One week in and…

Kids of Malacca, Malaysia

An hour or so to kill in Kuala Lumpur Central Bus Station, as we wait for our bus to the Cameron Highlands, seems as good a time as any for a few thoughts after a week and change in Malaysia. Caveated by the fact that we’ve really only seen two cities – hardly representative of the country as a whole. But with that caveat…

Compared to Vietnam, Malaysia feels far more Westernised, far less overtly third world. The roads are full of cars, not scooters. There’s always someone around who speaks English. Everything’s efficient, everything works, everywhere is clean. Not clinically so, like those tales you hear of Singapore, where you get flogged for dropping a sweet wrapper, but just generally speaking – there’s hardly any litter, and not much delapidation – as compared with Vietnam, where everything’s a bit shabby and down at heel, often downright squalid, and litter endemic.

Beyond that, well, accommodation is cheap – comparable with Vietnam. £15 a night will get you a clean, comfortable room. Transport’s a lot cheaper than in Vietnam, and better toboot. Our 25 minute taxi ride to the bus station for the first leg of today’s journey was a tad shy of £2, with tip. And our onward bus ride to the Cameron Highlands – a four and a half hour journey – is costing less than seven pounds.

Food’s also cheap, and good, and there’s a lot more variety than in ‘nam – Indian, Chinese and Malaysian, plus all the westernised options you could want, though this will doubtless change away from the cities.

The people are much like the Vietnamese: we’ve met nothing but kindness and courtesy everywhere we go. Then again, I’ve always thought that pretty much wherever you go, if you’re nice to them, they’ll be nice to you.

Bureaucracy seems to have taken root here, and thrived. Queues for bus tickets are teeth-grindingly slow, because everyone has to present id to buy a ticket. You want to go to the Cameron Highlands? Passport please. Bonkers.

And more generally, everything just feels more controlled. Which is kind of reassuring – you do get the feeling that everything, at the most basic level, works. But – and I say again, this may change when we’ve been further afield – I’m already missing that whiff of the wild west. There was something rather joyfully anarchic about Vietnam. By comparison, at least thus far, Malaysia, while wonderful, is perhaps a bit….dull?

Anyway, on to the Cameron Highlands: greenery, monkeys, adventure. Bring it on.

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