Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka!

The last couple of weeks have been a total whirlwind! New Students, new teachers (me), new classroom...needless to say, not a lot of time for fun and excitement.. unless you're 5 (or 27) and started Grade One last week :) So here's the haps!

Last weekend started to wind up on Friday night (as they often do). What started as some happy hour drinks and appys turned into a night of pretty wild sights! After wondering to a night market street in an area called Bukit Bintang, we were excited to see (and hear) the start of a Merdeka (Freedom/Independence) Day parade. The first floats and groups were the old dragons and drums…it seemed pretty exciting and loud but was quickly over. We were then off to seek food, and realized the parade was just ampping up! We proceeded to see wild costumes, men sitting on thrones of nails, processions of blind people, and the burning of 'Hell dollars', which was all culturally interesting to  and more or less what we would expect from a parade…Then Tyler and Danielle start gasping and saying “NO WAY! Are you seeing this!?”. Without my glasses I was seeing costumed people holding skewers of fruit and things between their teeth; No biggie. After I found my peepers however,  I realized the poles, swords, and even the body of a bicycle were actually pierced through their cheeks. These men and women had very recently (as evident by the blood dripping down them and all over the ground) pierced their cheeks with swords and other various objects and then paraded through a crazy busy street…all in the name of independence? I checked out Google for practices relating to Malaysia and came up empty handed. I asked several people at work and no one had a clue. It wasn't until a week later, Tyler and I stumbled upon a Chinese temple in Little India (?) and got to chatting with a man about a Chinese festival they were setting up for. From there the convo evolved back to what we had seen the week before (we had obviously been mildly traumatized). We gathered the vague explanation that it's a festival that involves slipping into an eventual trance, to where the piercee will not feel any pain...Seems good enough for me! The next two days were filled with street fairs, parades and general nationalism…much the same as Canada Day. We walked, chatted, shopped and, of course, sampled some amazing food!

Unfortunately, we were caught totally off-guard and only got pics with our phone!

 

In Merdeka Square, where independence from the British was declared 57 years ago...to us, a tourist photo-opt!

  

So many new fruits! Rambutan!

Some call it it people watching...others, stalking.

 The amazing part we are finding about Malaysia is that it has, literally, the best of all worlds (for lack of a better term); A variety of cultures, languages (including English), anything and everything from Western countries, an awesome climate and all while having the S.E Asian ambiance we all come to love and adore. Thus far, it’s been a country where we have been able to feel totally comfortable (due to the ability to interact with everyone, amenities, and friendliness) and yet still left amazed, surprised, and wondering about the sights, practices, religions and cultures. I can’t say it enough, Malaysia’s a gem!