Malaysia
Discover Malaysia
Introduction
Malaysia exists in two parts separated by 640 kilometres of the South China Sea. Peninsular Malaysia holds the capital, the historic Strait ports and most of the population; Malaysian Borneo — the states of Sabah and Sarawak — holds the rainforest, the caves and the mountain.
They are different enough to be different trips, and they retain separate immigration control: flying from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching means another passport stamp.
The country is a federation of thirteen states, nine of them still headed by hereditary rulers who elect a king from among themselves for a five-year term — an arrangement that exists nowhere else.
Malay, Chinese and Indian communities have lived alongside each other here for generations, and in Borneo dozens of indigenous peoples besides. The food is the most immediate evidence of it.