Malaysia 2022/23 - #23 - Malaysia 'Navel-Gazing' Trip Review

 Another trip successfully completed. 

(Success defined as "We are Still Alive!" We set the barrier for success pretty low. Always good to manage expectations.)

We come to the traditional de-I post trip postmortem or as Daughter #3 calls it 'The Navel-Gazing Post!"

I Still Love Malaysia - I don't know exactly what it is. There is this beautiful combination of the exotic and the familiar. All the tastes, sensations of the country scream Southeast Asia. But it is so like North American or European country in its infrastructure. And it uses the Roman alphabet for all communications. And English is generally well understood and used. That means the level of culture shock is low compared to other countries in Southeast, East, and South Asia. Yet it is still this very different culture.

Food! - OMG, I cannot tell you how much I love cooking in Malaysia. There is this cross between Southeast Asian, Chinese and Indian that leads to the most intriguing flavors. They have a mastery of the use of heat (meaning spice heat) that results in something so different from anything I've tasted other places. It really is hard to get a bad meal here.

Economical! - I don't quite know how to get across just how inexpensive it is in Malaysia. All of Southeast Asia is inexpensive compared to the U.S. But with Malaysia you get all this comfortable infrastructure. How about this for an example. Wife and I ate out almost every meal other than breakfast. It was rare, RARE, for us to spend more than $15 for the two of us. Even when we had things delivered. We used the rideshare app, GRAB, extensively. We had only two rides over four weeks that were more than $4 and those were to and from airports. We ordered supermarket delivery frequently. The delivery charge was a flat $1.75! We flew in country twice. One flight from very minor airport Melaka to Penang, one-way was $160 for two of us. The other flight was from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, one-way, $65 TOTAL for two people with premium seating and extra baggage allowance on Air Asia. Crazy! I could go on. I really don't know how the economics work to provide such value.

Lovely People - There is something about Malaysian culture. People are just mellow. It's not perfect. But in general people get along here. They are multi race, ethnicity, religion, and culture. You will see a young gifl, her head covered in scarf and totally modest clothes walking in the mall with another in tight jeans and midriff showing, chatting away and texting on their phones, friends. Even the driving is very mellow. We had so many nice, informative people interactions. Even when we had problems, it was dealt with respectfully. I don't know if we can extrapolate to the whole of a country. But that was our experience. 

Hot/Humid - Okay it is the tropics. There was only so long we could be out before we wilted like fragile flowers. Though I must say after a week back in highs of low 40's here in Albuquerque, I could easily see myself back in the tropics.

No Place to Walk - That is not exactly 100% true. But it is essentially accurate. At all three places we rented, we were hemmed in by busy streets and a lack of sidewalks and crosswalks or lights. This was definitely NOT the walking culture we craved after our experience in Sicily/Cefalú.

And so Far Away - From just about anywhere our family is or is going to be in the future.

So (Sadly) Not a Place We Can Make an Expat Home 🙁 - Oh I wish it were otherwise. But I see Malaysia as a place we will still come back to again and again. It has so many positives. 

If you are looking to dip your toe into Southeast Asia light, I strongly recommend you consider Malaysia - Please contact Wife and I if you would like to learn more about this incredibly inviting country!