We decided to spend a night in Had Yai to break up the return journey but I'll post that in a separate thread as this one is on Malaysia.
General observations and comparisons to Thailand
When reading these (my own observations) bear in mind that we went to two heavily touristic islands which are probably not representative of the rest of Malaysia.
The People
The two islands visited are more Chinese and Indian than Malay so you get that hardened unsmiling business attitude from the Chinese and the pushy sales pitch from the Indians. It can get tiring at times which is why grabbing a bike and heading out into the country is a good escape and a good chance to meet genuinely friendly locals that are not involved in the extracting money from tourists. Everyone speaks a very good level of English and it is mostly the males that work whereas the opposite can be said in Thailand.
The Motoring
Driving in Malaysia is a pleasure and totally different to sharing the roads with the self-obsessed speed freaks in Thailand. Rules of the road are obeyed and it just generally feels safer, drivers dont blindly pull out on you or aggressively flash you out of the way as they do here. Gasoline is half the price at 20 baht per litre but taxis are offensively expensive as are scooter rentals. The public transport system, on Penang anyway, was excellent, they even have free tourist busses around the old town. There were very few police seen and no clandestine road blocks for tea money or fining tourists.
The Prices
It was always considered that Malaysia is more expensive than Thailand but I honestly cannot agree with this any longer. Balanced out costs are around the same, food and eating out prices are very similar, alcohol is double the price (aside from Langkawi where it is a quarter) but petrol is half. Accommodation prices are very similar as is property (comparing Penang to Hua Hin). High priced Malay tourist attractions are also similar considering it costs a foreigner 400 baht to get into a National Park in Thailand. Public transport costs are very similar and taxis are thieving bastards in both countries.
The Environment
Without a doubt Malaysia is cleaner – it doesn’t have the plastic generation throwing trash wherever they be. You don’t even get plastic bags in some stores and have to bring your own. The streets and general environment is a lot cleaner than in Thailand, maybe education or government initiatives are to thank for this. There are also no packs of feral dogs lurking down every street and the infrastructure in general seems to work a little better.
The Tourism
Both islands we visited were very touristy, just as much as Phuket and Samui I would imagine. Dual pricing is rife, as it is in Thailand. We also found that Chinese and Muslim managed hotels were far less service orientated than those in Thailand, it is definitely not the land of smiles. Visas are undeniably easier with 90 days free on arrival and there seemed to be a lot of long-termers, none of which had the visa woes and gripes you get here.
Eating and Drinking
Being a fan of Indian food and curries in general I found the choices in Malaysia better than Thailand. Mrs Buksi however disagreed with that claiming that it was nowhere near spicy enough for her fiery tastes. The local non-touristy Muslim places we ate in were clean, superb tasting, and very reasonably priced (curries and rice for four of us with soft drinks for around 200 baht). Drinking in Penang is horrendously expensive but on Langkawi it was a fraction of that in Thailand (beers in a restaurant at 30 baht) – all depends where you go. Malaysia does have a far greater selection of drinks though unlike Thailand which is monopolized by two brewing families and their chemical laced, hangover inducing lagers.
The Shopping
Convenience stores are all over the place and there are no stupid time restrictions on buying beer despite it being a Muslim country, you can even get a brew during the call to prayer. That said it was annoying to find most shops only open for about 30% of the time, probably due to some religious matter or other. Langkawi is a duty free shopper’s paradise; nothing like this exists in Thailand.
Would I live there?
Yes, but not in the tourist spots obviously, I preferred Lankgawi to Penang as it is more laid back and far cheaper. Being a walking wallet does grate on you after a while and I omitted this rant I wrote while having a bad road day:
Some days when you’re on the road things just get your goat, whether it’s the taxi bandit trying to charge you half a month’s wages to travel a couple of kilometers, or a crowd of ignorant Chinese tourists barging ahead with little regard for anyone else, or an agent adding their own inflated commissions to standard ticket prices because they can, or in this case an officious little prick of a car park attendant trying to charge me to leave my bike parked at the condo we’ve rented. Some days it just feels like the world is just out to dishonestly deprive you from your hard-earned – stop fleecing the uninitiated and get a real job you thieving bastards!
Well that's about it folks, thanks for reading, I'll update the thread with links to the full trip report and galleries, and the videos when I've got them online.
The first one is here:
http://www.ontheroadasia.com/georgetown.php
