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Malaysia’s palm-thatched beach resorts make for dream vacations…powdery white beaches hemmed by palm trees…tropical islands and rainforests filled with plants and animals you’ve never seen before. And it’s a haven for scuba divers—where I made my firstsnorkeling attempt, in fact.

But what few people realize is that it’s also a place you should consider for a longer stay…even retirement. It’s safe, cheap, there’s no real language barrier, and the country is simply beautiful. I would certainly jump at the chance to go back to this part of Southeast Asia for a longer period. A number of my fellow Brits are doing so through the Malaysian government’s “Silver-Haired 
Program.”

To spur economic growth, Malaysia is inviting  foreign retirees to live there as “permanent tourists.” You don’t have to be British, and you don’t need silver hair to qualify. The program, originally set up to attract western Europeans and Japanese, has recently been expanded to other foreign citizens. The only exclusions are Israelis and citizens of the former Yugoslavia.I think there are three good reasons why adventurous retirees should consider Malaysia. First, the language. Thanks to the British legacy, just about everybody speaks passable English. The country is populated by an ethnic mix of Malays, Chinese, Indians, and various indigenous tribal peoples. Although the official language is Bahasa Melayu, English serves as the lingua franca.

Second is the safety factor. Malaysia makes no apologies for being tough on crime, and I certainly never felt threatened during my trip. This is a place where they hang drug traffickers, and even minor offenses usually result in prison terms. Reading an English-language newspaper, I was shocked at the case of a man who got two years in jail for stealing fruit from a hawker’s stall. 

Third, and perhaps the most enticing reason, is Malaysia’s sheer diversity. Beaches, tropical islands, mountains, rainforests…historic cities like Melaka and Georgetown…national parks where you can encounter exotic plants, animals, and people who live much the same as they did thousands of years ago. You would never run out of sights to see, and domestic airfares are 
downright cheap. From Kuala Lumpur (which everybody calls KL), you can fly to the holiday island of Langkawi for $36. A ticket to Kuching in Borneo costs $69. Hotels are just as affordable—average nightly cost for double rooms in a 3-star Langkawi hotel is $50, a 5-star hotel $95. And once you’ve explored Malaysia, KL is an ideal springboard for more Asian discoveries…Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bali, and China. You must be 50 years old to participate in Malaysia’s retirement program, but if you’re married, and over 50, it doesn’t matter how old your spouse is.

The government obviously wants to bring in hard currency, but financial requirements aren’t overly prohibitive. You need about $31,000 in annual income per couple -- or about $15,500 per person, to qualify. Or you can transfer approximately $40,000 into a Malaysian bank account. (See the sidebar on the next page for details.)

If Malaysia is a mystery to you, there are two parts to this country of around 20 million people. Peninsular Malaysia stretches between Thailand and Singapore and includes the capital, Kuala Lumpur. East Malaysia comprises the states of Sabah and Sarawak, which lie in the exotic island of Borneo. Only an hour’s flight from KL, Borneo truly is the Land of Adventure. Don’t miss the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of all those dotty Victorian explorers. 
 
 

Anybody who has met me will know that I’m no Gung-ho Gertie. Yet during my trip I went jungle trekking, took a rickety riverboat safari, and was shown how to use a blowpipe by native Iban people who welcomed me into their longhouse and gave me tuak (rice wine) to drink. “Former headhunters’’ said my guide Masri—I still don’t know if he was joking.  Think it all sounds rather Third-Worldish? Not at all. Aside from Singapore, Malaysia is probably the most accessible of the Asian countries for sampling a West-meets-East lifestyle. Nobody expects you to live in a jungle longhouse with 100 other people—though 5,000 families do so on Borneo. Away from the rainforest, KL, and other Malaysian cities are modern, high-tech, 21st-century metropolises. Below the city skyscrapers are stroll-around parks, promenades, condo developments, and suburbs of neat bungalows. Many homes are real luxury affairs, dating back to Malaysia’s days as a British colony when rubber-planters lived like kings. The country is still part of the Commonwealth.

Health care meets Western standards with a number of private clinics serving KL’s expatriate community. GPs charge $7 to $13 for private patients. Private hospital wards charge $46 to $92 for single rooms.Yet despite the air-conditioned malls and supermarkets stocked with Western brand names, cities aren’t totally Westernized. Wherever you go, you’ll encounter the pasar malam, or night market. Some stalls are devoted to food and spices; others are festooned with curios and all the fashions of Freak Street. It was a tremendous novelty for me to see caged pythons, fishing fetishes, monkey skulls, and edible birds’ nests; hawkers peddling everything from chrysanthemum tea to coconut-laced laksa curry, giant prawns, and Indian roti bread. 
Wandering around the riverine town of Kuching in Borneo, I saw profusions of unfamiliar foodstuffs such as jackfruit, brown-skinned rambutans, and crunchy jungle ferns called miding. And although Muslim citizens don’t drink alcohol, there were scores of market bars and cafes, many Chinese-owned, with a clientele of mahjong players indulging a taste for Guinness.
 

For ecological adventure combined with lashings of hedonism, visit the Land Below the Wind. On Borneo, this is the nickname for the Malaysian state of Sabah, dominated by Mount Kinabalu, at 13,450 feet Southeast Asia’s highest peak. I enjoyed that wonderful snorkeling experience here, at the Tanjung Aru resort, part of the luxurious Shangri-La chain. Rates for doubles from $112 nightly. Tanjung Aru Resort, 88744 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; tel. (6088)225800/241800, fax 217155, e-mail: tah@shangri-la.com, website: www.shangrila.com. Watching the sun set like a huge red lantern over the South China Sea, I could have lingered forever, but I had a date with some orangutans! Malaysian Borneo is one of the few places left where you can still see these apes. “Meet Jaggo,’’ said the wildlife ranger, Danny. About three feet tall, covered in silky red hair, Jaggo had turned up for his afternoon feed of bananas. Obviously accustomed to visitors in search of the rainforest experience, our friend wasn’t camera-shy. He swung in for a close-up, landing only feet from where we stood. And then started lumbering forwards…

Maybe Danny’s story about the tourist stripped naked by orangutans was only a traveler’s tale, but I’m a complete coward. And so were my companions. I don’t know who whimpered, who shrieked, but picture this: ten unintrepid hotel guests scrabbling at breakneck speed up a jungle trail. Perhaps we’d all got the Wild Man of Borneo confused with King Kong, but it was nothing like what you see on the Discovery Channel.

Your dollar stretches a long way here. (On the shopping front, camera gear is particularly good value. I bought a 35mm Canon for half the cost of back home.) And amazingly I didn’t manage to get through all my vacation spending money for once. Lunch in a food court costs $2 to $3 for soup, a chicken dish, fruit, and beer. A slap-up dinner in a 5-star hotel ranges from $11 to $25. If you must have a Big Mac you’ll pay around $1.15. Eat Indian, eat Chinese, eat Thai…local seafood is delicious with Tiger Prawns, lobster, and crayfish appearing on most menus. Of course, everybody returns from Asia with at least one culinary horror story. Mine relates to a Chinese restaurant and a starter of cold jellyfish. I’ll usually try anything once, but this wobbling yellow abomination was just too disgusting even for my cast-iron constitution.

Most expatriates are in Malaysia to work and therefore lease properties, usually in and around Kuala Lumpur. However, under the “Silver-Haired Program,” foreigners can also buy homes. The climate won’t suit everybody—a country of tropical rainforests means tropical rain. Cities can get very hot and sticky, though conditions aren’t so humid along the coast and in hill-stations like the Cameron Highlands, famed for orchids and tea plantations. 

A recent survey on expatriate living costs by Malaysia’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry has monthly rentals ranging from RM2,000 (US$526) for furnished 3-bedroom condominiums in Petaling Jaya, to RM17,000 (US $4,474) for luxury colonial-style bungalows in KL’s swish Kenny Hills neighborhood. Smaller, furnished 1-bedroom apartments in prime KL residential areas start at $342 monthly. In suburbs such as Petaling Jaya the starting figure is $132. Spacious
bungalowsVillas and bungalows usually have four or more bedrooms, separate maid’s quarters, and huge gardens. Larger properties often have swimming pools too. Most expatriates living in these types of homes employ domestic help. (Monthly wages for live-in maids vary between $184 to $237; for live-out gardeners $53 to $73.) Normal facilities for condo apartments include 24-hour security, a swimming pool, a gym, and squash/tennis courts.

With tree-lined streets and well-stocked supermarkets, the Ampang, Ukay Heights, and Taman Tar districts are popular with expats of KL city center. Ampang is often called Ambassador’s Row because of the concentration of embassies and legations. Here the average-sized villa ranges from $1,974 to $2,632 monthly and often includes golf/country club membership. Villa rents are a bit higher in Kenny Hills, another swanky area.

Sought-after neighborhoods west of the city include Damansara Heights, Bangsat, and Pantai Hills. Homes here are mostly apartments and condominiums. 11 kilometers southwest of KL, Petaling Jaya is a satellite town, home to middle-class locals, where properties are far less expensive than in the expatriate enclaves. 

For buyers, small bungalows in suburbia start at around $28,950, though you can pay $600,000 or more for detached  properties in exclusive areas. Depending on the neighborhood, 2-bedroom condo apartments sell from $22,000 to $92,000. 

Useful property websites are www.centuryprop.com/ and www.malaysiarealtors.com. Also look under the real estate section of www.jaring.my for contacts. One agency experienced in arranging expat rentals for is Meridian Properties, 79A First Floor, Lorong Mamanda 1, Ampang Point, 68000 Ampang, Selangor Dasul Ehsan, Malaysia; tel. (603)457-2876, fax 457-4271, e-mail: shuf@tm.net.my