Malaysia Summary

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Overall Malaysia was full of nice people, we only got ripped off a couple times (and only by a little bit). They don't have a lot of sites to see, which is probably why we didn't see as many tourists there. Another reason you don't see a lot of tourists and sites is that so much of the country is covered in palm oil trees, trash, typical water pollution. Also, the sidewalks are a bit dangerous at times...grates seemed to be ready to collapse underfoot at any moment and many already had, leaving a gaping hole in the walkway. I think there are more motorbikes than cars, although from what we hear, this is true all over southeast Asia. The food was good but there wasn't a lot of variety; we always leaned toward the indian food, especially the delicious Roti! Anything with fish in it was really fishy tasting and not palatable to most westerners. The coffee & tea were yummy, as was the chocolate milk (aka Milo), a staple in Malaysia. Some of the oddities we saw included tires lying on roofs of houses, a lot of dried fruit with chili flavor on it, a lot of dried squid, fish, and everything (much of it unidentifiable and all of it stinky), and lots of large, abandoned buildings everywhere. Some of the ways we kept in touch with our western roots is by frequenting KFC, 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, getting A/C in our room (although we've now been weened off the energy sucking savior after going to islands where it's really expensive for A/C). The motorcycles/scooters rule the road and seem to have their own rules (or lack thereof), riding in between cars, on sidewalks and walkways, and probably stairways, although we never saw that. We did see one in the nature reserve though, where supposedly they are not allowed. Trevor was really dumbfounded by some of the plumbing techniques, water sources, gray water, black water, disposal methods, and a total disregard for sanitary precautions. Apparently they haven't adopted a uniform plumbing code here! Maybe someday, hopefully.

A lot of people spoke english, which was helpful. Sad to see so much pollution. Overall, a nice place to visit but we were eager to move on to Thailand for some different food and to see another country.

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