Travel tips for Malaysia

[Creepy]

I am planning a trip to Malaysia flying into Kuala Lumpur. We will have a couple of weeks and plan to take public transport to the coast / islands. Does anyone have any tips ?

[mushroom25]

this is quite a useful site......

http://www.seat61.com/Malaysia.htm

[thedelbwa]

Relatively easy to get about. I heard trains were a good way of seeing the countryside. We, however, took buses, which was more to do with sticking to a budget than anything. We were pleasantly surprised, after travelling the length of Thailand in some rickety old buses / minibuses, as soon as we crossed the Malay border, we had 'luxury' (ish) coaches, reclining seats that more or less turned into beds, plenty of legroom, AC, not too crowded either. We booked these from wherever we were staying, or the local travel agencies. In KL, you'll have no trouble whatsoever finding an agent. If memory serves me correctly (it was 2002 when I was there), there are different standards of coach transport you can get, but we found that even a mid-low standard was more than comfortable, and very affordable. I guess anything was preferable to our last bus journey in Thailand which was way over-booked, we were crammed in like sardines, and (worst of all) we were subjected to The Vengaboys album at full volume....twice...not good.

Good luck!

[Pomp]

I sent a month there recently and this was what I did. I would recommend all of the places we went to. We were there for Chinese new year which was cool. We travelled everywhere by public transport and sorted accomodation when we got there:-

Flew into KL, and spent a few days there.
Took the bus to Cameron Highlands. Bizarre outpost of the British empire.
Then got the bus to Penang and stayed in Penang town, did not go to the beach in Penang.
Got a bus to near Kota Bharu and got the boat to the Perhentian Islands, where we rented a beach hut right on the water. We planned to stay two days here and stayed 5!!
Then came back to Kota Bharu and got the jungle train to Gemas. Recommend the mail train (see www.seat61.com).
Had to spend a night in Gemas as the train got in late.
Then went t Melaka, this was a very cool place.
Then got the the bus to Singapore

[Memore]

I didnt really like Penang but Lankawi is fantastic you must go there