Malaysia

Malaysia comes in two pieces, parted by the South China Sea and drenched alike by equatorial rain. Peninsular Malaysia hangs from mainland Asia beside the Strait of Malacca, its spine the Titiwangsa range, with tea estates in the Cameron Highlands. Across the water, Sabah and Sarawak take up the north of Borneo, where the Rajang winds through rainforest and Mount Kinabalu rises above the clouds. At dusk, columns of bats stream out of the limestone caves of Gunung Mulu.

Around 1400 Parameswara, a prince from Sumatra, founded Malacca, which grew rich on ships waiting out the monsoon in the strait; its rulers took up Islam. The Portuguese seized the port in 1511. From the 1870s Britain drew the Malay sultanates under its protection, and tin mines and rubber estates brought workers from southern China and India. Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaimed Malaya’s independence in August 1957, and Malaysia was formed in 1963 with the Borneo territories and Singapore, which left two years later.

Malays, most of them Muslim, share the country with Chinese and Indian communities and the Iban, Kadazan-Dusun and other peoples of Borneo, and families of every faith keep open house at Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali. Nasi lemak, rice cooked in coconut milk, is the classic breakfast, and the badminton player Lee Chong Wei won three Olympic silver medals. Oil palms cover vast tracts, Petronas pumps oil and gas offshore, and Penang factories test and package microchips.