When the Dutch colonized Java in modern-day Indonesia they struggled with the equatorial heat.  They eventually figured out that the high volcanoes of Java provided cool temperatures—if you could get there.  So they built roads into the highlands & then developed hill stations where they could retreat.

The first time I came to the remote Kangean Archipelago—NNE of Bali—in Indonesia I yearned to take a peak at the untouched coral reefs & other underwater life there.