Big Things in Malaysia

I’m spending the week in Malaysia. Old friends from college and work are taking me out. Malaysia as a nation is very passionate about big things. Their “2020” vision aims to turn Malaysia into a first world country by the year 2020. And what better way to entice this revelry and optimism than a 50-hour countdown to their 50th year of independence?

I mean, what other country celebrates their 50th Merdeka for 50 straight hours at the best airport in the world? You can view photos of the 50th. Francis Miranda (a friend from way back in high school) has a knack for entertaining everyone as seen in this video of the self-blowing flagpoles (extremely awesome!!!).

As a tribute to the big things, here are a few other “bigs” that we saw:

The Batu Caves Temple is an amazing sight. I spent the day with Erika and Francis, both friends from school and they’ve been my tour guides for the first part of my trip. I’m also meeting up with Sheila Paul (formerly from Level-Up Philippines) in the next few days and Colbert Low from The Gadget Blog in the Bangsar area.

The second “big” thing was my obstructed view of the Petronas Towers from the room I stayed in during the weekend.

On the lighter side of things, Erika and I dropped by Francis’ event at the Curve in Putrajaya and we were awed by the “largest chocolate carving of an animal” which was the Tiger made from Cadbury Chocolates. The contents of the glass is air conditioned and extremely deadly (for diabetics).

Lastly, the sign at the side of this statue says that this is the biggest representation of Optimus Prime in Asia. Highly doubt it though, but it’s still pretty cool.

Malaysia, truly Asia!