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As for language, it depends where in Malaysia.

Big cities are easy, but smaller towns can be more challenging.

Culture is different, but not wildly so. It's just you'll find more Chinese style stuff.

As for your main questions, there's plenty of people here who can probably help you.

... Such as since we have 2 dogs and 4 cats (all from Indonesia) that are fully vaccinated and fixed, is it possiable to bring them ? When we moved to Indonesia it was not easy to bring our dog but we did it....
Steve - @Opa steve

Bottom of this page, titled "Moving with your pet to Malaysia" (Link)

Good luck with your move.

"MM2H: Tax-free personal items: Participants can bring their personal items and pets into Malaysia without paying taxes "

Not sure about cars.   

Suggest you join this ***

[link moderated]

There are many MM2H agents in the group who will be more than willing to answer your questions. 

English is widely spoken in the cities in Malaysia.  And Malaysia is more developed than Indonesia; better infrastructure and healthcare.

Hope you are aware that you need to buy a property for MM2H and Sabah-MM2H.   No such requirement for Sarawak-MM2H.

Good luck!

How is life in Sulawesi? Sounds interesting, my wife is from East Java! I am based in KL - feel free to drop me an email ***e be happy to try assist with info.

@immersed

I did not know about the buying of property.  We have no intention at this point of buying any property.  Thanks for info.

@Fred

Well we are not looking for a big city , we have lived in a little village in indonesia for the last 8 years or so and we  love it . I guess the best thing to do is explore some differant areas and see how the language problem is going to be . We are just looking to be able to have conversations with some people beyond the hello , how are you and where are you from .

@daviddomoney

We live in a small rural village and love the kicked lifestyle . For the most part its been wonderful but its about time for a change ( maybe) . We still dont want to live to close to a big city .

@Fred
Well we are not looking for a big city , we have lived in a little village in indonesia for the last 8 years or so and we love it . I guess the best thing to do is explore some differant areas and see how the language problem is going to be . We are just looking to be able to have conversations with some people beyond the hello , how are you and where are you from . - @Opa steve

I lived in a tiny village for two years - I can see your point of view as my own experience was nothing short of fantastic.

I've visited a good few in Malaysia, those including one of the British built Chinese 'Communist' villages.

The British realised Communists were stealing from Chinese villages and forcing the men to fight, so they built new villages surrounded by fences and provided armed guards.

The people, judging by their reaction to me, loved it.

They refused my money everywhere, insisting on paying for everything. That apart, they were lovely people so it was an absolute pleasure to visit.

As you would expect, few people spoke English, just as the same was true in very small Malay villages.

Towns have far more English speakers.

It it came down to it, I would say Indonesia is the better place, but I have nothing bad to say about Malaysia

Horses for courses

@Opa steve

If you do not want to buy property (neither do I), then your options of retiring in Malaysia are the Sarawak-MM2H and the Premium Visa PVIP.  Good luck!

Peninsular Malaysia MM2H (required to buy property)

Financial Requirements

Applicants must demonstrate financial stability by meeting fixed deposit and property investment criteria:

Platinum Category (20 years):

Fixed Deposit: USD 1 million (~MYR 4.5 million).

Property Purchase: Minimum MYR 2 million.

Gold Category (15 years):

Fixed Deposit: USD 500,000 (~MYR 2.25 million).

Property Purchase: Minimum MYR 1 million.

Silver Category (5 years):

Fixed Deposit: USD 150,000 (~MYR 675,000).

Property Purchase: Minimum MYR 600,000.

SEZ/SFZ Category (10 years):

No proof of offshore income required.

Property Purchase: Exclusively in designated zones and directly from developers.

Premium Visa program (PVIP)  20 years --- not required to buy property

Financial Requirements

Minimum Offshore Income    RM 40,000 monthly or RM 480,000 annually.

Minimum Fixed Deposit in Malaysia    RM 1 million.

Withdrawal Limits (for approved expenses) after 1 year    50% withdrawal permitted for the purposes of purchasing real estate, education or medical expenses.

Annual Pass Fees    RM 2,000 per year.

Participant Fees    Main Applicant: RM 200,000

Dependent: RM 100,000 per person

Wondering what the OP thinks about the above MM2H options.

I guess what you need to do is figure out whether you can afford to move to Malaysia under MM2H or whether you want to lock up so much money since the cost of doing that is massive compared to the cost of living in Indonesia. Also, if the higher levels of MM2H are too expensive then do you want the government to tell you where you can live especially knowing that you must buy a new apartment or house from their designated Developers. The price you might pay to the Developer might be higher than what you could sell the property for at a later date, and also are you in fact allowed to sell your property if the requirements are that you must buy a property. It might just be worth moving to another part of Indonesia or to Thailand or Vietnam?

@wyngrove60

Looking into it , im agreeing with you . The idea of having to buy a house is a deal breaker.  We are now considering just doing extended visits to Malaysia. Maybe doing 3 or 4 weeks at a time a few times a year in different areas. To tell the truth we love living in indonesia, even if we have to go to Singapore for world class medical care, which we did this year. .

  We are exploring a couple different areas in indonesia just to get out of our rut. In fact this week we are looking at some places in the highlands of North Sulawesi where the weather is cooler. Right now we live a few hundred meters from the ocean so it gets warm and humidity is up there.

  You might guess from the name that we are senior citizens,  and you would be right.

I'm sort of a senior citizen myself. Yes since you can visit Malaysia with a tourist visa for up to 3 months at a time, definitely a good idea to consider doing that. Malaysia also has pretty good medical and probably a lot cheaper than Singapore. I had two operations when living there, one on my knee and one for a slipped disc, both were successful. I would not really want to have those done in Indonesia...lol

I'm sort of a senior citizen myself. Yes since you can visit Malaysia with a tourist visa for up to 3 months at a time, definitely a good idea to consider doing that. Malaysia also has pretty good medical and probably a lot cheaper than Singapore. - @wyngrove60

3 months now and again is a bit of a winner. Malaysia has a very wide selection of very interesting places to visit, and a great variety of foods available.

I have soft spots for KL, bits of Perak province, and Malacca.

We were thinking we would just start in Johor and work our way up to KL . Is there any problems with renting a car with a Indonesian drivers license, a Indonesian residence card and a U.S. passport ?

  Other choice is take train to a area then rent a motor bike for a week at a time .

Not sure about the driving license but I'm sure someone here knows. When I lived in Malaysia I had my UK driving license and an IDP (1949 Convention) but never got stopped but I assumed it was enough.

If you want to know for certain, you could contact Hertz or Avis or another rental car company in Malaysia and ask them the requirements. Alternatively go onto any of the booking sites such as booking.com, ticket.com, traveloka etc and click on car rentals and then send a whataspp message to the car companies to ask them. They will tell you exactly what documentation you will need to drive in Malaysia.

@Opa steve

Sounds fantastic is it near Manado?

@daviddomoney

Just a bit down from manado ..Desa Mokupa

Interesting. Which part of Malaysia you were thinking? I am in KL although probably worth looking at Kuching in Sarawak!