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landscape is delicately soothing. In the Cameron Highlands, north of Kuala Lumpur you will find tea plantations among the undulating hills, echoing the spirit of Darjeeling in India.

Along the eastern coast you have hundreds of miles of screensaver beaches. Undisturbed and unhurried you can spiral away into a blissful trance of relaxation. Sprinkled all down the east coast and to a lesser extent down the west coast you can find a profusion of idyllic islands. It is both a crime and a blessing that these gemstones of tropical paradise are largely overlooked by the rest of the world.

The People
Hopefully my analogy for the Malaysian people will be taken in the right way, because my intentions are purely complementary. But I can't fail to see the parallels between the Malays and the Hobbits of Tolkein's Lord Of The Rings. Malaysians are polite, friendly, open, honest and courteous. If you left your bag down in the street, someone is more likely to run after you to give it back than they are to steal it. A friend and I were once wandering aimlessly around the streets of Melaka blankly staring at our map, totally perplexed. Within minutes a smiling local pulls up alongside in his car and offers to take us wherever we wanted with no charge. These acts of random kindness are the norm, not the exception in Malaysia. The Hobbit similarities don't stop there. Malaysian people are peaceful and their harmonious way of life is best illustrated in the exemplary relationship the different religions enjoy there. With large numbers of Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddists living in Malaysia you might think this would be a recipe for unrest. Quite the reverse is true however. In Malaysia there are national holidays for all four of these major groups and they even celebrate each others festivals. And when Malays celebrate they celebrate with food. This is something else they share with Hobbits their passion for food. Oh sweet heaven on earth, what wonderful food it is too. They have taken the spice and flavour from the Indians and the exotic ingredients and fragrance from the Chinese to create a rapturous fusion of gastronomic delights. You don't go to Malaysia to lose weight. It is staggering that Malaysians are such a slight race as their passion for food is capacious. Hawker stalls selling a bewildering array of foods line the roadsides both in the cities and in the remotest corners of the country.

The sense of community and family values are very profound, even in the capital,

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