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Just returned from two months in Thailand/Malaysia and while I'm no expert by any means I thought I'd share a few random thoughts on Malaysia that would've helped me before I went as there isn't quite the same wealth of information that there is on Thailand: Expect to pay anywhere from 15-50MYR for a basic, fan room with a shared bathroom. Dorms are a bit cheaper. I didn't find the prices to be as consistent from place to place as Thailand, in KL I was paying about 40MYR for a lovely little room with no windows but then when I went to Pangkor I was paying about the same for a decked out room with TV, aircon and attached bathroom. Admittedly, I never really shopped around that much but there did seem to be quite a bit of variation. Food in Malaysia is great, Malaysia is home to Malays, Chinese Malays and Indian Malays so there's always a great selection of food to eat. Roti Canai was one of my favourite starts to a day and would usually only cost under 1MYR. If you're a fan of Indonesian food, Malay food is really similar. I would probably budget 15-25MYR a day for food but you could eat well for much less if you really wanted to. Malaysia has good infrastructure in terms of highways and roads so everyone seems to travel around in buses which I found to be of really good standard (expect air-con, and pretty nice seats). It's usually as easy as going to a bus station and asking a person selling tickets for a particular company when the next bus is. There are long distance trains available as well but from what I heard from locals they're more expensive and take longer. As far as language goes, most Malays can speak English really well. In fact I spoke to a few Malay-Malays that were a bit frustrated with the Chinese Malays because their English was far better than their Malay (I think a lot choose to speak English as a first language). In terms of tourist infrastructure though, Malaysia seemed to have a lot less than Thailand and while 99% of the tourists in Thailand are international, Malaysia has a fair bit of domestic tourism. Where in touristy places in Thailand I'd be chatted up by touts trying to sell me stuff in Malaysia I was left virtually alone. Don't get me wrong though, whenever I asked a Malay person for help they were really helpful but I still found it hard to find out where there are places to stay a few times just because noone really knew - which, in my opinion, is in contrast to Thailand where I always had the comfort of just falling back on the 'banana pancake trail' if I needed to. That said, Malaysia is still really easy to travel around but just expect to do a little research before going somewhere new. I found it a lot easier to wing it in Thailand. I think a good way to sum up the differences would be to say that Thailand is a lot more in your face - the Thais seem a lot more tourism minded and for example if they find somewhere popular with westerners they'll have multiple places offer tours whereas Malaysia you kinda have to dig around to find stuff. I'm not saying that there aren't hidden treasures in Thailand as well (there are!) but in Malaysia you often have no choice but to look yourself. It can be hard but it's really rewarding. Will add more later if I think of anything. Also, maybe a section on packing and what to bring would be good? From advice I got here I went over with about 3 tshirts, 2 pairs of shorts, a few pairs of undies, a pair of shoes and a pair of thongs ('flip flops' you sickos) in a carryon bag and I was fine. In hindsight I probably could've gone without the shoes but oh well. I ended up just buying everything as I needed it, a few times all my shirts stank and I couldn't find somewhere to wash them so I just bought a new shirt. I guess it it cost me a bit more in the end but being able to travel around with a bag that was probably only 3 or 4KG was great, I would really recommend it - don't forget that just about everything avaliable in your home country is avaliable overseas and that laundry services are rife through most of the touristy places in SE Asia. The only thing I regretted not bringing over from home was sunscreen and mosquito repellent - they both seem to be relatively expensive over there as I'm pretty sure it all gets imported just for tourists. Weatherproof fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jan 30, 2010 |
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Jan 30, 2010 23:39
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 13:51 |
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