Malaysia holidays

Malaysia is South-East Asia's most-culturally-diverse country — the Malay-Chinese-Indian-Indigenous mix is woven through the food, the religious holidays, and the daily street-life. The headline experiences: Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers (twin 451m skyscrapers connected by a sky-bridge), the colonial-and-Chinese heritage of George Town in Penang (UNESCO — the world's greatest street-food destination per many lists, with hawker stalls, the China House cafe, and the painted-wall street-art quarter), the temple-and-British-hill-station town of Cameron Highlands for tea plantations and strawberry farms, the dive scene at Tioman Island and the Perhentian Islands on the east coast (cheaper and quieter than Thailand's islands), Malaysian Borneo's Sabah and Sarawak for the headhunters-turned-ecotour Iban longhouses and the Mount Kinabalu climb and the orangutan rehabilitation centres at Sepilok and Semenggoh.

A 14-day Malaysia trip: Kuala Lumpur (3 nights — Petronas Towers, Batu Caves Hindu temple, the Central Market, the Jalan Alor street-food, KL Tower sunset) → Penang/George Town (3 nights — the UNESCO old town walking, the clan houses Khoo Kongsi, the hawker centres at Gurney Drive and Lebuh Chulia, the Penang Hill funicular, day-trip to Penang National Park) → Cameron Highlands (2 nights — BOH tea plantation tour, the Mossy Forest hike, the strawberry farms) → fly to Kota Kinabalu (1 night) → drive or fly to Sandakan for Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Kinabatangan River wildlife (3 nights at the Sukau Rainforest Lodge or similar) → optional Mount Kinabalu climb (2 nights — book months ahead, the summit is a sunrise hike) or Sipadan diving (3 nights — the world's top dive site for big-fish action, requires advanced certification).