I’ve traveled to Malaysia five times on business. I find it to be an amazing place. Kuala Lumpur is absolutely breathtaking - clean, orderly, with polite and docile citizens. They seem to take great pride in social graces, as I never once encountered any one that I would consider rude or impatient. I never strayed too far into the rural areas, but the infrastructure seems to be in great shape and well developed. I’ve also been in Johor Bahru and Ipoh and they seemed as orderly as Kuala Lumpur, just not nearly as dynamic. Most of the citizens are muslim, but they are very much not radical and the country protects all religions. In the cities, I never had a problem finding people that communicated in Englis, but I’m sure that is not the case in the rural areas. It is a beautiful and memorable place. Most of the women are stunning!
I also have been to Johor a couple of times, but found it to be disappointing and not anywhere near as nice as KL.
The women are beautiful as you say.
I used to go to the cigar bar at the Marriott (I think) with my British friend who lives in KL with his Malay wife. They used to have beautiful women working there who lit your cigar... on their knees in front of you. Peculiar, yet enchanting tradition.
The food is also good - try the Laksa! :)
It is so cheap to eat in KL, nobody cooks at home. Everyone eats out.
I’ve taken the trip to Singapore (5 hours or so) a couple of times by both bus and narrow-gauge railway... it’s cheap, clean and safe. On the bus, you see nothing but plantations - I can’t remember a single village on the modern highway.
The train goes through mostly plantations as well, but there were a couple of little villages to see from the windows...
The flight is just a jump.