MALAYSIA
Visas🛂
As UK citizens, we are fortunate to be allowed three months free visa exemption in Malaysia. For visa information look on your government website or alternatively, you can use the following website:
SIM Cards📱
On arrival at Kuala Lumpur airport, we found a small stall to purchase Digi sim cards. There are lots of companies to offer sims cards but do make sure to look around before choosing one to gain the best deal. We bought two SIM cards for 30 days at a cost of 52.50 ringgit each.
Money💰
£1 = 5.85 ringgit
Food will be the most significant expense in Malaysia. If you are someone like us, travelling around South East Asia, you will find food and drink in Malaysia to be quite expensive. Buying meals from £2-£5 in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, to then £6-£9 in Malaysia, can be a bit of a shock. But in reality, this is still very cheap compared to the prices in England.
From personal experience, Melaka and Penang, have a requirement where you have to pay additional money on top of the price of your accommodation. This is a cost per night which is mandatory where you pay either a heritage charge or local government tax respectively, costing 2 ringgit and in addition a tourist tax of 2 ringgit. Although this is roughly only an extra £2 a night it is something to bear in mind if you are on a tight budget.
Time⏰
During our 27 days in this country, we visited both mainland Malaysia and Borneo. Visiting three different areas in both locations, we liked some areas while not being so keen on others. For example, we enjoyed Penang but didn’t have the best stay in Sandakan. In Charlie’s opinion, he would have changed the route slightly by bypassed Kota Kinabalu as it was more of an interconnecting stop to the main event of the river cruise. I personally enjoyed Kota Kinabalu and found having three days to explore the city was a perfect amount of time, but I can see his point. He would also say the three days in Semporna were more time than necessary but that was purely down to the location of our accommodation and being severely burnt. If we had booked accommodation on one of the islands and applied our sun cream better, we would probably have said our time was not long enough as the area has stunning landscape. So that is our fault for cutting corners.
Transport🚌
In mainland Malaysia, Grab (Uber) is the best way to get around. For longer journeys refer to 12 go. I would say the comfort of buses in Malaysia are the best. No sore backs nor tight seating arrangements - just padded seats and amazing recliners. In Borneo, you will also be able to use Grab but they are a little harder to come by in places like Sandakan. In general, the pricing for short journeys start from around 7 ringgit to longer journeys up to 120 ringgit.
Roads🚦
The roads surface in Malaysia are impeccable. I would even go as far to say that they are in as good or better condition than British roads. You will have a smooth journey with a moderate standard of traffic. Cars are predominantly driven In Malaysia and scooters are the minority. In opposition to the rest of South East Asia, this is another similarity to England.
Weather🌞
We had good, sunny weather in most locations. Although, it did have a weird tendency to rain at 15:00pm. However, in Sandakan, it was a totally different story. It rained practically every day and ruined a few plans. Fortunately, it did not cause many issues when we were on our Kinabatangan River Safari which meant we it did not impact the visibility of seeing the jungle animals.
So when is the best time to go?
Kuala Lumpur - May to Sep - Remains relatively dry
Singapore - February to April - Least amount of rain and low humidity
Sabah - May to Sep - Dry season
Sarawak - April to Sep - Drier in weather
MALAYSIA = APRIL/MAY
Language barrier💬
You will have absolutely no issues in touristy areas like Melaka and Penang. Surprisingly you will not have too many issues in Sabah either. Although we did have a few encounters where there was a lot of pointing and nodding and on one occasion, in Kuala Lumpur, I was asked by a group of men to have a photo with them.
Washing🧺
In mainland Malaysia, self services are very accessible. And despite Sabah being known as the jungle, laundromats can be found too! On average we spent 17 ringgit on self service laundromats.
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