• Attend one of Malaysia's annual festivals, magnificent spectacles bursting with colour. Puja Umur (the Sultan's birthday) is celebrated with a week-long festival, beginning with a parade in Kota Bharu. The Annual Sabah International Dragon Boat Festival is also popular.

• Scuba-dive in the tropical waters off Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Prime sites include Layang Layang, Miri, Pulau Redang, Pulau Sipadan, Pulau Perhentian, Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and Labuan Island.

• Go jungle trekking in the Taman Negara National Park (website: www.tamannegara.org). There are many clearly marked trails including a canopy walkway. Expert guides should be hired from the Wildlife Department at the Taman Negara Resort at Kuala Tahan.  

• Ascend southeast Asia's highest peak, Mount Kinabulu (4,094m/13,432ft), located in the Kinabalu National Park. No technical skills are required, but a guide and a climbing permit (which can be bought on location) are compulsory.

• Play one of Malaysia's traditional, unusual sports, including gasing, or top spinning (called Main Gasing), which uses tops fashioned from hardwood and delicately balanced with lead, Wau-kite flying and Sepak Takraw, a game like volleyball, played with a ball made of rattan strips.

• Stay in a Malaysian longhouse, which are common along the rivers in Sarawak and Sabah, and are really entire villages housed under one single roof, inhabited by native communities. Visitors should be accompanied by a local guide.

• Relive Malaysia's colonial past at its oldest city, Malacca (website: www.tourism-melaka.com), a couple of hours south of Kuala Lumpur on the coast. Sights include the Portuguese enclave and numerous Dutch colonial buildings, as well as the distinctive Jonker Street, whose shops offer a range of traditional goods.

• Walk in the delightful parkland surrounding Tugu Negara, Malaysia's National Monument in Kuala Lumpur, which commemorates the ultimately successful struggle against the occupying Japanese during World War II and communist insurgents in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

• Bathe in the restorative waters of the Pedas Hot Springs, 30km (18 miles) south of Seremban. Visitors will find bathing enclosures, dining and recreational facilities.

• Stroll through the Tasek Perdana Lake Gardens, one of Kuala Lumpur's best-known natural landmarks. Within the gardens are Parliament House and the National Monument, an impressive brass structure and one of the world's largest free-standing sculptures.  

• Take in a spectacular cityscape from the viewing level of Kuala Lumpur's voluminous Petronas Twin Towers, which dominate the city at a height of 436m (1,453ft). Alternatively ascend the dizzying heights of the Menara Kuala Lumpur. 

• Relax on Penang's sun-kissed beaches (website: www.tourismpenang.gov.my), and explore historic colonial George Town, the island's capital. Penang is also famous for its food. 

• Spend, spend, spend in the free port and duty-free shopping haven of Langkawi Island, where pristine sandy beaches await at the end of a long shopping trip. 

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.