Check out how much stuff I did in Malaysia! And I haven't even been to the Borneo bits yet.
I wanted to finish on a deliberate anticlimax by recounting my trip to Subang Jaya to experience Malaysia' tallest pencil (formerly the world's, but it doesn't even have that going for it any more). But after walking around the city for hours and discovering that no one who lives there even knows about its existence, I left empty hearted.
Luckily, I went to Johor Bahru next, the gateway to Singapore, which turned out to be an even more effective anticlimax. As well as a reminder that, if somewhere is generally ignored by tourists and is objectively of no interest whatsoever (it doesn't even have any oversized stationery, that's how crap it is!), this should be taken as a hint rather than a challenge.
Is it Malayzing?
Malaysia is very nice, but didn't make quite the same impression as Thailand - probably because a lot of it's pretty much the same thing, and I'd already done it. Except there are fewer English gap year students, the islands are a bit nicer and the cities are a lot nicer (apart from the malodorous open sewers).
The food is good, but gets a bit samey after a while - especially out in the sticks, when you've exhausted all the potential varieties of fried rice and noodles. It's not very spicy though. Wi-Fi is pretty slow, but surprisingly available pretty much everywhere (even in the jungle and on remote islands). Prices are very cheap and seem to be on par with Thailand, even though people usually insist Malaysia is one of the more expensive Asian countries (it's really not).
What else would you like to know?... Whoops, this almost became a useful travel blog there for a second. Glad I nipped that in the bud.
Malaysia route map
Can you tell I make this stuff up as I go along? Luckily, interstate bus travel is so cheap that being illogically whimsical is never a problem.
A Penang/Georgetown
B Kuala Kangsar
C Ipoh
D Cameron Highlands
E Perhentian Islands
F Kota Bharu
G Kuala Lumpur
H Malacca
I Tioman Island
J Mersing
K Cherating
L Jerantut
M Taman Negara/Kuala Tahan
N Kuala Lipis
O Subang Jaya
P Johor Bahru
