3 ways to experience the best of Malaysia culture

Enter the melting pot that is Malaysia and gain fresh insight into our fascinating world.

With sprawling rainforests, bustling city centres and coastal strips shimmering in the unwavering sun, Malaysia consistently cements itself as a sun-chaser’s dream destination. Throughout its long, complex history, Malaysia has evolved and adapted to cater for its steadily growing population; a distinct mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and other indigenous ethnic groups have all made contributions to the Malaysian culture we see today. From the architecture and culture to the cuisine, no place proudly showcases multiculturalism quite like this tropical slice of bliss.

Comprised of 13 states, three federal territories and two regions split by the South China Sea, it can be a tall order to see and do everything that makes the country one-of-a-kind. To truly get a feel for the deep roots of Malaysia’s heritage, divide the trip into three bite-sized holidays: Malaysia’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, Malay culture and its Indigenous influence.

malacca unesco village at night, malaysia — Step into Malaysia’s unique history and culture.

1. UNESCO World Heritage sites

Take a quick one-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Penang, home to delectable dishes that promise to keep mouths salivating long after the first taste. The cause of this mouth-watering phenomenon is the diverse culinary influence sparked by the cultural landscape of Penang. Across hawker markets and Michelin-starred restaurants, you’ll find unique flavours, like Peranakan cuisine, a Chinese and Malay fusion that draws from the best elements of both.

a street food vendor in penang cooks up a tasty dish — Be captivated by mouth-watering dishes in Penang.

Feast on a steaming bowl of nasi ulam nyonya in the heart of George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its immaculately preserved architecture and mind-boggling street art. Wander the Street of Harmony to see Malaysia’s multitude of cultures and religions side by side, then stay at Cheong Fatt Tze (The Blue Mansion), an iconic boutique heritage hotel displaying Baba Nyonya heritage.

A 90-minute drive from Kuala Lumpur lies Melaka, yet another Malaysian UNESCO World Heritage city. Float down the Melaka River and stare, mouth agape, at the rainbow of ancient buildings lining the winding path of water. Also, reserve at least one evening for the famous Jonker Street Night Market. Weave through the jovial marketgoers and explore an array of stalls selling everything from eccentric knick-knacks to moreish fried oysters (a must-try for any seafood connoisseur).

Spend hours engrossed in the history of the Cheng Hoon Teng temple, Malaysia’s oldest running place of worship, or uncover the curious background of A Famosa, a Portuguese fortress that has been standing since the early 1500s. History buffs will have an absolute field day.

Melaka Straits Mosque in melaka malaysia — See the stunning historic buildings lining Melaka’s banks. (Image: Asnida Marwani)

2. Malay culture

Stunning temples and mosques dot the state of Terengganu, an intriguing location that emphasises the country’s impressive flare for architecture.

Roughly four kilometres from Terengganu’s city centre sits Terengganu Cultural Village, a ‘living museum’ designed to immerse visitors in Malaysian culture. Much of the museum is interactive, with smaller villages making up the expansive complex. Venture to the museum’s fishing village and sample keropok, a savoury fish cracker fried in sand. The cooking method reflects long-held Malaysian traditions and is just one of many nods to the country’s ancestors. A visit to Terengganu Cultural Village highlights the diverse nature of the state and encourages guests to interact with every exhibition they come across.

Deep frying keropok lekor — Savour the crunch of keropok.

For a glimpse into 17th-century life, Terrapuri Heritage Village awaits travel-weary guests. Just over an hour’s drive from Terengganu Cultural Village, the resort is a restoration project that incorporates 29 ancient homes flanked by the South China Sea and the Setiu Wetlands. This inviting resort has everything required for a restful pitstop: a refreshing pool, private villas, a world-class restaurant and an onsite spa. The combination of 100-year-old buildings and modern luxuries is enough to warrant whiplash in the best way possible.

Terengganu Cultural Village in Malaysia — Immerse yourself in Terengganu’s rich heritage at the Cultural Village. (Image: Faizah Othman)

Once Terengganu has been thoroughly explored, depart for the neighbouring state of Kelantan. The ‘Cradle of Malay Culture’ is true to its nickname, as visitors can expect a whirlwind of traditional music, festivals and performances honouring the country’s customs. Stop by Gelanggang Seni, a cultural centre in Kelantan’s state capital of Kota Bharu, and witness a range of authentic Malaysian pastimes including top spinning, shadow puppetry, the art of self-defence and ceremonial drumming.

After the eyes and ears have been satiated, it’s time to treat the taste buds at Siti Khadijah Market. Kelantanese cuisine shines at this sprawling collection of stalls. Indulge in nasi tumpang, which resembles a rice-laden ice cream cone wrapped in a banana leaf, or nourish the soul with a hearty Siamese laksa.

Kota Bahru’s cultural zone also includes Handicraft Village, where you can inspect a range of intricate embroidery, expertly made silverware and learn about the craft of batik.

a vibrant array of fruits and vegetables at Siti Khadijah Market in malaysia — Explore a vibrant array of fruits and vegetables at Siti Khadijah Market.

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3. Indigenous culture

The indigenous peoples of Malaysia make up approximately 11 per cent of the entire country’s population, and their influence on the culture is as prevalent as ever.

The first stop on the final leg of this cultural tour is Sabah, a state teeming with natural landmarks and vibrant beaches. Sabah’s Mari Mari Cultural Village doubles as a living museum and attendance helps preserve the culture of Borneo. Visitors are able to participate in long-standing traditions; peek behind the curtain of ancient tattoo-making, listen to enthralling folk stories, and taste Indigenous cuisine. Once the tour is complete, head to nearby Kiansom Waterfall for a swim to stave off the humidity.

Monsopiad Heritage Village, in the cultural centre of Donggongon, offers a different perspective on the Malaysian way of life, shining a light on the Kadazandusun people. Go back to over three centuries ago, when Monsopiad occupied the very village guests see before them. The House of Skulls is an eerie yet essential stop, as is the onsite restaurant providing visitors with local specialties.

Sarawak Cultural Village in Kuching, Malaysia. Sarawak Cultural Village is a popular touristic destination in Borneo, Malaysia — Experience long-standing traditions at Sarawak Cultural Village.

Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia, marks the final destination to round out this whirlwind adventure. Here, 26 ethnic groups coexist in this tropical paradise on the coast of Borneo, boasting enough natural wonders to satisfy the most adventurous of travellers.

While travelling around the city, one destination needs to be visited first: Sarawak Cultural Village. Occupying 17 acres of land, this living museum is dedicated to the Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Chinese, Malay, Melanau and Penan peoples. Join local guides in beadwork and paddy pounding, or observe an award-winning dance troupe showcase their talents twice a day.

The Sarawak Iban Longhouse Homestay is a two-day tour that starts in Kuching and ends at Iban Longhouse. Guests have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of the Iban tribe, learn traditional hunting methods, eat meals sourced from the land, and celebrate the culture through dance as they journey along the river and roam through tiny villages and rubber fields. Once at the longhouse, they have the chance to mingle with the locals and listen to their wealth of knowledge. To become fully entrenched in the local way of life, stay overnight in a working longhouse with resident tribespeople for a unique and insightful experience.

local woman in sarawak cultural village — Learn about local tribes and their traditions.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

3 ways to get up close and personal to Malaysia’s unique culture

Enter the melting pot that is Malaysia and gain fresh insight into our fascinating world.

1. UNESCO World Heritage sites

2. Malay culture

3. Indigenous culture

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These community homestays are changing how travellers experience Nepal