Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Malaysia: Truly Asia

EVER since the movie Entrapment came out in 1997, Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas towers became a byword in those days all over the world. True, it was the tallest building on Earth at the time and in those pre-9/11 days, marveling at such an architectural masterpiece was awesome. But the height of the Petronas Towers were not the bulk of people’s curiosity at the time. It was on how actors Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones managed to precariously hold on to the tight bridge connecting the towers at 57 stories high. When Petronas Towers was overtaken by a Canadian structure and later by a Taipei building and now the Burj al-Arab in Dubai as the world’s tallest building, the byword slowly faded. But not the tourists coming in. They still come in groves to Malaysia which has been modernized by the then visionary Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.

Because of Mahathir’s visions, Malaysia has been at the forefront of tourism in Southeast Asia for the past decade or so. Its tagline is Malaysia – Truly Asia. It has a mix Malay and Chinese culture and that in itself is a tourist attraction – the various races that are peopling Malaysia.

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