DWB

It has charm, a lot of it. Has everything you may need as a foreigner too. Then again, so does KL. The heat... it's South East Asia, you can't escape it. Humidity too. Unless you want to live in a mountainous region somewhere (Vietnam & Thailand have some nice mountain cities), it's going to be hot and humid most of the time.

Unless you're wanting to get off the beaten path, KL really has it all. Food, nightlife, shopping, urban living, hospitals, and so on. Penang is nice, but it's slow paced, and from what I've found the internet sucks balls there. But they do have some killer condos on the ocean.

Both KL and Penang have plenty of tail, locals and imports.

Cost of living will be a little more than a lot of SE Asia, but petrol is really cheap. Everyone has a car too, so there is a lot of traffic. Not as bad as Jakarta or Bangkok rush hour, but it can get bad.

The locals are friendly. Many religions living together. But be warned, there is also a rapidly growing Muslim population there, as well is extremism. Just a week ago or so, someone set off a bomb in a disco in KL. It's also a VERY conservative country.

Probably a great place to raise a family and retire so long as the Muslims don't get too out of control in the coming years.