Our two-week Malaysia trip was too short to get more than a small sample of what there is to see
and do in that country. Before taking the trip we knew very little about Malaysia, but erroneously
expected a poor minimally developed Southeast Asian backwater.
In Malaysia we saw a surprisingly wealthy highly developed and well-educated country with an
excellent transportation system, many luxury hotels and resorts, clean streets, beautiful parks,
excellent museums, libraries, upscale department stores and shopping centers. Most Malaysians live
in solid houses or apartment buildings; we saw few signs of poverty. The economic and social
well-being we saw in Malaysia seems to be based primarily on its income from exports, mainly
petroleum, followed by electronics, rubber and palm oil. That income seems to have been
distributed broadly, benefiting most of Malaysia's population. Another factor influencing
Malaysia's economic development could be the large ethnic Chinese minority which tends to highly
value education, initiative, innovation and hard work. Malaysia may also have been influenced by the
economic and social success achieved by neighboring Singapore.
In Malaysia we found no ancient monuments, no grand palaces, no ancient temples --- nothing built
before the mid-1800's. We were disappointed to see much less wildlife than we had expected.
We enjoyed our visit to Malaysia and are glad to have learned much about a country about which we
knew so little. We would have liked to have had more time to see and do more in the parts of
Malaysia we visited. We also feel we missed much by not visiting more of Malaysia on this trip.
This is the last page describing our tour of Malaysia. We invite you to view some of our other
journals and photos for the trips listed in the "Our Travel Journals" Main Menu.