A world cruise is a living real-time school of geography, and for us, Malaysia — the former British colony which became independent in 1963 — was its stickiest lesson. The western section of the country is a peninsula bordering Thailand and includes the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The eastern area which spans an incredible distance of 400 miles across the South China Sea consists of two states on the island of Borneo. Borneo comprises 60 percent of the land mass of Malaysia, but only 15 percent of the population, which is ethnically diverse and includes Malay tribes, Chinese, Indians and Filipinos. It is a peaceful blend sue to strong rulers, a division of power — Malays in the government, Chinese in the economic sphere — and the fact that Singapore separated from the Malaysian Federation, taking a huge chunk of the Chinese population with it.

On day 74 of our cruise we entered the city of Kota Kinabalu, capital of the state of Sabah, on a swelteringly hot day and found a taxi whose driver assured us we would not “repent” hiring him because few of the other drivers spoke English. He was right and led us on a thorough and fascinating tour.

Our first stop was the State Mosque, an enormous building with gold-plated honeycombed tiles on the dome, built to hold 5000 worshippers. We left our shoes an the outer steps and put on robes. I wore a head covering as well. We visited the prayer Hall, where only men can pray; women are relegated to the upper floor. Since heat rises and there was no air conditioning I could only imagine how uncomfortable it must be.

Our drive was a Muslim and as he drove, we heard a clicking sound from his radio, similar to the noise of a car’s directional signal. Our drive explained that it was a summons to prayer for the faithful, but he ignored it and said he would pray later. He would, however, stay home from work on Friday, the traditional Muslim day of worship.

We drove past some very nice hotels, shops and beaches with “chocolate water;” polluted wasters, according to our guide, with sewage from residential areas. It is off limits to non-immune tourists, but accessible to the locals, whom we did see swimming.

We then arrived at the famous Sabah Building, a “suspended” edifice, so called because its cylindrical 30-story mass is perched atop a relatively small support base. We rode up to the eighteenth floor and entered a revolving restaurant where a large group of guests were in a long moment of prayer, preceding the birthday celebration of one of the pre-teen children. The view from the wide windows was picturesque, especially that of the building directly across, shaped liked an open book and separated from our tower by a long beautiful expanse of grass and flowers.

Our last stop was the impressive City Mosque, called the “floating mosque” because of the man-made lagoon in front of it. Blue and white, it was even more impressive than the State Mosque, but we were not allowed entrance.

We were very glad to have visited this unique place with our competent and friendly driver and guide. We did not “repent” it for a minute!

Next stop — the adjacent Sultanate of Brunei. Stay tuned.