Malaysia

If you linger in Lahad Datu, and hook up with Bike & Tours, you can learn to cook the Borneo way, dive and snorkel the local reef and shipwreck without the Semporna/Mabul crowds, or go mountain biking up and down Mt Silam for scenic views of Darvel Bay. It's a far cry from the first glance of this little coastal town, which appears to have a lively produce market, dry-goods market, sun-scorched buildings and very little else. Travelers who breeze through en route to Tabin Wildlife Park and Danum Valley, arriving on early morning flights from KK and spirited away immediately, are missing out. Lahad Datu's location, roughly halfway between Semporna and Sungai Kinabatangan, makes it an ideal place to fly into from KK if you're looking to commune both with sea creatures and orangutans.

With a sweeping white beach bordered by coconut palms, this small village of guesthouses and shops is a very popular spot for surfing, windsurfing and general beachfront slacking. Outside of the surf season, Cherating can be dead quiet, which only adds to the appeal, with the occasional sound of a guitar strumming between the rustling palms or the heavy thud of a falling coconut.

Cave temples, drowned forests, a town famous for bean sprouts – Perak's highlights are a motley group. This rugged swathe of Peninsular Malaysia is as rewarding for trekkers as gastronomes. Perak (literally 'silver', a nod to its tin-mining boom times) receives only a modest stream of international travellers, but to Malaysians, its attractions are totemic: white coffee, colonial-era architecture, limestone bluffs.

For travellers’ purposes, there are essentially two facets to Kedah: the tropical island of Langkawi and its surrounding islets, and the rural, little-visited mainland, known as Malaysia’s ‘rice bowl’.

You don't have to look too hard to find traces of old KL in Chinatown's shophouse-lined streets, which border the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers. This is where the city was born, reached its teenage years with the development of Chinatown and celebrated its late 20s with the establishment of the British colonial ensemble around Merdeka Square. The Malay fort that once topped the jungle-clad hill Bukit Nanas has long gone, replaced by one of the city's most recognisable landmarks, the Menara KL telecommunications tower.

Johor is Malaysia's most populous state and a growing economic power player. Most travel itineraries skip it, but those who stray into the southern gateway to Malaysia will be rewarded with the blissful solitude of its postcard-perfect islands and wild jungles, while getting access to a taste of authentic Malaysian culture and character not easily found in bigger tourist hotspots.

Lyxbungalows på pålar är ju inte direkt förknippat med budgetresande. Men det finns hopp även för den som har en skral reskassa. I Malaysia kan man nämligen checka in i en villa på vattnet för 97 dollar per natt, eller cirka 815 kronor.

Malaysia’s northeasternmost state is often considered to be a waypoint between Thailand and the white-sand beaches of Pulau Perhentian, Redang or Kapas. Those who don’t linger miss out experiencing a stronghold of traditional Malay culture and one of Southeast Asia’s great buffer zones, combining a distinctive blend of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Thai cultures.

This compact Malaysian state's catchphrase – 'Don't mess with Melaka' – sums up its confident attitude. Recent years have seen Melaka capitalise on its illustrious history and assert itself as one of Malaysia’s most irresistible tourist draws.

Johor’s capital city of Johor Bahru (JB for short) has been repaved and replanted and is well on the way to rebranding itself, after years of being habitually criticised as a dirty, chaotic border town.