Lanterns Galore ....

The Mid-Autumn Festival ( 中 秋) is certainly one of my favourite Chinese Festivals. As kids, we used to play in the garden with small lanterns while the adults will gather for food and drinks. Many other families also set up small altars with offering to worship the Moon. The highlight of the evening was certainly the display of a variety of lanterns made of paper (and sometimes cloth) hung all over the garden. In recent years, there were both small and large scale exhibitions of lanterns. One prime example is Leisure Mall which holds an annual competition for the best lanterns - made from recycled material, etc - usually around the Mid-Autumn Festival period.

However, ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival and presently on-going is this large scale exhibition of lanterns at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium - THE ASIA CULTURAL LANTERN CARNIVAL 2006.

Arriving early at 400 pm one afternoon, it was drizzling slightly then and we were thinking that the rain would be a damper on the fun of the evening. Luckily, the rain cleared by about 5 pm and the evening started off pretty cool. The open air exhibition place (Car Park A) was pretty empty as the lights would only be switched on at 730 pm and the stage show due to start only at 830 pm. The empty exhibition area meant that we could go round taking shots of the more interesting things that made up the lanterns; like this massive array of small bottles (originally intended for storing medicine for injection) filled with coloured water ....

and this collection of porcelain plates, cups, spoons all strung together .....

and this massive pile of CDs (a good use for all the confiscated pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs!!!!)

What were they all part of?

The array of medicine bottles were turned into a beautiful presentation of the Petronas Twin Towers.

In the picture, the Blue Mosque was in the background and the Zoo in the foreground. The plates and other porcelain items were string together into an impressive Dragon some 100 metre or 328 feet long.

The CDs were stacked together to become the Langkawi Eagle.

We got to see the prancing lion ....

and this beautiful lantern made from umbrellas was a big huge with all!

Beside the lanterns, we got to see the sugar art master at work, hugely popular with the children!

while the dough art master were making beautiful figurines as well as this cute pig!

There were quite a number of food stalls serving local food but the more interesting food stalls were those from China and they served various Szechuan snacks and noodles. I liked the Szechuan Cold Noodles -

not too spicy or oily but very very tasty!!! They also served dumplings and paos but I could not eat much, though, as I had a very big late lunch in town - as normally, the food at outdoor exhibitions were generally quite pathetic :-)

The stage show which started at 830 pm was mainly acrobatics and while the young bare-chested male acrobats looked stunning and really yummy, the crowd was simply too large and packed to really comfortably enjoy the eye candies:-)

By 9 pm, the exhibition was packed full of people and from the hill, we could see that the roads leading in and out of the exhibition area were jam-paced with cars. It was certainly an exhibition well-worth the seven hours we were there!

Anyone planning to go should do go early!

Landscape & Garden Festival

We went to the biennial exhibition on Landscape and Gardens the weekend before last.

Malaysia International Landscape & Garden Festival 2006

It was a bright sunny day, no rain - it was brilliant weather for the stroll through the huge park. Of course, we went well-prepared with sun-shades, cap and cold water - even had the tiny folding umbrellas in case of rain!

Got there by 10 am and it was not yet very crowded - as the official opening was only on the next day - everything looked superb and all ready for the big day. This was probably the best time to see the displays.

The displays on the official opening might be better but the crowds would be horrendous and the days following would not be so nice as the plants and flowers wilted :-)

The show did have some interesting concepts for home gardens and public parks and gardens.

There was also a very nice public toilet conceptualised by the Sibu Municipal Council that blended into the surroundings trees and bushes.

Most people were not aware that it was a toilet!

I like some of the plants like this miniature banana plant ....
and this pitcher plant .... and this gorgrous bromeliad ......
And then I was looking into a small pond with water lilies :-)


There was an interesting display of rope art -

nice but not really one that would last for long in our weather and knowing the current state of the public parks in this country.

I had hoped to see more concepts of public gardens by those planning our parks that make use of the concept of "minimal care, maximum impact" to fit in with our city and town councils' philosophy of spending to create beautiful park but never ever follow up with proper maintenance!

Most of the garden concepts displayed required our local city and town councils to do more than dumping fertiliser and hosing down with water to maintain the garden! Sadly, Malaysians are not going to be able to enjoy such gardens except at exhibitions!


In some of the indoor exhibitions, this nice panel made from cabbages, star fruits, etc., made for an interesting layout!

In Malaysia, this is the largest such exhibition and held every two years and we simply do not have enough of such exhibitions. Most of our public parks and gardens are in a deplorable state - even the so-called Botanic Gardens in Penang is a sad display of neglect. One do not need to go far South to Singapore to see how well maintained are their public gardens and to feel the shame of the awful state of Malaysia's public parks and gardens!

Talking of exhibitions, the world's premier garden show has to be the Chelsea Flower Show. There you can really appreciate gardens is all its glory! When I was studying in London, it was certainly a show I looked forward to each time!