Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Kuala Lumpur : 9 Emperor Gods Ride

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                          AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures                       
Kuala Lumpur : The 9-Emperor Gods Ride
Kuala Lumpur : 4th October 2013
Small Group Ride : Tasik Titiwangsa>Korean Embassy>Ampang Old Town>9-Emperor Gods Temple>Tasik Titiwangsa
Distance Covered: 21.86 km.
Time : 6:30 pm pm 10:30 pm    Duration : 4 hours (including dinner, viewing procession and visiting temple)

Route Recommendations :
1. The route is relatively flat.
2. Point of interest is the Korean Embassy and the 9-Emperor Gods Temple in Ampang.
3. Highlight of the ride was viewing the temple procession.



PRELUDE

Dragon Dance during the 9-Emperor Gods Festival procession.
The 9-Emperor Gods festival was approaching, and one of the highlights of the festival was the procession to go invite the Emperor Gods from the lake. In Kuala Lumpur, this starts from the 9-Emperor Gods temple in Ampang down to a nearby lake where the gods are invited up a chariot and then the procession returns back to the temple. This procession is carried out a few days before the actual festival day.
This will be an interesting affair to see as it has been ages since I attended such a procession. In fact, it was like historical times to me, as the last time for me was decades ago when I was a small kid. So when Tailim suggested a ride to see this procession I was eager to join.



THE RIDE

9-Emperor Gods Festival Ride Map  (click for Map Link)
Ride route - Tasik Titiwangsa>Korean Embassy>Ampang Old Town>9-Emperor Gods Temple>Tasik Titiwangsa
 From the Titiwangsa Golf Club we will ride to Ampang Old Town for dinner whilst waiting for the procession to start. En route we passed by the newly built Korean Embassy to admire its architecture.

Starting off from the Titiwangsa Golf Club, the five of us did a classic Olympian Bolt-style pose to boost our spirits for the ride. This is a favourite spot for our group photo as the Petronas Twin Towers and the KL Tower can be seen in the background.

This time round Harry will be assisting Tailim in leading the ride as he is familiar with the early stretches of the ride. From Titiwangsa cutting through some "restricted zones" (of which Harry has permission to go through) we were soon riding along the Jalan Semarak area.

We are avoiding the evening office rush traffic and are using the residential roads, from Semarak we proceeded to the Dato Keramat area. Here we are at the Keramat LRT Station.

En route, we did a swing pass the Korean Embassy. It's a relatively new building with nice Korean architecture...

... and some nice statues.

Although we did ride by some interesting side and back alleys, the route itself was quite uneventful. It was the destination, or more the idea of seeing the procession event, that is tugging us on.

Steamed Grass Carp with Grounded Ginger sauce.
Reaching Ampang Old Town, we had dinner at a simple restaurant called Kah Heong Taste (translated it means Added Flavour Taste). The dishes here were good, just like it's name, the food was additionally flavourful!
The delicious food was a good way to pass the time while waiting for the procession to arrive.

Half way through the dinner the procession arrived! We postponed our half eaten dinner and rushed out to see the procession - Well, one can't time eating and viewing accurately. As it was a very long procession (about 2 km. long), by the time we got back to our dining table the food was finished by the others. But no regrets there as viewing the long and eventful procession itself sated our appetites.
The start of the procession were some pennants and flags carried by devotees with volunteer police clearing a way through the crowd for them.

This was followed by brightly lighted floats representing various associations, some were manually pulled along, while others were motorized.

... and devotees dressed in white carrying joss sticks and prayer candles.

Unlike most processions, there were a few dragon dances, like this red one of a dragon chasing the moon.

And this green dragon with a striking head.

There were even more lion dances, so many that I lost count; and of different colours, green lions...

... and yellow ones!

And even the rare Qilin dance. So rare that this is the first time I am seeing one.

More lighted floats, this one with a green dragon emblazoned at its sides.

On the return journey, the gods have been invited to onto palanquins. Devotees took turns to carry these palanquins, rocking them from side to side, back to the temple.

At a make-shift roadside shrine, devotees in a trance did penance for blessing by cutting themselves with swords.

Some went to extremes and really did cut themselves, in their trance they were oblivious to their bleeding (... see more at Nine Empeeror Gods Procession - coming soon).

With the completion of the procession, we went into the Nine Emperor Gods Temple itself to look around. It was not the actual day of the festival, but then there were already many devotees attending to rites and prayers.

Priests and devotees from the procession continued on to pray at the main altar....

At one corner of the temple grounds was a small stage where a Chinese Opera Show was being performed to entertain devotees (... see more at Nine Emperor Gods Temple Festival blog - coming soon).

We mingled and milled for a while and then left the temple to ride back


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Graffiti Street Art @ Kuala Lumpur
Storm Drains #1 : September 2013
A surprise find of large mural street art graffiti in the storm drains of Kuala Lumpur.





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Monday, 28 October 2013

Selangor : The Sampah Ride - Cleaning Sungai Chiling

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                          AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures                       
Selangor : The Sampah Ride - Cleaning Sungai Chiling 20th October 2013
We had previously rode to the Sungai Chiling Fish Sanctuary, and have like and enjoyed the naturalness of the place with its friendly fishes swimming around us (... see Chiling @ Sg Chiling blog). The thing is the place is attracting more and more visitors, many of them irresponsibly throwing rubbish all over.
Johnny Ng of My Bicycle Shop issued a call of arms to cyclists to help out, it was a call to come help clean up the fish sanctuary. Some cyclist jokingly called this ride the" Sampah Ride"; well it's a good name; short and precise. (Note: "sampah" means rubbish in Bahasa Malaysia).

This time round I drove up to the Kuala Kubu Bharu railway station to meet some others who were taking the train there. I was a bit disheartened to see that only about 15 of us over here. Together we rode in to Kual Kubu's town centre for breakfast, with me still feeling disappointed by the lukewarm response.

But when we reached the town, was I in for a surprise! More than thirty cyclists were already there, much earlier than us. My confidence in my fellow cyclists was restored. 
We cyclists, moving along at a slower pace, do see things up close, making us even more aware of the environment.
That's the fun part of cycling, enjoying nature. Unfortunately, we also get to see the damage that has been inflicted to our surroundings up close.


At Kuala Kubu Bharu, we never miss ordering the kaya (coconut-egg jam) puffs from Teng Wun Bakery. These are delicious with their crispy multi-layered crusts (... see more at Kaya Puffs @ Teng Wun blog).

Eats time's is over, time to do our civic duties. Johnny led the way with his XDS FA16, he had come by train and the compact-fold of this bike was very suitable for brining onto the train.

The ride is up slope most of the way but the road is not to steep so it's manageable. The nice sceneries and cool breeze makes this route interesting and a joy to ride one.


Along the way we met some super-bikers heading uphill...


... and some skate-boarders heading downhill. Seems like we are not the only ones who know how to enjoy this route.


The scene that met us when we reached the Sungai Selangor Dam was totally different from the one during our last ride here. The dry weather has lowered the water level drastically.


The beauty of the white water rushing down the overflow outlet chamber was not there, it was a pale shadow of it's former self.


Nevertheless, we took a group photo of ourselves here - there were more than fifty of us!


Reaching Sungai Chiling, we started our rubbish collection even before we entered the place...


... there is so much rubbish left at the roadside drains of the main road. Visitors just lazily through out their rubbish into these drains. They just know how to enjoy the place but do not know how to keep it clean!


More enthusiastic cyclists formed a chain on a steep slope to get to those hard to reach garbage.


Even the younger ones chipped in.


A lighter moment while collecting tossed away empty beer bottles.


Even the area around the rubbish bin is not spared by those irresponsible visitors. Perhaps there are not enough of these bins (we only saw one), and perhaps located 500 metres from the entrance is just to "far" for those lazy people.


All in all, we collected twenty huge bags of rubbish.
Well done Johnny!
Well done all those who came to help!


Our civic duty responsibly carried out, it was time to relax and enjoy the place ...


... it is time to just let go and dunk our heads into the chilling water of Sungai Chiling.


It was time to play with the fishes and reflect on our efforts to preserve this place and its surrounding.


These fishes are beautiful and are worthwhile protecting.


En route down, we stopped for ice-cream treats. Life is good.


Nature is beautiful, it is even more beautiful when kept clean.
LET'S DO OUR PART TO KEEP IT THAT WAY!


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