A tokong (temple) at the back of my grandma house celebrate its 100 years anniversary.

They celebrate it for two days and two nights.

Despite of the noise, all the people in the neighbourhood are so supportive of this tradition and there were so many people came to see the parade. The crowds will collect the candies and small packages of rice thrown down from the parade vehicles. An auntie standing next to me insist me to take some home and mix them with the rice at home. It was said to bring us good luck and safety.

We drove from Kauala Lumpur last Friday and arrived at night. The next day (the first day of the celebration), I peek from the kitchen window and see one whole pig is being roasted. Later in the evening of the day, the people who came and visit the temple have a feast.

I left my camera in KL on this trip. I came to see it on the second day taking my sister's camera.

Getting there, the first 5 minutes I feel kinda lost. I see many decorated parade vehicles like ones you find on Mardi Gras --sans the rainbow and is held for a religious cause.

After kept walking around for 10 more minutes, I find a corner where the participants were having their adornment set up. I instantly get the mood of this event.

People of all ages and race sit together and didn't hesitate to lend their helping hand when needed :')

And soon the peak of the event started...

Noticing that I'm not a local, a man tell me that these people are possessed by gods.

And this is even more interesting.

This chair-like altar came from other temple (there were many of them and many come from another city, town, and even states) to 'wish' this temple happy birthday.

I return home at 3-4 PM to have a break. Once I get home I ask my dad many things.

Back in his twenty-something, my dad was one of these altar bearer guy. He told me that the altar may look small but is very heavy --as if someone is sitting on it.

They believe that the altar was moved by the spirit of God/ Goddess.

Interesting.

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THE NIGHTTIME

There is a Chinese opera play performed in Hokkian language. Many older people came and watch, and they seems enjoyed it so much.

The life music was beautiful. They have Erhu and other Chinese instrument.

www.photographerjennifergan.com

Here we came again to Kuala Sepetang. We usually drive here for a restaurant called Lemon Tree. I always love to walk around the dock areas to watch the children, people, birds, boats, etc.

We came two days ago only to be disappointed that the curry me and laksa stall didn't open. But I definitely had many luck this time because not only I got to shoot these photos but also a photo of three cute puppies I put on Instagram.

KUALA SEPETANG

Kuala Sepetang is a coastal town located in Perak, Malaysia. The town was formerly known as Port Weld after a former Governor, Frederick Weld. It is a thriving fishing village, and the main jumping-off point to the river mouth community of Kuala Sangga, which is a Chinese fishing community at the river mouth which specializes in fish breeding in cages. The Port Weld railway station was located at the centre of town. The whole railway line from here to Taiping, which was the first railway line in the Peninsular, is now dismantled, and now only the ticketing booth and the Port Weld railway signboard remain. The ticketing booth is now a Chinese coffee shop, and the shopowner has been maintaining the railway signboard.
Kuala Sepetang has excellent seafoods and it has a famous restaurant situated on the upper floor of a shop lot overlooking the river. Kuala Sepetang is also well known for its mangrove swamp reserve park which is open to the public daily. It has a boardwalk built over the swamp for tourists, and chalets in which tourists can rent to stay the night on the riverfront. There are also charcoal kilns, some of which are open for tourist visits.
The village is very popular with its Curry Mee (Only sold at afternoon time) and Baozi.

(source: wikipedia)

Some houses in the neighbourhood


Kids play wrestling (both were winners, nobody got into the water :((() 


Ahoy!


 The catch






You can tell from the smile on their face that they caught plenty


A cute boy 






Prawn. Fresh off the boat!

www.photographerjennifergan.com

Hutan Mati, Papandayan

I've been into weekdays getaway lately. Beside my awesome sister, my travel girlfriend is this one cool Polish girl, Sylwia. She's a cool travel buddy. Tough, non-complainer type (though her tolerance towards cold is lower than mine --which is very low).

This time we had one week trip, to the mountain and to the sea. The trip began with a trip to Pulau Pari (Thousand Island, DKI Jakarta). She introduced me to a group of people who were looking for more people to make the trip more economical. We took a ferry from Muara Angke. The place stinks (no joke). But what can you expect? Its a fish market. Anyway, it took around 40 minutes to reach this island. It stopped once at another island but just for a little while.

Once we reached, we go right away to Pak RT (thats what a head of neighbourhood called in Indonesia) house and yes, we stay there. The house is conveniently located. In the middle of the island, and the best beach is just 10 minutes away walking.

On Monday the 31st, it was Nyepi (a national Hindu cultural public holiday. Curious enough? Google it) in Indonesia. While most people were driving back after a long weekend, we catch a bus to Garut and arrived there at 10 PM. Took ojek and met our guide Robby and then the next day we started the trip. Cold, cold, cold, but awesome. Finish with the mountain, we took angkot to get to Garut city. We bought some arak and oleh-oleh (souvenir) and we ate and continue the trip with bus and reached BKN terminal at East Jakarta at night.

me, mountain, sylwia and tongsis

For Papandayan trekking information contact: Robby +62813 3214 2675.