cheapest way to travel within Asia?

I'm going to be in Malaysia for several months, but I thought that while I'm there, I may like to check out some of the surrounding countries. What is the cheapest/safest/best way to go about doing this, and where do I book travel tickets from?

You can either travel by rental car, bus, taxi or flight.
If you are staying in Kuala Lumpur, you can purchase bus ticket at Pudu Raya Bus station. It has buses cover mostly the entire malaysia.
The next alternative is Flight. I will suggest Airasia as it's more affordable than MAS airline . You can book online for tickets within or outside malaysia. http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/home.jsp
As for rental cars, you can book online as well. http://www.kuala-lumpur.ws/hawk/
http://www.mycen.com.my/malaysia/car_rental.html

Cheapest way, I believe is to travel by bus. However, if you are not familiar with a new place, I would advise you to rent a car. At least you get to enjoy the scenery along the way and do not have to worry about hiring a taxi or catch another bus for food or shopping. You are the master of your own time.

If you are traveling outside malaysia, maybe the rules doesn't apply.

I'd been surfing trying to learn as much about Malaysia for a future trip there. Let me share what I got as this could interest you as well. Please visit this link and explore for yourself.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Malaysia

lol you and i have the same travel plans it seems

ill be gone from Nov 28th to Jan 27

I'd say you can travel to Singapore by Coach or train(?), cheap airline tickets to like Sabah- i heard they were like 50 bucks
from KL.

I'm thinking of crossing the border into thai as well... dunno how i'll do that, prob by bus.

email me if u want: Ghostmanno@hotmail.com

Air asia is definetely the best bet. You can look at it now and buy on line. They also do good deals with hotel thrown in too. the best land travel is buses. you can get the nice nice bus which is very comfortable with the chairs declining and drink provided. Do not go by train as it takes so much longer and stops just about everwhere. If you want to go to Thailalnd , you can cross the border to go to hat yai and puchase a entrance visa there. If you are in Singapore tiger airways are pretty good

Train will be the cheapest but will take the longest.