Kuala Lumpur was never known as Asia’s coolest city, but one of its top nightspots is looking to change that. Traders Hotel, Shangri-La’s sleek downtown property, just re-launched its rooftop lounge, SkyBar, with a sexy new design (pictured). Already regarded among the world’s best bars, the 33rd-story hotspot offers floor-to-ceiling views of the Malaysian capital and the planet’s tallest twin towers. Within SkyBar’s soaring open-air space, there’s a 78-foot-long swimming pool ringed by plush window-side banquettes, some of which are only accessible via a narrow poolside plank. (Though swimming is off-limits during bar hours, the staff is quite used to fishing out over-enthusiastic revelers and garnishing them with “I Got Wet at SkyBar” t-shirts.)

A newly renovated spa overlooks the lounge from the second level, and at night the massage cabins throb with whatever the rotating roster of DJs is spinning. globorati recently visited at this hour, and we can vouch that, while loud, the atmosphere makes for a surprisingly transportive rub-down (it sure beats an Enya track, anyway). After your “Deep Impact” massage, you can kick back at SkyBar with an equally witty cocktail, like the signature “Mata D’Or,” or some tapas from the newly added “culinary bay” (think oyster shooters and open-face wagyu burgers).

But for real culinary buzz, you’ll have to head to Traders’ sister hotel, Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur, where a new chef at the fine dining restaurant, Lafite, is shaking up the land of satay with a dose of molecular gastronomy. Young Canadian, and French Laundry alum, Damon Campbell has reinvented the menu with such concoctions as “vaporized scallop,” the “Inside Out Pizza” (fresh bread topped with tomato “cotton candy” and crispy cheese), and “64 Minus 10” (a pre-dinner drink combining frozen and hot foam forms of whisky sour). Campbell’s prowess with carbonation and spherification, not to mention hands-on interaction with his guests, has already earned Lafite a fan base — headed by none other than the Queen of Malaysia.