I have never been to an Indian temple before so it was really a treat to see the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in the KL Chinatown. According to Wikipedia, it is the oldest and richest Indian temple in Kuala Lumpur and it's situated in the edge of Chinatown. It was actually beside the Gathayiri shopping center where we bought the Indian fabrics!
The entrance is free but you'd have to take off your shoes. You can wear socks though like me. You have to put your shoes on the edges. You can also take photographs everywhere. The temple is very compact and small (for Catholic church standards), just about 100 square meters in a 200 square meter lot, but it does stand out in the hustle and bustle of Chinatown.
I decided to put all these pictures into different sets since the temple has many facets to it. This was the rear side of the temple (we entered from here). All these statues of these gods were encased in glass, I guess to protect them from being vandalized.
At this side also was this mini tower with many petit sculptures.
At 4PM, there was a ceremony where they bathed one of the deities. It was pretty interesting to watch. Some of the men were shirtless but had these sarong cloths on. The women also prepared these things which looked like vegetables or lemons to me - and the ceremony was accompanied by music which looked like some sort of guitar to me.
It was a pity I wasn't able to photograph the fabrics Mama bought. They were ALL so beautifully crafted and beaded and they definitely looked fabulous when draped on the body! As our Hop On Hop Off bus winded along the busy Chinatown district, Mama spotted this building which had many mannequins in Indian women's dress. She said she wanted to go and see that. I, on the other hand, wanted to see the Indian temple in Chinatown! It was a bit weird that we were looking for things Indian in Chinatown and not in Little India! So we went down the station and headed for that building.
The fabrics were quite reasonably priced but I suggest you haggle hard since they are willing to give you a good price for it! For example, one six-meter fabric cost RM210 (Php 2849.79) but Mama haggled it down to RM60 (PhP811.48). In her next buy, she was able to haggle another beautiful cotton sari cloth from RM110 (PhP1,487.96) to just RM40 (PhP540.07)!! I asked Mama not to shop so much since fabrics are heavy to bring so I told her to just buy enough that we could carry around comfortably, since we were still in the Hop On Hop Off tour!
The whole store named Gathayiri occupies two huge floors and it had offered many choices and if you have money to burn and you love Indian fabric and clothes, this is the place for you. The store seems popular among the Indian populace since it had several branches in the different cities around Malaysia.
Since I waited for Mama, I had my own fun too wearing Indian garb, and the male sales person gamely assisted me! It was wonderfully beaded too but it was not stretch cloth so it was difficult to wear it haha, he had to assist me to take off the shirt! It was also warm and I don't know how it would wear outside the oppressive heat of KL or even India! Kulang na lang actually is the turban to complete the look!
By the way, the temple I wanted to see was just right beside it! Great coincidence!
Thanks to my friends Irene Go and Jam
Gutierrez, they suggested to us that we take the Hop On Hop Off bus so
we could simplify our tour around KL,and it turned out to be a great
idea! It just costs RM38 (PhP514.27) per person and you could already
go around KL, hopping on and off destinations you'd like to see.
This was definitely better than my initial plan of visiting each of the sites I wanted by train and walking up and down all those platforms - and of course, having the possibility of getting lost somehow!
I think you can ride anywhere among the 20+ stops but we took ours at the Petronas Towers since that was where our friends took their initial tour. We waited for about 10 minutes before the bus arrived. We were only around 10 in the bus so it was not crowded. It was a bit cool too since KL's heat can be a bit more than what we have here in Manila.
For
this set of pictures, we have the insides of the bus and the KL Tower.
We didn't go up the tower anymore since we didn't have much time
anymore. This Hop On Hop Off thing will take 2-3 days to finish if you
really want to relish each destination in the tour.
Mama who designs accessories, found a lot of inspiration among Malaysia's women! Even if it was primarily a Muslim state, women knew how to style themselves in beautiful ways using embroidery and sequins and beautifully crafted bows on their turbans (or is it headresses?) Mama definitely found inspiration among those things!
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| Mama at Khui, KLCC |
This trip to Kuala Lumpur was definitely one for the taste buds. For the first time in many trips, I shunned the familiar fast foods and opted to dive in and sample the local food fare! So being at the Suria KLCC, I took Mama to Khui, this small restaurant tucked in the corner of this big mall, and a place where many locals queue up to sample the desserts and the local food. The only thing that looked familiar to me was the nasi lemak chicken and the beef rendang, and I ordered those. With softdrinks, our lunch just boiled down to RM12 or US$3.91 (PhP162.39) each. The food though is spicy in Pinoy standards so prepare to be left with a stinging spicy taste on your tongue - a feeling I was going to have everytime I finished eating during my trip here. After lunch, we had some pictures taken in the restaurant.
