MALAYSIA PAVILION IN SHANGHAI

If you are still planning and deciding on the right time to go to Shanghai to a must see event for year 2010 and could not get a proper date or company to go with, do not worry. Especially if you are going there just to see the Malaysian Pavilion.

Dubbed as the no. 1 pavilion because of the 1Malaysia badge on top just below the roof, the architecture is neither here nor there. The roof assembly looked very much Indonesian and the red frames looked Chinese, in fact it looked like everything except Malaysian. Visitors came to know that it was Malaysian from the huge Malaysia signage right on top of the pavilion.

If the drawings have been vetted by JKR, it would have probably been given a zero technical rating. There is no cultural or natural characteristics of Malaysia both from the outside as well as the inside.

Of course people are queing up to go inside, not to see Siti Norhaliza but because of its low holding capacity. It probably will collapse if the numbers are not controlled.

Once inside you will be shocked to see a couple of idling craftsmen trying to demonstrate silver making and many chefs not able to demonstrate Malaysian cooking. This was because they were not able to bring in the stuff needed for the demos. Thanks to the excellent logistics of the local personnel.

There were too many writings on the wall. Nobody at the Expo would be interested to read what you write as they have to move on to other pavilions. Just the images and good photograhy about Malaysia would do.

The most busiest part inside the pavilion was the cash register that was being punched in to make a sale of all the products on display. Small wonder who gets to keep the cash. It must be millions by the end of October.

What we know is that the pavilion cost the Malaysian government not less than RM 20 million and was given to a Taiwanese contractor. If you do not want to be heart broken, forget about going to Shanghai this time, the Pavilion in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur would be a better deal and you could use the airfare and hotel charges to buy yourself excellent range of branded products.