TRAVELING in style : The SPIRIT OF THE EAST : Malaysia and beyond: Instant tropics. Instant poetry. And all the cliches--palm-fringed beaches, sapphire seas, plus exotic, exciting cities in which yesterday and today intermingle.

I should like to rise and go

Where the golden apples grow;

Where below another sky

Parrot islands anchored lie . . .

--Robert Louis Stevenson

THAT POEM OUT OF CHILDHOOD swirled into mind when I first saw Malaysia, slipping down from the sky upon the island of Penang. Instant tropics; instant poetry; all the cliches of palm-fringed beaches, sapphire seas, and the natives are friendly: I fell in love.

There’s something antic about Malaysia, from Sarawak and Sabah, the lands below the wind on Borneo, to the northern tip of the peninsula in Perlis--a paradise (in my mind), a land similar in size to New Mexico, nudging Thailand on the north, looking across the Straits of Malacca and the Java Sea to Indonesia on the south. The capital is Kuala Lampur; the people are mainly Malay, then Chinese, then Indian. And this, I should add, has been declared Visit Malaysia Year.

The real Malaysia is a kaleidoscope, shifting in color, in meaning. Now see the fresh, almost 21st-century face of K.L., surely the most architecturally stunning city in Asia. Sun, shadow: Ponder the green depths, the oldest jungles on the planet, where lemurs still leap and gibbons chatter in the trees. Sip gins-and-tonic at ye olde English E&O; Hotel in Georgetown, Penang; play squash at the Hyatt Kuantan; feast on satay and nasi padang or hold your nose and bite the odiferous, addictive durian.

Buy batiks or Selangor pewter or Kelantan silver. Watch Wayang Kulit, the ancient shadow-puppet theater; shoot the rapids in a longboat on Sarawak’s Skrang River; hike to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah, loftiest peak in Southeast Asia, and ogle the world’s largest plant, the Rafflesia; slip down through multi-hued, warm waters at Pulau Tioman.

But Malaysia is only one tile in the vast mosaic of Southeast Asia.

In Singapore: Visit the new-old Empress Place Museum; pray for the Raffles Hotel to reopen soon; dine (eat, actually) at Banana Leaf Apollo and Newton Circus carpark; dine at the Shang Palace at the Shangri-La; skip Tiger Balm Gardens but not Jurong Bird Park; shop.

In Bangkok: Take an expansive dinner outdoors at Chit Pochana downtown and lunch at the Oriental Hotel’s more expensive version across the Chao Phrya river after a visit to the legendary Jim Thompson’s House (now a Museum). If you can see only one temple complex, make it the Royal Palace at the Wat Phra Keo.

In Manila: Don’t miss the Bayanihan dinner show in the Maynila Room of the Manila Hotel; visit Intreamuros, the beautifully-restored Spanish walled city; shop for all your summer clothing at Tesoro’s or one of its branches.

In Jakarta: Inspect the National Museum and then leave for Jogjakarta; have nasi goreng for breakfast at the Ambarrukmo Palace; detour to Borobudur, the largest, most amazing Buddhist temple in the world.

In Hong Kong: Take salmon and champagne in the lobby of the Peninsula; breakfast in your room at the Regent; ride the new tram to Victoria Peak and lunch at new Peak Restaurant. Then a ride on the Star Ferry sets a mood of romance.

Wherever you wander, breathe in the magic that is Asia, which old hands insist should include a journey by hydrofoil between Hong Kong and Macao--that ancient Portuguese enclave where intrigue is rife along busy streets and in acient temples and fortunes are exchanged in casinos with a roll of the dice and the spin of the roulette wheel, day and night.