In the middle of Lake Temenggor, Banding Island is the starting point for expeditions into ancient rainforest filled with over 3,000 types of flowering plant and more hornbill species than anywhere else in the world.

Not just a desert-island idyll (though they’re that too), their exceptionally calm, clear and shallow waters make the Perhentian Islands the ideal place to snorkel or dive amongst damselfish, neon-bright anemones and stingrays.

With green, rolling hills and cool mountain air, the Cameron Highlands are your chance to escape the heat for a day and picnic among strawberry farms, wander colonial-era tea plantations or search for medicinal herbs in mist-cloaked moss forests.