The primary destination for our November 2018 trip was our first ever visit to India but as long as we were in the neighborhood; we decided to include a few other ports of call.

It’s hard for us to visit Southeast Asia and not include some time in Luang Prabang so that was in our plans.

Given its central location and many air travel options, not to mention the fact that we love the city made a stop in Bangkok a logical choice.

But with time allocated to those two, we had about a week for some other destination and while it probably wasn’t enough time; we decided on a visit to Malaysia. I had visited Kuala Lumpur once virtually a lifetime ago but really hadn’t seen any other part of the country.

We knew the food reputation of Penang and found some very attractive air fares for travel there from Bangkok and ended up booking Air Asia from Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) to Penang (PEN) for our entry into the country.  (As an aside: the process of going through immigration in Penang was probably the most modern and convenient we have experienced anywhere in the world!)

We knew the travel options from KL would make it a good jumping off point for travel into India so we made that our last stop in Malaysia.

And less than a year ago, Nook Tourguide, our friend in Bangkok had married a dermatologist from Ipoh, a small attractive city about half way between Penang and Kuala Lumpur, which also has a really good food reputation so that was added to our itinerary as our middle stop in Malaysia in order to take the opportunity to meet him.

The Air Asia flight was comfortable and easy and we wouldn’t hesitate to use that airline on future travels.

Almost as soon as we arrived at the PEN airport, we were forced to address an (as it turns out) unnecessary pre-travel concern about a visit to Malaysia. While walking from immigration to baggage claim we passed 3 young ladies in burkas sitting at a desk selling local sim cards for cell phones.

We now feel a bit embarrassed about our initial (internal) reaction but we are so conditioned in the U.S. to be suspicious of any display of Islam that the thought crossed our minds of “What have we gotten ourselves into?” But in a very short time we came to realize that the people of Malaysia are generally very moderate in their views and are as kind and hospitable to visitors as any people in any part of the world.

We’ll go into more detail of our visits to each city on the pages devoted to them but here are some other very general observations:

The culture of Malaysia is totally food centric. As a people they are obsessed with food and we found we could find really great meals for very inexpensive prices just about anywhere we might be. It is very possible to find many restaurants open 24-hours a day.

Everyone has their own favorite spot for “the best” of every single dish. The concept of the “hawker centre” is a great food court experience. Typically these are large covered open air rooms with tables in the center courtyard and food and beverage vendors around the perimeter. Once you find a numbered table you walk from vendor to vendor ordering and the food is delivered to your table.

Many hawker centres are known for particular dishes or style of cuisine but most will have vendors of Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisines representing the largest ethnic groups of the country.

Approximately half of the population is Malay. Another 10% are non-Malay indigenous ethnic groups. Roughly a quarter are Chinese and about 10% are Indian. Non-citizens from other countries make up another 10% of residents. For the most part, these different ethnic groups live together peaceably although there is some resentment among the non-Malay communities for some laws (like some costs associated with home ownership) that favor the Malay population.

The country is predominantly Muslim but there is a significant Christian population. We met Muslim and Christian Malays, Muslim and Christian Chinese as well as Muslim and Christian people of Indian descent.

Malaysia is a British Commonwealth nation and English is widely spoken. Most schools teach and many people speak 3 languages: English, Malay and their own ethnic dialect. (e.g. Chinese people speak some version of Chinese, Indian people speak some Indian language, etc.)

The government of Malaysia is a federal constitutional parliamentary monarchy. There is a King who is head of state with elections held every 5-years by the leaders of the 13 states. These leaders are from royal families and most carry the title of Sultan (although there is one known as Raja and a few others with different titles.) The Prime Minister is the actual head of government.

Every city we visited had a beautiful and ornate English Gothic/Moorish style train station (along with other buildings of a similar architectural style). Most were constructed in the late 19th or early 20th Century.

Malaysia has a very modern train system including an inter-city electric train service known as KTM ET. KTM also offers an electric “Komuter” service (primarily in and around Kuala Lumpur.) We traveled between Penang and Ipoh and Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur by the KTM ET and were very impressed with the service.

We made good use of the https://www.withlocals.com tour company. They offer tours around the world but we found their offerings in Malaysia to be a good option for day trips.

The people of Malaysia of extremely proud of their country and as noted above, in our experience are among the friendliest, most helpful people we’ve encountered anywhere in the world.