Friday, November 5, 2010

Deepavali Day 11.5.2010

Today is the national holiday Deepavali. It has been a very festive week! Everybody has been looking forward to today, an off-day from work and celebrations with family and friends. Most people go back to their home town, state, or country to celebrate. We had an awesome day celebrating in our own way! We started out first thing in the morning with a skype video chat with Leah, Matthew and Abigail. Eileen and I walked to an Indian temple afterwards and it was really amazing! We had another skype video chat with Joel, Bri, and Isaac, and then my brother Stephen. Afterwards we went exploring on our bikes.

Just starting out

Biking through the jungle along the Klang river

This is a school in Bangsar. It was very neat to see and reminded us of the school that Leah taught at in Honduras. The building in the background is my favorite building in KL. It is a telecom company. It looks like a mainsail on a sailboat. Actually, we can see this building from our apartment and when the sun sets behind it, I think of sailing!


This was also at the school

This is the third Indian temple we visited today

After climbing a huge hill in Bangsar, we were able to see the KL Tower and the Petronas towers in the distance. The KL tower is the one that looks like a speared pineapple and the Petronas (twin) towers are just to the right. The Petronas towers used to be the tallest building in the world, still the tallest twin towers in the world.

This guy spoke like zero English. We bought hand made fans for our grandkids. He kept saying Thailand, but he was speking in Bahasa Malaysia. My guess is that he is Malaysian and he procured his goods from Thailand! Eileen is enjoying a Japanese green tea ice cream sandwich. It sounds really weird, but it is quite good!

We rode by this Islamic Mosque in Bangsar Village. We stopped to listen for a little while. The sound coming from the minaret (the tower on the left, behind the tree) was overwhelming. It was so loud but beautiful. Muslims pray five times per day, every day, and it is amplified through loudspeakers at the top of the minaret. We hear this all the time at our apartment as there are probably five mosques within sight from where we live.

Traversing the walkbridge over the train tracks. About 50 steps up and down!


Rafiq, Eileen's driver and friend sent this Indian feast for us to enjoy. Rafiq's wife and sister prepared this traditional Indian dish, Biryani (steamed basmati rice with spices, meat and vegetables) and delivered it on their way to Malaka where they will celebrate with 60 relatives. Melaka is a port town on the Strait of Melaka, about two hours South of here. We had Jamie's friend Adam over to help us enjoy the meal and to celebrate. It was an awesome meal and are very thankful to Rafiq and his family. Selamat Hari Deepavali.


2 comments:

The Cornell's said...

What an awesome day you guys had! It made me sorta want to visit. I love how you guys are exploring the city so much and enjoying your family time. Miss you guys!

Stephanie said...

I love culture!