To know Malaysia is to love Malaysia - a bubbling, bustling melting-pot of races and religions where Malays, Indians, Chinese and many other ethnic groups live together in peace and harmony.

It would be difficult to overstate the attraction of Malaysia for anyone who appreciates the natural world.

Its primal forests, ranging from shoreline mangrove to mountaintop oak, are of the sort that most of the world now knows only in myth.

Although Malaysia's size is similar to that of Norway, natural trees and forests cover almost three quarters of the land, an area equivalent to almost the entire United Kingdom. One can walk for hundreds of miles in Malaysia under a continuous canopy of green, marveling at an abundance of plant and animal species equaled by no other location in the entire world.

A single half-kilometer plot of land in Borneo's lowland dipterocarp forest, for example, may well contain more than eight hundred different species of trees alone, a stunning degree of variety that pales, however, in comparison to the profusion and diversity of flowers, birds, ferns, and insects.

Your Web Guide To Malaysia's Wildlife and Nature

Surveys identified that there are 8,000 species of flowering plants which inclusive of 2,000 tree species, 800 types of orchid and 200 types of palm besides being home to more than 200 species of mammals, 600 different bird varieties, 140 species of snakes, 80 types of lizard, 300 species of fresh water fishes and thousands of insects making their home in the rainforest.

Besides the many splendid sights in Malaysia's National Parks, visitors can enjoy an exhaustive tour of thrills and spills during their visit--boating through swirling rapids or between emerald green islands, stalking big game and fly-fishing for giant carp, bird-watching, mountain climbing, spelunking, swimming in placid river waters, or camping amidst giant tropical trees.