Kowloon Fire Gates

The Kowloon Fire Gate is a ceremonial firewalking ritual held during the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. 

This ritual at the Tow Boo Keong Seksyen 17 was performed done on the 8th night. 

It symbolizes a rite of purification and renewal. 

I WAS IN AWE!!!

The Wong Fei Hung music kept playing in my head when I saw devotees walking the fire gates. 

I was glad to be there to witness the night myself. 

 

Festival Ghontak Nogoghi 2025

Port Dickson

Pantai Batu 1

Negeri Sembilan

It was a beautiful sunny blue-sky day. Perfect for an outdoor Sunday. By the seaside too. It was a good drive to Port Dickson to attend the Ghontak Nogoghi Festival. My focus was the lion dance competition but to my surprise, this festival was more. The Havoc food festival was also there, providing all sorts of food and drinks. Venue was perfect. Parking was easy. It was a no stress day until I realized I was “burnt” pretty drastically LOL. 

Oh well, temporary hibernation and with dollops of Vitamin E cream and oil should cure me!!!

Negeri Sembilan is famous for the uniqueness of Adat Perpatih which is still practiced to this day, making it a cultural heritage that needs to be preserved. The GHONTAK NOGOGHI FESTIVAL aimed to introduce the arts and traditions of the local community. 

With the theme "Lantai Adat, Laman Budayo", this carnival features performing arts, customs, and cultural products of Negeri Sembilan as a platform to preserve the country's heritage.

They also had lion dance competition, the Chingay flag balancing competition and performances of Indian drums.

HAVOC Food Festival was at Port Dickson as well. So that made the whole Port Dickson waterfront (Pantai Batu 1) festive. Rows and rows of food stalls with blue skies, perfect for an outdoor Sunday.

Loved the set-up, with trees around and the venue is by the sea. 

Perfect!!!

Cheese Tarts

Chingay Flag Balancing is an acrobatic street performance. Performers balance giant flags which are about 25 to 32 feet tall, and weigh about 60 pounds - on different parts of their body like the forehead, shoulder, or even the mouth. 

This act is a highlight of a Chingay parade, a multicultural street arts celebration originating from Penang in the 1880s. The word itself originated from the Hokkien phrase "chingay" (妝藝), meaning "costumed performance," or possibly "chin-gē" (真藝), meaning "true art".

 

Swee Kee Noodle, Semenyih

I ter-found one of the friendliest Towkey (boss) in Semenyih 😍 He runs Swee Kee Noodle stall by himself, at a corner in Sun Lai Restaurant, Kampung Baru Semenyih. Oooh this Chef cooks awesomely! Everything is yummy…. REAAAAALLY YUMMY!

Noodles were handmade. Dumplings were filled generously. He even made his own special green sauce; very sedap. Chicken was smooth and flavorful. 

Perfect meal for me!

 

Keng Nam Hai Kopitiam

Keng Nam Hai

Jalan Prima, Metro Prima, Kepong

This kopitiam is the “terriblest” (terribly crazy good business) I have ever visited. “Terriblest” in a dramatic way. Jammed packed with humans although they had outdoor sitting, indoor sitting, ac sitting, upstairs sitting … but it’s still cramped to walk inside and crazy stuffy. I waited outside for a table and luck was with me as I got a small table by the Datuk Kong altar. At least sitting outside by the road, we could breathe and not worry about humans disturbing us. 

Nevertheless the food stalls all looked interesting. Food looked great here, no matter from which stall.

I chose to try the Sang Har Kuey Teow. See my Chef!!! That’s WOK HEI indeed!!!

I noticed this young chef had not stopped cooking ever since I sat at the table. I waited for a good 30 mins for my dish. His orders were in piles. Very impressive young man.

 

KL Park Festival 2025

Tasik Titiwangsa

What a beautiful set up, all around the lake. Lots of effort put in and the place is simply beautiful. Daily activities lined up too. Salute to the organizers. 

The flower gardens are gorgeous. We love this lake but this festival encourages us to visit more often!

 

LEGO Botanicals

The world of LEGO at Pavilion KL.

Featuring Lego Botanicals - plants and flowers. 

There’s even dresses of with lego; creatively designed on each outfit. An interesting and inspiring display of lego.

 

Fatt Hwa Gong Temple Semenyih • 法华宫

Ji Gong

Fatt Hwa Gong is really impressive. It’s just by the main road. I spotted it on my way to the Siamese temple. So when we were on our way back, we dropped by. 

There’s a nice restaurant on the right side, so great! Lunch at the temple. Menu was fantastic with a huge variety. We opted for something simple… meehoon, omelette and veggie. Only RM40+ Reasonable and tasty.

 

Nian Jue Lin Temple 念觉林 ကျာ်စေတဳ.

Look what I found in Semenyih!

I found a good sized stone-carved SLEEPING BUDDHA at 

Nian Jue Lin Temple 念觉林 ကျာ်စေတဳ.

Impressive!

Yupp, gotta climb that flight of stairs (behind us) to see the Sleeping Buddha and a beautiful Thai temple. 

The place was serene on a Sunday although there werevisitors around; just no screaming ones nor rude ones who talk loudly!!!

Everyone was busy taking photos or praying. 

A staff actually told us to wait for lunchtime as a monk will come for lunch and the public is welcomed to eat as well, for free. 

Love this view!

 

ASEAN Arts & Craft Bazaar 2025

Kompleks Kraf Jalan Conlay KL

This is suppose to be the annual Hari Kraf Kebangsaan but special this year because of ASEAN. 

This year is special. Not only the ASEAN countries are joining hands in participation, they have also invited “Adiguru” (Master Craftsmen) to demonstrate their respective crafts. What an honor to be able to chat with them and learn more! 

This is the 1st tent which I call the Batik tent. All states in Malaysia set up their booths to sell their batik and songket products. It’s lovely to see Malaysia coming together. This year I noticed there were a huge increased of Eco Printing products. 

Eco printing is a kind of a natural dyeing technique that uses leaves, flowers, and other plant materials to create patterns and colors on fabric or paper.

Reminds me of my school days when we used leaves to color and print on drawing paper. Today we see the designs on textile, bags, shoes, books…. beautiful. 

Tunku Azizah Cup Pahang Weaving Competition

The Tunku Azizah Royal Pahang Weaving Competition Cup is a prestigious competition to discover talent and give recognition to Royal Pahang Weaving artisans. Named in honor of Her Royal Highness Tengku Ampuan Pahang Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah binti Almarhum Sultan Iskandar AI-Haj, the Tunku Azizah Cup is an important platform in elevating the prestige of the Royal Pahang Weaving heritage to the national and international levels.

SARAWAK PUA KUMBU 

Pua Kumbu is a traditional patterned ceremonial clothing created and worn by the Iban people of Sarawak in Malaysia, West Kalimantan of Indonesia, and Brunei during ethnic festivities. 

The Iban tribe of Sarawak in Borneo is best known for their longhouses, headhunting history and rich repertoire of nature-inspired designs and crafts.

Their Pua Kumbu — meaning “blanket” and “to cover” — is a handwoven textile with tie-dye patterns similar to “ikat” (tie) but with much more imaginative motifs.

Today, beyond Iban tribal ceremonies, the Pua Kumbu has also been made into shawls, clothes and decorative items.

“Adiguru Kraf" is a title in Malaysia for a Master Craftperson who has reached the highest level of skill and expertise in their specific craft. It is a prestigious honor that acknowledges an individual’s mastery and dedication to a particular traditional craft. 

The title is awarded by the government through Kraftangan Malaysia (Malaysian Handicraft Development Corporation) to recognize individuals for their exceptional contributions and achievements in preserving and sustaining Malaysia’s traditional crafts by ensuring that skills are passed down through generations.

 

ASEAN Arts and Craft 2025 - Sunway Pyramid

Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre

I was quite excited to go to the convention centre; actually had to look into TT to find out where exactly is it. Good God! I passed by that escalator each time I’m at Sunway without knowing that escalator leads to the convention centre!

Now I know!!!

I was curious too as to why this A&C bazaar has 2 venues. Are they the same? So I went to Sunway on the 8th. It was a nice and small bazaar. I talked to some vendors and found out that the bazaar that’s going to be held at Kompleks Kraf is my annual Kraf Day bazaar or more well known as Hari Kraf Kebangsaan. This year’s name was changed because of ASEAN. To think I almost miss it. 

We had an enjoyable meet with this happy lady; Hajah Rahani from Brunei. We were chatting and when she knew we were from Borneo, she said, “Oh must take photo together!”

So here we are, Sarawak, Brunei , Sabah 💛❤️💙 at the Asean Arts and Crafts Bazaar together-gether!!!

Hjh Rahani taught me how to weave Brunei Songket but we were laughing so much, I only weave 2 STRANDS of thread!!!! Tak payah weave lah Jo, I will only get a scarf done in 2050!!!

We got our rattan baskets done too.

Batik bangle, yupp we made ourselves!

This young lady is from Jakarta Indonesia, showing us the way to weave Indonesian songket. Amazing!

Cat Expo 8th Edition

Cat Expo is popular in KL. We’ve been to a few and the worst was at Midvalley as the space is limited but crowd was huge. This was the first time we visited at MITEC. Better. More spacious. 

It’s a pretty cool exhibition where one can adopt, buy pure breds or just enjoy the cats. Lots of cat products on sale too.

Hubby is a cat person, not me. I only love photographing the cats. What attracted me most was the section of exotic animals. There was a booth by World of Exotics and they brought a 18Kg Burmese Python to this exhibition!!!

Yayyyyyyy. That’s MY kind of expo!!!!

Not easy to find a big snake to sayang as they need to produce certs. Smaller snakes are easier to transport around.