Truly colorful Malaysia

It may be the rainy season here in this part of the Philippines in the second half of the year, but the weather is great in other parts of Southeast Asia. I spent a few days in Malaysia last month to savour its colors and culture.

We share the tropics with our Malaysian neighbor, and much of its flora. I landed in Kuala Lumpur and from there motored to its bespoke government center, Putrajaya, to get a taste of “real Asia.” The event, which a whole bunch of us journalists from all over the world came to cover, was the Putrajaya Flower and Garden Festival or Floria Putrajaya 2011.

One of the hallmarks of any great metropolis is how clean, green, and full of blooms it is. Floral festivals are a traditional European way to celebrate summer and what better to symbolize the season than with flowers. Other cities dedicate a park or corner of the city. Malaysia has chosen to locate this festival at its civic core, right beside a system of picturesque lakes that mark the center of Putrajaya.

The English Garden display is a restrained composition along traditional lines.

The festival lasted for nine days and included the Malaysia International Tourism Night floral parade which drew a reported one million visitors — and I thought Filipinos were the only ones drawn to congregate in large numbers.

The daytime displays were the key attractions of the festival, of course. The theme was “Roses are Forever.” I toured the displays over two days and drowned in the colors and floral varieties from the 13 countries. These included South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, New Zealand, the United States, Britain, Canada, Pakistan, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Kenya.

Organizers also pointed out that the rose was picked as the theme because it symbolized love and affection. The exhibits featured 12,000 flowers for close to 60 rose species and hybrids. Another 400,000 plants covered the several hectares of the festival grounds. One would need a few days to see everything. Malaysians, like Pinoys, also love to mix food with events, so a mini-food city was built beside the festival. I chowed down on local fare until I burst. But, I did miss my San Mig (thought they did have Tiger Beer).

The Japanese garden is a contemporary take on Japanese planting and spaces.

I liked the Japanese garden display because of its modern take on traditional compositions and the UK garden because of the adaptation to Malaysian species without watering down its “Englishness.” The New Zealand display was also distinctive as it was themed on clouds — since New Zealand in Maori is Aoteaora meaning “Land of the Long White Cloud.”

The highlight of the festival was a unique fluvial floral parade at Putrajaya Lake. We gathered in the afternoon, first to visit the land-based floral displays and then to wait for dusk to come for the “Magic of the Night.” This was, in fact, a competition between 13 fantastic floats from various states of the Malaysian federation, as well as from Putrajaya itself, the neighbouring I-City (a cyber urban center) and from private companies Air Asia, Resort World Genting, and YTL Hotels. Tourism Malaysia, our hosts, also had a large float.

As the evening enveloped the city, the parade started with powerful skylights crossing their beams in the Putrajaya sky. Each boat-float crossed in front of the lakeside grandstand with Malaysian music in the background as well as the cheers of spectators.

Amorous swans highlight the theme of roses and love.

The float of I-City won in the “Best Lighted” category in the floral parade. The Overall Best Boat was won by the state of Terengganu (which I visited years ago). The Most Creative floats were: YTL Hotel, Resort World Genting, and that of AirAsia (which just started operations here in the Philippines).

The prizes were presented by Malaysia’s Tourism Minister Datuk Dr. Ng Yen Yen.

Dr. Ng noted the large turnout of a million visitors and promised an expanded festival in the next staging of the event. The festival had several events tied to it, including photo displays, tourism exhibits, workshops, and horticulture shows. Sustainability and green design were, of course, part of the agenda.

Our agenda, of course, was also to tour the capital complex. This took a few days, too, as the civic core is as large as Quezon City. (By the way, today is the last day of my QC exhibit, which is now at SM Sta. Mesa. I am giving a talk this afternoon at 2 p.m. Come one, come all.)

The Air Asia float is an animated affair and crowd favorite.

Putrajaya and its flower festival are a great mix of modernity and the bounties of nature. Finally, a languid lake cruise was a wonderful way to see the sights of this young but supremely master-planned capital. As a student of cities in general, and capital cities in particular, I was thrilled no end to see firsthand how Putrajaya has evolved and grown — like a flower slowly opening up and showing its true colours.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.