Malacca and the Cameron Highlands, peninsular Malaysia slowly

Peninsular Malaysia is a long finger of land between the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea, joined to Thailand in the north and nearly touching Singapore in the south. Most visitors fly between its highlights, Kuala Lumpur, the islands, the beaches. Travelling up the west coast by road reveals a richer story: of a trading world that drew in merchants from across Asia and Europe, and of the hills where the British went to escape the heat.

Malacca, the port everyone wanted

In the fifteenth century, Malacca, or Melaka as it is now spelled, was one of the most important ports in the world. It controlled the strait that bears its name, the narrow sea lane between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula through which the trade between China, India and the Middle East had to pass. Its sultans grew rich on the spices, silks and porcelain that passed through its harbour.

Such a prize attracted Europeans. The Portuguese captured Malacca in 1511, and built a great fortress, A Famosa. The Dutch took it from them in 1641, and the British in the nineteenth century. Each left a mark. Of the Portuguese fort, only a single gateway survives, the Porta de Santiago. The Dutch left the Stadthuys, a solid red administrative building on the main square, now a museum, and the red Christ Church beside it, which give the old town its colour. On the hill above stand the ruins of St Paul's Church, where the missionary Francis Xavier was briefly buried.

Malacca is also the heartland of the Peranakan, or Straits Chinese, whose ancestors were Chinese traders who settled in the region and married into local families. Their culture is a mixture of Chinese and Malay traditions, with its own cuisine, Nyonya cooking, and a love of ornate decoration. The narrow streets of the old town, such as Jonker Street, are lined with their elegant shophouses. In 2008, Malacca and George Town in Penang were jointly inscribed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, as historic cities of the Strait of Malacca.

Up to the highlands

North of Kuala Lumpur, a winding road climbs into the Cameron Highlands, a plateau in the central mountain range at around fifteen hundred metres. They are named after William Cameron, a British surveyor who mapped the area in the 1880s, and the colonial government developed them as a hill station in the 1920s and 1930s, a retreat from the heat of the lowlands.

The highlands are cool, misty and green. Their slopes are covered in tea estates, neat rows of bushes contouring the hills, first planted in the 1920s, and some of them are open to visitors, with tea rooms looking out over the plantations. There are also strawberry farms, vegetable gardens and nurseries, and the half-timbered hotels and bungalows that the British built to remind themselves of home. Paths lead into the surrounding forest, which is rich in orchids and birds.

Ipoh, Penang and the north

Further north, Ipoh is a city that grew rich on tin in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a handsome old town of colonial buildings and Chinese shophouses, and a reputation for some of the best food in Malaysia, including its famous white coffee. Kuala Kangsar, the royal town of the state of Perak, has the golden-domed Ubudiah Mosque.

Penang, an island off the north-west coast, was the first British settlement in Malaya, founded in 1786. Its capital, George Town, is a lively mixture of clan houses, temples, mosques and street art, and Penang is often called the food capital of Malaysia.

The tours

Explore Worldwide's Malaysia and Singapore Explorer, eleven nights, travels the length of the west coast. It starts in Singapore and visits Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, the Cameron Highlands, Ipoh, Kuala Kangsar and Chenderoh Lake, before reaching Penang and the island of Langkawi. It runs through most of the year, apart from July and August.

Just You's Wild Borneo with Kuala Lumpur Add-on, fourteen nights for solo travellers, is mostly about Malaysian Borneo, with Kota Kinabalu, Kiulu, Papar, Kinabalu National Park, Ranau, Sandakan, Abai and Sukau, and ends in Kuala Lumpur.

The west coast is hot and humid all year, with rain at any time, though the north-east monsoon from about November to March mostly affects the east coast. The Cameron Highlands are pleasantly cool in any month, and after a few days in the lowlands, a jumper in the evening can feel like a luxury.