Asia >> Southeast Asia >> Malaysia >> East Malaysia

East Malaysia (Malaysia Timur) occupies the northern third of the island of Borneo, shared with Indonesia and tiny Brunei. Covered in impenetrable jungle where headhunters roam (on GSM networks if nothing else), East Malaysia is rich in natural resources but very much Malaysia's hinterland for industry and tourism.

See East Coast (Malaysia) for the eastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Regions

Cities

  • Bintulu - coastal town and home of the world's largest natural gas processing plant
  • Kota Kinabalu - the largest city and capital of Sabah state
  • Kuching - largest city in East Malaysia and the capital of Sarawak state
  • Labuan - duty-free port and entry point to Brunei
  • Miri - resort city with an underwater world which has one of the world's most spectacular coral reefs & main departure point to UNESCO World Heritage Site Gunung Mulu National Park and Brunei Darussalam
  • Sandakan - second-largest town in Sabah, and home of Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre
  • Tawau - one of the best seafood in Malaysia & main departure point to Mabul, Kapalai and Semporna

Other destinations

Culture and History

Talk

Travel to East Malaysia - Visa Requirements

Kota Kinabalu is the main hub of the region, fielding an increasing number of international flights as well. Kuching also has a large number of mostly domestic flights, but there are services to Miri, Labuan and Tawau as well.

Tours and Getting around East Malaysia

By road

East Malaysia is large, distances are long and roads are relatively poor in terms of network when compared with the Peninsular.

Buses to East Malaysia

By air

Domestic flights are affordable and by far the fastest way to get around, especially outside the coastal region. Malaysia Airlines [1] and budget airlines AirAsia [2] links most major cities in Sabah and Sarawak as well as Labuan several times a day. MASWings [3], operates the rural air service which links interior communities, including those in the Kelabit Highlands, with coastal cities. Flights use Fokkers and turboprop aircraft. MASWings took over the rural air services network from FlyAsian Express on October 1, 2007, which in turn took the service over from Malaysia Airlines 14 months before that.

East Malaysia tourist attractions and sightseeing

East Malaysia city tours

East Malaysia Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

See Sarawak#Eat for indigenous dishes.

East Malaysia nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

East Malaysia cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels and lodging

Get out

Destinations in East Malaysia:

This page was last edited by Jani Patokallio. Based on work by Verus John, Leong Shen-li and E C Tan, Wikitravel user(s) Nzpcmad and Akubra and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license

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