Introduction

     On the week of March 12 thru March 18, 2016, I had the privilege of visiting the country of Malaysia on a business trip.  Prior to this journey, to me Malaysia was just some faraway place on the faraway continent of Asia, a continent where (to the best of my knowledge) no one in my immediate family had ever been.

Malaysia

      My first task, then, was to research the question:  where the heck is Malaysia?  I learned that it is located in far southeast Asia, and that there are two separate parts:  the western section, at the end of the Singapore peninsula, and the eastern section, on the island of Borneo.  The two sections are separated by 700 miles of open ocean.  The entire nation is within 5° north of the equator, which puts it squarely in the tropics.

       The western section, it seems, was more scenic and more often visited by tourists.  But I would be going to eastern Malaysia, to the city of Bintulu, in the state of Sarawak.  It is a big industrial center, with a population of a little over 100,000.  (Similar to Lake Charles, in many ways.)

Bintulu is a big shipping center. The port main building is designed to resemble a ship.