Travel to Malaysia: Klang

Klang, the former Port Swettenham, has gone through the whole cycle: colonial development, modernization accompanying independence, and the discovery of "heritage," even of the colonial era.

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You have to hunt for these old colonial buildings still cloistered behind long, leafy driveways, but they exist. Frank Swettenham, the colonial administrator for whom Klang was originally named, would have found this landscape familiar. He himself, it may be recalled, was the subject of a dashing portrait by John Singer Sargent.

Downtown Klang has some commercial districts leftover from the colonial period.

"Bottles on the wall."

Meanwhile, highways and post-mod office buildings have sprung up.

Full circle: old buildings renovated rather than torn down.