Blue waters, green jungles and a cultural rainbow

Forests

Malaysia sires the habitats of orangutans, proboscis monkeys and corpse flowers.

The ape's appellation translates as "forest person". The monkeys' monikers come from the species' teapot faces. And the world's biggest flower takes its nickname from its stench, which resembles a cadavers'. Pahang's Taman Negara is often misattributed as the world's oldest virgin forest.

It's not. But it's close.

The 130-million-year-old wilderness hasn't been disrupted since the days of the first known bird relative,

Archaeornithura meemannae, an early Cretaceous creature discovered in China last year. Today, 400 avian species flutter through the foliage.

It claims the world's longest canopy walk, 45 meters above the ground-at its lowest.

It'd be the kind of trek where you'd say "don't look down" if tigers, gaur and crab-eating macaque didn't prowl below.

Sabah's Kabili-Sepilok Nature Reserve hosts an orangutan rehab facility, the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre and an institute where volunteers can tag and measure sea turtles.

Sabah's Kinibatangan sails river safaris through forests inhabited by wild elephants, Sumatran rhinos and monkeys.

Sarawak's Bako National Park's 16 hiking trails slice through 30-square-kilometers into seven distinct ecosystems, including beach, mangrove and peat swamp.

The reserve hosts nearly every flora found in Borneo. Monitor lizards, silver-leaf monkeys and bearded pigs rustle among bursts of leaves.