Southeast Asia (or Malaysia/Singapore) Wrap-up

Both Malaysia and Singapore surprised me, especially since I thought I knew what to expect as I have read a decent bit about both countries and knew more about them than other places I visited. Malaysia surprised me most as I expected it to be somewhat similar to Thailand in that I expected it to be slightly frantic when at least the parts of it that I saw were a lot closer to what Singapore is like. In both I was particularly surprised by how friendly and welcoming everyone was in both countries. I was also very impressed with the food in both. The extent of the Chinese diaspora throughout SE Asia was something that I had not fully appreciated until seeing these countries either.

Another couple of observations:
1) The Proton. This is the local car in Malaysia that get some support from the government in that to protect the local auto industry their are high tariffs on imported cars. I knew about this, but it was cool to see them. Apparently, the Malaysian government is starting to let the ethnic Malays import the cars without the high tariffs, so I'm sure there will be some type of arbitrage that takes place to import foreign cars while circumventing taxes.
2) Shorts. Singapore is the only country in Asia that I've been to where you actually see some of the locals wearing shorts.
3) Singapore-Los Angeles. At times, walking around Singapore I couldn't help but think about how it paralled LA in that there is at least on a surface level a very materialistic culture. A lot of younger Singaporeans also dress like Southern Californians wearing lots of surf brands, etc.