Thaipusam Day 2

We joined everyone at the start of Jalan Utama where both sides of the road were filled with stands either playing music, giving away cold flavoured drinks, bottles of water, vegetarian food (no meat during the festival), rest points, piercing stations, pop-up temples, decorative areas, toilets (far better ones than experienced at outdoor concerts) and a few commercial stands selling snacks and clothes.  Lots of music and dancing, dancing not only from the devotees but also their supporters along the way

The noise was intense and the day was extremely hot - we reckon the hottest day experienced so far.  We watched in awe and incredulity at the piercings and wondered what kind of trance they may be in.  Many of them were dancing and whirling, though as though they had nothing on their head and had no piercings - such was their devotion.  These devotees wear the kavadi which can be attached to the body by up to 108 hooks, weigh 30Kg and have containers of milk attached to pour into one container at the temple.  This is then distributed to anyone and everyone outside.  It is worn to ask Murugan to help a sick relative or resolve personal conflict.

Many times we saw devotees resting and having their feet and legs massaged - they walk barefoot on the roads - probably to help cramp.  You would think, though, if they feel cramp they would feel the piercings.

We had to partake of the food on the way up to the temple, it was plenty and delicious.  So much so at the end of our time there we got some more to bring home, as were most people.  all the food and drink is provided by charitable organisations and the community.



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Thaipusam Day 1

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival which honours the victory of deity Lord Murugan over demon hordes.   It’s a compound word built from ‘Thai’the month and ‘pusam’ a star that reaches its height at this time.   This year saw a rare ‘red moon’ a lunar eclipse not seen since 1866 on day 2 of the festival.

Devotees seek blessings and fulfil their vows by carrying ‘kavadis’ intricate structures of steel and wood which incorporate sharp body piercings - and milk pots as offerings.  This however is reserved for day 2.  The first day sees a pilgrimage procession of 2 chariots, one gold and one silver travelling separate routes from the Kovil Veedu on Lebuh Penang to the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani temple.  The chariots are pulled by 2 decorated bulls and coconuts are smashed in front of them to cleanse the road.

We went to Times Square to see the silver chariot and went into the Nagarathur Murugan temple to seethe offerings that were brought in, how they were treated and see all the peacock feathered kavadis which were collected and carried the rest of the way.  The white haired, bare chested chap at the entrance had a chat with us once inside, telling us about the day.  Once he found out we were from the UK he went into eulogies about cricket and Ian Botham and also how respected and welcomed the British are all over the world for the educational standards they started on colonisation.

The State Department for cleansing were incredible in the cleaning of the roads.  Within 30 mins of the chariot passing, everywhere was swept and coconuts,sugar cane and banana leaves collected and sent away on lorries.

Hazel was asked by one of the ladies if she would like to be blessed and receive the powder dot and gratefully accepted. It was great to be accepted by them - everyone is welcomed and treated equally.  As an outward sign of harmony, I took the photo showing the Indian community celebrating tradition, sitting on the steps of Times Square, decorated ready for Chinese New Year and guarded by 2 transformers - perfect!

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KOMTAR Tower

Penang’s tallest tower since 1985.  The name is an acronym for ‘Komplex Tun Abdul Razak’ the second PM of Malaysia.  Everywhere seems to have something named after him :-)

The Observation deck (totally enclosed) is on the 65th floor and the Skywalk on the 68th.  The observation desk has the opportunity for the brave of heart to attach themselves to a cable and walk on a platform OUTSIDE the building with NO RAIL.  Needless to say, with my luck, I declined the offer.

Great views from both decks.  As you can tell from the photos, Hazel was a little reluctant to let go of the rail on the Skywalk, but managed it as her confidence grew.  Really proud of her as she has a real fear or situations like that (she couln’t make it up the inside of the ‘leaning tower or Pisa’).

There’s a restaurant at the top, so we’ve decided to go next week as a farewell to Penang - should be spectacular at night.


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Penang Hill

The British cleared the jungle around here and built homes, walkways and a convalescence home from Malaria for plantation owners both here and from Singapore.  Recently opened are the aerial walkways and the Skywalk (a different one).  The top of the hill can be reached by a funicular railway, which is how we got there.  (Once again using the plastic reusable card).  One can walk down using a 5Km, 1 in 3 hill in a couple of hours - once again we declined and used the railway to get down.  The funicular was only reopened the other day for repairs following floods and mudslides after a typhoon last November.  Plenty of work is still being done to repair walkways and shore back banks using hessian and planting.

The red flower growing on the ground surface is part of the ginger plant and the spider on the info panel was real.  The hole is a tarantula nest (there were quite a few of them).  The grey bit in the middle is a bit of leg !!!!


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If you haven’t taken a look for a while .......

There may be posts you haven’t seen from earlier to your last visit.

I am adding missed posts due to lack of WiFi, illness or sheer lack of time -and adding them chronologically the date they actually happened.

Hope everything is good with you all.

Thai Buddhist Temple

The other side of the road to the Burmese Temple.  Equally as decorative and serene.  The walls of the various buildings were either covered with commemorative plaques or boxes, glass covered showing urns and inscribed with dedications.

You can see in one of the photos that sticking gold leaf on some of the statues is allowed.  (When I first saw the saw the sign, I thought ‘why would anyone want to do that? They sell  squares of gold leaf for 1RM - 20p.  It is obviously part of their ritual.

I didn’t know but Buddha statues have very many hand positions and they all mean something different.  The line of statues here are one for each Chinese Year, you can see they have different hand positions.


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No racism intended or implied

There must be a reason other than following the trend, but unbelievably we have seen several women wearing the niqab (the headgear that only leaves the eyes visible in a narrow slit) taking selfies!!!!!

3D coffee

Burmese Buddhist Temple

Chose a different way to walk today and came a cross an interesting looking side street.  On one side was a Burmese Buddhist Temple and the other side, a Thai Buddhist Temple.  As we were on our way to get some food (as ever) only had time to look round one of them.  As you might expect, it was a really tranquil haven, minutes away from a busy road.  Around one of the small temples within, was a moat with a sign asking people not to throw in turtles!!  Presumably as there were some large coy carp and I can only presume turtles are bad for carp.

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Clan Jetties

Originally wooden landing stages to off load goods from sampans, thes were developed into homes by the various clans of Chinese who worked them.  Seven different clans still occupy the jetties and bitter rivalry still exists.  From their inception in the 1880s until the Government stepped in in 1957, the homes had to bring water in kerosene cans from the main road.  None of the families pay tax as they are not living on land.

The most populous jetty is Chew Jetty and is predominantly tourists shops selling food, drink clothes and trinkets.  The end of the pier, though can offer some good photo moments.  When we were there it was taken over by a company shooting promotional shots of wedding dresses.

Note the interesting construction techniques :-)



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Indian New Year

A chance Uber back to the apartment last night led us to learn that today was Indian New Year and there would be celebrations in ‘Little India’.   Having celebrated Christian (and probably others) New Year in Kuching, we were keen to witness a second New Year’s celebrations of a different kind.

The streets were thronged and we headed to the Mahamariamman Hindu Temple. We needed to remove shoes and socks to go inside, where they were preparing pots of celebratory rice cooked in ghee with added fruit and nuts, over open fires.  We were told the following day the same preparations would be made in the paddy fields where the rice was grown.

‘There was an ornate carriage pulled by two cows, working its way to the Temple.  People on the carriage were anointing people who offered fruit to the carriage, with a white powder. Smeared on temple, neck and hands.

Outside many shops were structures of cut sugar cane to protect the entrance from harm.  Pots of ghee rice  were more often than not being prepared within the structure.  Music was everywhere, everyone was happy and no-one but no-one was pushing to get to the carriage or move along the street.  Everything comes to he who waits.

Of course we had to have lunch - chicken biriani served on banana leaf - yummy

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Entopia

Just outside Georgetown (Penang) about a 25 min taxi ride, lies Entopia the butterfly farm.  Like the KL bird park, the butterflies fly freely and you walk about them.  A great experience - just in case you are wondering from the photos, there ar4e reptiles and large insects here too.  These however DON’T run freely. As well as a park, this place breeds and supplies butterflies, moths, fireflies and others to supply all over the world

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PHOTOS

Due to the large size of the photos and the limitation of Blogger, I am inserting a link at the end of post to point to photos relevant to the post.  Hope this doesn’t spoil the look of the thing.  Better a link than no photos, I think

1 month in - reflections

It’s HOT!!

The train system in KL is pretty special.  4 lines (one of which is a monorail) interlink the city.  The thing that I remember most is the clever ticketing system.  Tickets for the end station ar bought in the usual way and are delivered as plastic tokens.  These are swiped to gain entrance and deposited at the end station.  The tokens are then electronically cleaned down and reused.  ~Similarly entrance tickets for many of the attractions are delivered as plastic cards and once again reused at the end.

Room keys at Hotels, many of them are used to go to your floor in the lift.  They need to be swiped and your floor number entered.  You can’t enter another floor.  Where there are general facilities on other floors like resaurant or pool, those have open acces so don’t need a swipe

It’s HOT!!

Everyone you encounter is happy to make your acquaintance without wanting something.  Often they will offer assistance if you’re appear to be lost.

Medication, when needed you get the dose required as deemed by the Doctor / Pharmacist and NOT whole boxes full of tablets.  Much cheaper for the Patient and a valuable means of waste saving

It’s HOT

Both Malaysia and Indonesia are not places for pedestrians.  Getting around is difficult without va car or motorbike.  There are very few walkways and those that exist are very poorly maintained.

Never underestimate the importance or regular intake of water.

Indonesian ballet

Another of our organised tours was to a meal followed by an Indonesian ballet performed by the Ramayana Ballet at Prambanan.  still feeling the effects of repeated bowel movements but managed the performance ok.  Spectacular performance telling the classic Hindu love story of  Rama and Shinta


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Borobudur

This is the World’s largest Buddhist temple and the trip was to watch the sunrise from the top of the Temple.  We were therefore collected from the Hotel lobby before 03:30. We made our way using torches and climbed the various levels to the top of the temple.  Unfortunately rain was in the air so the sunrise wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been.  Nevertheless it was a treat and glad it was this time of the year visiting as w heard, in the summer, it is impossible to get a shot without people in view

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Wipeout!!!

So we arrived in Yogyakarta, yesterday and went for a walk down the famed (infamous) Malioboro Street .  This guy told us it was a lucky day as the University students in Batik making were holding exhibitions around the place.  Off we went and truth to tell they were magnificent.  Of course the time came when we were asked if we wanted to buy as they were on Promotion, being sponsored by the University.  During this time we were given a cup of hospitali-TEA (ha!). In true Newspaper reporters fashion we made our excuses and left.

However, today, we have both been sick as dogs and spent the whole day in bed - ASLEEP.  Which I suppose is just as well, as we are being collected from the lobby at 03:30 tomorrow morning.  Yes you read it right, 03:30, to travel to see the sunrise over the temple at Borubdor.  Let’s see how we get on.  Can only think the tea was made from non-boiled water at spiked ! As it was the only thing we have had I common.

One of these days, Rodney .......

Well today we are.   Landed in Pontiniak, Indonesia and went for some cash at the ATM in the airport.  For  £104 ( 117€ ) got 2,000,000 Indonesian Rupiah

Sarawak Cultural Village

Not the normal activity for the morning of January 1st, but we were picked up this morning for a visit here.  We were treated royally when they learned we were British as Charles and Camilla visited in November 2017.

There are are 6 indigenous races in Borneo and facsimiles of their home have been created here so you don’t have to travel all over the country to see how they lived.  The tour lasted a few hours and was finished with some dancing from several of the peoples.  A hurried lunch then bac to the Hotel for a bit of a rest.

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