The people of Malaysia were incredibly kind. They were always tripping over themselves to help us. They treated us very well and were happy to see tourists. This certainly made our time more enjoyable. Oh and by the way, many people spoke excellent English.

However, overall we did not enjoy our time in peninsular Malaysia. We found the sights were not impressive and not well maintained. The cities were dirty- which we never saw in Thailand. Homeless people with various afflictions are everywhere. Sanitation is often very poor. Now, when we finally make our way to China or India, this is what we expect to see – but there’s no Great Wall or Taj Mahal in Malaysia [turns out India was WAY worse, China much cleaner!]. There’s only the Petronas Twin Towers.

Our visit to Borneo (Sabah) we very much enjoyed, although we didn’t really see anything more than the orangutan sanctuary we visited. 

Budget accommodation was a huge step down from what we got in Thailand. We were glad to have the Lonely Planet to find some more expensive hotels – the budget hotels were below our minimum standard (clean room, private, quiet, safe, and hopefully a private bathroom).

Public transportation is well organized. We only took one inter-city bus, but local buses were good. Sabah seems almost impossible to get around without flying due to the condition of the roads.