KL is also polluted and very dirty. I couldn't recommend it to someone used to clean air and clean streets.

Can try outskirts of KL such as Petaling Jaya / Bangsar / Damansara. Decent tech talent here. Decent number of tech meetups. English-speaking people in general.

Honestly, KL/Klang Valley is such a gem, cost of living is super low for USD folks. Met many Americans who work on their startup/product here. Your runway extends by 4x thanks to currency exchange.

A huge number of co-working spaces around. Gyms too.

He said he's from the Bay area so I doubt he's used to clean air and clean streets. :)

also the internet in MY is very slow an unreliable.

edit: fix abbr

Really, I live here and we have speeds up to 30Mbps/100Mbps/1Gbps. 3/4G is quite reliable too.

ML is Mali, Malaysia is MY.

I’m there a few times / year and never had a problem. Maybe if you rely on some coffee shops WiFi it could be a problem but that’s a general problem. Internet is really cheap too if you get a SIM card.

It's a lot more variable than surrounding countries in that you're more chance of winning the lottery than finding a coffee shop / restaurant / bar with usable internet, or working government sponsored free internet but 4G sim cards and coworking spaces, and chain hotels, it works well.

Plenty of co-working and reasonable hotels around Cyberjaya, good food, fast internet, it is a bit boring though for SE Asia.

The nice thing about KL is that it's the home base for Air Asia, so there are dirt-cheap flights to anywhere in Asia, most of which (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, southern China) can be reached in under 4 hours by plane.

Two downsides: * Non-English speakers. * High housing prices.

There are downsides to KL, but in my opinion its not either of those.

House prices - Not according to https://www.propertyguru.com.my, I looked up Cyberjaya as an example (~15mins on train to KL sentral) and freehold $120,000usd for a 4bedroom/2bathroom place, 1 bedroom condo for much less. That would buy you half a car parking place in Hong Kong (on leasehold no less). Regardless you'd just rent anyway, at least for first few years, $300-$400pm for a nice serviced condo with pool/gym. No point buying unless you eventually get a permanent residence.

English language - I never had a problem with English in KL or Penang or even Alor Setar, except maybe one of the old roadside tea vendors, but that's probably my northern accent. It might not be Singapore or HKG level but it aint significantly off.

This is very true, although KLIA2 is often a disgrace for queues, I suffer the hit to wallet to fly out of KLIA/KLIA1 usually.

I visit family in KL and am interested in tech hotspots. However, the city seems quite normal - is Cyberjaya where most of the action is?

Honestly, not really IMO. Most of the action is in KL/PJ.

Cyberjaya is like the upcoming tech scene of KL imo. It has a growing number co-working spaces, plenty of decent accommodation for low prices, hosts many of big data centers including IBM, doesn't suffer from the traffic issues of the center, parks and greenery, air feels clean, is 15minutes from airport or 15mintues to KL sentral via the train etc.. I usually stay Citadines at DPulze which puts you pretty central and above a shopping centre, it's quite sparse so you'll need to GrabTaxi to different co-working places etc... If by action you mean nightlife it's meh, there a little pretend irish pub where locals smoke inside and few other sterile hiso venues, better hit Bukit Bintang if you need a beer or three (happy hour trend is 3x for some odd reason).