The cultural melting pot of Southeast Asia, Malaysia seamlessly blends the flavours of the Orient, India and Europe.

The country naturally focuses on its new millennium metropolis of a capital, Kuala Lumpur. With the iconic Petronas Towers lighting the way, KL, as it's commonly known, has the polished panache of a Western capital combined with the frenetic nature of an Asian city, making it the ideal gateway to the rest of Malaysia and, indeed, to Southeast Asia.

It's difficult to believe you're in the same country when you travel from urban KL out into the countryside. With three-quarters of the land covered in dense and ancient rainforest, it is rich in natural attractions that will appeal to the spirit of adventure in us all. Explore Borneo and the states of Sabah and Sarawak, and you'll find Malay tribes still inhabiting longhouse river settlements just as their forefathers did for centuries before - an amazing juxtaposition with the modern capital.

Although the inhabitants exhibit the customary frenetic nature of this part of the world, Malaysia manages to somehow exude an air of laid back casualness, an insouciance born of the fact that for centuries people have chosen to come here without Malaysia itself having to make much effort.

Visitors haven't always been as welcome as today's tourists, but that doesn't stop the traditional Malay hospitality from being expressed. Prepare to slip into Southeast Asian life, with ease..

Geography

Malaysia is divided into Peninsula (or West Malaysia) and East Malaysia, consisting of the states of Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan on the island of Borneo. Altogether this totals a surface area of about 330,000 sq km.

The peninsula connects to Thailand by the slender Isthmus of Kra and borders Singapore in the south with Indonesia in the west. It is framed by the Straits of Melaka on this side while the South China Sea separates it from East Malaysia. This eastern counterpart covers most of the northern part of Borneo while sharing borders with Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia in the south. The Sulu Sea divides it from the Philippines with the Celebes Sea in the southeast. Altogether, Malaysia comprises 13 states.

In terms of topography, the Peninsula is divided by the Titiwangsa mountain range with its highest peak, Gunung Tahan (Mount Tahan) at 2187m. The highest peak in Malaysia, though, is Gunung Kinabalu in Sabah, which rears 4101m from the Crocker mountain range, making it the highest peak in Southeast Asia.

An estimated three-quarters of Malaysia is covered by tropical rainforest, which counts among the oldest in the world, between 70-100 million years old. The rest has been cleared for cash crop cultivation. There are many rivers, the longest being Sungai Rejang (Rejang River) in Sarawak, which measures 563km from source to its mouth on the South China sea.

Seasonal monsoon rains and high humidity levels of 80% accompany an average temperature of 27-30 degrees centigrade throughout the year.