|
TOURISM
Malaysia-Philippines marketing manager Eva Carmona was
apparently being reserved about Malaysia while she was
briefing us and more than a dozen other Filipino writers
and editors for our sojourn to Malaysia. Obviously, she
would rather have us validate the old truism “to see is
to believe” with regard to the sights and sounds of
Malaysia.
And so
four days into the end of July, and under Malaysia’s
tourism project “Visit Malaysia
2007” with Cebu Pacific, which now flies to Kuala Lumpur
four times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and
Sundays) as the official Philippines partner carrier, we
set out for the unique and charming state of 25 million
heterogeneous, warm, beautiful and hospitable people.
Malaysia,
whose government is a federal constitutional elective
monarchy, is a federation of 13 states and is located in
Southeast Asia. It adopted its name in 1963, when the
Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak
formed the 14-state federation. Singapore was later
dropped in 1965 and subsequently became an independent
country.
The old
Malaysia, in the 15th and 16th centuries, was a melting
pot for Chinese, Indian, the old Persians and Arabians,
Portuguese, British and Dutch businessmen. Today, the
modern-day Malaysia, which is also celebrating its 50
years of independence at the end of this month, lays
claim to being the center of all of Asia’s major ethnic
groups and all of the major religions in the world. It
is dominated by Malays and other indigenous groups,
followed by the Chinese and the Indians.
Arriving
at one of its international airports after more than a
three-hour flight from Manila, and later speeding along
its first-class highways dotted by traffic lights and
adorned by green trees on both sides, I sulked in my
seat as I initially compared Malaysia to Manila and the
rest of the country.
At that
instance, I recalled the boastful slogan of Malaysia,
“Malaysia, my second home,” which is a promotional tack
of the Malaysian government aimed at not only promoting
the country as a tourist and destination haven in
Southeast Asia, but also a retirement hub not only for
the affluent but even for above-average income earners.
By daybreak, and as we toured around the famous Kuala
Lumpur City Center, I already bought into the idea.
The
charm and beauty of Malaysia appears to have its
finishing touch in the capital city and the extending
business and commercial spot of Bukit Bintang, where one
could sit and relax while sipping coffee, eat and shop
till one drops.
Out of
the city’s splendor rises the Petronas Twin Towers,
touted as the world’s tallest twin structures, measuring
451.9 meters, dwarfing Kuala Lumpur by day and
illuminating it by night. At the foot of the giant
structures, which serve as landmarks of modern-day
Malaysia, is Suria, the city’s equivalent of our SM
Supermall, and outlets such as Starbucks and Mango.
Rising
not afar is
Malaysia’s
similar but older symbol, the Kuala Lumpur Tower, where
one can sample the country’s exquisite cuisine and also
enjoy Western cuisine at its so-called revolving
restaurant located at its Tower Two, which rises 282
meters above the ground, while enjoying an unimpeded view of the capital city.
The
Kuala Lumpur Tower,
designed by a German engineer, which measures 421 meters
and has an observation deck just above the revolving
restaurant, is the fourth-largest communication tower in
the world, but still holds the record as the “tallest
concrete structure” in the world.
At the
city’s convention center, tourists will find enchantment
in the company of the amazing creatures from the sea and
the forest inside the Kuala Lumpur Aquarium, which takes
up about 60,000 square feet of space. The aquarium hosts
a variety of 33, 000 enchanting and colorful river,
ocean and land animals from around the world,
representing 283 different species.
Moving
further around the city, one will encounter other
landmarks, such as the Merdeka Square, the 19th-century
Sultan Abdul Samad Building and The King’s Palace, which
now cradles the youngest and 13th king of Malaysia. It
is said that the king is inside the palace if the yellow
flag is hoisted in full.
Just 50
kilometers away from the capital and less than an hour’s drive is the
magnificent city of
Putrajaya,
which may as well be a showcase of Iranian design and
architecture. They say that the city—carved out of a
lush 4,932-hectare forest—is more modern than Kuala
Lumpur and is designated to completely house the federal
offices, including the now-imposing office of Malaysia’s
prime minister, was designed by Iranian architects. Its
mosque was even built by an Iranian woman.
Putrajaya, whose development took seven years and was
completed in 2001 in the amount of RM 50 million, blends
distinctive Muslim design with Western architecture. It
has seemingly uniform modern buildings and boasts of
unique bridges, landscaped roads, parks and green
forests, finished off with a 650-hectare man-made lake
to create a serene and even soothing environment. It is
a “Garden City, Intelligent City,” as themed by the
Malaysian government.
A
fascination with
Malaysia,
however, will not be complete without sauntering into
the Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa, as claimed by our
on-site tour guides Jaclyn Lo and Samantha Chin. Just a
25-minute ride from the city center and perched in an
800-acre former mining site, Sunway—with its hotel, the
villas, the duplex, the pyramid tower hotel and pyramid
suites—is a first-class “resort within a city,” mixing
business with pleasure, rest and recreation.
The
famous lagoon hotel in
Malaysia
has the “largest” man-made beach in the world, created
with 6,000 tons of sand and ornamented by palm trees and
huts.
Still,
one can’t claim that he has really been to the country
unless he has visited or traveled to the majestic and
wonderful Genting Highlands, which, nestled in a
430-hectare mountaintop that is 1,800 meters above sea level, would leave any visitor awed by this engineering
marvel.
The
“city of entertainment,” where the temperature is pegged
at 16 degrees to 21 degrees Celsius, and reachable
primarily with a cable car that is considered the
fastest in the world and which glides for exactly 3.4
kilometers, has the biggest hotel in the world.
Altogether, executives Eoo Chew Jen and Michelle Wong
Seok Hong said that Genting’s six hotels can accommodate
up to 10,000 people at a time, and it is seldom that
they are not fully occupied. It may be up in the
mountain, but Genting, which also has both indoor and
outdoor theme parks that feature Asia’s first
hand-gliding rollercoaster, Asia’s only skydiving
simulator and the biggest indoor climbing wall in
Southeast Asia, receives an annual number of more than
15 million visitors.
There
are other equally interesting places to visit in the
country, but for now we can only say, “Terimah kaseh
[thank you], Malaysia.” |
