Introduction to Malaysia
The nation of Malaysia consists of West Malaysia on the Malayan Peninsula and East Malaysia on
the island of Borneo. Kuala Lumpur is the largest city and capital of the country, The two states
on Borneo are Sarawak and Sabah.
The country has a racially and ethnically diverse population of about 23 million, of which about
57% are Moslem Malays, 27% Buddhist/Tao Chinese, 8% Hindu Indians, and smaller percentages of
other religious and ethnic groups. The national language is a version of Malay but Chinese is
generally spoken by the large Chinese minority. English is a compulsory subject in Malaysian
schools and is understood by most Malaysians.
The territory that is now Malaysia generally came under control of the Portuguese in the 1500's,
the Dutch in the 1600's, and the British starting in the late 1700's. During World War II the
Japanese occupied the area from 1940 to 1945, after which it was reoccupied by the British until
granting Malaysia independence in 1957.
At the time of our visit the exchange rate was approximately 3.88 Malaysian Ringgits per US$.
Malaysia today is a democratic constitutional monarchy based on the British system, but with the
unique characteristic of having nine hereditary monarchs each serving five-year terms on a rotating
basis.
Our Malaysian tour from June 4 to June 18, 2005 was organized in the USA by SmarTours . Our
capable tour leader in Malaysia was Thomas Ngang of Borneo Adventure.
We flew Malaysia Airways from Newark, New Jersey, USA to Kuching, Malaysia, a trip of about
24 hours crossing twelve time-zones. We spent most of our trip in Borneo, where for an average of
about two days each we visited Kuching, Batang Ai National Park, Sandakan, Kota Kinabalu. Our
final stop was on the Malay Peninsula in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The story of our
Malaysia tour is on the following pages.