Bristling like spikes of iron gray sky stretching Malaysia as part of an `errant spaceship abandoned their message of arrogance emanating from the past 88 Moorish structures, the Petronas here they are, the symbol of that fierce tiger who had been Malaysia up to 90 years, until that fateful 1997 when dreams of glory ended to leave room only for those two giant glass and concrete.
Since small Petronas had been for me the symbol of a city nombre weird but exotic, and similarly its shape and its height drew my curiosity and never really have the knowledge that one day I would have been able to visit.
A December any reach
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, the city built in the mid-nineteenth century by the name confused, "muddy confluence of rivers, tin mining town, founded by a handful of Chinese, became one of the coolest Asian capitals .
Kuala Lumpur was founded on two rivers, surrounded by a green forest that surrounds and penetrates between its streets, its parks, lakes and squares. Colorful and wacky skyscraper emerge among the green foliage, traffic noise and heat flows through the main streets, allowing pedestrians to cement the edges of the Old Town, Chinatown and the beautiful city.
Despite their reputation as the Petronas are much less apparent live as their reputation made sense, their height is not impressive, their architectural interest, the night makes them beautiful and fascinating.
The world revolves around KL Merdaka Square, where the `old Padang English as was the custom to play cricket around which stand the main buildings in the capital by a giant bambiera Malaysia, the first Anglican church, the buildings of Parliament , home of the Sultan, gardens, palm trees, all very nice, fresh, new, interesting.
KL is now half a world conference center, site of Organizations, in some way has taken a little bit that piece of protagonists of the 90 that the crisis had taken.
The palms and their valuable oil, like a spider web around the KL area and throughout the state of Selangor, extending towards the heights of the Cameroon Highlands and up there towards more truly Islamic states to where we drive.
Flights Malaysian Airlines will bring us towards what is considered the crossroads of a thousand cultures, harbor dreams of a thousand passengers, the bustle of thinkers, traders, smugglers, pirates and vagabonds over the world.
Of course I imagined a small village in an island green, but we have huge untapped in the city, Georgetown, skyscrapers, traffic, chaos ... The poetry and magic of a time lost in the midst of roaring engines and the screams of gray cement, luxury hotels, neon lights, the Penang bridge, cars, scooters, goods ..
So the image, a Penang rural and distant from existing legends and mysteries at hand was a forgotten dream, now only stuck with the `ink the pages of history books and guides.
Penang is now Georgetown, a mythic mix of soul china, an Indian soul and the soul of a Malaysian, The Sound of Music, alternating between temples and beliefs, lights and song, food and more food. That's only here, walking among the `stuffy and the unmistakable smells of the busy and noisy streets of Georgetown you can still breathe a bit of the old Penang, one founded in the seventeenth century by the British.
The colonial ruins are there, well kept and admirable, surrounded by Chinese Quarter with its old coffee shops, old inns by several papers, dining outdoors, and then Little India, with its temples, its music, hair and its fragrance to curry past.
`Outwards at Georgetown, a beautiful natural park in the north, a beautiful Botanical Garden and enjoy the wild nature of this lush green island, a beach in Batu Ferringhi interesting, an extraordinary Buddhist temple, Kek Lok Si Temple, a few miles from hills of Penang Hills, 800 meters high, reached by a "ride on a funicular very exciting" traditional ", thus reaching a entrancing views of the sea coast and the Strait of Malacca.
To complete the picture of the west coast, here is the beautiful tropical island of Langkawi, the island of eagles, or better and 99 islets Isolona a blinding green, turquoise sea, green mountains that are thrown to peak on a deep blue palm trees and a relaxed and very touristic.
Kuah, the capital of the island is a tourist area, totally tax-free, it `s got mobbed by tourists looking for souvenirs and cheap transfer point is required to reach the shining white beaches dissemintate so far north, as west of the main port. The ferry trip from Penang in his last hour or three, in comfortable vessels, also accompanied by a series of films in Malay, bar and comfortable business class seats. So a total luxury.
Tanjung Rhu is perhaps the most beautiful beach, perhaps even more beautiful than to be completely desolate, deserted, but we were running for its white sand dunes, to throw in its blue waters to admire the green islands that emerge as primroses in the woods of the water, leaving space for emotions and removing the words.
Langkawi surprises of its beauty but the whole Malaysia over for its tranquility and freshness.
A federation founded in 1957 by some statarelli of the Malay Peninsula and the states of Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo, gave shape and consistency of Malaysia, soon to lose its way to Brunei Sultan and the bizarre and vain Singapore.
Malaysia had always been trying to create a `Malay identity on a substrate Chinese and Indian, English and Portuguese, Indonesian and Dutch, imposing its language, Bahasa Malay to Chinese citizenship linked to his" Mandarin ", by creating more difficulties understanding and coexistence between the rich and the poor majority of China Malay community, leaving the field open to the influence of Islamist movements in a slow process of genesis of a `unique identity and indissoluble, authentically Malaysian, genuinely non-Chinese.
A country wonderfully hospitable, wonderfully green, wonderfully beautiful.