Overall Thoughts on Malaysia

 This is a tough one. I’ll start with some brief demographic info on Malaysia that may set the scene, especially if you aren’t super familiar with it (I wasn’t before this summer).

There are three major racial/ethnic groups that make up Malaysia’s population. Here is the breakdown:

One interesting thing to note is that the government considers Malay to equal islamic, on govt forms and such.

The way that these groups coexist, especially religiously, is very interesting. It was common to be able to stand in one spot and see a mosque, Confucious temple, Hindu temple, and even Buddhist temple all at once

First, what I loved about Malaysia:

The views, landscapes, and beaches were stunning and very accessible.

The food was to die for - I had no idea how much I loved Malay food and I really enjoyed the mixture of Malay, Chinese, and Indian food.

It was really neat to experience the combination of religions, cultures, etc. that all coexist there.

I met so many amazing women there and had wonderful conversations with local women that will forever mean a lot to me!

What I struggled with:

Malaysia was a TOUGH place to exist in as a solo female traveler (and honestly even when I was traveling with Sophia). I didn’t feel safe at all due to repeated bad experiences with local men there. It felt like one thing after another (being followed, catcalled, men hitting on me in front of their wives and daughters, saying inappropriate things, not respecting women-only cars on the train, screaming at me, etc.) and to be honest I was really upset about these experiences for a long time. So much so that I booked flights for a winter break trip to Patagonia but was dreading international travel so much (my experiences in Malaysia were the most recent in my mind) that I didn’t plan most of the trip until 3 days before I left (whoops).

Other solo female travelers that I talked to expressed their discomfort and had the same overall experience there. I was dressed very modestly the entire time (full long sleeves) and was a bit surprised about this experience because there are a LOT of western tourists that visit Malaysia and quite a bit of diversity there so I did not expect the attention I received. I did notice that the level of attention from men and sexual harassment went down when I wore a hijab because I blended in more easily with many of the local women, but local women told me that they do not feel safe either and frequently experience harassment so they don’t walk alone, etc. This was overall just a bummer because there were so many amazing aspects of Malaysia and I spent the longest amount of time there out of any country this summer.