Comparison DR and Malaysia

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by Stephan

When comparing the two countries on a DR message board, the needs of a big part of the DR clientel should be taken into consideration

Very good point, Stephan!

I am often so engulfed in my own little etnocentrist view of the world, I forget about stuff like that. So thanks for yanking me back to the real world!

[Robert]

Originally Posted by Stephan

Voyager wrote:



Ok, lets talk business then:
Quite a lot of DR - Travellers are after the sort of Night Life you wont find in abundance in Malaysia.
Especially the ladies wont be pleased by the animation staff day and night, the Gentlemen would not get the "bang for the buck" they are used to in DR.
When comparing the two countries on a DR message board, the needs of a big part of the DR clientel should be taken into consideration

Actually, that's not true. This represents a very small percentage of overall visitors to the DR.

[Escott]

Originally Posted by Voyager

To Stephan:
I don't go to Malaysia for the night life.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the electricity is working here!

I have heard that terrorism is on the rise there. Can you comment on that?

There are a lot of us that live in the DR and are from North America probably find the DR a more convienent place to live because we return to where we come every once in a while and have relatives and friends visit us. I have my dad coming this month, my daughter coming next month and friends coming in April. I think I would be hard pressed in getting them to travel half way around the world.

I also enjoy going to the States to visit. I was there at the end of last summer and traveled from Washington DC to Upstate NY and will go again at the end of March for a week. I also like the current administration in the US so I have NO problems there. There are plenty of Europeans visiting the US because they find it cheap there.

Escott

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by Escott

I have heard that terrorism is on the rise there. Can you comment on that?

...

There are a lot of us that live in the DR and are from North America probably find the DR a more convienent place to live because we return to where we come every once in a while and have relatives and friends visit us. I have my dad coming this month, my daughter coming next month and friends coming in April. I think I would be hard pressed in getting them to travel half way around the world.

Escott

I have also heard that there is an increasing risk for terrorism in Malaysia. However, this is nothing you notice as a visitor. I talked to some locals here and they told me that there is a "time bomb" ticking in the Malaysian society.

However, I have a feeling that all of this is more related to tension between different groups (ethnic, religious etc) rather than "terrorism".

About the distance, anyone with a map can see that DR is closer to USA than Malaysia is. However, if you live in Europe, and many visitors to DR to that, then Malaysia is at a similar distance.

[Stephan]

Originally Posted by Voyager

I have also heard that there is an increasing risk for terrorism in Malaysia. However, this is nothing you notice as a visitor. I talked to some locals here and they told me that there is a "time bomb" ticking in the Malaysian society.

However, I have a feeling that all of this is more related to tension between different groups (ethnic, religious etc) rather than "terrorism".

About the distance, anyone with a map can see that DR is closer to USA than Malaysia is. However, if you live in Europe, and many visitors to DR to that, then Malaysia is at a similar distance.

Flights:

Frankfurt - KL nonstop 13 hours
Frankfurt - POP nonstop 9 hours

The tension in the Malaysian Society is and has been mainly between the majority which are moslems ,called "bumiputras" and the very strong chinese minority. The latter almost dominate business life, leading to pogroms in the past.
The administration has been anxiously trying to change these facts by promoting these "sons and daughters of earth" in different ways.
Saudi Arabia tries to mission their "Wahabism" way of Islam like everywhere in the moslem world.The results are obvious.
Guess why the locals are talking about "time bomb".

[bertgilbert]

Originally Posted by Voyager

Some weeks ago, AZB wrote a travel report from Pakistan (!?), so I guess I can submit this little comparison between DR and Malaysia.

It's all about comparisons, isn't it? Isn't that what people do when they write on dr1 that Dominicans are the friendliest on the planet and the beaches are the best?

Any prices below have been converted from Malaysian Ringit to Dominican Pesos.

At the moment, I am in Cherating, a small village on the east coast of Malaysia. The flight here is 45 minutes from Kuala Lumpur.

Accommodation

Bungalow on the beach, with h/c shower and own toilet: 350 pesos per night
Suite in resort style place: 1000 pesos per night (but not AI)

Dinner

Three dishes with water to drink, is 200 pesos.

Large beer in beach bar is 75 pesos. (And I do prefer Tiger or Chang beer to the boozy-tasting Presidente. My personal opinion!)

Food is typically steamed fish with soysauce, woked vegetables (kaulan is soooo good!) and fried rice or noodles. I kind of prefer that to mangoo...

Roads

Excellent quality. I still have to try and find even one pothole. People seem to drive a little more sensibly than in DR. (This is my third visit to Malaysia, and this impression is only more reinforced on each visit)

Safety

I have a hunch that criminality is lower than in DR. Can not prove it by statistics but this is my gut feeling.

Language

Everybody (I mean EVERYBODY!) speaks English, which is great for me. Some people also speak German. In DR, as everybody know, very, very few people speak foreign languages.

Media

There are newspapers in English. In DR, I find it difficult to stay informed, unless I use internet.

The book shop at the airport in Kuala Lumpur has a better selection of English language books that Thesaurus in Santo Domingo... Weird, isn't it?

Friendliness

Low and behold and would you believe it? Also in Malysia people actually smile! From reading dr1, I sometimes get the impression that DR has the world wide licence for smiling... Wherever I go here, I meet tremendous friendliness.

Location

Well, travelling from Middle East, it is certainly easier for me to go to Asia than to Caribbean. Using Kuala Lumpur as starting point, I also find more variation in other destinations than using Santo Domingo as starting point.
This is my very personal opinion, so please don't kill me for having it.

(I exlude USA as destination from DR, and that is for political reasons. I refuse to go there during the present administration.)

Well, depending on where you live and what you want to do and what your requirements are etc, maybe Malaysia is a good alternative to DR? I certainly like it a lot!

Wow, if everyone were like you, no one would go anywhere, I don't like castro, so I guess I won't go to Cuba, Don't like Paul Martin, I should move out of Canada, don't like the Queen, I guess England is out of the question. Is in it the reason to travel to go where people are different, yip yip they speak english in Malaysia, is that a term for malade, that's french for sick, malaise, that is also french for an ailment. German, glad to see they go over there also, this board is all about the Dr, so when I read this board, I don't want to see anything but. If you go to only places that you aggree to there political views, I guess you are stuck with only Malysia, or was it malaise

[ALB3]

I have spent quite a bit of time in Malaysia as well. As for the majority speaking English, lets not forget that Malaysia was a British colony and still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. As for the time bomb, I think it is more historical than religious. There was a civil war between the Muslim Malays and the strong and powerful Chinese minority. This war was squashed when the UK introduced troops. Malay society is divided three ways ethnically. The Malay majority, the ethnic Chinese, and the Indians. There has always been tension between these groups. The Malays control the politics and the Chinese dominate business. An interesting fact is that Malaysia has two sets of laws. One for Muslims and one for non-Muslims. There may be festering tensions but the Malaysian has done a good job of supressing these tension and keeping it below the surface.

The DR has not had a civil war, as far as I know, and hopefully the DR will be able to solve its problems without a civil war erupting.

Malaysia is a great tropical nation with great people and great food. For me, Singapore would be a better choice. The same mix of people except the Chinese are the majority and there is significantl less ethnic/religious tension. You can drive across the bridge to enjoy all that Malaysia has to offer.