Tag: thaipusam

  • Thaipusam in Penang, 2016

    Thaipusam in Penang, 2016

    Thaipusam in Penang, 2016 – Haven’t been to Thaipusam for many years, the last time was like 6 years ago that I went to join the rituals of throwing coconut to cleanse the road with coconut water for the devotees.

    It was a great one, visiting the Thaipusam area at Waterfall Road on the 2nd day of Thaipusam holy festival and it was crowded as usual. Getting up to the top of Waterfall Hill Temple (long name ahead!!! – Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple) was tiring yet exciting because the view from the top was so good, not to mentioned the air was cooler up there.

    Not a Hindu, but still did a prayer at the temple for good health and good wealth. Getting back down ended my journey at the Thaipusam festival. Will do a more thorough Thaipusam experience next time!

  • Awesome Hindu’s Thaipusam Festival At Batu Caves

    Awesome Hindu’s Thaipusam Festival At Batu Caves


    Jam at MRR2 near to Batu Caves.

    Thaipusam o Thaipusam. Last time, friends always invited me to go photoshoot at Thaipusam but I always didn’t go with them. Last year, I got to see a little part of Thaipusam happened at Dato Keramat of Penang where people throw coconut for praying and I got to join in with my friend Arron and Chien Chern.

    When I was back in Penang few weeks ago, I thought “OMG, I am gonna miss Thaipusam this year because I will not be in Penang at that time”. Then I thought again, “I can celebrate and check it out in KL!”.


    Parking by the roadside like 2KM before Batu Caves. Really crazy man. Clap for us as we parked close. Hehe.

    Yeah, KL, Kuala Lumpur is one of the place that celebrate Thaipusam too, besides Penang. So on the day itself, I didn’t go there as early as those photography enthusiast does, I went there after lunch in the afternoon with Arron again, but this time not Chien Chern, instead is a girl, Carmen from Penang too! Both of them residing far at Sepang and only get to come down to town during holidays and went to check out the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves.

    At first we thought of not going there because was afraid of traffic congestion and hard to find parking but after checking through the net about the traffic, it was just all clear only until near to Batu Caves. Really surprise that the traffic was super duper smooth all the way from Bandar Sunway to MRR2 near Batu Caves, there’s not even a little jam, really weird. LDP is an expressway that is always jam or slow but that day was just an exception.

    While our vehicle getting close to Batu Caves, there’s already vehicle parking by the roadside as far as 2KM from Batu Caves. We didn’t want to park there as it was hot and we kept on believe that there will be parking space for us at a nearer spot.

    There’s even illegal parking collector collecting a fee of RM10. Being a stingy person, we didn’t want to park there and we got moving and we found a nice place, just less than 500m from Batu Caves, according to the GPS. Haha.


    Me, Arron and Carmen. All Penang-kia.


    We should have take the KTM to Batu Caves as the station was just right beside it. But one thing, KTM sucks! Slow and dirty.

    Yay, we reached Batu Caves safely and I was pretty excited because I got to take photos. I should have bring my DSLR with me but then this trip to Batu Caves was quite spontaneous as we didn’t really plan the trip. Luckily I have my Panasonic with me and it served me well all the time.

    The weather was pretty hot and sunny. Perhaps it’s Thaipusam. Anyway, since we were here, so it’s nothing good of hiding under the shade, so we just keep walking where everyone was walking to, the cave, the Batu Caves.


    Well, Tzu-Chi went there to remind people not to throw rubbish on the floor but…

    In case you don’t know, Thaipusam is a religious festival of the Hindu. According to Wikipedia, Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February).

    Rocks is that Malaysia is a multi-racial country where I can join the fun too! =)


    Outside the famous Sri Subramaniar Swamy temple.

    Frankly, I felt I was in Indian when I was there. Haha. It’s Indian anywhere! And they are friendly too. =)


    Your current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib. Haha. He is real big.


    I say peace as it’s awesome. =)


    Red Air Asia clowns. Cute.

    Saw many sponsor booths at there and one of which is Air Asia which attracted me as the booth had the most crowds. Though, I didn’t get close because I didn’t know what was speaking on the speaker, it’s all tamil and I knew nothing, except “nan-de-ri” or something which means thank you.


    Slums of Batu Caves.

    Well, what you see is Malaysia, not India. It’s just not good with the trash management where trash are everywhere. I was actually keen to see Indian poking mouths and body but instead, I only saw them carrying the heavy kawadee up hill to the cave. As for poking stuff, I saw it in Penang last time.


    Us before going out and was trying to capture the statue behind but failed.


    Well, I have no idea what the people standing by the rail were looking at, it sounds as if we were supe
    rstar, just without the red carpet.


    Awesome art craft.

    The cave wasn’t very tall or high after all, like about 5-6 storeys high but then the stairs up there was very steep. I really salute the people who carry the kawadee up, and kawadee is the thing that they carry on the back with their god statue on it.


    Here we go. Up and down.

    Another thing I saw was, the Indian devotees went up the stairs barefooted! It was a hot day and they walked barefooted. Really power.

    Since there’s so many people on the stairs, we walked slowly and carefully, about 15 minutes, we reached the top. Many medical helpers were on standby there as some were almost fainted due to the heat.


    Beautiful huge cave. I like it.

    It was my first time being a nature cave and it is pretty. I love caves now. It’s not just a hole in the hill but it’s really a big caves which can house many people in there and there’s also a hole on top overlooking the sky. It would be creepy during full moon where moon shines in and a werewolf or vampire turned up. Haha.


    Monkeys!


    Smiling Indian kid.


    Can you see the crowds? They just keep flowing in the cave.

    Spent about 10 minutes in there, walking around and take a little photos then we went back down. It was just too crowded in there and a little bit smelly, no idea what smell was that..


    It wasn’t that traffic jam when we was there, it was after we came. Really powerful.


    And again, they were standing by the rail and looking at us. Hmm. Superstar?


    Yummy juicy coconut!

    The weather turned a little bit hotter after we came down and it was just burning all over our skins. How I wish I could get into an air-conditioned place as soon as possible and then we found coconut stalls. Bought a coconut for each of us then we drank, really quenching and the coconut meat was so awesome, young and juicy. Rocks. Only downside was that it’s not cold. It’s warm!

    And so, I concluded my trip to Batu Caves and we all said it was real awesome. Another place is visited in Kuala Lumpur, time to go for the next place. =D Any recommendation of place to go in Selangor area?

  • Throw Coconut on Thaipusam Day at Datuk Keramat

    Throw Coconut on Thaipusam Day at Datuk Keramat

    Oh hello, I am back again and now I am going to talk about the Indian’s big Thaipusam Day that happened two weeks ago. I am so lucky to be in one of the states that has big celebration for this big Indian/Tamil/Hindu festival. As far as I know, Penang and Kuala Lumpur are the two places here in Malaysia that have it big.

    IMG_4747 by nicholaschan.

    Last year, some friends did invite me to go to the festival to do some photoshooting, but because I couldn’t wake up so early in the morning, so I missed it. This year was different, I didn’t plan to go photo shooting too, but it’s just that on the day before, Thaipusam’s Eve, the procession has already started and I was going no where after the Chung Ling Memorial thing, so Chien Chern, my friend decided to go visit a friend at Datuk Keramat Road whose his dad’s shop is just right in front of the Thaipusam thing.

    IMG_4742 by nicholaschan.

    So what they had that afternoon was the coconut throwing and some procession take place and people pays respect to the Indian god by contributing prayers thing like fruits, candles.

    Till now, I still remembered it’s a very hot day, the sun was hanging high in the sky, shinning down, with the heat radiating the ground. I didn’t care because I wanted to shoot the festival and share it up.

    IMG_4753 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4755 by nicholaschan.

    The coconuts were bought by people mostly have their business along the road, they throw the coconut on the ground, break it, is to clean the road for procession, as a respect to god, a prayer, for wealth and health. It’s said to be good luck to throw the coconut. I did try before long time ago when I was small, when my dad had a furniture shop at Datuk Keramat Road, it’s now moved to Gottlieb Road though.

    IMG_4761 by nicholaschan.
    Arron and his family.

    At the time 2.30pm sharp, “piak piak piak” sound can be heard and coconuts were everywhere on the ground with the juice splashing out. The scene was epic. Try not to stand near to them because the coconut can be rebounded. Hehe, just like a basketball.

    IMG_4763 by nicholaschan.

    Part of the road was block for this thing and people who bought coconut were at the middle of the road while me and other people like me who see for fun and takes photo were on the other side, hoping that did not get hit by the coconut.

    IMG_4768 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4774 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4784 by nicholaschan.

    These coconuts although are hard, but it’s actually kinda easy to be squashed. At some time, some un-squashed will roll to my place and I will pick it up and join the fun too!

    IMG_4806 by nicholaschan.
    Chien Chern, Me and Arron.

    IMG_4808 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4809 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4804 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4814 by nicholaschan.

    The whole thing was like 15 minutes. The aftermath was cool with a wet coconut juiced road and coconut every where.

    IMG_4821 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4818 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4841 by nicholaschan.

    The MPPP people were very efficient, when everything stopped, they quickly come and swept the coconut to a side and let the real procession began and don’t want to stuck the road.

    IMG_4828 by nicholaschan. IMG_4826 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4845 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4848 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4849 by nicholaschan.

    The next thing after the coconut throwing was the procession thing, with devotees paying respect and offerings.

    IMG_4857 by nicholaschan.

    They walk with their bare feet and I believed the road is not hot already because it had been juiced.

    IMG_4859 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4861 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4864 by nicholaschan.

    I don’t really know how to describe this, so I’ll let the photos speak. =)

    IMG_4871 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4874 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4877 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4880 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4881 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4883 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4886 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4887 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4888 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4891 by nicholaschan.

    IMG_4892 by nicholaschan.

    Happy Thaipusam, super belated!

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