Celebrations in Malaysia

Malaysia is a country made up of different races, culture and language. In Malaysia, Malays is the biggest race and followed by Chinese, Indian and other races. Each of races they have their own festival that will be celebrate every year.

For Malay they will celebrate Eid Fitr, Eid Adha, Maal Hijrah and Maulidur Rasul. Each of festival will be given a public holiday to make all Malay can celebrate it with their relative. Every year the date will be different and actually thedate will be following the Islamic calendar.

The reason why we celebrate Eid Fitr is because celebrate the end month of Ramadhan and because all malay people successful fasting on Ramadhan. They will celebrate the eid with the new and colorful cloths and they will prepare a lot of food such as rendang, cookies, lemang and others. For Eid Adha, they will be encouraged to sacrificing a sheep, cow, goat, buffalo or camel.  They will be giving away one-third of the meat to friends and neighbors also can donate one-third or more of the meat to the poor and needy.

Next is Maal Hijrah and sometimes we will called Islamic New Year. This celebration will be celebrated on 1^st Muharam every year. The first Islamic year beginning in 610 AD during our Prophet Muhammad emigration from Mecca to Medina know as the hijrah. For Maulidur Rasul we celebrate it because to remember our Prophet Muhammad. We will celebrate it on 12 rabi’ al-awwal.

Chinese New Year will be celebrate by Chinese people and it also known as the new year to them. They did not have any specific date but they will refer to Lunar Calendar. Often, the evening preceding Chinese New Year’s Day in an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. They will clean the house to sweep away any ill-fortune. They also will decorate their house with red color paper and they also will giving money in a red paper envelope.

For Indian people, they will celebrate Thaipusam and Deepavali. All Indian people will come to Batu Caves to celebrate it on the full moon in Tamil month either January or February. They will begin at 6 a.m on Thaipusam. The male chattier will carry peacock feather accompanying the silver chariet. Deepavali, also known as the Festival of Light. This celebration also did not have any specific date and it depend on Tamil Calendar. on this festive, they will light up the colorful light. They also prepare a lot of food and most of the food is traditional.

Christian also have their celebration which is Christmas.  this festival famous with giving gift, decorate the tree and Santa clause. They will celebrate it on 25 Dec every year.

Vaisakhi was celebrate by the Sikh people in Malaysia. The Sikh community is a minority in Malaysia so on their festival they did not a public holiday. The Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has announced that beginning 2013 all Sikh community will be given day off. They will celebrate it more to make open house.

For people who live at Sabah and Sarawak they will celebrate Hari Keamatan and Hari Gawai. The way they celebrate is same. They will celebrate it on 31 Mei and 1 Jun. The preparation will start early. Tuak (rice wine) is brewed using rice and mixed with yeast.  The long house will be repainted and repaired if necessary. Everyone will be busy preparing food and cakes and cleaning. The celebration on 31 Mei called Muai Antu Rua. On 1^st of Jun they will invite the guest to celebrate it together.

The First Theme Park in Malaysia Abandonded!

Do you ever know where is the first theme park in Malaysia which is the famous one on 1970 ago?? It’s Miniature Land or we can call it as Mimaland, located at Gombak, Selangor. This interesting place shut down on 1994 due to murdered of Singaporean limped and also collapse land. Nowadays, people maybe know this Mimaland for the first time but try to ask your parents about this place either they know it or not. Oh!! This will appeal again many great moments that are enjoying at this theme park long time ago. 

The first phase in Mimaland completed in 1970 which includes 24 motels and five chalets with swimming pool. One of the main attraction is ‘Pre-Historical Animal Park’which includes models of dinasours.

On 1984, Mimaland introduce another new attraction which is the largest swimming pool in South East Asia. For sure, many tourists really enjoy the biggest glider which is the highest glider here. Other than that, there are many part of area such as lake for canoeing activity, fishing at ‘Giant Maze’ are and also for jungle trekking.

 After a few years Mimaland make peoples cheerful, the one that could not be avoided happened. An incident happened at the biggest glider on 1993 which caused a Singaporean (27 years old) dead. The unfortunate news shocks everybody until the Mimaland stop their activities at the swimming pool and at the glider for a while the construction begins.

On Mei 1994, the wall of the same swimming pool is broken regarding of collapsed land and caused the dirty mud enter the pool. And again, that area closes for a while from people.  

The management who handle the Mimaland accusation to the court by some people includes of the government itself under the accusation of worst of security and also a problem of environment. Along the accusation, the Mimaland are hardly being asked to stop from their operation. After a long time stop from operation, Mimaland stop from operation forever and ever since 1994 and the area of Mimaland is still there until now.

BUT NOW....??? MIMALAND GETTING WORST!!! ABANDONDED!!

If this adorable theme park still alive till now, for sure it will be the one most attractive to the tourist to come to Malaysia. This is such a Hollywood theme park! 

Turtle Alley

We arrived at Kuala Terengganu bus station with the intention of continuing our journey towards Redang Island. It was still early in the morning, thus our driver suggested for us to make a short stop at this one unique place called the Turtle Alley in the heart of Kuala Terengganu city. We were a bit unlucky that not all our group members could join us at the stop because there’s some “drama” where the other driver didn’t want to make the stop there.

 

Our driver dropped us under the grand gate of Kampung Cina (Chinatown), where we were surrounded by some old buildings. The entrance to the Turtle Alley is just nearby the gate. As we enter the pathway, we could see that it portrays stories about turtles on both sides of the walls.

 

The alley stretches about 150m between Jalan Kampung Cina and the waterfront area which runs parallel with the main street of Kampung Cina.

 

Beautiful turtle mosaics where spotted along the alley and there’s also metallic plates that bears the story “Little Turtle Messenger”. Do read out the interesting story being put on the plates. A few nice turtle mosaics are also being installed at the floor area.

 

 

 

 

 

The area was said to be initiated by a local politician with the intentions of promoting awareness about the endangered turtle species and at the same time making it a tourist attraction. I was impressed with the alley. It was surely a creative move converting a normal alley into a tourist destination.

On the other side of the alley is the waterfront area. This area looks like it was just being developed where you could enjoy relexing by the estuary area. There were also some LED tree lights being put there, which reminds me of the I-City in Shah Alam.