Good country, exhausting tourist industry

Malaysia is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. Batu Caves is worth every superlative thrown at it. The laksa is legitimately excellent. extraordinary multicultural food scene gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Kota Kinabalu is relentlessly commercial and public transport outside KL is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic Malaysia and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.