perodua toyota capital

When the current pandemic ends, where do you want to travel next?

I am enormously desperate for travelling and there is literally one country in my mind which plagues me for a couple of years already. MALAYSIA It is quite bizarre as a European to have the desire to go to Malaysia, because Europeans generally prefer Thailand, Singapore or, ,even Indonesia (Bali to be more precise). I find that really unfair, because Malaysia has a fair share of tourist attractions and is so far the 14th most visited country annually with dozen million of tourists each year. But why do ,I, want to travel there so bad? What makes me obsessed with Malaysia? 1. The bustling cities Malaysia has cities which literally never sleep in the night, such as the capital Kuala Lumpur, but also some smaller cities like Penang the foodie capital and Johor Bahru the gateway to Singapore are also very exciting and offer a lot of things to do. It’ll never get boring there and I really plan to visit those three cities for sure when I go there. I heard the nightlife in KL Is great, even if you are on a budget! Kuala Lumpur with the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers in the background 2. The beaches. Bali, Phuket, Boracay, all those islands are very popular places for a beach holiday in Southeast Asia. But what if I tell you that Malaysia has literally the same or even better things? Langkawi and Tioman are surely among the gems of this region and really popular tourist spots outside the overtouristy neighbours. I mean, who wouldn’t like to have a beach holiday on one of those pristine beaches with crystal clear water? Pantai Cenang, Langkawi 3. The amusement parks and malls Singapore gets its fair share for that with its casinos and amusement parks, but you can get the same for significantly cheaper in Malaysia. Genting Highlands are a giant amusement park with the only casino in the whole country. There you got ropeways, malls and an amusement park which is indoors too. The fact that it is on a mountain chain is even more breathtaking. The malls seem to be abundant everywhere in the country and you get a fair share of many different stores with reasonable prices compared to what you have here in Europe. Seems like I need two suitcases on my way back to Switzerland then for all the stuff I am going to buy there! Genting Highlands Suria KLCC shopping mall, Kuala Lumpur 4. Experiencing the local culture Malaysia is an incredibly diverse place with people from various backgrounds. From Malays and Chinese, you go over to Iban, Dayak, Kadazan-Dusun and end up with Tamils and Punjabis from India, but not only them, you got also a lot of foreigners from Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and literally any country in the world. It is not uncommon to see Middle Eastern and European people living in Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur. Due to this diversity, you can find lots of restaurants with different cuisines, such as South Indian inspired mamak restaurants, Chinese restaurants and of course local Malaysian restaurants. Finding even Western cuisine is not that hard either, as even many fast food chains from around the world are present in Malaysia, even the ones you don’t find commonly elsewhere. Finally the different ethnic groups also have different holidays and chances are high that you come in holiday season to Malaysia, so experiencing Ramadan/Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali/Diwali where you can experience the celebrations on the streets. I'd really like to enjoy also the pasar malam or in English the night market where you can taste literally any kind of food and find some good bargains on other things such as clothes and so on. A mamak restaurant Teh Tarik (pulled milk tea) and Nasi Lemak (white coconut flavoured rice), the national drink and dish of Malaysia 5. The cars Now this is a bizarre one, because you'd hardly find here any person who associates Malaysia with cars. Now Malaysia has two national car brands, namely Proton and Perodua. Proton used to make Mitusbishi based models, but switched over to create their very own developed cars and ended up now to make cars based on Geely models. Perodua was since day one a brand which rebranded Daihatsu cars and nowadays Perodua designed a few of their cars themselves or even co-developed them together with Toyota and Daihatsu. Malaysia doesn't export those cars that much and they are therefore mostly seen in Malaysia, so they are rather rare. As I am a car guy and curious how the cars in other countries are, I'd really like to rent a car in Malaysia and drive around the country in one or two different models. If I can't do that, then I just call some different Grab cars (the local e-hailing service like Uber) and be a passenger in one of them. Below I put some car reviews of Malaysian cars I really enjoyed and think they’d do in Europe, especially in emerging European countries well. Proton Iriz, a car with some Lotus genes inside, especially ride and handling Perodua Myvi, aka the supercar killer on Malaysian lebuhrayas (motorways) 6. The public transport Many KLites are surely going to say our public transport sucks, but let me tell you one thing. Where in the whole world do you have elevated automated light rail, together with a monorail for the inner city and a metro partially underground crossing the whole city? Not many places would come into my mind, but Kuala Lumpur has it. Also the airport train and the commuter trains are also really modern and clean. Clear, buses could be better, but this is the case anywhere in the world, even in Switzerland. For the longer rides, there is the electric train going all the way up to Penang, which is also awesome to experience, so for a trip to Penang and Ipoh, I'd really like to use that one. No need to take the plane when you can use the train and see the landscape. A brand new metro train in Kuala Lumpur KTM intercity train All in all this country has so much to offer and I'd really love to visit Malaysia in the near future. It sounds like as if I am too focussed on the Peninsular Malaysia, but if time allows me, I would definitely fly to Sarawak or Sabah and experience the nature there and the lifestyle there, because the people there are different and you can also see some orang utans in Sepilok close to Sandakan in Sabah. This underrated gem of a country should be really promoted more often and overtake its overrated neighbours Thailand and Singapore. What I have to add here is that it is quite rare to find Serbs who love Malaysia, because Malaysia and Serbia have a rather hard history, because of the Bosnian War and the recognition of Kosovo as an independent country. Because of those things Serbia and Montenegro are the only European countries which need a visa to enter Malaysia. It is my goal to break the ice and show that a Serbian can actually travel to Malaysia and enjoy it a lot, because I am deeply convinced that this country is even for Serbian tourists a great place to go and experience, especially since the prices are in many cases lower than in Serbia, although the average Malaysian earns double the money than a Serbian does. After browsing for some pictures, I stumbled upon this link right here and I am really surprised that there is actually a thing like an association of friendship between Malaysia and Serbia. This literally made my day! Malaysia boleh!