FOOD: I loved Malaysia's food the most out of all of the countries I traveled to. My favorite dish was laksa, which is a soup dish with noodles, curry, coconut milk, lemongrass, amongst other tasty things. My favorite drink was Milo, which is a delicious chocolatey drink that I usually drank out of a bag - hot or cold. I also had a coconut, like an actual coconut, a juicy mango, fresh guava juice, fresh pineapple juice and fresh watermelon juice. Y'all know how much I love fresh fruit. However, there is always a rotten apple, but in this case it's durian - a really silly Asian fruit that smells so bad that most hotels and cabs ban it. But for some reason a lot of people have a love/hate relationship with it and still eat it. It's actually not that terrible, just incredibly strange.
FAVORITE PART: The diversity - Malaysia is like the melting pot of Asia. And I guess I'm just used to seeing a whoooole lot of Chinese people. Along with the diversity, there is a huge religious presence because most people are either Muslim, Hindu or Christian. The call to prayer would ring throughout the entire country five times a day. You would also constantly see people in the Muslim or Hindu attire. We made a huge botch by going in the the women-only car on the subway (I was with two guys), and incidentally offended several Muslim women. This in itself is clearly not my favorite part (although it was slightly funny), but I really loved the diversity. And as mentioned earlier, the food was amazing! I think because of all the diversity, as well.
LEAST FAVORITE: The ferry to Langkawi island was an enclosed, indoor ferry. What kind of ferry is that!? Oh, and the bus to Thailand was a long-distance bus, but we stopped every 10 minutes to pick up more people. I don't blame that one on Malaysia though - Thailand can take that blame. Oh and I did see two rats in KL...although we were in Chinatown - so maybe China can take the blame for that one.
COOL EXPERIENCE: The owner of the hostel we stayed at in Melaka took us on a night bike ride around the town. It was beautiful, and he showed us areas that we otherwise would not have been able to explore. Melaka is a cute, quaint town and really embodies Malaysia. Another cool experience was Langkawi island. Beautiful beautiful beach and scenery with mountains and a local town embedded amongst the tourism. Oh, and I touched the Indian Ocean! Check.
TRAVEL TIPS:
housing: best hostel of the whole trip: Ringos Foyer Guest House (Melaka, Malaysia). great location, wonderful hospitality(!), very clean, cheap prices.
transportation: Malaysia had the best transportation of all of the countries, until we had to go into Thailand. If you are entering Thailand from Malaysia, I recommend upgrading to a nicer bus.
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