Temple of Charm

At the Temple Tree resort, www.templetree.com.my, in Malaysia's Langkawi archipelago, purring cats are ready to trail you everywhere. If you allow it, a friendly four-legged fur ball will curl up at the foot of your bed, or rest on your shoulder as you make yourself a cup of tea. And if you get really attached, you can sponsor the little cutie for as little as $14 a month. Australian resort owner Narelle McMurtrie's 15-year-old animal shelter, the Langkawi Animal Shelter & Sanctuary Foundation, has grown so enormous — yielding, at last count, 130 dogs and 150 cats — that she opened Temple Tree, her second hotel, to help finance her all-consuming charity project. (See pictures of high tea in Malaysia.)

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The property lies on Pulau Langkawi, the largest of the islands. Like McMurtrie's Bon Ton resort next door, Temple Tree is a collection of antique timber houses from all over the country, and its 2.5-acre (1 hectare) compound looks somewhat like a museum of traditional Malaysian architecture. These nine houses, mostly derelict and abandoned when McMurtrie saved them, have been painstakingly disassembled, moved and reassembled in what was once a field thick with reeds. Original features have been lovingly restored. (See 10 things to do in Singapore.)

Every house is idiosyncratic. The most stately is the five-bedroom Colonial House built by Arabian goldsmiths in the 1920s. The sexiest is the two-bedroom Penang House with a wooden bathtub parked in the living room. The most compelling is the richly decorated, century-old Chinese farmhouse overlooking the mountains and Temple Tree's 110-ft. (33.5 m) pool. There are also five "estate rooms," built into a 1940s longhouse from a rubber plantation in Ipoh. It used to house Indian workers, but not, one surmises, in the same style that guests now enjoy.

A 1920s Eurasian house that once stood on Penang's York Road is the location of the resort's reception and restaurant. You can also book yoga and culinary classes here (McMurtrie is a great cook and her desserts are legendary). And if you need to escape this leafy idyll for a while, your cat will walk you to reception, where you can charter one of McMurtrie's yachts for a sunset cruise.

Rates at Temple Tree start from around $135 a night.

See 10 things to do in Hong Kong.

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