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Marco Ferrarese
SCMP contributor
Marco Ferrarese has covered Malaysia, the rest of Southeast Asia and India from his base in Penang since 2009. He holds a PhD in subcultural anthropology and his debut novel Nazi Goreng, a quirky subcultural thriller set in Penang, was published by Monsoon Books in 2013 and banned by Malaysia's Ministry of Home Affairs in 2016.
An alternative to Nepal’s Poon Hill, Mohare Danda has comparable views, a fraction of the crowds, and benefits local women and families
Aceh offers visitors encounters with orangutans without the crowds, great coffee and now even ATMs to draw cash from, two decades after devastation visited Indonesia’s strict Islamic province.
Enter Malaysia’s new Rompin State Park and you may think a dinosaur is about to stroll by, such is the primeval nature of its rainforest. We explore the park from a comfortable, modern eco-retreat.
Thai-Malay language film The Cursed Land plays with the vernacular beliefs of a Thai Muslim community, distilling its converging yet contrasting elements through horror for the first time on screen.
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A dystopian thriller that plays on Malaysia’s ethnic tensions, Pendatang is the country’s first entirely crowdfunded film that, thanks to its YouTube release, should dodge the censors, its makers hope.
Rain Town, which debuts this week at the Silk Road International Film Festival, is a Cantonese family story set in Malaysia’s Perak state from Malay director Tunku Mona Riza.
Tourists are drawn to the homestays of northeast Sarawak, Malaysia, for jungle adventures and to sample indigenous culture. Farmers who have planted coffee bushes hope the project will be another visitor draw.
Malaysian island Penang is the country’s first place to ban Airbnb and similar short-term lets, after receiving numerous complaints about unruly tourists disturbing local residents.
‘I didn’t expect to win three awards,’ says Malaysian movie producer Jin Ong of his feature-film directing debut, Abang Adik, a tale of two impoverished Malaysian brothers, which triumphed at festival in Italy.
Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes will be the first film by a Malaysian woman filmmaker to feature at the Cannes Film Festival. The director tells the Post about her fascination with the horror genre.
Netflix drama Hunger, about a Bangkok noodle cook who goes to work for a ruthless celebrity chef, uses haute cuisine to comment on inequality in Thailand and the hunger for success of rich and poor alike.
A slow trip aboard one of Indonesian company Pelni’s fleet of long-distance, all-economy-class ferries that link cities and remote islands affords the chance to see the country in a way few tourists do.
Malaysia’s Penang state boasts at least 30 hiking trails, many of which are now comprehensively mapped, so hikers can better enjoy the area’s outstanding natural beauty.
Borneo’s critically endangered pygmy elephants are being thrown a lifeline in a softwood plantation, which offers safaris where tourists get to see the wild animals and contribute to their conservation.
‘On a very slow roller-coaster ride’ is how the director of Malaysian dark comedy Spilt Gravy on Rice describes his feelings as he fought to get the film past the country’s censors.
A livelihood versus conservation debate has blown up over price hikes at Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, where the entry fee is set to rise 2,400 per cent, from US$10 to U$250.
Malaysia has announced Southeast Asia’s first fully fledged digital nomad visa, in a bid to become the region’s preferred choice for remote workers – but knocking Bali off its perch may prove difficult.
The Lenggong Valley archaeological sites are where the oldest human skeleton in Southeast Asia was found, but this Unesco World Heritage site is neglected and lacks infrastructure. Can passionate locals change that?
The first Bahasa Malaysia-language film to win the Fipresci Prize at the Locarno festival, Stone Turtle follows a refugee who sells turtle eggs illegally. Woo Ming Jin and producer Edmund Yeo tell the Post about their film.
Following the success of 2017’s Satan’s Slaves, director Joko Anwar is back with a sequel, Indonesia’s first IMAX movie, that expands on the ‘cinematic universe’ introduced in the first movie.
Taman Negara national park in Malaysia is home to some of the oldest rainforest on earth, and abundant wildlife. Trekking through it with native guides is the journey of a lifetime, even if the tigers are elusive.
Three new hiking trails in Taiping, in Perak state, take visitors through jungle and past waterfalls to hilltop colonial buildings that offer accommodation – just beware of the leeches.
Scene UnSeen, a new documentary set to debut at the Singapore International Film Festival, sheds light on the Lion City’s alternative music culture and bands’ struggle to develop.
Filmed in black and white, Prebet Sapu, which explores race relations and shattered dreams in Kuala Lumpur’s darker recesses, will compete in next year’s Academy Awards.
Rainforest a million years old and botanic gardens in a reserve stretching down to the sea; Unesco designation creates an opportunity to draw visitors to Penang Hill’s natural attractions.
![Young orangutan at Bukit Piton Forest Reserve. 
[FEATURES] Photo / courtesy of Simon Werren](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/540x360/public/d8/images/canvas/2021/09/09/cdcda982-9c8a-4f4c-a1fe-d03bac844ea5_ac8d36fe.jpg?itok=orhYdH3g&v=1631172707)
Wildlife tourism is hard work in Malaysian Borneo, requiring a slog through jungle with no guarantee of success, unlike an African safari. Planting fig trees could change that, say conservationists.
The Malaysian director’s adaptation of Moonlight Shadow by Banana Yoshimoto has been hailed by the Japanese author as a masterpiece of elegance. Yeo is full of praise for Nana Komatsu’s performance in the lead role.
Twitter commenters say Hollywood will ruin the remake, despite the involvement of Malaysian-Australian horror-film veteran James Wan, as producer, and Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto.
Behind the gritty violence of Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is an attack on Indonesia’s history of toxic masculinity. Its director talks about its message, and reacts to the movie’s Swiss film festival win.
The resort island group will be the first in Malaysia to reopen to tourism, in September. However, many operators wish to move away from mass tourism and promote sustainability.
