தைப்பூசம் - Thaipusam

As Wikipedia indicates, the Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Jan/Feb). Pusam refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates the birthday of Lord Murugan (also Subramaniam), the youngest son of Shiva and Parvati.

But Thaipusam is much more than "just another traditional festival"! Thaipusam is the most intense religious ceremony I ever attended! Thaipusam begins few days before the full moon. Participants gather in an Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur and process to the Batu Caves, 20 km up North from KL, smashing coconuts all over the place as an offering to Gods on their way. One curious thing is that Thaipusam doesn't exist in India, Kuala Lumpur is really the main place to see this ceremony. It also takes places in Singapore, but to a lesser extend.

Once in Batu Caves, the most sacred place for Hinduism in Kuala Lumpur, the devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting for several days. Meanwhile, complex ceremonies take place to prepare the Kawadis. Basically Kawadis are portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and, wait, there is more, attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back! Some of the most fervent devotees attach offerings to their back with hooks stuck underneath their skin. Fire walking and flagellation can be practiced as well.

This mortification of the flesh sometime gets a bit too extreme and Thaipusam is often criticized as an incentive to masochism. The look in the devotees eyes is really scary and I could see most of them collapsing after climbing the 200 stairs leading inside the cave, to the temple where they can deliver their offerings. It is hard to believe that there is no drug involved in such behavior, but an Hindu colleague of mine, whose family is very religious and involved in the ceremony, swore me that the devotees reach such level of transe only with food and sleep deprivation and intense prayers all day long during several days. They are supposed to reach such level of faith that they don't feel pain and that their wounds don't bleed when the skin gets pierced. I'm really confused, I don't know what to believe. But I don't underestimate the power of human mind when it comes to spirituality and religious devotion...

Anyway, it was an incredible night: the procession starts at midnight, and one million people are gathered in a huge crowd, so thick that for few hours I litterally didn't see my feet, I was carried by the crowd.

Uncut, Untitled, Paper House

For those interested in understanding the Malaysian society structure, the influence of religious moral and the relationship among races, don't miss "Uncut, Untitled, Paper House". It will be performed for the next five days in the KL Performing Art Center.

Those three new plays won't turn into an endless boring analysis that will put you asleep: written and directed by up-and-coming talents, this triple bill illustrates serious topics like censorship or parents authority with examples from Malaysian everyday's life.

I was really stunned to see Islam being criticized so openly, and happy not to see the religious police burst into the theater! I see it as a great step forward for Malaysia! Is it somehow related to the latest elections where the BN, coalition holding the power since independence 50 years ago, scored its worse score ever???



Here is the program.

UNCUT

Written & directed by Teng Ky-Gan

Featuring Fish & Aishah Sinclair

This play explores the theme of censorship in Malaysia and the influence of fanatical moral policing over works of art. As he struggles to reconcile his professional and moral obligations, with his basic human instincts, Zakaria the director of the Censorship Bureau finds himself spiraling out of control as he slowly learns that human wants often triumph over didactic logic.

...

สงกรานต - Songkran

I was browsing through my picture collection and came across this set of pictures taken by Guilhem last April during Songkran (Thai New Year).

Songkran festival used to be the celebration held for the Thai New Year, but since the year now starts on January 1st, Songkran is a public holiday. Traditionally, Songkran used to be a time to pay respect to the elders, visit the Wat (Buddhist monastery) and pray. As part of this cleansing and renewal, Buddha images in monasteries where cleaned by pouring water perfumed with Thai fragrance.

The tradition evolved into showing respect to people by gently pouring a few drops of water on their hands or shoulders. But since April is also the hottest month in Thailand, young people were more prone to actually splash each other with jugful of water...


Nowadays, that's mostly what Songkran is: a joyful mess in the streets where people randomly spill water at each other with jugs, hoses, water guns, you name it! To spice it up, some reload their jugs with nearly freezing water, or with water mixed with plaster usually used by the monks to mark blessing... And loads of alcohol.


The first day of the celebration, Marie and I were in Ko Phangan, on the Northern tip, a pretty remote area. There was almost no sign of this celebration going on. Of course we knew it was Songkran weekend, but we didn't really know what to expect. The frenzy suddenly hit us when we reached the main village: we were crossing the island by motorcycle towards the jetty in order to get a boat to reach Ko Samui, and from there a flight to Bangkok. The village used to be very quiet and peaceful when we got there at first, few days before. But this time everyone was getting crazy, yelling and spilling water all over the place! We seriously thought we wouldn't make it through the village on time to catch our boat!

We eventually made it and reached Ko Samui's jetty. From there we took what we thought to be a short bus trip across the island to reach the airport, but it took forever since the roads were crowded with drunk, swamped people!... They even stopped the bus and got in in order to splash the driver and passengers :-) Works better than AC!

The frenzy was even more intense in Bangkok's touristy Ko San Road...

At the beginning we somehow felt a bit oppressed, because we were just passive "victims"... but once we got loaded with small water guns the real fun started to seriously kick in! We were like kids for the whole afternoon :-) Great time, lots of fun!

Repression, Malaysian style!

Check out Malaysian government's answer to people peacefully demonstrating for more transparency in the "elections".

This happened last Saturday, 500 meters away from the place I live.

Malaysia tak boleh...

Sir, yes Sir!

Imagine you're lying on a deserted beach somewhere in Asia, let's say in Malaysia. Everything is so quiet, and you fully enjoy yourself. Aside from a tidal wave, what is the worth thing that could happen to you and spoil this very special moment?

--> an organized tour tidal wave...

Since I've spent quite some time on various Islands and touristic spots in Asia, I've noticed many of those groups of tourists traveling on an organized tour. And by "organized", I mean that each and every second of the day is organized.

You can't miss those groups if you go to the Perhentians Islands, they love this sea paradise. They are easy to spot: first they are numerous. Most of those tours gather at least 10 people. That kind of tourists likes to be surrounded by his fellows, he feels protected against all the dangers threatening him when he is so far away from home sweet home. Especially on the Perhentian Islands, this is really dangerous place. And they will always stay close to each other. It's like a school of sardines: strength lies in unity.

You can usually recognize them with their T-shirt: since they are very proud of belonging to the same tour, they make their travel a real event: they give themselves a name, they find a motto and they created a dedicated T-shirt for their group. It's mandatory for them that they wear it all the time. It's actually very clever: in the unlikely event that one of them get separated from the rest of the group, if you find him totally freaked out and lost, thanks to the name on the T-shirt, you can bring him back to his owner. You might get a reward for it.

Finally, since this is an "organized tour", well... it has to be organized, right? This is serious business. The captain of the group usually carries a loudspeaker to regularly give instructions to the group. Thanks to the captain, the tourists don't need to worry to much about what to do and where to go. The schedule is very detailed an a laminated hard copy is given to all the participants. They are told when to go to the bathroom. The captain is the master and his authority is respected: the only case when it's hard for him to keep control over the group is when it comes to food, especially when it's a buffet. In order to guarantee the ROI (Return On Investment), the participants will rush to the buffet and get as much as their plastic plate can carry. Who cares if they can't eat it all, as long as they consumed as much as possible. It's usually a real mess, and there might not be enough food for the weakers of them who couldn't reach the buffet on time. The captain is also in charge of telling jokes in the bus and of ordering them to watch through the window when the bus is passing a landmark. Gosh, a travel must be so boring without a good captain!

But the most funny part is that they don't swim without a bright orange life jacket and two large buoys around their arms. Yes, in the Perhentians. You know, this paradise tropical Island where the water is like 28°C , shallow, quiet, protected by coral reefs... I'm not kidding, that's for real!!!

As you can see, I'm not a big fan of those tours and I'm getting a bit mean. Echoing Nicolas' post (fr), I think that this type of tourism is more or less responsible for spoiling natural wonders...

Well, that said, believe it or not I was myself part of such kind event last weekend!!! Yep, I got enrolled in the Perhentian Island challenge 2007... I teamed up with sport addicted Louis and we both went through a great sport challenge in spite of the "organized tour" background.

The race consist in a mix of kayaking, running through the wild jungle, swimming (yes, with the bright orange life jacket geared up ;-), climbing steep hills. Four and a half hours of constant physical effort around noon, when the sun is the brightest and when the temperature reaches 35°C. It was really tiring but we were determined and we found the guts to finish the race and our rank is 10th out of 83 teams. We won a great medal and a money prize! There will be a one hour coverage on TV Tiga (Malaysian national TV channel 3) in October, I'll try to blog it if I can find it.

Thanks Louis!

Louis was too tall to fit in the kayak...













They didn't play La Marseillaise...

Java, one Island, two worlds

I had the chance to flight to Java twice over the last weeks, once for personal travel, once for business trip, but I definitely feel like I've been traveling to two different countries: the urban sprawl of Jakarta is a the exact opposite of the quiet and gorgeous remote countryside of the rest of Java.

The first time I went there for a one week tour on Central and East Java with Pilou, Marie and a bunch of expat friends. Pilou is a good old school pal of mine. We had plenty of great times few years ago in our campus in Brittany, and we hang out a bit every now and then whenever I crash in Paris for few days. Pilou was kind enough to come visit me all the way to M'sia for a few weeks. It was also the opportunity for me to get to know his lovely special one: Aurelie.



In order to immerse Pilou straight away in a true Asian experience, we left KL almost upon his arrival, after only a very short night. There we go, en route to a one week intense experience in remote Java. On the menu: discovering the legendary Hindu and Buddhist temples of Prambanan and Borobudur ; climbing the grand volcano of Bromo (noticed the new banner on this blog?) ; visiting Surakarta and Jogyakarta ; discovering Madura Island before the Indonesian government succeeds in his attempt to transform this farmer's Island into a place for tourists. Knowing me, needless to mention that we traveled on a budget (local buses, dirty guesthouses, fried rice at the stalls, etc...) That's the only way to get an authentic taste of Java

All along our journey, I was constantly amazed by the kindness and the openness of the Javanese people. Everyone was curious to know where we came from, what we where doing in such places so far from the tourists roads. Everyone was willing to give us directions, and most of the time without ulterior motive. At some point in Surakarta bus station a crowd of Javaneses gathered around us in the blink of an eye, and everyone was shouting to advise us on the best way to reach the next hop. Don't give me wrong, I'm not naive and I know that our wallet was also very attractive, but most of the time I didn't feel that I was pushed to purchase anything. I really believe that people where flattered that we come from so far to visit their villages, and that we were able to speak (a little bit) their language. They wanted us to have the best experience of their country. This simplicity in the human contact is really appreciable. Quite a change for a European! However this is only true for the remote countryside villages. In the tourist spots (the temples for instance), it's a whole different story, and you are not a traveler anymore: you become a prey.

Bottom line: a great experience, a lot of contacts with the Javaneses, UNESCO-like sites (BTW, Prambanan and Borobudur are listed).

Only a week after this trip, I was requested to travel to Jakarta for business. IMHO Jakarta is definitely another world, made of pollution, traffic jam, violence, prostitutes, greediness. The landscape is spoiled and Jakarta is a huge soulless urban sprawl. The taxi is the only was of transportation since it's not possible to walk around.

What a contrast! I'm not Marxist at all but I can't help thinking that human beings are not made to live in big cities and that government should kick everyone back to the countryside...

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Haze-ardous!

What's going on in KL? The whole city is covered with a thick fog smelling just like a charcoal barbecue before you drop the meat on the grill... What's that? Oh, I know: the haze is back in KL :'-( Cough, cough!! What is the haze? It's easy as a pie: farmers in Indonesia (especially on the neighboring island of Sumatra) burn the forest in order to clear off fields for cultivation. This generates huge amount of smoke. Depending on the wind, those clouds of smoke make their journey over the Melacca sea and end up reaching Malaysia West coast.

See "before" and "after" pictures of KL:

Sometimes, when the smoke is too thick, schools are closed, as well as some industry manufactures and offices. This is bad for productivity. And needless to mention the health hazard... But to me the most surprising thing about it is the Malaysians reaction: obviously some of them are very concerned about the above mentioned troubles. But others are pretty happy about it because during haze attack the sun can't reach KL and the temperature drops from a few degrees!!

Malaysian government urged Indonesia for collaboration in chasing those illegal forest fires. Indonesia sent some officers in Sumatra jungle. They caught several fire criminals and deported them towards Malaysia... because they were Malays!! Yes, some Malay people setup business among the pyromaniacs... An excellent way for Indonesia to tell Malaysia: "See, the criminals are from your country, all this is your fault so now stop boring us with this smoke story and let our farmers burn forest if they want to"...

I bet you, we are not gonna see blue sky in KL before pigs fly.

KL noise

When settling in a new place (especially in another country), one has to adapt (at least) a bit to one’s hosting country and its way of life. Among the changes, some are obvious: I mentioned about food in a previous post. Switching driving side is another obvious change you have to comply with, etc…

But after a while, when those new habits which were real brain surgery at first begin to become part of your everyday life, you can start focusing on those more subtle differences. Namely the noises. Yes, the noises. Places often have a very typical noise. Most of the time it’s barely noticeable. It’s just part of the environment. As I said, your mind is too busy to notice them at first, but thereafter you can identify them.

For instance when I moved in Brest, one of the biggest harbor in France, I got woken up every foggy morning (so basically each other day in Brittany…) by the foghorn… When I moved in Muncie, a small countryside town in Indiana, USA, it took me a while to identify this weird noise haunting the streets: Muncie is a major crossroads for train freight. And one surprising thing about US: as per federal law, trains are supposed to honk repeatedly while approaching the least crossroad… Thus this noise days and nights…

It took me while but I finally identified the typical noise for KL: having a mosque nearby my house, I can sometime ear the chant of the muezzin’s preach…

F.R.I.M

Sunday afternoon Marie and I visited the FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia). This is a protected wild area concentrating the majors species of trees and plants of the Borneo's primary forest. One good thing about this park is that although it's only 25 min North of KL, as soon as we entered it we felt like we were trekking in the heart of Borneo's jungle! We took the short loop (about 4 miles). This was enough to feel weird: I already noticed this, jungle trekking has a hypnotizing power on me! After some time I feel the same as after speleology. Perhaps it's due to the dense canopy above my head preventing me from seeing the sky and also from the thick silence due to the dense surrounding vegetation. Or maybe just the moist heat getting on my nerves?

Anyway, it was really interesting. We saw giant bamboos, screw shaped creepers, elephant trees, unattached trees, etc... Regarding the latter, the FRIM is really proud of those unattached trees, big time! Apparently the National Geo made a paper about it... Actually it's something truly unusual (cf. picture on the left). It was curious to figure out why on Earth those trees won't just overlap like any other tree! I googled it but didn't get a hit. Same for National Geo online archives. If some biologist specialised in jungle trees wander around please share your knowledge!

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Merdeka in Perhentian Islands

It feels good to leave the boiling KL and relax for a bit on one of the most beautiful paradise Island in the world!

Well, when I say "relax", it turned out that things could have been much different. At first this trip started pretty bad: Merdeka being one of the busiest week-end, I made sure to book transportation, accommodation and PADI course for Marie and I ahead of time. So after an intense working day, we arrived around 9:30p at the Sentral train station, ready for an overnight journey across Malaysia towards Kota Bahru. I suggested going check the platform number and then having a coffee, since we had 1/2 hour before the train leaves... That's pretty much at this point that I figured out that the actual departure time was... half an hour ago!

Now, what? It's almost 10p, the busiest week-end of the year, all the transportation fully booked since at least a month! We had struggled to be able to take one day off, to get the PADI course booked, etc... No way to screw up the week-end like that! We felt so desperate :-( And I especially felt so stupid because I was the one in charge. So we rushed towards the Putra Jaya bus station at the other side of the city, expecting to take over the seats of some passenger not showing up at the last minute. And it turned out that it's pretty much was happen!... Great!

Enough with the complaining: the rest of the week-end was really enjoyable, though. The diving course was pretty intense since it's suppose to fit in three days, but as we took a plane on the way back, we where not supposed to dive 18 hours before take off, so we took the course in two days. The Turtle Bay Diver club on Besar Island deserves some advertisement here: the manager really helped us get the best out of our diving experience! They are both really cautious about security and ready to let the fun show up even 18 meter underwater. I recommend them.

The last day we climbed the hill along a dirt trail across the jungle. Intense and rough experience! But the overview of the two Islands from the top of the hill makes the hike worth it.

I can't wait to get underwater again!

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