Street Arts

As part of the UNESCO Day, a street art competition was held. And we were talking about using chalks to draw on road kind of art! Proper street art. But a shame that it wouldn't be permanent.

I was with one of the judges for the competition as I know him from KLickr, and the both of us agreed that the efforts from the schoolchildren was definitely more appreciated than the works of the professional artistes who were also taking part.

Not sure who the winner was, but I could certainly appreciate some of the work there. Some of them were smudged from the half-marathon event held there earlier that morning - again symptomatic of bad planning ....

Dataran Undrgrnd

This was a discovery, but it certainly was not something new after I did a bit of digging on the internet. I passed this area frequently but never be bothered to explore what was inside.

This place had been stigmatised! Why? The flooding. The biggest one being in June 2007. The area right underneath the Dataran Merdeka field was a carpark. On that fateful day, it poured for three hours and Sungai Gombak broke its bank, flooding the whole carpark to the ceiling. Luckily, the place was evacuated in time but the cars were submerged without the loss of any life.

Since then, the Dataran had undergone renovation and facelift, but the stigma stuck. In 2012, an ambitious Italian took over the project, planning to turn the area into a convention centre. You could understand why when you enter the place.

It was neat, fully airconditioned and the place was huge. The ceiling was a bit too low for my liking, based from the fact that it was built as a carpark, but I could see it being turned into a bazaar. The place even had a new, trendy hipster name. Dataran Undrgrnd. All minus the vowels of course!

There was an exposition area with break rooms, restaurant and stalls, nice toilet facilities. Everything was in place, but the stigma stuck. Nobody in their right mind would like to book the place for a big event, let alone investing into it as their office or outlet.

So, what was left was a deserted indoor park with decent facilities and area for activities. Imagine if there was an urban festivals, all under one roof with break-out areas in the sun upstairs, complete with parks and all? I wouldn't mind attending to that. Just hope that there would not be torrential rain during the event as it may turn into a disaster!

On the day I visited, the weather outside was gorgeous. The nice aircondition offered some respite, and the cold drinks there was just heavenly. The place definitely has got everything, but the event in 2007 would definitely haunt it forever.

UNESCO Day Malaysia 2015

As usual, I love to be nosy. I like to know what was going on in KL all the time and if it was a form of festival, with food involved, I always tried to be there. That was how I discovered Urbanscape - in the old more chilled-out form - back in 2009. Since it had gone commercial, I felt that there is a devoid in independent, urban event organised by the locals, for the locals.

After visiting the UNESCO Day, I was still searching.

There was a couple of events going on around KL last weekend. The first - probably the bigger was the Pesta Belia Putrajaya - Putrajaya Youth Festival - held of course in Putrajaya, organised by the Ministry of Youth. Not exactly well advertised, and I only learned about it through Twitter. The sad thing was finding more information about it proved a pain, and I felt that it wouldn't be worth making the trip across to Putrajaya when I couldn't really plan the day.

That was shelved.

Next up, it was Hari UNESCO Malaysia - Malaysia UNESCO Day. It was under the umbrage of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as expected the two ministries don't really plan things together, hence the clash!

In terms of venue, the UNESCO Day won hands down since transport to and from Dataran Merdeka was easy and admission was free and all. A quick walk from Central Market and you were already there. Easy decision in the end.

Originally I wanted to take Anita along but she felt a bit under the weather, although I suspect that she was worried that it would be raining. I set off alone after parking my car at KL Sentral, taking the LRT to Masjid Jamek. And the weather was gorgeous.

The venue was split into a couple of areas. The main exhibition area - a rather formal affair complete with stage and VIP seating area. The other area was mainly to chill out - foodtrucks and tables. In between, there was the Dataran Undrgrnd - shaded area which used to be a carpark, fully airconditioned if you need shelter from the sun and rain, and also where the toilets and surau were located. Really convenient.

I spent the afternoon mainly at the foodtruck area as well as the far side of Jalan Raja where the street arts were located. As a place to chill out in the middle of the city on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the UNESCO Day was a winner. The sun, and some really nice coconut jelly was just heavenly ..... Would definitely come again for the sun and food. But for the exhibits? It was way too formal, something you'd expect to see in an expo hall. And I have attended far too many conferences before ....

More photos from this event at my Flickr page here.