At the end of October I spent eight days travelling around Malaysia with four other Kiwis and an Aussie, experiencing some of the many and varied sights, tastes, smells and sounds of the place.

After a ten-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur we carried straight on to Penang, a small island off the northwestern coast of the mainland.

We stayed at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel, a grand building built in 1885 and graced over the years with the presence of famous writers, movie stars and politicians.

The austere atmosphere of the E&O was a welcome haven at the end of our days exploring the island.

Penang is a melting pot of cultures with Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnicities all muddled in together, as well as the colonial influence of the early English settlers, and the result was a sensory overload to my Western eyes.

It seemed like every second building in Penang was either a food stall or a place of worship.

Temples of every religion and mosques absolutely abound on its streets, and we visited them all. (Malaysian food is such an exhaustive topic I'll be devoting a whole separate story to it!)

Happily, our visit coincided with the Indian festival of Diwali or Deepavali, meaning added excitement everywhere we went.

In Penang, the Indian quarter's streets were humming with activity - stores spilled out onto the footpaths, music was blaring, decorations were everywhere and traffic and pedestrians squeezed through wherever there was room.

As well as people, Penang is lushly populated with all kinds of plant and animal life.

We encountered many of these critters at the Penang Butterfly farm: not just gorgeous butterflies, but also tarantulas, scorpions, reptiles and creepy crawly bugs.

As if that wasn't enough we added to the mix the venomous pit-vipers at the Snake Temple, where I got a little closer than expected to some of the inmates...

After a quick change of hotel (to the extremely luxurious Shangri-La Rasa Sayang) we headed onto Peninsular Malaysia for a couple of nights in the Cameron Highlands, another very British spot.

After temperatures of 35 degrees and higher in Penang, it was a relief to be in the comparatively cool hillside country - but we had to laugh when we were told this was where Malaysians come to experience cold weather. It was still 27 degrees!

The mountain slopes of the Highlands are home to many tea plantations and market gardens, with strawberries being a favourite crop. Everywhere we went there were shop stalls selling strawberry-themed items - slippers, umbrellas, cushions and soft toys - as well as the real thing.

By this stage I was starting to acquire a taste for the finer things in life, and staying at the Cameron Highlands Resort only served to increase my enjoyment.

Just to make my time there completely hedonistic I was given the ultimate in pampering treatment: a three-hour strawberry sensation that left me blissed-out and smelling fruity for the rest of the day.

From the Highlands we headed back into the fray - our final destination was the thriving metropolis of Kuala Lumpur, a shopper's paradise.

From the hustle and bustle of the night markets on Petaling Street to the high-end deluxe offerings at the Pavilion Shopping Mall, we combed the city for bargains, pausing only to eat and relax.

In KL (nobody calls the city by its full name - there's no time!) we were put up at the spectacular Ritz Carlton for a taste of inner-city style and comfort.

The last night we stayed somewhere even more special - the Carcosa Seri Negara, a pair of historic mansions high on a hill overlooking the city, where the world's royalty stays when in town.

Luckily I wasn't informed until the next morning that my room was meant to be the most haunted in the entire complex. Not that I believe in that sort of thing (er, I think).

I'll be writing in more depth about my Malaysian adventure over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to this blog and to our News and Features pages to hear about stupefied snakes, fish that eat your feet, giant Buddhas, tongue-piercing rituals, the Michael Jackson of the jungle and so much more.

Oh, and the food. Don't worry, you'll hear all about the food...

Amy Williams travelled to Malaysia courtesy of Malaysia Airlines and Tourism Malaysia.