Malaysia's media darlings

Yesterday was the most important day of Deepavali (the Hindu festival of lights) as it marked the new year on the Hindu calendar. A range of events were held across KL and we decided to start the day by going to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are these very dramatic cliffs about 13km outside the KL city centre which house a series of very old and important Hindu temples.




For most of the year, the site is frequented by Indian Hindus who holiday/ make a pilgrimage to the temples, which involves a flight to KL, taxi or train to the Batu Caves, a 271 step climb to the temples, a brief battle with the resident monkeys (who are big and not overly friendly) and you're there.



(The view from the top)

But yesterday the Malaysian Prime Minister decided to hold the official celebrations, or open house as they call it, at the Batu caves. So when we arrived, we found three huge tents filled with tables and lined with people cooking and serving amazing Indian food - roti, curries, dhal, noodles, sweet coconut milk and jelly desserts.




We had just missed the Prime Minister's official opening, but there was a band playing and a lot of people - mostly, but not exclusively, Malaysian Indians, the women in some very glam saris:




As far as I could see, the main purpose of the open house is to sit and eat. They had catered for a crowd of fifteen thousand over the course of the day - all the food and drink was free and there was a really nice festive atmosphere.

As Phil and I entered the first tent we were almost immediately met by a Malaysian newspaper journalist who asked if she could interview us for her paper... Ooookay, well we have just arrived and know next to nothing about the festival or the open house, but we said sure and said that although we just arrived, we had been interested to see Deepavali celebrations and thought the festival was beautiful etc, etc.

Her photographer asked to take a photo of us together. Sure, we said. Cheese!!

Then he asked us if we would like to see the Kolam (rice powder floor mural) with an Indian lady who could explain it to us. Sure, why not, sounds awesome.

So we head over to the Kolam, sort of squat down next to the Kolam with the nice and informative Indian lady... And suddenly there are about twenty photographers snapping away - yikes!!! The two television crews come over and want to interview us. Wow!! It was all a bit overwhelming, especially for poor Phil who despite working in public relations, was very reluctant to be the story. I figured this is not something that happens very often, so why not embrace it - and dragged Phil along for the ride.

It took us a little time to extricate ourselves from the journalists, but once we did, we wandered around the various tents, tried some fresh, homemade roti and climbed the 271 steps into the Batu Caves to watch the ceremonies.

It was a fun day - we saw the Malaysian deputy prime minister, mingled with the who's who of KL Indian society and enjoyed the rarest of travel experiences - a free lunch!! Later in the day we met up with Kenny, who is the brother of Phil's old friend Alex.

This morning, we had a paper delivered to our room. This picture was on page three:





Hehehehe.... I think it's absolutely hysterical (apart from the horrendously unflattering shot of me).

For a fleeting moment, we are page three news in Kuala Lumpur.

It's a weird world!!!


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