Monday, January 29, 2007

Flora Fest 2007 - Putrajaya, Part 1

Taking a break from food posting for this round, I thought I should blog on my trip to Putrajaya for the Flora Fest 2007; held on 27 January. Kota Bahru's food trip will resume after Flora Fest's two parter post as there are quite a number of photos.

KA and I decided to go for the Flora Fest parade just the night before after we told ourselve that it was better than sleeping in! It was a feat waking up at 5.10 am when I slept at 2am! KA and I decided to have dim sum for breakfast at Loong Seng in SS2 before we started our journey to Putrajaya, just to make it more worthwhile to be up so early! We reached Putrajaya at about 7.30am and wondered how tourists got to the place as there were no proper road signs indicating where the parade would be. There were banners at lamp posts everywhere; north, south, east and west which would confuse first time visitors. Well, KA drove, following some cars (we saw families and we guess they must be going to the parade too) and found the way to the right area.
Waiting

Reaching the area almost at 8 am, we ended up standing at the tail end of the parade line. The crowd jostled for a good spot and yours truly didn't really have much choice for a photo spot. By the time the parade started after the speeches, it was almost 9am. I wasn't taking good shots in the first half of the event and contemplated getting a new spot. It was a really hot day, luckily, KA brought an umbrella along which proved to be god sent as the sun was out in full force. That made me stay rooted to my spot till I got a bit frustrated by an auntie (who had earlier been at the back of me but somehow ended up in front of me). She then opened her big red umbrella, thus ruining my shots as in was getting in the way! Not having a good angle plus the auntie's "intervention" prompted me to join the rest of the photographers (amateur and professionals) on the street itself. Initially we were all behind the barricades but more and more photographers walked out onto the street to get better pictures.

Photos are at random...
Sabah's - Theme Trophy
Selangor's
One of the many bands - all in sync, all impressive!
DBKL's - Creative Trophy
Perak's troupeA cute touch to the band's uniform
Penang's - Premier Trophy
Up close and personal - Labuan's Flower Power!

To be continued...

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice photos! never thought malaysia would look so colourful =)

i like the idea of tagging flowers onto people's arses..hahahah..the epitome of "dandy".

hilarious.

i wonder if the organisers ever caught onto that idea.

why no food postings?!

Precious Pea said...

Wow..very nice and colourful. I used to go to Dataran Merdeka for the flower float but Putrajaya is a bit too way out for me. Looking forward to your KB post!

Anonymous said...

Wow, the floats are pretty impressive, reminds me of when I was small used to go watch Chingay (big flags procession)in Penang.

wmw said...

C; Dandy! Ha ha ha.....Food postings after the 2nd part of this.

Precious Pea : Yeah, quite a distance. But once a year I guess it's ok.

firehorse : Yeah, the floats were nice. Wished I was further up, being at the tail end, the troupe just waved at the crowd rather than going through their dance routine. Your hometown is in KB but you were also in Penang before relocating? ;O)Good food everywhere! Ha ha ha...

Anonymous said...

Wah nice. Makes me miss Malaysia. hmmm...I like this kinda posts than food ones, but most of your readers would disagree I guess. You tried Yati's ayam percik and nasi kerabu or not? we'll see in following parts...

backStreetGluttons said...

you must be one of the rare food bloggers who actually went there ?

( no food to eat there lah !)

wmw said...

Jo:Well, food posts are nice and so are posts like this. Life is full of events, just that we eat three times a day, so obviously more food posts than anything else. LOL! Yah, tried those two too. Stay tuned!

Team bsg : Like I told Jo, I happen to blog more on food cos we eat 3x a day. But this food blogger also likes photography (hence, the existence of another photo blog). Eh...I think flowers can be eaten actually! Though I haven't tried it yet. Ha ha ha....

KopiSoh said...

Ya I moved to Penang becoz my dad from Penang wan. Of course "Food 4 Life" is fine, soli ah wa lau liao (old ady) sometime leave comment here there then forget. Eh yunno you da youngest among us lau ee, your profile say 38, I older than you leh.

wmw said...

Jackson:There's always next year. Thanks for the compliment.

firehorse: Nolah, when it comes to age, it's only a number mah. I believe young is how young you want to be, old also is how old you want to be loh...So, as far as I know, you and your gang all very young! Read my motto, "The idea is to die young as late as possible - Ashley Montagu" ha ha ha...). Eh, Penang's float won the Premier Trophy wor, you must be proud!

Rasa Malaysia said...

Impressive work...the first green one is cicak izzit?

The Malay girls all look very cantik sekali with their traditional dress.

wmw said...

RM:The first one is some type of cicak, an iguana or something???

Your Penang float won the top Premier Trophy! Yay!

Melting Wok said...

wow, very festive and the pictures is really great !! Reminds me of the New Year rose parade we have here, nothing beats home though, thanks for sharing, cheers ! :)

wmw said...

melting wok: Thanks for the compliment. My pleasure to share this event with all, especially to those away from home.