Kuala Lumpur - A thousand different
places Written and Photographed by Melanie Ast
The tropical heat strikes you like an unexpected punch in the
stomach. It feels like it’s pouring down, a thousand rain
drops that make your clothes damp, but the sky is cobalt blue
and there are no clouds within sight. No, it’s just the
tropical heat, the humid, suffocating heat of equatorial regions.
“Selamat Datang!” - “Welcome!” This is
the way Raja greets us, at the highly modern Kuala Lumpur airport,
while I’m still trying to adjust to the local early morning
time. Raja is in charge of bringing us from the airport to the
hotel. A sincere handshake and a brief exchange of courtesies
and off we go in the small minibus. Raja is not very tall, his
hair is pitch black and perfectly matches his eyes; his name and
his physical features indicate a Hindu origin; he’s very
talkative, lively; he talks, endlessly, of his country, with love,
with pride. He’s very easy to listen to and very educating.
From afar, I take a glimpse of the city. Even at a distance,
the Petronas Towers are a magnificent sight! Kuala Lumpur is a
place full of contradictions. Looking up, the more and more peculiar
shaped skyscrapers raise themselves towards the skies like tenacious
ivy; it’s a jungle of glass, and being in the middle of
it, it’s easy to forget that it is itself surrounded by
the jungle, the real tropical one, just outside town. Looking
down however, especially leaving the city centre and going towards
the suburbs, reality is somewhat different.
Footpaths are precarious, some hole here and there, the houses
are not elegant penthouses anymore but slums built out of tin
on mud. The contradictions, however, in this amazing city, do
not stop here. The quest for modernity, of which KL, as their
inhabitants call their city, is extremely proud, is in direct
contrast, but seems to be perfectly amalgamated, with the traditional
ways of its people. Beside huge car-park sized shopping centres
lie religious temples. Beside elegant restaurants, food stalls
attract tourists and locals alike, and the sweet smell of temple
incense tries to cover the less sweet one from the cars’
exhausts.
Kuala Lumpur is a melting pot of races.
The three main racial components, Hindu, Muslim and Chinese,
appear to integrate themselves seamlessly inside a nation that,
though being officially Muslim, allows freedom of religion. As
Raja pointed out:” We are born, work, live, pray and die
together because we are all part of the same nation.” The
city’s multiculture is testified on the streets by a colorful
array of sarees, hijabs, chadors and western clothes.
Kuala Lumpur has so much to offer to its visitors.
From the visionary majesty of the steel monsters Petronas Towers,
until recently the world’s tallest building, to the lovely
and intricated lace-like colonial style or Moorish decorated buildings,
witnesses of past colonizations. From giant shopping centres to
Muslim mosques, Hindu and Chinese temples, oasis of peace and
tranquility, so spiritually distant from the thousand noises of
the busy city around them. From the trendy bars and nightclubs
to the simple and delicious culinary experiences of Chinatown
and Little India. It is easy to think to be in two, three, a thousand
different places. Chinatown and Little India’s alleys resemble
labyrinths of humanity, where the pace is slow and unhurried,
where the passing of time is lived with serenity. Modernity seems
so far away.
Fruit stalls offer their daily products, from mangoes to lychees,
to durians, the world’s worst smelling fruit; bakeries attract
the hungry passer-by with their enticing perfume of just-out-of-the-oven
products; beside them, flower sellers are busy weaving wreaths
to be offered to the temples. It is easy and relaxing to get lost
in that world. But, again, looking up past the already fading
colours of terraced houses, the glass monsters loom, reminding
you that modernity runs faster than man’s step.
Kuala Lumpur is a relatively new city. Established in 1857 by
a group of Chinese tin prospectors, in 150 years it has become
the city that it is nowadays. Its name means “muddy confluence”,
being, in fact, at the confluence of the rivers Klang and Gombak.
After a past of Dutch, British and Japanese invasions, Malaysia
obtained its independence in 1957. Malay people are very proud
of that, as they should be. Merdeka square, or Independence square,
is a place that sums up in itself the history of its country.
A large cricket pitch, bounded by clubhouses in typical north
European style, stands opposite to a beautiful Moorish style building;
a gothic style fountain on the left and plenty of skyscrapers
around. But the pride and joy of Malay people lies up there, with
the terribly striking Petronas Towers, with their 451.9m of height
and 88 floors that represent for them a jump towards the skies,
towards tourism, towards progress. The future for them seems to
be full of optimism. From the bottom of the towers, I watch them
smiling, and I can’t help but smile with them.
Melanie Ast is
a Sicilian living in Ireland, Belfast. She obtained a
degree in languages and literature, and simply loves
travelling, photography and writing. She is also passionate
about art, culture and archeology.
