Unlike catty Kuching and swanlike Sibu, Miri is sadly lacking in animal analogies, perhaps because it’s just too casually urban for any to spring to mind. After all, the rapid growth of this former fishing village was founded on industry and services, par
A peripheral fishing village on the east coast of Johor, Mersing would be an inconsequential blip on the road to Kuantan were it not the hopping-off point for boats to Pulau Tioman and other islands of the Seribuat Archipelago. Travellers passing through
One of Malaysia’s most eagerly sought-after destinations, the small city-state of Melaka (Malacca) lures droves of visitors to its namesake historic port city, where they are quickly steeped in an intoxicating multicultural world of heritage architecture
Marudi is a quiet river town situated inland from Miri, similar in size to Kapit though nowhere near as busy. Its main attraction is yet another of the Brooke outposts, the beige wooden Fort Hose (admission free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun), built in 1901 and named
Rajah Brooke’s former kingdom of Sarawak sprawls along the northwest coast of Borneo – a vast expanse of secondary forest and palm-oil plantations that gives rise to jungle-clad mountains along the border with Indonesian Kalimantan.
The mere mention of the word Borneo conjures up a host of vivid images: thick jungle teeming with wildlife; wild rivers flowing through tunnels of overhanging trees; orang-utans swinging through forest canopy; craggy mountains soaring above the steaming l
No relation to Lund in Sweden, this quiet little town sits between the forested bulk of Gunung Gading National Park and the Sungai Kayan. To most travellers it’s simply the transport node for the national park, but people here are friendly and there are f
If you’ve only seen Limbang on the map, you may be in for a surprise when you rock up expecting a backwoods outpost and find a prosperous, bustling river town. Tourism is pretty much an irrelevance here, so there are few reasons to stay over, but trekkers
As much a weekend retreat as a conservation area, Lambir Hills National Park is only 30km from Miri by road and is primarily popular with city residents, who come by the carload to visit the pretty waterfalls, natural swimming pool and riverside picnic sh
Like Sandakan, Lahad Datu is a busy town set on a lovely bay, with a hill at its back and a slightly scrappy water village on its outskirts. This area of eastern Sabah is known for its pirates, who eschew Johnny Depp romanticism in favour of speedboats an