“Allow me to tell you about Langkawi,” requests my driver after he has deduced—perhaps because I have my face pressed against the window of his taxi—that I am a newcomer to his native isles. “We are a ...

Cabdrivers, bellboys, and even randomly encountered people on the streets of Langkawi will tell you about the legend of Mahsuri, a 19th-century princess whose husband, after believing a false ...