Menora

Ok, so I think what follows is part of a Menora dance performance. But I could be wrong. You see nobody, including the participants, could really explain to me what it was that they were all doing. Only that they'd been doing it for the past three days.

It wasn't down to the language barrier either. Most people's English seemed pretty decent.

Set up on a small side street, between two rows of townhouses, the stage was a simple bamboo shelter, open on three sides. Apparently, if any of the strings holding up these little flag thingies get broken, the whole structure must be torn down and rebuilt. Don't ask me why.

There's a lot of sitting around between dances, and the bamboo mats are littered with Guinness bottles. In this very conservative part of Malaysia, it's pretty rare to see alcohol being consumed in public, so I asked if there was any significance to this. 

I was told that it was pretty thirsty work, and that these guys just really dig Guinness. Doh!

Candles play a big part. People generally hold onto them until the hot wax dribbles down over their hands. People seem to be blessing other people with them, or waving them around at the crowd. I saw one guy even eating one. Mostly though, they just look cool.

Someone being "blessed", for want of a better description.

Then the dancing begins. I was led to believe that some people would enter into a trance-like state, but it just looked like dancing to me. Some looked serene and graceful.

Others looked a tad serious.

Masks also play a big part. Don't ask me what they signify... maybe they just like to dress up? No seriously, the following sequence is a guy who, after dancing around for a while, has his mask removed. And the look on his face of what... peace, happiness, release? Whatever it is, it looks like a big moment for him.

We spent five months in Thailand and never saw anything like this. Originating in Southern Thailand / Northern Malaysia, these events are now a pretty rare sight, like many traditional practices. Especially in Malaysia, where Islam is all-pervasive, and the government seems determined to drag people up out of the kampungs and into the 21st century.

If you follow the Wikipedia link, you'll see that musically it's all very simple. You'll also see that there really isn't much information out there about any of this.

From what I can gather, the people dressed in white are supposed to act as conduits to the other peoples' ancestors. What that means exactly... yeah. Sorry. A nice person tried to explain to me about her God, and how that person over there (pointing) had seven gods. And that other one had nine. And that she herself never believed in any of this until recently.

I burst her bubble as gently as possible by telling her I was an atheist. This wasn't completely honest - I'd consider myself an apatheist if anything - but telling people this just tends to confuse them, and they look at me like I'm some sort of nut-case, and start to slowly back away...

Actually while we're on the subject, I have no idea whether the phrase "free-thinker" has caught on in your part of the world, but in Malaysia it's the term a religious person uses to describe an atheist. For some reason I find the term incredibly patronising on the one hand, and incredibly daft on the other. I'll leave it to you to figure out why.

Apart from all that, there's no denying that whatever is going on at this event is a very intense and moving experience for the people taking part. So who am I to say otherwise?

Hong Kong

So anyway…

It’s another hot and humid day in SP. Storm clouds are gathering in the northeast, where they’ll rumble around for hours, before dumping their load on us sometime tonight. Probably about tea time, when we’re thinking of going out on the bike.

We’re not alone in the house anymore. We have a maid. Well ok, strictly speaking she’s Thobrani and Sharifah’s maid, but since they don’t live here, she’s effectively our maid. This is all good, you may be thinking. But since we neither need nor want a maid, and since this means that technically we’re no longer house sitting, we’re now wondering how long we’ll be here. Not that we’re being forced to leave or anything – quite the opposite – just that there doesn’t seem any point staying when we’re no longer contributing.

But back to Hong Kong…

It’s our first time here, but most of you have probably stopped over at some point. Ten days probably isn’t long enough to gain any earth-shattering insights about the place, so this is really just an excuse to post some photos.

The Mong Kok bird markets…


…are just around the corner from the flower markets…



…which are just down the road from the goldfish markets.

So yeah… it’s a pretty compact place. Which is good. Tourist-wise.

And bad. Congestion-wise.

In March, most days are like this.



Or this.

But if you’re lucky, you’ll get one like this.



Or this.

The 300,000 or so Indonesian and Filipino maids mostly hang out on the streets on their days off.



Or anywhere out of the rain really.

While some of the teenagers they look after, get up to some pretty… unusual stuff.



But everyone needs a hobby.



They take other things pretty seriously here too. Like hygiene.



And shopping.

Music.



Bonsai anyone?



Hopefully you guys have a decent broadband connection, because we ended up with a ton of photos. Even in the miserable cold and gray skies, it’s an incredibly photogenic place.

Although you wouldn’t want to drive there.



But the public transport is fantastic, so mostly you don’t need to.



There are even quiet places you can escape the crowds.

But you can never really escape the skyscrapers.

They are what they are.



And seem a part of everything that goes on. Public…



…or private.



And even though the winter weather is miserable (and seemingly most of the population), the hotel room cramped, noisy and freezing cold, it’s still a great place to visit.

But we have another appointment with Malaysia, where both the weather and the smiles are warm...

The Big Day Out

The bus pulls up outside the school. Packing it with children and food will relieve some of the tension which has built up in the last half an hour. The Major has chucked a bit of a tanty over what the teachers are wearing, so we’re all looking at each other and rolling our eyes, while he stomps around the playground having a vent at anyone unlucky enough to be in range.

This is all pretty normal, so no one is fazed, and pretty soon we’re on our way to Taiping. It’s grey and drizzling, but this is also normal (Taiping is the wettest town in Malaysia), and will clear up later in the morning. However it’s a bit odd to be sitting with a bunch of rowdy teachers up the front of a school bus, with a bunch of well-behaved kids minding their own business down the back. Positively weird.



In fact, apart from the odd toilet situation, today will be almost completely uneventful. So completely unlike any school trip either of us can remember, we wonder why anyone would get too stressed about it. The kids aren’t noisy, they don’t fight with each other, they don’t taunt the animals, they don’t taunt the public, they don’t chuck stuff around the bus, at each other or passing motorists, they don’t wander off on their own, they don’t get busted smoking weed or having sex in the loos, they don’t deface public property, they don’t whine, or sit around sulking all day texting their boyfriends. Yes they’re special needs, but c’mon… Compared to normal kids they’re little angels.



The teachers on the other hand…

Tickets are free for everyone, part of the zoo’s yearly public service. And after filing off the bus, through the turnstiles and onto the ride, military style, we hurtle around the zoo, “safari style”, for about half an hour.

“Hey look, was that a …?” “Check out the…” “I’m sure I saw a …” Lion, tiger, zebra, leopard, elephant, rhino, chimpanzee, camel, cassowary, ostrich, python… it’s all a blur. And so we get off and wander around, “homo-erectus style”, instead.

Lucas promises not to take photos of anyone standing next to a gorilla, but when Aleif decides he wants to imitate one…

Some of the crowd appreciate his talent.

Some don’t.

A monkey.

Another monkey.

After the obligatory class photo, we slowly make our way back to the bus. It’s obviously lunch time, as the teachers are all grumbling about being hungry.

But this isn’t just any day out, it’s a Malaysian day out. Which means unpacking and distributing enough food to feed an average sized town.

The irrepressible Aleif. Fed and watered.

Threseni. Four feet of cuteness.

No day out would be complete without a trip to the museum, although at least one of us admits to being, on the whole, bored senseless by them.

This little guy seems to be pointing out that it's time to go. No wait... he's just obsessed with his watch.

Selemat jalanTaiping…