Our favourite places in Malaysia

Gaudy, artificial, and just a little bit insane, Sentosa Island is Las Vegas meets Disneyland meets sprawling beach resort — Singapore-style.

Almost a timewarp to the Singapore of the 1960s, the little island of Pulau Ubin is the perfect counterpoint to the city’s urban sprawl.

We tend to think that Singapore is a little overrated as a shopping destination — with the exception of Orchard Road.

If you’ve got a list of things you want to do and see in Singapore, the chances are most of them are at Marina Bay.

East of Chinatown and north of Kampong Glam, Little India has the same old-fashioned, village-like feel as those districts — but with a distinctly Indian flavour.

Kampong Glam is a little glimpse of the Singapore that used to be, with dinky convenience stores, scruffy cafés selling butter coffee and old men hanging out at barber shops.

Established by the Dutch but named after an Englishman (architect Hugh Holland), European influence of all sorts has radiated out of Holland V for decades.

If the Civic District is the grand older statesman of Singapore, Clarke Quay is its rebellious, party-loving teenager.

It’s hard to imagine that when the Civic District was first built, its domes, colonnades and and gleaming white walls looked out over primary jungle.

Come to Chinatown to experience Singapore at its most traditional and its trendiest, side-by-side.

Nearly everyone who comes to Singapore will begin their journey in Changi, but very few will actually get out and explore. All the more reason why you should.

How many desert islands do you know who’ve won an Oscar? Perhaps that’s stretching it a bit, but there’s a good reason Time Magazine named Tioman the most beautiful island in the world in 1970 – and it hasn’t lost any of its charm for us.