Mooncakes and Lanterns

I didn't have much chance to explore. But at the same time, I must say there had not been much hype about the lantern festival this season. Maybe it was the refllection of the state of the economy, and it may also be that with the Bersih and the “Red Shirt” rally, there is a bit of tension running around.

So, I only managed to catch one at Pavilion last weekend. Pretty straight forward, with mainly stalls selling novelty mooncakes from a host of local hotels and restaurants. We didn't catch any events at the time I was visiting, but there were plenty of people around browsing.

A group of my friends may be planning to hit Petaling Street this coming weekend - haze permitting. We night catch more fancy lanterns there then ….

Latin American Festival

We just made a turn coming out of Low Yat, and the next thing we knew was there was a big crowd with loud music going on. A street party.

A closer look and it was a the 7th Latin American Festival, promoting tourism there. Hard to realise that they had been doing it for that many years. It came complete with party, bazaars, stalls as well as dancers. Pretty fun actually.

Unfortunately, we were not really able to sample the food since not all of them were Halal - one of the store from Cuba was, so we did grab a snack. The rest were alcohol-fuelled activities. Great fun, but we didn't linger around for too long.

I was sure the party would go on for a lot longer judging from the spirit of the South American crowd who turned up. They were dancing away as we left. Great stuff!

Definitely would be visiting again on the next issue.

Urbanscapes 2011

It's Monday. And Urbanscapes was 48 hours ago. My head was still buzzing from the laughter excitement and music from the day. This time I was heavily involved with the KLickr events this time around. It was a long and tiring day. But looking back, I was rather proud of what we done especially the 5 minutes Photo Express. Oh! And before I go on, please look at my collection of photographs from the day here.

I missed last year's event as I was in Lumut giving a lecture. This year, the went was moved from KLPAC to Padang Astaka in PJ. Before I go any further, I can sense there were two groups of people who turned up that day, the first-timer who heard great things or been told of activities happening at Urbanscapes in the previous years, and those who had been to previous events. I belong to the second group - yes, I'm old - and there was a part of me that felt Urbanscapes has lost some of its charm. KLPAC was cosy and should I say, rather exclusive. It was like an escape IN THE MIDDLE of KL.

Tumbleweeds maybe?Even Pikachu was around ....The hotair balloon was unfortunately all hot air. It was a non-event ....Fancy a cup of tea?Batman with lipstick?And the night festivities kicked off after dark ....

You drive into the greenery of Sentul Park and in the middle of nowhere you would find a lake, and a studio, with cosy, breezy surrounding. The organizer might try to convince you otherwise, but the charm was now clearly not there anymore. KLPAC also allowed for both indoors and outdoors activities but I shall keep discussions on a later date. As for this entry, I just want to let the pictures tell the story ......