Cycling is starting to develop in SE Asia and it's been getting quite popular in Malaysia over the last 10 years or so. Here in Brunei it's still pretty small but growing every year, in September we will have the first Tour de Brunei
http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/2011072052632/Sports-News/le-tour-de-brunei-sept-7-11.htmlUnfortunately with Brunei's lack of organisational ability I can see it being a bit of a cake and arse fest (without the cake).
There are a few races each year but the Brunei federation has a bizarre rule on only accepting teams. I fully agree with some of the comments about culture and cycling being seen as a poor persons activity. Most Malay people are obsessed with their cars (and most of them drive like loonies) and would see riding a bike as a backward step; the only people you see riding a bike for transport are the south Asians on BN$12 a day or silly Orang Puti like me.
The roads in Asia aren't particularly cycle friendly, a large proportion of my training ends up on dual carriageways (Google earth Brunei, we don't have many roads).
Despite having had import duty removed from bicycles and accessories it is still very expensive to buy a reasonable quality bike here (add around 20%) and the choice is limited; I recently bought 2 metres of SIS outer cable to finish off my latest project which cost me about 16 pounds
As I said though, things are getting better here and you see more and more locals out on bikes training (I saw 4 yesterday, a record). Asia has its own cycling magazine, Cycling Asia which is 50% local content and about 50% reviews from C+ and What Mountain Bike. The UCI Asia tour is also growing pretty rapidly, I think we will see more Asian riders moving into the Europe tour in the next few years.