Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Day 122

Indulge me here for a moment. This photo is from the batik factory in Penang. I was unable to get it transferred to my computer yesterday when I was working on that blog and dear Alex was not available in our Internet Cafe until this am. Surely you must agree with me that this piece of silk has indeed been transformed into a true work of art by those ladies. How on earth can that guy say "all it takes is time and a steady hand"?

The nearby sign identifying this beautiful species says that it is not a flower at all but an inflorescene of "bracts" in which the flowers are securely placed. Who am I to argue, all I know is that they are lovely and plentiful in the tropics.

Now on to Kuala Lumpur. My tour of choice for this day, May 16th, was "Putrajaya - The Intelligent City" consisting of an hour or so drive to visit their botanical gardens, return back to the center of the city for a photo op of the Mosque, the seat of Malaysia's executive and judicial branches, a drive thru the heart of the city to their spaceship shaped civic center then return to our ship. Some may think that I have lost my mind as Kuala Lumpur is pro-ported to be "one of the leading cities in the world for tourism and shopping, the 6th most-visited city in the world in 2019 with three of the world's ten largest shopping malls. . " and I choose to ride a bus for two and a half hours to see some other city? That's right! There was a lot of Malaysian countryside between the two cities to be seen, I'm big on botanical gardens, not so much so on huge cities or shopping malls. In route our guide shared some of the history of Malaysia. It seems that back in the day when rubber was King, the area through which we were passing had been "rubber estates". The natural jungle had been cleared and replaced with rubber trees, miles and miles of rubber trees. Harvesting all that rubber was extremely labor intensive. No problem, import workers from India, China, Indonesia, and even as far away as Africa. Each estate built housing, schools, stores, medical and entertainment facilities, etc on the estate so that the workers nor their families ever need leave the estate. Now that rubber production is not profitable enough to sustain all this infra structure, the rubber trees are long gone and coconut oil palm trees have been planted where the rubber trees once flourished. Ah ha! That explains why this tropical jungle looks so different from all those previously. The estate "cities" are still in place as we passed two or three alongside the wide state-of-the-art freeway. Bigger than Horseshoe but not as large as Marble. The "cities", not the freeway. Interesting.

Soon we reach the botanical gardens. A slight problem with our guide quickly became evident. He was at least 20 years younger than his charges and could ascend those hills like they were flat. Others of us could not, but that didn't stop us from lovely casual strolls through this royal garden paradise. Descriptive signs were posted periodically providing the information in English as to what we were viewing. So who needs a guide? Well apparently about ten of his charges as they were lost in the gardens somewhere and he had to go in search of them, delaying our departure some half hour or more. The lost were found and we proceeded on to Putra Square which is amazingly enough a huge circle around the flags of each of whatever they call their states. Putrajaya, like Washington DC, was very carefully designed with a central boulevard stretching from the Spaceship Conference Center across a river through the center of the city to the "square" around the flags. As you enter the circle from town, an elaborate Mosque is on the left, continue on and you come to the government and financial centers. All this was envisioned, designed and constructed in the 1990s with occupancy occurring in 1999. New, spotless, impressive!

New seat of government

Flags of Malaysia displayed in Putra "square", which was really a circle.

Malaysia's version of Congress Avenue at midday. Those are our tour buses, so where are all the locals?

So why is this called the "Intelligent" city one of my fellow travelers asked. Answer being: the only manufacturing here is electronic equipment for foreign consumption only, call centers abound (and we thought they were all in India), and state of the art communications exists everywhere. I was struck by several things during my time in Putrajaya: the newness, the cleanliness, its efficiency, the stark beauty, the fabulous architecture, the abundant wealth, but most of all the emptiness! Few if any cars, trucks, or people were to be seen. While we were at the city circle (I believe in calling a spade a spade) one of my fellow travelers discovered he had left his I phone 14 back at the gardens. No worries, our guide called the lovely receptionist at the gardens who gladly went in search of and retrieved the missing phone so we retraced our steps a bit, retrieved his phone and were soon on our way back to the ship. Very kind of the guide and the receptionist to go above and beyond for a stranger. Good people. Rich in culture, tradition and natural resources. I love Malaysia!

Quote of the day taken from Dr. Sherry's presentation on the Emerald Buddha. "If the eyes of the Emerald Buddha are closed, it does not mean that he sleeps, but rather he is contemplating peace." Hope I get to see the Emerald Buddha when we get to Bangkok.

Today Is Someday! Contemplate Peace!