I didn't see anything in the news... Was KUL-PEK a normal route for this pilot? Makes a lot of sense to have and practice on runways in the area you take off or land into the most.
The Maldives are pretty darn scenic, the landing strip is a tiny island and a 777-rated pilot wouldn't have been flying there with MAS; some of his friends might have been. And even landing somewhere as run-of-the mill as Changi can be made less dull by doing it on the military runway in a storm - it's a lot easier on a sim when you don't have to explain your actions to ATC
And there are enough plane spotters amongst the aviation enthusiast community to suggest that the real aviation industry equivalent of reimplementing of "Hello World" has its fanbase :-)