Continuing to discover Malaysia, a land of contrasts.
After working in the region for some time, and as part of our ongoing work with various clients and partners, WHAM set course to Malaysia to explore the country, its culture and people in much more detail than ever before.
We split our days between the relative comfort of the modern business oriented Klang Valley home to Kuala Lumpur and its futuristic Petronas Towers, and days travelling the countryside, driving the roads of the Cameron Highlands, dining with the fishermen in
Penang and joining in on some Karaoke with the residents in Kuching. All the while we were busy interviewing the locals.
Our London office was represented by a mixed team
of designers, strategists and client managers. On this trip though, we were all researchers, talking to people and businesses, taking photos wherever we could, exploring the cities and villages, trying the food from
the street markets, discussing our daily findings and plans for the next days over a beer in the evening and sometimes all through the night. On our trip we were accompanied by a great guide and driver who was mostly able to answer our every question on the spot, although we think — as the questions became more difficult — he was sometimes making up the answers
on the spot too!
On this journey we’ve learnt more about how the different ethnicities in Malaysia live together in a country coloured by its turbulent trade history, attracting people from Indonesia, China and India.
We’ve learnt about government initiatives that aim for equal opportunities for the Malays in education and business.
The contrast between urban and rural life is vast, with some Malaysians living in self built huts selling beans and honey in the Cameron Highlands, some 50 different tribes in Sabah and Sarawak, each with their own language. And this is only several tens or
hundred kilometers from the million dollar apartments in the city of KL where business is being conducted with the rest of the world.
We’ve also seen how industry is changing the landscape of Malaysia before our eyes with the rainforests and local vegetation being replaced by acres of palm-oil crops. And how the coast
line in Melaka is moving more into the sea as expensive land is being reclaimed.
Besides the thousands of photographs we’ve taken on this trip, each of which can tell a story
of a thousand words — yes that’s a million words — movies have been shot and sounds have been recorded, all of which helps communicate what we have experienced and have added to our already deep knowledge of
a region we live and work in on a daily basis.