Muzium Negara - or - Beauty in Beads

19 March 2014

We've been having fun in KL despite the rain - the drought seems to have suddenly broken and we have rain for at least half the day.

Even at night, the city skyline is amazing.  These photos were shot from our hotel room, or down the hall.  We see the KL Tower, the Maybank Building, the Petronus Towers (the two towers), and I don't know what else.

I also like the blue-ish glass building that looks just like one of those transformers - I can totally see it turning into some giant robot and defending the city from Godzilla or something.

Anyway, we walked down to the Central Market, which is fun and exciting.  The original building is dated 1888, and still houses restaurants, shops, stalls, and all kinds of wonderful things.  It's a lovely blue, and when we entered the market the skies were a lighter version of the same blue.  Of course, after a few hours of lunch and browsing, it was pouring rain by the time we were ready to leave.  Because this is rainy week.


My favourite part, though, was the young man who was working on silk batik squares.  He was set up in the center court, just quietly painting with melted wax on a large piece of silk cloth, stretched on a frame.  Parts were painted with dye, everything outlined in wax (which will later be ironed out).  He was making each square unique with different backgrounds, different colours, and just drawing all kinds of designs freehand.  With a little hollow stylus full of hot melted wax.  This truly isn't as easy as he made it look, I've tried this before.  

It was fascinating, and his finished samples were gorgeous.  Of course, there was also a shop, which we skipped, but he was my favourite part of the market.

There was also a covered area outside the market for more vendors, selling uninteresting stuff.  But the covered part was amazing - see the front of it?  That sort of football shape with a top and bottom part?  That's the traditional kite shape!  It's also the design on the red bus, toward the top of today's blog.  Isn't that a cool shape?

And check out the street lights - it seems as if each area of the city has a unique design for the street lights.  And they're all so ornamental!  Most have hibiscus flowers, which seems to be the national flower - it's also on the money.  And Petaling Street has dragons on the lightposts.  I know, most people don't think twice about street lights, but I like the little attention to artistic details that create the look of a place.  We humans have a need to decorate and make our spaces attractive, and street lights are part of that.

So, decorative.  Today we went to the National Museum of Malaysia, or, in Malaysian, Muzium Negara.   Their website is http://www.muziumnegara.gov.my/main/

We took a taxi (spelled "teksi" in Malaysian) because this is a pretty far distance, and had lunch at the museum café.  (Cafeteria style, with rice, curries, spicy chicken or fish - I think we were the only non-Asian people there.)

We found this interesting boat that looks like a chicken, though I think it's probably supposed to be a hornbill.  Beautiful and exuberant boat!  This is a traditional fishing boat in some areas of Malaysia.  (Keep in mind that we're in peninsular Malaysia - there's a large part of Malaysia on the island of Borneo, though we likely won't get over there.)

My favourite area was a special exhibit about beads.  Yes, I know, it doesn't sound very exciting, but actually it was.  Some of the beaded items were hundreds of years old, some were everyday objects that were traditionally beaded - like these baby carriers.  Who knew baby carriers could become such ornamental objects and end up in a museum?!?!?

The displays were wonderful - the backgrounds of the display units were giant, larger than life photos of beaded objects, with the objects in show cases in front of the giant photos.  Periodically, there might be a curtain of hanging beads, because, well, this is an exhibit of beads.  It just was gorgeous and such a wonderfully conceived exhibition.  

The rest of the museum was nice, with the normal chronological presentation of the country's history - the geographic development of the land; the first people; some of the archeological evidence of prehistoric humans; paleolithic age; bronze age; you get the idea.  The early kingdoms of Malaysia.  And then the European conquests - first Portugal, then the Netherlands, and finally the British.  Independence in the 1950s.  Yes, it is interesting.  But I tend to breeze through these displays, reading the headings of the narratives and looking at the items, not going into a whole lot of depth.  History, wars, conquests, just sort of bore me.  So this paragraph is a very condensed version of Malaysian history in a tiny nutshell.

I was really impressed with the displays again - this museum has done a really great job of displays.  To transition from one era to the next, there were often replicas of important gates - part of a Buddhist temple.  A gate from the Portuguese fort.  A section of the British fortifications, complete with cannons.  Part of a traditional carved wooden entrance to a palace.  This really gave a feeling of the period of time, the look of that era, so much more than just the normal photos might.  Absolutely a great way to separate eras of a culture!   (Even the windows looked like the traditional ornately carved stone windows of some kind of sultan's palace!)

I also really liked the giant throne - wow, it was like some ornate four-poster-bed-style throne!  All carved wood painted gold, hanging drapes, velvet cushions - I'd love that in my house!  Well, maybe big enough to be the bed.  Just fabulous and yes, totally luxurious!

There were various dioramas showing traditional crafts and clothing of the major cultures in Malaysia - the Malay people, people from China, and people from India.  And there was also an exhibit showing many of the minority groups as well, with information about their culture (and of course traditional clothing and crafts).  This is a very diverse country, multi-cultural, and while there has been friction amongst the cultures in the past, people seem to try very hard to accept each other and work together.  And yes, the Indian woman in a sari is a mannikin - she looks real, doesn't she?  Wearing a beautiful purple and teal sari, and making a design out of tiny seeds or beads or something.

There were all kinds of weapons, swords, the wavy-bladed kriss (in Malay "keris"), ceramics, armour, and, well, all the normal kinds of objects you see in museums.

We also managed to visit the museum while there were a couple of school groups there.  The kids looked like maybe middle school or early high school aged and they were SO energetic, bounding up and down the stairs, looking at everything and taking pics of each other with their phones.  Of course - this is Malaysia, this is 2014, this is what kids do all over the world.  (This is what my students in St. Thomas would do!)  I kind of enjoyed the kids in the background, especially when they had some kind of cheer before they left - not sure what that was all about.

So, all in all, it was worth a visit - if you're every in Kuala Lumpur, make sure you get to Muzium Negara.

Chinese Parade

15 March 2014

Today might be the Ides of March in some parts of the world.  And it may be Purim in other places.

But it's the end of the Chinese New Year in Malaysia.  (Probably in other parts of SE Asia as well, but we're here in Malaysia.)

So there was a parade this evening!

Of course, we knew nothing about the parade until we heard drums and cymbals and gongs out on the street - we were grabbing a light supper at the food stands of the bus station (great steamed chicken buns, or pao, at the stands!) - and so we rushed out to the street, food in hand.

We don't know what we missed, we came out in time for the dragon made of balloons!  Balloons!!!  (What happens when the dragon breathes fire?)

There were people marching after each vehicle, carrying various flags and banners, some people in costume and some in regular clothes.

And some trucks with drummers and cymbals and gongs, but they were spaced out so they could be heard before they were seen and the bands didn't clash with each other.

Then there floats decked out in neon lights bent into all kinds of designs - pagodas, phoenixes, on and on they come, glowing in the night.

 

 Then there were the furry, well, maybe foo dogs?  Lions?  Camels??  We weren't sure exactly what they were, but they were very cool, and more traditional than the balloon dragon.

That's one of the problems with not being able to speak or read the language of the country we're visiting, we don't have news of what's going on.  We don't always know what's going on.

But we stumble into exciting things like a night parade.

It's much more interesting that way!
 

 

KL, Day and Night

13 March 2014 

We've spent some time exploring the neighbourhoods to the east and west of our hotel, which is across the road from the central bus station (spelled "sentral" in Malaysian).

To the west is what locally is called Petaling Street (that's peh-TAH-ling), but also known as Chinatown.  Petaling itself is sort of a covered pedestrian and motorscooter street lined by shops, portable stalls selling just about everything, and of course restaurants and cafés.  The entire ceiling is covered with red lanterns, rows and rows of red Chinese lanterns.  

The salespeople hawk their wares by calling out to people passing by, trying flattery, wheedling, humour, sometimes even sarcasm as people mostly walk on by.  We're just here for the local colour and atmosphere, not really shopping for anything.

We bought more of my foot cream at a pharmacy, and the pharmacist gave us a great recommendation for a restaurant, Fong Yuan - we had a lovely lunch there.

And of course there are gorgeous things that we aren't sure what they are - we think these huge brass pots are most likely samovars, given the giant spigots and all.


Then, to the east of our hotel, is the area of Bukit Bintang.  All of those pretty lanterns strung along the streets are lit up at night, and the area becomes a lively night market.  Even the small pagoda-style shrines look prettier at night.  

Bukit Bintang has restaurants - everyone told us we'd eat well in Malaysia, and wow is this true.  There's wonderful Chinese food, of course.  We've seen restaurants with Middle Eastern food, all of which look wonderful.  There's Indian food available, which I love but Richard isn't crazy about.

Well, we discovered a French-style bakery.  Granted, it's an American company.  But wow is the food good!  Wonderful omelettes, salads, and of course croissants and pastries and, well, we haven't tried everything.  But it makes a wonderful stop on our way walking around Bukit Bintang, both for lunch when we arrive, and then maybe a snack and take away for the next day's brekkie.  And yes, day old croissants aren't as good as fresh croissants, but hey, they're better than nothing.

There are all kinds of shopping malls in Bukit Bintang as well - one had an interesting sculpture for International Women's Day, which was very popular for photos.  (For the artists among our readers, each letter was made of a three-dimensional metal armature, covered with fabric bows and ties in varying shades of reds and pinks.  Very effective!)






Yes, we've been hanging out in shopping malls.  What can we say, the weather in KL is sometimes gorgeous, as in the first photo posted today (taken on the 11th).  Other days, like today, the weather is horrendous.  Okay, maybe it isn't the weather, more like the air.  KL has a smog problem, exacerbated by the heat and humidity of being a tropical city.  Sometimes pollution, smoke from fires, ash from volcanoes, and other air-borne debris blows in from neighbouring countries.  So the air is greyish brown (taupe for you art friends), and breathing is difficult.  Our friends at Tous Les Jours gave us face masks to wear as we walked around, and while it made breathing easier, those little things are very hot.  Thus we spend time indoors, despite so many things to see in such easy walking distance.  (But, given the air pollution, we can't see very far!)

We may rethink our time in Malaysia, and possibly head in a different direction.