Batu Ferringhi

It's hard to believe how this highly commercialised strip of scenic beachfront could have fared as a fabled haunt of the seventies' hippies. Any discernible concrete substances on the coast today are unmistakable edifices of mass tourism. A dozen or so five-star joints, and many more down the grades, betray over 20 years of package tourism designed specifically for Japanese travellers of the bubble economy era. A nocturnal bazaar of trinket shops, budget restaurants, rowdy bars and discos have now been added to the list of unforgettable experiences that the cant slogan promises. A must in Malasya