Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur runs on contrast — glass towers next to street-food stalls, five cultures overlapping in one city. The Mandarin Oriental anchors the high end of that, with a bar worth a stop just for the cocktails and the view. The Sheraton Imperial sits in the Golden Triangle business district, a few steps from Little India, close enough that an afternoon walk in a different direction each day covered the whole city.

Fly an hour out to Langkawi and the country changes completely — rainforest instead of skyline. The Datai puts you deep enough in the jungle that monkeys let themselves into open rooms; ours walked straight through an open door while one of us was napping. Temple Tree looks run-down from the outside — dogs barking, everything quiet — until you step inside and find a house furnished entirely in antiques, more like walking into a vintage shop than a hotel. And on Penang, the Eastern & Oriental Hotel has been the island’s standard for luxury for over a hundred years, built originally by four Armenian brothers, the Sarkies.