Some might say that it is not fair to compare Malaysia to Indonesia because we saw different things and didn't spend the same amount of time in each country. But then - I never said that my posts would be fair. The following is my very subjective comparison based on personal experiences only!
Having experienced all kinds of reckless driving in Indonesia, before buying tickets to get from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, we asked several times about the quality of the bus and the driver's record. The lady at the ticket office looked at us in a bizarre way but she assured us that the drivers in their company were not reckless and their buses were fully functional.
Once we crossed Malaysian border I understood why the lady was so surprised at our questions. Roads in Malaysia resemble much more those in North America than in Indonesia. There are actually proper highways between cities. Drivers tend to stay within their lines and nobody goes at high speed against the traffic. Huge difference!
In general, Malaysia looks much richer than its neighbour. One can see it on the roads, in the cities and even in little towns. In Indonesia even bigger cities looked sort of shabby (granted, I never saw Jakarta but I warned you that the comparison might not be fair!). In Malaysia, while obviously not everything is new and shiny, most constructions gave the impression of being solid and built with a plan. We also saw several residential developments of houses very similar to those in the suburbs of Warsaw or Ottawa. And we never encountered anything like this in Bali or Java - most places there seemed run down even if they were quite new.
On the other hand, Malaysia doesn't seem to be the first choice destination. Every person I met was there on the way to (or from) some place else. There is a simple explanation for that: Malaysia cannot boast on any landmark even remotely as significant and impressive as several places we saw in Indonesia, such as the temples from 9th century we wrote about in a different post. Indeed the most impressive thing I saw in Malaysia were the twin towers in Kuala Lumpur.
What surprised us a lot, is that we could use in Malaysia everything we learnt in Indonesian language. I knew that both languages were similar but I had no idea to what extent. And not only do people in Malaysia speak an almost identical language, they are also as nice as Indonesians, which was another agreeable surprise. We only visited relatively touristy places in Malaysia, so people were not as curious about us as in Java, but it was enjoyable to talk and laugh with them. We still feel that Indonesians are the friendliest though!
One could say that Indonesia felt like emotional roller-coaster in terms of impressions it left upon us. Malaysia is less impressive both in a negative and a positive sense. It didn't leave us in awe but it gave us some very pleasant days and some beautiful views (my personal favorite is the view of hills covered in tea plantations). I would recommend it to anybody who is looking for a light version of south-east Asia :-)
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