Kulai, just half an hour out of Johor Bahru, has a wonderful vibe with heritage sites lovingly preserved by locals and bounded by unspoiled countryside on three sides. It’s no wonder then that it’s one of Malaysia’s 10 happiest cities in 2024, according to the country’s official Happiness Index. It’s the only one from Johor to make the list, placing it in the company of Melaka, Cameron Highlands and Port Dickson.

Kulai was established in the late 1800s and got its name, according to local lore, when residents witnessed tortoises from flooded rivers wandering through the town – “gui lai” literally means “tortoises come”. Its economy is mainly agricultural although its closeness to JB and Singapore ensured Kulai never became a backwater town.

Growing up in 1960s “Kulai-fornia”, Malaysian journalist Subhadra Devan recalled how locals enjoyed TV and radio programmes from Singapore while she regularly crossed the Causeway.

Today, if you stick to the main Skudai highway running northwards through it, Kulai may look like any other Malaysian town, radiating haphazardly outwards thanks to land-grab developers with their “imaginative” tract suburbs.