Enjoying SkyBar Kuala Lumpur On A Budget

It’s the eternal dilemma: you want to go to a swanky bar with great views and have a few drinks, but the travel budget just won’t cut it. What do you do? You nurse the cheapest drink on the menu and admire the views with the best of them, that’s what!

Welcome to SkyBar Kuala Lumpur, on the 33rd floor of the Traders Hotel.

When Scott and I travel, particularly to big international cities, we like nothing better than to hunt out cool bars, particularly if they are rooftop bars or have a great view. Unfortunately, despite all of our research it seemed we couldn’t have both in Kuala Lumpur; we either had to take a rooftop bar with no view or an indoor bar with a fabulous one. We opted for the latter.

We spoke to the guy who worked on the front desk at our hostel and he agreed that of all the famous Kuala Lumpur bars, Sky Bar was definitely one of the best, partly because of the atmosphere and partly because of the view. He also suggested that because it is so expensive that we should have a few drinks at the hostel before we went (like we needed any persuasion!) and that we should put on our best clothes as there is a dress code (not a strict one, we discovered, as some girls had denim shorts on and some men wore t-shirts and shorts, although they had clearly been there since the daytime). So it was time to dig out one of the only outfits I possess in my backpack that I keep for “best” i.e. it hadn’t been sweated in and could actually pass as a smart evening outfit despite lack of an iron.

When we got there, we were quite surprised by the layout of the bar. When you see photos of it on the internet, you would expect that the whole bar has views of the mighty Petronas Towers and that the majority of the roof of the bar is glass. This actually is not the case. Only one side of the bar has views of the Towers, along which are a row of cushioned booths which you must put your name down on a waiting list to be able to sit in. The rest of the bar has no real view of the Petronas Towers at all.

We got there just around sunset, put our name down on the list for one of the booths and took one of the cheap seats across the pool. Then we looked at the drinks menu, gulped and sweated a little at the prices and both ordered a glass of wine. Having not drunk wine since our stint in New Zealand however, our plans of nursing just one glass quickly went out of the window as we were enjoying the taste too much (wine is very expensive in Malaysia, so we have only been drinking beer or cheap vodka). Forty minutes passed and we still had not been called to take up one of the booths that were now sat as empty as our glasses. Just as we were about to crumble under the pressure and order another drink to pass the time, the maitre d came over and told us we could take our window seat.

Once you have one of these prime real estate seats, however, be warned that you will have to order at least one drink each – servers are regularly coming around to check on you and they also expect a tip when you come to settle the bill.

We both ordered another glass of wine each and took as many photos as we could without making ridiculous fools of ourselves. Then we paid up and scurried out of there as fast as we could before we got so drunk that we ended up running up a ridiculous bill in the spirit of “having a good time”.

As we left, another couple of obvious backpackers passed us (they were distinguishable by their breathable travel trousers and slightly crumpled shirts) and took their place in the cheap seats. I did feel slightly sorry for them, as one glance at the waiting list suggested that there were around twenty people in front of them, meaning they would have to make their one drink last an awfully long time.

The things we have to do to enjoy luxury on a budget. Sigh.