Malaysia Travel: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I spent a total of almost seven weeks in Malaysia (yeah, it came as a surprise to me, too) and I miss it. A lot. It kind of crept up on me in a away I never expected and often left me surprised and intrigued by the people and places I found there. 

After the intensity of Hong Kong I wanted to relax somewhere for a few weeks and Malaysia just seemed to be the perfect fit, hence why I found myself calling Melaka, a small UNESCO city, my home for several of those seven weeks.

Now I have left I can look back on what were the highlights and the not-so-great elements about this diverse country and my period of Malaysia travel. And I have to tell you, I struggled to find much that was bad, as you will see…

The Good

The people

Malaysia houses a diverse mix of Indian, Malay and Chinese cultures and I cannot think of one occasion where I met someone who wasn’t willing to help, give directions or offer a smile. The fact that so many different cultures and religions live here seems to make it much more tolerant of travellers and their own customs.

The food

When you take two of my favourite Asian cuisines (Chinese and Indian) and throw some spicy Malay fare into the mix, I was never going to be disappointed. I also discovered some interesting and unusual dishes that became my favourites, such as Mexican coffee bread, nyonya laksa and every type of steamed bun (pau) imaginable.

The beaches

This one came as somewhat of a shock to me. I had heard of some of the islands and the claims that they had soft white sand and clear blue seas, but I did not expect to find much in the way of a good beach until I reached Thailand. I could not have been more wrong. The beaches in parts of Malaysia, particularly in the Perhentian Islands, were some of the cleanest and prettiest I have ever seen, with water so clear you could see your own feet (hey, the closest beach to where I grew up was Blackpool – if you are from England you’ll understand why this is such a novel concept).

Underestimation of time

This is a funny one, but deserves a mention nonetheless. Everywhere I have visited before Malaysia on this trip, I have been given conflicting information on the distance it takes to travel somewhere. In Fiji, for example, the locals would often tell me that the main road was only a ten minute walk away, and yet an hour later I would still be walking.
In Malaysia it was the exact opposite. I would buy a bus ticket and ask how long the journey would take, only to be informed by the lady behind the counter that it was four hours in duration. Two hours later, I would arrive at my destination. If I was told something was a twenty minute walk away, I would often shave off five or ten minutes to calculate the exact time it would take me. I don’t know whether the Malaysians do this to surprise you or whether they walk and drive slowly, but either way it was a refreshing change from all the times I had turned up somewhere late in other countries.

The Bad

The price of alcohol

This is a real kicker for backpackers. Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, meaning that most people who live there don’t drink, hence the high cost of alcohol for those who do. It is not unusual to pay around $3-5 for a can of beer (not even a big one) which is so far removed from most of the rest of Asia it is shocking. The only exception to this is the Chinese population who live in the country – they do drink alcohol and so if you can find a Chinese supermarket you will usually pay much lower prices than elsewhere.

In the whole seven weeks I was in Malaysia I can count on two hands the number of times I had alcohol, as it was such a dent in my budget.

The sweating

This is a pretty standard one for most of SE Asia, but Malaysia itself is humid. Sometimes ridiculously so. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t set off to grab lunch without returning to my room dripping in sweat (sorry for the visual). This is also where good air con can come in handy, but it does take a few days of adjusting to the heat when you first arrive in the country to accomplish anything worthwhile with your time.

3-in-1s

The Italians can breathe a sigh of relief – Malaysia won’t be stealing their coffee crown any time soon. When you are hot and in need of a cold drink, iced white coffee is a great treat, but it is pretty unhealthy due to the amount of condensed milk used to make it. If you are looking for a hot cup of char, then the best you can find are sachets proclaiming to be “3-in-1” i.e. coffee powder, sugar and dried milk powder all in one. This would be great if I took sugar in my coffee and liked it weak and sweet. But unfortunately for me this is where the country lost points, especially in a morning when I like a good hot brew.

The Ugly

The insistence on cooking everything in a “steamboat” or vat of sauce

Never before had I ever even heard the term “steamboat” in reference to a method of cooking. After I left Malaysia it had become something of a regular joke every time I saw one. A steamboat refers to a vat of boiling hot water (or sometimes satay sauce or oil) into which you dip sticks of fish, meat, veggies….pretty much anything. You leave it in the vat for around thirty seconds and voila! You have boiled fish, meat or veggies. Not my style, especially when I noticed that some of the “fish” was the cheap crab sticks you can buy in packs at the supermarket, but hey, the Malaysians seem to go crazy for them.

Cold baked beans

The cardinal sin: cold baked beans on a cooked breakfast. I didn’t often eat a Western breakfast whilst in Malaysia but every time I did, they would insist on complementing it with a small bowl of cold baked beans. I could never understand whether they thought they should be served that way or whether they assumed that that is how Westerners like to eat them, but either way, it was just plain wrong.

Other Malaysia Posts: 

How To Drink At Sky Bar In Kuala Lumpur  On A Budget

Riding Rickshaw in Melaka

Melaka’s Graffiti Street Art

The Time A Ladyboy Cut My Hair

A Mini Guide To Perhentian Kecil Island

The Monkeys of Batu Caves