Malaysia is often over looked as an adventure travel destination, with neighbours Thailand and Singapore soaking up the limelight. But arguably, Malaysia has more to offer: ancient rainforests, rare wildlife, world class beaches and diving, festivals, amazing food plus vibrant cities and world heritage sites. This culturally diverse country is split across the Malay pennisular and the northern third of Borneo.
Don’t miss out! Here’s our gap year pros and cons:
Pros:
Malaysia has an intoxicating mix of cities from vibrant, modern KL to world heritage sites like Melaka and Penang.
It’s a diverse society with a cultural mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian; and, although there’s a Muslim majority, there’s significant Buddhist and Hindu influences.
Malaysia is home to the World’s oldest rainforest and its amazing wildlife includes orang utans, elephants, tapir, tigers and rhino.
On the Peninsular, there’s world class reefs and diving in the Perhentians, Redang and Tioman and in Borneo there’s Sipadan and Mataking.
The food is amazing (Malay, Indian and Chinese) and cheap.
It’s a great travel hub for the area, with cheap flights to neighbouring countries.
There’s a good travel infrastructure.
Cons:
If you’re LGBT you need to be aware that having sex is illegal.