Malaysia - $173.44
Malaysia was one of our cheapest countries so far, but we still felt like it was one of our busiest and full of adventure. We spent just under 14 full days in the country and spent a total of $2,324 averaging out to just over $173 per day, about 13% lower than our spending goal! We didn’t have any Visa expenses as Americans and many other travelers aren’t required to get additional documentation for short tourist stays. We also did not rent any vehicles while in Malaysia, so this category also came out at zero!
Our biggest category of spending was Lodging, which averaged almost $77 per day, but that included some more unique types of accommodation this time. We spent four nights on the Perhentian islands, where we averaged almost $90 per night. We technically stayed in “resorts” while on the islands, but the accommodations were very basic and a-typically expensive for the amenities. We also stayed at Sukau Greenview Lodge while on safari on the Kinabatangan river. This lodge cost us a little more than other places we’ve stayed at about $150 per night, but included all of our meals and several activities across the two and a half days we were there. Not every location we stayed in Malaysia was expensive – we stayed at several that averaged less than $35 per night, but each place we stayed was enough for what we needed.
Our second largest category of expenses was Food, but this cost us less in Malaysia than it has anywhere else, only averaging about $33 per day. Most restaurants we went to charged between $2 and $5 for a good sized main dish, and many even cost less! Malaysia is also a Muslim country, so alcohol was not as widely available and some states we visited even have alcohol bans in place. On the Perhentians, there were bars that served boozy drinks despite the bans, so we only made one or two exceptions there. The lack of alcohol did mean we saved a lot of money, especially in the jungle, where we were too busy spotting wildlife anyway!
We also had several Flights within Malaysia: from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, then on to the Perhentian Islands, and finally to and within Borneo. We used some of Sarah’s British Airways Avios to pay for our longest connection from Kota Bharu to Kota Kinabalu, but still spent $380 on our remaining four cash flights, which took up $28 of our daily budget. Other Transportation accounted for $11.80 per day, the majority of which was Grab trips to and from various activities. We also had to pay for a few water taxi trips while we were in the Perhentian Islands, as well as the airport train to and from Kuala Lumpur.
We spent a little over $200 on Activities, breaking down to about $16 per day. Malaysia’s diverse landscape and amenable climate means there are many different activities to consider. Many of ours revolved around seeing and being near animals. During our sandy stay on the islands, we took some snorkeling trips to see sharks, stingrays, and thousands of fish. In Borneo we visited the Orangutan sanctuary, Sun Bear rehabilitation center, and paid for an extra river safari trip to maximize our chances of seeing more wildlife. For everything we were able to do in Malaysia, the fact that we only spent $200 on activities was amazing! We would’ve found it worthwhile to spend much more too!
Finally, we had about $100 of Miscellaneous spending including laundry, pharmacy visits, wireless phone bills, and some cash that I can’t account for now. These small expenses have a way of adding up in many of the places we’ve been, but we were able to keep them under control in Malaysia.