we plan around them. The Petronas Twin Towers do not take visitors on Mondays. The Genting SkyWorlds theme park and Sunway Lagoon close on Tuesdays outside Malaysian school holidays. The Putra Mosque in Putrajaya opens to visitors on Fridays only in the late afternoon. The cable cars at Genting and Langkawi each close for a few days of maintenance during the year, and the Langkawi one stops in strong wind.

Batu Caves, mosques and temples ask you to cover your shoulders and knees, and mosques lend robes at the gate. Batu Caves has 272 steps and many monkeys, so keep food and loose things in a closed bag. Malaysia's sockets take the three-pin British plug, which Nepali chargers do not fit, so bring an adapter. Grab is the app for taxis in every city and on Langkawi, where there are no public buses.

The law is strict in two matters. Malaysia's customs department prohibits bringing in any drugs, and the penalties are among the heaviest in the world. And the eVISA is a visit visa: it does not allow any work, paid or unpaid.

The emergency number in Malaysia is 999, for police and ambulance. Hotels have an English-speaking person on duty, and your first call for a problem on tour is our WhatsApp number, which we answer around the clock while you are away.

For a lost passport or anything else that needs your own government, the Embassy of Nepal in Kuala Lumpur is at Wisma Paradise, 63 Jalan Ampang. Save its number before you fly, along with ours, and keep a photo of your passport and eVISA on your phone.