Final Thoughts On Malaysia

I had no plans to come to Malaysia on this trip, and when I did decide to, it was completely last minute and only supposed to be for a couple of days. This somehow ended up turning into four and a half weeks which is partly a testament as to what a nice country Malaysia is to visit, but also due to the fact I meant such a good gang of other travellers at the start in Kuching who I spent the following month travelling with. 

Such a last minute change of plan might seem very unplanned but that's half fun of travelling - the spontaneity that isn't possible in 'real life', the fact that you're free to go wherever the mood takes you. It's good to have a rough plan, but even better to screw the plan up and go the other way.

The Borneo gang in Mulu National Park

I'd spent a couple of days in mainland Malaysia five years ago so knew roughly what to expect, but my time here surpassed those expectations by a long way. It's a nice country with nice people, good infrastructure, interesting sights, and a level of order you wouldn't expect in what is still classed as a developing country (though not for too much longer realistically). It was a refreshing contrast from my travels in India beforehand, in particular the lack of rubbish, conmen and noise, but ironically despite this, India is still in my mind the country I'd recommend first as a travel destination - it's just so interesting and different. The crazy encounters I had there on a daily basis just don't happen in Malaysia, and despite it making travel here a little more boring, is defiantly a good thing for the people who inhabit that land.

Malaysia is calm, mostly clean, and well developed, though in rural areas there are clearly still a lot of poor people living simple lives, and I say that without really getting that far off the beaten track to see real rural life.

British influence 

The British colonial influence is very obvious in many places, and English is commonly spoken to a good standard as a second (sometimes first) language by many people. As ever, I question what colonial-era Britain did to countries around the world, but from what I understand in Malaysia is was generally good, and helped it develop to what it is today. Certainly you only hear people say good things of Britain, and their love of English Premiership football is bigger that any foreign country I've visited - all over the country you see people are wearing club shirts, driving round with stickers on their cars, and see people watching the game in outside cafés.

Food

These outside cafés are everywhere, and very popular among locals for a cheap meal. The food is part native, part Chinese and whilst I've found it to be nice enough, it can eventually get a bit boring and repetitive - I much preferred Indian food (see, there into again). Despite the seemingly endless combinations of rice or noodles served dry or in soup, beef or chicken, this veg or that veg, this sauce or that sauce... it all seems a bit samey - it makes me realise just how varied our diet is at home these days. That said, I had some excellent stuffed rotis - an bread freshly cooked and stuffed with whatever you fancy, had some great fried chicken and fish, and loved the fact that Chinese Bau - stuffed steamed breads are available everywhere as a snack.

Kota Kinabalu

People

The population is a mixture of native Malays who are the most dominant, as well as Chinese and Indians who have emigrated over hundreds of years, and I found them all to be really nice people - friendly, helpful, and always willing to help. At no point did I get annoyed or insulted, irritated or conned by anyone I met, and I felt safe the whole time in Malaysia. Because it's a Muslim country, most women wear headscarves but I never got the impression that the women were treated unequally, or in an inferior way. Whereas in India the woman are often shy and seem locked-away in traditional roles, Malaysian women are very smiley, chatty and helpful

Travel

The country is set up well for tourists, sometimes too well which means things occasionally feel a bit restrictive or over-tourist as a backpacker, though I guess straightforward for a holidaymaker. It's not mega cheap to travel compared to many other Asian countries, beer and supermarket food both being comparable in cost to the UK, but relatively speaking is still good value except for some of the more touristy things targeted at Westerners. Dorm beds were generally £4-6, a meal in a food court £1-2.50 dependant on size, a small beer 50p to £1. If you're driving though, fuel is bargain basement at 40p per litre for diesel, and just a little more for petrol!

Because of Borneo's huge rivers and sparse population, there's not too many roads on the island, and sometimes it was cheaper and easier to take a ferry from town to town along the coast. Buses however were amazingly good quality, and great value at something like £6 for a 4 hr journey.

Group travel

Travelling as a group of four has proved to be a great experience. It was very fortunate that the four of us arrived in the right place (Kuching), at the right time, with similar outlooks on life, levels of energy, and places to visit in mind. The long narrow shape of Malaysian Borneo naturally means people follow a similar path unlike in India where backpackers were often going in many different directions, if you met them at all.

I've always said in the past that four people is too much to travel together and I still believe that for longer term travel, but for a month it worked out perfectly well. We were different enough to make things interesting and learn from each other, but not different enough that there were clashes of personality. Tof was by far the most laid back and generally followed what the others wanted to do, but it was impossible to think any less of him for this since he was such a funny, likeable and pleasant guy. Max, the youngest of the group at 21 was a clever guy who'd done a lot in his tender years, and a typical German with destinations read up on, a plan usually in mind, and a phone close to hand to enquire or book things. Occasionally I found this a little too full on, but overall I appreciated it as it was great to not have to organise everything myself for once and he was always democratic with it. Rene just floated along the whole time - he always knew something about everything and had things in mind, and when he wasn't fifty metres ahead of everyone, he was fifty metres behind taking a picture of something, or maybe just asleep upside down somewhere, another great guy to hang around with.

My only beef with travelling as four has nothing to do with these great people, but the fact that with any four people on such a trip you move at the pace of the slowest person, instead of one shop to stop in you have four, instead of one destination in mind - four. It's harder to be alone if you fancy a bit of space, the fact that you don't think for yourself as much means you sometimes miss out on seeing certain things, and you don't get to meet locals in the same way you do on your own. Such things have been documented time and time again, just like the pros and cons of travelling on your own (which breeds real independence) or as a pair (where you can share planning, problems and fun). That said, I feel fortunate that for a month these things never became pressing issues as they could have, and that we had such a good laugh together - the pro's outweighed the cons for sure.

Diving on Mabul island

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THE MALAYSIA AWARDS

Just like at the end of India, I thought I'd again pick out the highlights and lowlights of my time in Malaysia, which goes to prove how different the two countries are since this list is tiny in comparison!

Best Experiences

Winner: Hiking Mt Mulu - the three day trip up the 2,300m mountain was tough, fun, challenging and rewarding in equal amounts.

Runners up: adventure caving at Mulu National Park, seeing the worlds biggest cave at Mulu National Park, DIY rafting at Mulu National Park, watching late night street racing in KK, night nature walk at Lupa Masa Jungle Camp.

Worst Experiences

Winner: sleeping in open huts on the Mt Mulu hike

Runners up: sleeping on the floor of a bus, being awoken to see an armed Policeman in front of me.

Favourite places

Winner: Mulu National Park - only accessible by plane, and full of wonder and adventure

Runners up: Kuching, Lupa Masa Jungle Camp

Worst Place Visited

Winner: Semporna - we only passed through for an hour or so, but what a smelly dive

Runners up: Tawau

Best accommodation 

Winner: Dillenia Guest House, Miri - modern, good facilities, great owner

Worst Accommodation

Winner: Camp 3, Mulu National Park - a cold, bare floored, open sided hut 1,300m up a mountain

Runner up: D'Cave, Mulu National Park - a lashed up, large open-door dorm room which was noisy. Amazing views though!

Most Shocking Moments 

Seeing live chickens wrapped in newspaper for sale in a market, Sibu

Seeing live tiger prawns being sold in plastic coke bottles, Tawau

Waking up to see an armed Policeman stood in front of me on a bus, Lahad Datu

Best things about the country

Tropical rainforest everywhere

Huge meandering rivers

Huge caves

How developed it has become

How laid back it feels

The people

Worst things about the country 

Deforestation

Palm oil plantations

Rubbish in some smaller towns

Samey food

Things I expected but didn't see:

Wild Orangutangs - only saw them in a sanctuary

Other wild mammals - I expected to see more in the wild

Things I saw that I didn't expect:

The huge variety of exotic looking insects

A pit viper sleeping in a tree, Lupa Masa

Poor people in basic wood huts, Mabul Island