Seeing as how it is my first time actually being in KL by the time our Independence Day arrives, i had wanted to attend the Merdeka Parade held annually in conjunction with the day itself. I've always seen pictures and vid flashes of the parade/celebration on tv so now that i had the chance to attend it myself, i was hoping that nothing will clash on my plans today.
So my plan is to spend my entire morning and perhaps a little into the afternoon watching and maybe taking part in the parade as a "domestic tourist". Take enough pics, absorb the atmosphere, get some suntan....so i got myself ready and head out, taking the 1/2hr LRT ride to Masjid Jamek station.
After getting out of the train, i took the oppoturnity to set the date and time for my camera. Funny, ever since dad fixed the lens cover problem last time, everytime i charge the battery the camera resets itself & i always had to set the date and time again. So i took out my camera and press the buttons....
Nothing.
Alarmed, i thought there was something wrong, that maybe i had pressed the wrong button, and then it hit me--- i had forgotten to insert back my camera battery after i charged it last night! In my hurry to get out of the house i had totally forgotten about the camera battery still lodged nicely in the charger. Add a mere 4hr sleep to that, yeahhhh.... no wonder i'd forgot.
Cursing myself for being so careless, i pondered whether i should go back retrieve the battery. After all, this is a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion. As soon as i thought it tho, i gave up going back. It will take another hour before i'll be back again, and it's simply not worth it. So, i would have to attend it and not bring back any "footage" of it....sigh.
Stepping out of the station, somehow my instinct made me take the left turn....i dunno why, but i just walked anyway. I actually have no idea whatsoever how to get to the Merdeka Square, my destination. Attempts to locate a good travel route the previous night failed with bad internet connection. So yeah, after getting a tip from friend to stop at Masjid Jamek station, i'll just have to find my way by following road signs.
I walked and walked and after 10mins was unsure if i headed the right way(because there was no sign!) but soon on a wide road opened and there's a huge sign pointing to my destination, so i followed the road. It wasn't after another long 15mins of walk before i saw the 2nd sign and again i followed it and soon i begin to spot familiar landmarks.
Prior to this i had went to the Merdeka Square before with my friends via the Hop On-Hop Off bus so i had generally a good idea of the place and what's in it within 1km of the square itself. Finally seeing a field in the distance, i made my way over as fast as possible.
Alas...there is nothing. Not even police, and the streets though are less busy than normal, but it wasn't up to the point till the road is blocked off for the parade. It took one good glance at the area for it to sink in: there is NO parade being held here. The whole square is empty save for some tourists.
I sat down and took a breather + chug of water from all that walking. Lucky it wasn't too sunny, or else i might've been baked. Lol. I was very disappointed by how things turn out by that time. I waited for a couple minutes more to see if anything will come up, but apparently, nothing will happen. It's as normal as any day!
Suddenly my plans are crashed just like that. I didn't know where the parade/celebrations are held; my good guess is that they're decided to celebrate it elsewhere, and from what i read last nite, it might've been ongoing for a few years already. Darn my incomplete research!
So i resort to do a self-exploration of the area instead. Time for another self-mapping of the city! xD So i walked on (by the way, the flag at the Merdeka Square is gone. They didn't hoist it up. Sigh.) and soon the National Textile Museum came into view. Seeing i never been inside it and it's free, so i went in have a look.
As the name suggests, the museum showcases types of clothings and material the people of Malaysia had and made over the years, of different cultures and ethnicities. Besides that they also show the various ornaments and accessories ppl used to wear then and now. It was pretty interesting overall. The museum itself is nicely kept and clean, just that abit too quiet cos no visitor at all except me LOL. Besides the lady outside guarding the entrance, there's only a security guard inside(who at one point, held a radio playing Raya songs and walked into the galleries and out....hmmm i think u all know what this gestures mean right hehehee ssshh!) and another counter lady(whom i caught sleeping on her job! LOLOLOL) on the entrance hall on the other entrance to the building. Overall i visited 3 galleries(they divided different showcases into different mini galleries) and 1 was shut off due to what i don't know. Hehe. Only when i was abt to leave there was this Japanese looking elder woman coming in for a visit. Lols...
Peering at the brochure of the museum the front lady outside gave me earlier(she had seemed eager for me to leave my name on the guestbook; poor thing, probably didn't get much visitors...), there is a simple map on the brochure showing other attractions i can check out: from the museum i can fairly get to the National Mosque, National Museum, KTM building and Central Market. Since all places are quite near (via memory off the Hop On-Hop Off trip) i decided to just spend my morning checking out these places.
So i went to the National Mosque and basically got to the main entrance and that's about it; visitors are barred from entering already especially if you are a non-Muslim, so yeahh...apparently non-Muslim visitors are only allowed on the outer mosque grounds. There were a couple of foreign tourists being let off there by their respective buses and vans and were taking pictures everywhere. Goshhh my heart itched at the sight of camera LOL!!! It just reminded me i forgot to bring my camera battery @@~~
After that i wondered if i should walk up the hill to check out the National Museum. Scratch that...i can feel myself quite dehydrated and de-energised already (lack of sleep remember) so instead i went to the KTM building. It was very cool because i like the design of the building. That retro, old building feel. Love it.
However, soon i was stuck, don't know where to go. I (unknowingly at that time) stepped into the ticketing counter and since it's just a room, i thought there'e nothing more and just that. Fairly bored with what's inside(or lacking thereof), i decided to walk to Central Market.
The map slightly deceived me though; yes it was correct in mapping out the location and direction of the said landmarks, but it wasn't a detailed and exact map of the area. Because of that, i actually circled the area twice, walking twice just to make sure i hadn't miss a bend here or there. I even took an underground passage that windled underneath the highway above, and to my horror the place actually stank of dirt and urine. I wonder how many homeless ppl used the underground passageway to sleep in at nights, or what unlawful deeds have been taking place there. Those thoughts won over the other thoughts of the place like "wow never knew Msia had these type of underground passageways before! Only seen this before in HK dramas or NY dramas lol". While the underground passageways of other countries i saw on TV are always crowded with ppl, the one i took is also eeriely empty; something cud happen to me inside and no one will ever know. *shrugs*
Deducing that my only way out is via the KTM building(i had this nagging feeling i haven't explored the building fully to find a way through), i returned to the KTM building(that or walk all the way to KL Sentral, which i saw is just ahead on a nearby roadsign) and true to my instinct, i actually hadn't reached its main hall, so i went and i found myself on the train platform and i gotta tell you, like any first-time wide-eyed kid seeing a marvel for a first time, it was quite a sight for me. The platform gave me a very "Harry Potter" train-station feel LOL. And right at that exact moment there's alot of people just gotten off a train and everyone was like walking casually to an exit somewhere to my left.
Seriously, what a sight!!! I really wish i had my camera with me. The life and everything that is playing in front of me....really kick myself at my clumsiness that morning. I sat down again just observing everything that is happening on the platform. Soon an ETS train arrived and it was bound for Ipoh. Reminded me of my Ipoh trip sometime back. I suddenly thought of my friend, then wondered if i could secretly sneak onto the train LOL.
After the train left i began to leave too, going in the direction of the people i saw exiting earlier. Soon i can see exit and almost immediately i saw the Central Market LRT station in the distance. Hereon i know where i am already!!! I had wandered to this area only a few weeks back and even though that time it was nighttime, but i can still recognise the area. xD There were alot more people there though; everyone was boarding/getting off buses and milling about at the Central Market. I began to be more careful with my belongings and alert with my surrounding.
The Central Market wasn't my ultimate destination though; i had only wanted to go there to reach Petaling Street, where i intend to have some food + check out football jersey LOL. So i had my brunch of Wantan Mee + the famous Longan drink there, before checking the stalls out for my jersey. I found alot of the jerseys are quite big-sized...i'll look ridiculous in it. And most of them had an extra EPL badge on the sleeve. I don't want that. I want a replica as similar to the....well, original replica as possible. Couldn't really find one that's suitable, so i gave up...and thought of catching a movie at Times Square.
Taking this opportunity to explore the route to catch a monorail nearby straight to Imbi/Bukit Bintang, i went in search of Hang Tuah monorail station. I've always heard friends saying u can directly take a monorail frm nearby to go straight to Bintang area, instead of taking LRT and switching to monorail at Hang Tuah station, a way of travel i previously used to go there from Petaling Street. We all think it shud be Hang Tuah station, so i decided to find out for myself.
Alas, after twice taking a route that made me end up in Central Market again, i finally saw a monorail route and followed it and reached a station--alas, it is not Hang Tuah station, but Maharajalela station! Yay mission succeeded! What a relief cos i was pretty tired already (really Lit Yee? You used to last longer! I think it's cos of the lack of sleep...) and don't want to walk ALL the way to Imbi omg.
So i took the monorail and arrived at Times Square, went to check the showtimes and decide to watch "Cars 2" as the timing was right and kinda the only interesting movie at the moment. To be honest though, i never really liked "Cars" and thought it was my least favourite Pixar movie. Zzz. But ohwells, i gotta spend my time rite? xD
Movie was at 2pm and it was only 12.40pm so i walked around....curious to see how the 10th floor GSC Maxx cinemas look like i went to the 10th floor for like the first time ever and lol, there's a bazaar up there! But it was kinda...empty. Lol. Seriously tho...who wud travel up 10 floors to a bazaar...zzz. Anyway i went up and spent quite a long time looking at the mini-theme park from up there. It's a better view though, i can see much more of the roller coaster and the whole theme park itself hehe. Made me want to play as well lol. But i'm alone, play what oh? Haha...
Finally i went down and to my dismay, there is a power outage at the floor of my cinema...so everything was delayed and normally i wud've been more patient but my feet hurts like shit and i'm agitated and not being seated yet. I was beginning to think what an unlucky day i've had...so many things unexpectedly happened. Fortunately we were let in after nearly 20mins of delay and i went in for the movie.
The movie was not bad, but it didn't win me over still. I still think it's the poorest Pixar movie ever. It's glaringly obvious that, i actually enjoyed the short mini Toy Story skit at the beginning of the movie than the entire "Cars 2" movie. Not to say it's a bad film, it's not, it's actually good, but still incomparable to other timeless, classic, very well-made Pixar films like the Toy Story trilogy, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, Up...etc etc. Goshh please don't let Pixar's standard drop!!! >.<
Anyways after that i tried Pearl Milk Tea from a store called ShareTea, which i'd seen a couple of branches somewhere in Sungei Wang and also MidValley already, and there's a queue usually when i saw them, so wanna try if it's really that good. Their tv was showing all these ads and testimonials and news of the groundbreaking Pearl Milk Tea...so even though it's ridiculously expensive for a Milk Tea drink (mine costed abt RM7 large sized, Taiwanese Pearl Milk Tea--- i tend to choose either an original/neutral flavour when trying out new stuff, after all, if u can't even get the basics right, surely the others wont taste good as well right?) i gave it a try.
First sip in, WHOA NICE!!! But later after that the taste starts to fade and it's as if i'm drinking iced plain water instead. Plus the pearls are tasteless, not even a slight honey sweetness to it. However, the pearl texture is just right; the right softness, bounciness and size. Overall it is a disappointment tho; i couldn't feel the satisfaction drinking it like what i got from drinking ChaTime's pearl milk tea. And by the way, ChaTime is REALLY GOOD!!
After that i just resorted to go home. I'm pretty tired already. So have to walk all the way to KLCC to take LRT from there home. And omg the crowd. Ridiculous!! I've never seen the place sooo packed before. There is hardly a place to just PASS THROUGH. I actually walked away to come back later again, hopefully the crowd will lessen by then. But no...it's still the same. And it was nearing 7pm d and i really need to get back home, so i queue to buy tickets.
First i went to one of the machines as the counter has a long queue as well and machines might be faster. But at the machines ppl from other machine lanes are cutting into the queue and basically rushed to buy their tickets right in front of the machine. =.= fairly annoyed by this and after a good 10mins of waiting, i gave up and went to the ticketing counter.
Soon a LRT police officer started to control the crowd queuing situation, telling us to get to one side and line up properly while he puts up dividers on the lanes to control how people queue up(before that ppl were just standing anywhere they want in the crowd trying to jump in as soon as they see a chance). It was pretty chaotic and some people started pushing and the officer had to shout loudly "Don't push ba!" in Malay. The things human do when they are desperate. Sigh. The policeman then kept telling us and kept checking us so we are properly in a line(another officer assisted in the line and queue checking as well)to buy our tickets. Luckily they did this and the whole ticket buying process is much smoother(and inside i was like thank god no more stranger touching me =.= cos i seriously don't like it when strangers touch me, esp more so when they try to push me from behind to force me forward or push ppl in front of me. I'm like "fuck, dun push me and make me move, i know how and when to move!" and i usually just glared back at them) and soon i got my ticket after nearly 45mins of being stuck in the massive crowd, i finally can go down to the trains! Luckily for me the train itself isn't jam packed like sardine like above, so it was a relatively smooth ride back. Phew!
Went back, had dinner and back into my room and the internet. Tired, but overall to be honest, it's a good day actually. Not too bad, just that i had my plans scratched. But along the way i learnt and saw new things too; now i know more or less how to get to Merdeka Square, and the nearby tourist attractions, and some of the roads nearby. And also solved the case of the mysterious monorail station near Petaling Street. xD
I think the best thing that happened is that i helped this cleaning lady up the stairs at the KTM building. She is one of the cleaning ladies there, and had difficulty carrying a huge bottle of liquid up the stairs. As i passed her i offered to help her with her liquid, and while it's not really something, the satisfaction i got from helping her made my day. Will not forget the smile she gave me after that, and her initial surprise at my offer to help her. Helping people feels so good! We should help each other out more often :)
***
That's how my Aug 31st went....wanted to make this post up before it turns 1/9 but seems i'm too late! So instead of being the last post for August, it's the first post of September 2011!
Take care everyone! 3more months and it'll be end of the year. Strive to make everyday count! :)
Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends! And Happy Merdeka to fellow Malaysians. Will try to make it to next year's celebration, if possible! =D
P/S Sorry for the lack of pictures! I hadn't brought my camera battery with me after all!
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