Malaysia

🇲🇾 Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur (KL — "muddy confluence" in Malay, named for the meeting of the Klang and Gombak rivers where tin miners settled in the 1850s) is one of the most dramatic skylines in the world: the Petronas Twin Towers (the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004, the defining image of Malaysia's emergence as a modern nation) rise from the heart of a city of 1.8 million (7 million metro) that is simultaneously Malay, Chinese, Indian and colonial British in its character — the most diverse capital in Southeast Asia. KL's food scene is the finest in Malaysia: nasi lemak (coconut rice with ikan bilis, peanuts, egg and sambal — the national breakfast), char kway teow from a Chinese hawker, roti canai from an Indian mamak stall, and banana leaf rice in Brickfields (Little India) — all within a 10-minute walk of each other. The city also has some of the most extraordinary religious architecture in Southeast Asia: the Batu Caves (272 steps to a Hindu temple inside a limestone cavern above KL), the Sri Mahamariamman Temple and the Masjid Jamek (at the original muddy confluence, 1907).

🇲🇾 Malaysia

Langkawi

Langkawi (Pulau Langkawi — 'Island of the Reddish-Brown Eagle') is an archipelago of 99 islands (99 is the traditional count; the actual number is 104) off the northwest coast of the Malay Peninsula, 30km from the Thai border in the Andaman Sea — Malaysia's most famous island destination, designated a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2007 (the Langkawi Geopark — one of the first two UNESCO Geoparks in Southeast Asia, recognising 550-million-year-old geological formations that are among the oldest rocks in Malaysia). Langkawi is also a duty-free zone (since 1987, by royal decree — the exemption from customs duty and liquor tax makes Langkawi the only place in Malaysia where alcohol is significantly cheaper than in Singapore, and the island is a major destination for Malaysian shoppers). The main island (Pulau Langkawi, the largest of the 99) has three very different landscape zones: the beaches of the west (Pantai Cenang — the main tourist beach, 2km of white sand; and Pantai Kok, a more secluded bay with dramatic limestone karst hills rising directly from the sea); the mangrove rivers of the north (the Kilim Geoforest Park — where the Kilim River passes through limestone karst caves, mangrove forests, and eagle feeding stations); and the interior rainforest (Gunung Raya — Langkawi's highest peak at 881m, with Sika deer, hornbills, and the Langkawi Sky Bridge). Best months: November–April (dry season).

🇲🇾 Malaysia

Putrajaya

Putrajaya is Malaysia's federal administrative capital — a purpose-built city designed from scratch in the 1990s on 4,931 hectares of former palm oil plantation 25 km south of Kuala Lumpur, conceived by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as the administrative showcase of Malaysia's development vision (Vision 2020) and inaugurated in 1999. Where Kuala Lumpur is the financial and cultural capital, Putrajaya is where the Malaysian government actually runs: all federal ministries, the Prime Minister's Office, the national courts, the police headquarters and the National Palace residence (Istana Nurul Iman, the official royal residence, the largest palace by floor area in the world at 257,000 m²) are located here. The city is built around Putrajaya Lake (a man-made 400-hectare freshwater lake created by damming the Chuah River) with the iconic pink-domed Putra Mosque (2,000 capacity, pink granite from Oman, 1999) and the Prime Minister's official complex (Perdana Putra, a palace-like green-domed building) both reflected in the lake — a photograph from the Putra Bridge at dusk with the mosque and PM complex reflected in the calm lake is one of Malaysia's most iconic images. The architectural ambition of Putrajaya is extraordinary — each federal ministry building has a different architectural style (Moorish, Islamic Renaissance, neo-classical) and the 4 km-long Persiaran Perdana (the main boulevard) is lined with landscaped gardens and monumental government buildings that deliberately recall Washington DC's National Mall; the entire city is designed to impress as the visual statement of an emerging Asian nation.