Experiences some extremes in Malaysia

February 5th is a very important Hindu festival called Thaipusam. It is a vibrant festival of "penance and atonement as Hindus seek forgiveness and give thanks for blessings received through fulfillment of vows made to Lord Subramaniam". The west coast of Peninsular Malaysia has a large Hindu minority and so KL (or more correctly a temple outside of KL) is the site for the yearly spectacle.

I met up with Leticia (Claudia wussed out on the account that blood makes her queasy) and we took the light rail out to the Batu Caves in Selangor. The trains were crowded! About 90% Hindus actually coming to partake in the festival and about 10% tourists who had to see for themselves the crazy things the Hindus were doing.

These guys take penance a long way. Well, some did atleast. Some were content with carrying pots of milk or shaving their heads. Its the other guys who get most of the attention. These are the guys who carry limes on their backs and chests... not such a big deal until you look and see the limes are attached with HOOKS through the skin! Others pierce their cheeks with a giant skewer! That skewer was no joke either... it was atleast a centimeter in diameter. Some guys had hooks with reigns/ropes attached and another guy behind pulling them taunt. The best of all are the "kavadi" bearers. Kavidi means "sacrifice at every step" and the kavadis are large alters... decorated with flowers and pictures of deities and carried on the shoulders of the penitent... often with skewers or hooks anchoring the kavidi to his flesh! Eeeeeek! Most of these folks also come with a "support group" who chant to them, give them water and sometimes even half-drag them through the procession, up the 272 steps into the temple in the cave and then carefully remove all the hooks and skewers.

I hope I got atleast one photo to come out well. Because I am sure you all realllllly want to see it! It looks painful as hell, but supposedly the devotees feel no pain, nor do they bleed much... and reportedly there is no scarring either. The first 2 claims I believe; I didnt see much blood and most of the people looked so stoned (or maybe it was a religious trance) that feeling pain prolly wasnt an issue either. The really incredulous part is the lack of scars. We didnt stick around long enough to know, but some of the people who came back down the temple looked totally fine and normal again, like nothing had happened. Really an amazing display of faith.

Then on Friday we boarded the bus for Melaka. Instead of a metropolis like KL its a quaint little town that was colonized by Portugeuse, Dutch and British. Today it still retains much of its charming colonial architecture, with the diverse population that makes Malaysia interesting. We were site-seeing fools in Melaka, b/c the town is small and all the sites so close together. You can turn in a 360 degree circle and see practically 5 sites. So on Friday we quickly checked out the remains of a fort, and some churches! After all the wats and temples it seemed strange to see a european-style church. And then... we went to the mall. It wasnt an IT mall, so it wasnt anything special, but it was airconditioned! And it had a Baskin Robbins. :)

Saturday we went off to look at some temples in and around the Chinatown section of town. On the way we ran into the gallery and tshirt shop of local artist Charles Cham. His art was really cool with lots of bold colors, and his tshirts were a riot. Claudia bought the "To lah or not to lah? That is the question in Malaysia." and I went wild and bought the "Play Safe. Use Malaysian Rubber." We checked out some moderately interesting temples and a Malaysian-style mosque, before capping our Melaka sightseeing at the People's Museum. Sadly the People's Champ (the Rock) was not there... just me and Claudia as two of his "millions and millions of Rock's fans." The exhibit we wanted to see was called "Enduring Beauty" b/c it examined what people have been willing to do to themselves over the ages to be beautiful: tatooing, scarifying, lip plates, ear plugs, neck rings, foot binding, cranial deformation, tooth filing, corsets, etc. Many of the things struck me as just as crazy as the Thaipusam folks. Perhaps more so, b/c all the things they "endured" for beauty... "endured" permanently whereas the Thaipusam penitants went to work the next day nonetheworse.

That evening Claudia's LP pointed us to our first (and only) Baba Nyonya-style restaurant. It was actually quite good even though the woman did not put the chili on the side of the fried fish as she had said she would. This led to a little discomfort and watery eyes.. but generally I think my spice tolerance is finally improving. To cool off we had some bizarre shredded ice, funky jelly, and milk concoction. It looked quite gross, but it was ok. And the milk killed whatever was left of the chili poison.

Done with all the Melaka sights, and with only one mall to hang out in, we got on the Sunday morning bus to Singapore! One more stamp for the passport.