Religion - Malaysia is a mainly 'liberal' Muslim country. However, as we cycled further north we entered the more 'orthodox' part of the country. I have to be very honest and say that I felt very uncomfortable in my cycling clothes, when most woman we passed were wearing headscarves and a full length dress on the rest of their bodies. So a western woman arriving, wearing lycra, caused a few 'double takes' and many stares!. This feeling even stayed with me off the bike, even though I made a conscious effort to cover my shoulders and wear trousers. I still felt uncomfortable not having my head covered. The other problem was the lack of alcohol! We spent many an evening searching for a Chinese restaurant, as you are guaranteed a beer but these became less common the further north we got!! As a result of this enforced abstinence, our alcohol tolerance reached an all time low! Once in Thailand, felt far too drunk after one Singha beer!! Although this may have something to do with the alcohol content being 6%
Other Tourists - Did not see any for the first three days and for the rest of the time only very very occasionally.
Cycling - It was all very flat, a few undulating hills for the first few days but after New Zealand nothing much to sweat over! There was a great wide paved shoulder for most of the journey but there was quite a lot of glass, so inevitably we got our first punctures!! As above, we did not meet any other westerners, let alone other cyclists which was disappointing, as we were getting desperate for some other people to talk to.
Weather - It was the rainy season but the only rain we heard was at night, it was warm, dry and very sunny, what else could you ask for!
People - The Malay people are some of the friendliest we have met on the trip so far. Almost everyone gave us the thumbs up and there were loads of toots of encouragement from the drivers. The children were especially pleased to see us and shouts of hello were regular right throughout the day's cycle. This reaction from the people made up for any other negative feelings I had about Malaysia.
Accommodation - Excellent value for money with all different types to suit everyone's budget. We opted for 3 star hotels, mainly because it was low season and we got good rates and usually the place (and pool) to ourselves!
Food - In the south there was a nice combination of Malay, Chinese and Indian to choose from, which was really great but the further north we got the more Malay food was on offer and this tends to be be lots of curries over rice and eventually this became a bit too much, especially for breakfast!!
Language - Not many people speaking English, so we developed good sign langauage
Scenery - The east coast is beautiful and often we found ourselves on miles of deserted beaches, however the water was really very murkey. This is due to the clay sea bed and the fact it was monsoon season. The islands off the coast are meant to be out of this world, but we couldn't get to any as the sea was too rough.
All in all, I have to say that I was glad to leave Malaysia and cross the border into Thailand. I immedialtely felt more relaxed and the food got a lot tastier although the languge became much more difficult. I am sure if we had cycled up the more commercialsed West it would have been a completely different experience.