Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia XIII

Having lived my entire life in areas covered by deciduous trees and pines, I am unaccustomed to such lush settings. Nothing could prepare me for the urban jungles of Malaysia. (I presume much is the same throughout Southeast Asia.) Consider that Western Malaysia was one giant rainforest until two hundred years ago when the British arrived to plant plantations of oil palms, rubber trees, and coconut trees. Look for yourself on Google maps, or look out the window on any countryside road; most of the land is now covered by oil palms plantations.

The remaining spots of undomesticated lands simply spring to life, growing as they had for millions of years previously. (Taman Negara rainforest is over one hundred million years old.) I was continuously overwhelmed by the effortless beauty of a tree-lined street, or a massive tree jutting out in a pedestrian walkway. A few inches of concrete were no match for the root systems of these hulking trees.

In the countryside, many homes had coconut, mango, and banana trees in their yards. As one native said to me at Silverfish Books, "This is God's country. Throw a few seeds on the ground, and (a few years later) you have a mango tree."

In this picture, I was walking to see the drum circle at Perdana Lake Gardens. This corner is one of the main entrances to the northern section of a large park on the west side of Kuala Lumpur that once held British estates.