The Rollercoaster Monorail in KL

We’ve been in KL for a little while now, and we still haven’t been on the monorail yet. Well, that is about to change today, as we are taking the monorail from Hang Tuah, which is close to the Lalaport shopping mall, to KL Sentral. KL Sentral is the main train station for Kuala Lumpur, and a lot of lines transit to this station, including the lines that go to the airport. However, we are going there a) to experience the monorail and b) to check out the mall there called Nu Sentral.

The Kuala Lumpur Monorail Line (KL Monorail, Line 8) is the only operational monorail system in Malaysia. It is an 8.6km, 11-station elevated rapid transit system connecting KL Sentral to Titiwangsa via the Bukit Bintang "Golden Triangle". Operated as part of the Rapid KL system by Rapid Rail, it is one of the components of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System. The line is numbered 8 and coloured light green on official transit maps. It was officially opened to the public on 31 August 2003 (Malaysia's National Day) and was designed to alleviate traffic congestion and improve public transit in the city centre. It operates daily from 6:00 AM to 11:30 PM.

The monorail system was explicitly designed for the "Golden Triangle" area (Bukit Bintang, Imbi, Hang Tuah), often following the median of main roads. Due to the dense, built-up nature of the city, the elevated, precast concrete guideway was designed to snake around buildings, resulting in a very curvy, "snaky" route with sharp turns, particularly in the city centre. The minimum curve radius on the main line is 70 meters, which contributes to the sharp, winding, and sometimes "twisty" feel of the ride. While designed for a maximum of 80 km/h, the tight, complex, and curvy nature of the route, especially in the city centre, means the train operates at moderate speeds. The line is noted for its sharp turns and elevated, winding, and sometimes "snaky" route.

Now I don’t normally have any issues with being elevated, and the journey going out to the mall was fine. However, I did not enjoy the return journey at all as a) the train felt like it was travelling faster than the previous one and b) the bends felt more severe and noticeable. When I say bends, it wasn’t just a wee snakey deviation; no, the train actually tilted on its side as it moved along the track and around the bends. So, you need to imagine being tilted in one direction and then the whole carriage tilting in the opposite direction when it hits the next bend. The trains are about four carriages long, and these weren’t too busy at the times we were using them (thank goodness!), but I could not help but think that I definitely would not want to be on one of these at peak rush hour or if they were loaded with people – I just kept imagining the train having the potential to tip right over the elevated platform onto the street! Of course, his nibs, who is the one that has a fear of heights, for some reason did not seem to be bothered in the slightest – in fact, he appeared to take great delight in seeing my discomfort and advising me of each ‘big bend’ coming up!

Now don’t get me wrong, on the straight bits – it was good to observe various landmarks and sights, and I’m sure it is less bendy for most of the route, but I think we experienced most of the bendy bits on our short journey.

Nu Sentral is yet another shopping mall in KL. It’s a large mall right beside the train station, so it’s quite busy with people. That said, there was a good choice of restaurants and shops, and we didn’t find it too busy as the main lunchtime rush was almost over by the time we got there. The layout was similar to a lot of other malls, and we did our usual of heading up to the top and working our way down the levels, stopping off at any shops that sparked our interest and checking out the various eateries for somewhere to have lunch. Spoiler alert – we ended up in McDonalds which is not what we had anticipated! Some of the restaurants were a little pricey for what we were looking for, and although there was a Korean place that looked good (as the queue was long for this one), we both weren’t that hungry at this stage, so in the end, McD's was fine for what we needed.

After spending our afternoon in the mall, we made our way back to the station to get the monorail back home. Of course, little did I know at this point that the return monorail journey was going to feel like a blinking roller coaster!

At least we did have one consolation with this trip, the exit from the Hang Tuah train station allowed us to exit quickly on the right side of the road we needed for heading home, and we could use the down escalator instead of the steep and numerous stairs (which you need to use going up to the station). As I think I have mentioned previously, it is sometimes a real pain to get from one side of a road to another, and you often need to walk quite a bit before you find a suitable crossing bridge. That’s not usually a problem for us, when the weather is ‘normal’, but the climate in KL is hard going as it never seems to cool down much, which is why the malls are so useful for us.

Today's route:

Day 71: 3 February 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia