Rapid KL Ramadan: Hari Raya Blessings on the LRT – Ampang Line

More end-of-Ramadan decorations and snippets of Malaysian culture as I visit each station on the Ampang Light Rail Transit line in Kuala Lumpur.

I’m back in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur, where I spent six months in 2012, and I arrived during the fasting month of Ramadan.  To re-map the city in my mind, while learning more about Malay customs, I’ve been visiting the Light Rail Transit (LRT) stations to view their decorations for Hari Raya or Eid at the end of Ramadan.  You can see what I’ve learned so far about city and culture, food and forgiveness, at Rapid KL Ramadan: Hari Raya Blessings on the LRT, continued in Rapid KL Ramadan – Part Two.  In those posts I traversed all 24 Light Rail Transit (LRT) stops on the Kelana Jaya line, my home track of 2012.

The Ampang Adventure

The next challenge was to hit the LRT stations on the Y-shaped Ampang Line.  It has 27 km of track through 25 stations, with no tunnels so there are city views all the way (for more details, see Wikipedia).  The Ampang line trains are older than on the Kelana Jaya line (although a new fleet is arriving this year), with human drivers instead of automation and carriages that are more chunky and square.  A few of their Hari Raya displays showed more creative flair.  (Click on any photos below to zoom.)

The Ampang Line would take me to less familiar terrain than the Kelana Jaya line.  I’d been to none of these stations this year, except Masjid Jamek where the two lines cross, so there were no shortcuts this time.  I had to disembark at each stop (though found a few stations had already dismantled their displays), and chose to complete each branch of the Y on three successive afternoons.

In 1857 a local Raja sent 87 Chinese up the river and through the jungle to mine for tin in this area.  69 died of malaria within a month and more men were sent.  The mines flourished, forming the first settlement of Kuala Lumpur and leaving several lakes in the former pits – I jog around one every week.  Reflecting this history, “Ampang” means dam in Malay.  As I took a Saturday afternoon bus down Jalan Ampang to pick up the northeast terminus at Ampang Station, the vehicular flow seemed to be dammed and I almost wished I’d walked.  At last the station sign appeared and I clambered out of the bus, up and over the pedestrian bridge, and commenced phase two of my Ramadan railway ramblings.

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AG8 – Ampang

A bright display at the first station, with season’s greetings in Malay and transliterated Arabic, and objects I often saw on my previous ride.  There were pelita or small lamps at the corners, and many checkered green and yellow artificial ketupat – the theme specified by Rapid KL for this year’s Hari Raya station decorations.  The real items are woven from palm leaves and packed with rice that’s boiled into a solid cake.  (I described ketupat more fully near the start of my first post in the series.)

A new feature was the Muslim prayer above the route plan on the way to the platform – Malaysia Airlines displayed the same prayer after the safety video just before taking off.

Once on board and waiting for the train to depart, I was pleased to see what is now a less common phenomenon: a girl was reading a bona fide physical book!  A heartening sight, and the name of my next stop even means radiance or light.  It seemed an auspicious start.

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AG7 – Cahaya

Ketupats big and small alongside the ticket machine, along with pretty blackboard calligraphy and oil wick lamps, which were elsewhere mounted on bamboo poles.

These first stations are among the smallest in the city, just a solid awning over platforms either side of the rails, with no attached shops or indoor hallways.

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AG6 – Cempaka

My dictionary says cempaka is a flowering shrub like frangipani.  I spotted a pinboard with a few flat paper ketupats over the ticket gates and wasn’t too impressed, then found the main display beneath the service counter.  It was a model village house, complete with thatched roof and furniture of clothes pegs, recalling the rocking chair I once made at a craft class in school holidays.  Providing relief from the oversized ketupats of most displays, this just had cute little ones like blossoms on the tree.

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AG5 – Pandan Indah

More thatching and pot plants here, appropriate when the station’s name means “beautiful pandanus”.  Plus a big pot to boil those ketupats over the fire.

Back on board the train, we’re now tracking along the narrow Kerayong River, perhaps one those first miners dammed.

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AG4 – Pandan Jaya

Continuing the botanical streak, this station’s name means “victorious pandanus”, but I was told their display had been removed.  I shot the commercial cardboard decoration in the service counter window instead.

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AG3 – Maluri

I don’t know what Maluri means and I didn’t understand what the guy I asked was saying, but I found no sign of a Hari Raya display here.  I heard thunder from the distant hills and a cool breeze dried my sweat as I waited on the platform.

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AG2 – Miharja

More luck here, with a couch, decorative crinkled paper discs, and collection of Hari Raya greeting cards.

It began to pour and the train waited a little at the station before continuing.

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ST1-PH1-AG1- Chan Sow Lin

Quite different from others with its geometric abstraction, like a work of Islamic art, capped by colour-coordinated cards and ketupats.  The top display of the line so far at this junction station, which I think is the only stop with a Chinese name.

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ST2 – Pudu

Starting to show its age, with a few letters fallen off the sign and the right-hand pillar-case collapsing, but still a cheerful sight.  The guard who saw me admiring the arrangement thought it needed a third cartoon character to complete the scene so took a photo with me in the middle.

I thought the hanging ketupats were prettier, with duit raya envelopes for end-of-Ramadan gifts of pocket money (I described this practice in my first post).

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ST3 – Hang Tuah

An interchange station with the monorail, near Kuala Lumpur’s “Star Walk” shopping precinct.  And this Hari Raya display was the star of the entire LRT network, the biggest in every way.  The side-show at right had the best-equal real leaf ketupats I saw, in both the iconic crosshatched diamond and plainer triangular forms.

Dominating the transit hall was the main feature, a kampung or village house of white Styrofoam, including a rooster on the roof.

I was joined in my admiration by characters in the style of Malaysia’s leading cartoonist Lat (see Wikipedia).  I also liked the innovative white ketupats at left, with their elegant Chinese-looking patterns.

I passed a bonus display on the station’s namesake, the legendary Malay hero Hang Tuah, as I headed out for a snack of roti sardin: sardine and onion wrapped in thin layers of dough and fried.

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ST4 – Plaza Rakyat

Back to a good example of the usual style of display, with bright coloured checkers and flowers inside a village fence, and information sheets on ketupat.

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ST5 – Masjid Jamek

This station is at the junction of the two rivers for which the city is named: Kuala Lumpur literally means “muddy confluence”.  It’s also at the intersection of the two LRT lines and I explored the Hari Raya theme of forgiveness here in Rapid KL Ramadan Part Two.  Outside the station I found a life-size character from Lat, the cartoonist who inspired the models two stations back.

At a street stall I paid two ringgits for three large samosas with different fillings to fortify myself for the northern stretch.

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ST6 – Bandaraya

Artificial roses along a kampung fence.

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ST7 – Sultan Ismail

The highlight here was the domed tower, probably recycled from last year’s Rapid KL theme of mosques.

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ST8 – PWTC

A vine trellis and china tea set were the original features at the Putra World Trade Centre stop that overlooks some small river rapids.

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ST9 – Titiwangsa

Near my favourite park in town, where locals play water polo on lovely lakes, but with no display to be found.

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ST10 – Sentul

I guessed this was partly disassembled from its former glory, so I just zoomed from the ticket gate.

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ST11 – Sentul Timur

At the end of the line, with flowers blossoming in the low sun, the curtains reminded me of a wedding canopy.

Outside the station, new concrete apartments were under construction, towering over the historical suburb with its Hindu and Buddhist temples.  I hope KL in 10 years won’t have lost its soul.

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PH2 – Cheras

Cartoon coconut trees and tinsel at the 48^th station I visited, completing my two-week mission.

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PH3 – Salak Selatan

Cardboard cut-outs and pelita lamps.

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PH4 – Bandar Tun Razak

An outdoor scene, with a pot to boil the ketupat and a wok with paddle for dodol.  Rice flour, coconut milk, palm sugar, and sometimes the pungent fruit of durian, are stirred for up to 8 hours in villages at Hari Raya to prepare this sweet and sticky toffee.

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PH5 – Bandar Tasik Selatan

No Raya display found.

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PH6 – Sungai Besi

The display from behind the ticket gates:

And the front view from the other side:

Having swiped out of the system, I took a dinner break: char kway teow or fried flat noodles, washed down with a cool kopi ais.

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PH7 – Bukit Jalil

Out here there’s more greenery and the track passes arenas built for the 1998 Commonwealth Games.  Across from the platform is Bukit Jalil National Stadium, the largest in Southeast Asia, with three tiers of 87,411 seats.  The station display is a winner as well – the biggest and best show on this branch of the line.  Real palms, ketupats of transparent cellophane that I haven’t seen before, and branches ready to burn under pot and wok.

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PH8 – Sri Petaling

The terminal station is next to the International Medical University, where my former University of Auckland biochemistry lecturer now works.  Less action here, for a lower key end to the line.

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So the top stop question: out of 25 stations on the Ampang line, which had my favourite decorations?  PH7 Bukit Jalil takes the prize for the Sri Petaling branch.

The junction at AG1 Chan Sow Lin most brightened up my day on the Ampang segment.

And the display that gave the most delight, my overall Rapid KL Ramadan winner, which most impressively broke out of the coloured checkered ketupat box, was clearly ST3 Hang Tuah.

Last week I saw this station’s polystyrene props had been replaced with Malaysian flags for Independence Day next week.

Rapid KL Ramadan: Hari Raya Blessings on the LRT – Part Two

I continue my romp along the Kelana Jaya Light Rail Transit line in Kuala Lumpur, renewing my acquaintance with the city, viewing station displays for Hari Raya, exploring forgiveness and Malaysian traditions of Ramadan.

For the motivation for my project, and Stations 1 to 11 (Gombak to Kampung Baru), see Part One.  Click on any photos below to expand them.

There’s a warning beep, the doors slide shut, and I grab a strap as the train pulls off from KJ11 Kampung Baru.  Platform lights and advertising quickly fade away as we speed into the darkness beneath Kuala Lumpur’s CBD.  I’m en route for next stop, next photo, next encounter on my railway-raya mission.

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KJ12 – Dang Wangi

I presume the old mosque photos are remainders from last year’s theme.  I’d have liked to be here – there might have been more variety than the artificial ketupats (a special food for Hari Raya introduced in Part One), which are indeed pretty, but getting a little repetitive by halfway through.

Again the phrase “maaf zahir batin” that you see everywhere during Hari Raya.  “Maaf” means forgive, “zahir” means external or physical, “batin” means internal, emotional or spiritual.  In all, a request for comprehensive forgiveness, which is a major theme of Ramadan.

Not only does God promise forgiveness to those who keep the fast, but in many Muslim countries prisoners are pardoned at Ramadan.  On the morning of Hari Raya here in Malaysia, Malays don new clothes (often shiny satin pyjamas) and visit family graves, then ask parents and others for forgiveness.  It’s doubtless often a mere formality, but for many it seems to be a deeply moving time.  Some say the ketupat has a rough outside of woven leaves that represents our sins, while the white rice inside, like the new Raya clothes, symbolises our new purity once washed clean through Ramadan.

Every Ramadan Malaysian companies produce videos reflecting the traditional themes we are seeing here.  On 30^th June this year, for example, TV broadcaster Astro showed the above true story of ex-drug addict Herman asking his father for forgiveness.  It was introduced with the words,

“We have all made mistakes or chosen the wrong path at one stage of our lives… It is never too late to seek or accept forgiveness because forgiveness has no boundaries.  Tiada Noktah Untuk Kemaafan….  We would like to wish all Malaysians, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.  Maaf Zahir Batin, Kosong Kosong.”

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KJ13 – Masjid Jamek

Located at the junction of the city’s two LRT lines, this is one of the busiest stations.  Their Raya display had elf-like characters in a ketupat-patterned train or bus.

The Masjid Jamek station’s advertising often narrates a story right along the wall – above is the start of a Samsung-facilitated romance.  Right now the station also has Astro’s more meaningful advertising, based on this year’s Ramadan hashtag of #kosongkosong.  The word kosong means empty, nil, no score, zero, “not written or printed on”, the blank slate after Ramadan-Raya forgiveness and reconciliation when debts are written off and past wrongs wiped away.  A man in one advert says, “I’d like to patch things up and kosong-kosong with my neighbour”.  The corridor between Masjid Jamek platforms begins with the KL skyline alongside a village scene and the words “Try forgiveness, share with sincerity.  Share your stories of kosong-kosong”.

The rest of the wall is painted with quotes on Raya forgiveness from local celebrities.  “I want to kosong-kosong with all the teachers at my school because formerly I was very naughty.”  “I want to kosong-kosong with the inhabitants of Kayu Ara because I used to always steal bananas near the prayer room.”  “I’m easily angered, but if I do wrong I quickly ask forgiveness.” (Left below)  “I used to skip fasting and forced my friends to buy food at the canteen.  Please forgive me!” (Right below)

A month of fasting, then the day that brings forgiveness and reconciliation.  A little like Lent and Easter.  Coming home to bright new clothes and a fresh new start, joy and gifts and a feast. Echoes of Christmas and Christ’s parables.

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KJ14 – Pasar Seni

On the way to this station we pop above ground again and the train speeds through the concrete-glass jungle for more great views of this great city.

A lady stepped before my lens as I shot the simple Hari Raya display from afar, through a gateway advertising lemon tea.

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KJ15 – KL Sentral

The central train station had both a Hari Raya presentation on the ground and the largest hanging sign of any station, in an elegant Arabic-type font.

The adjacent Nu Sentral mall (new since I was here in 2012) had the biggest Hari Raya village scene I saw.

As we pull out of KL Sentral the train speeds between futuristic glass towers.  It’s like a sci-fi movie – I half expect to see the Millennium Falcon docking above or an X-wing fighter zipping past.  Maybe this stretch of track inspired the life-size model-mural on the wall outside Masjid Jamek station:

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KJ16 – Bangsar

This station is near a Ramadan Bazaar known for its coloured kuih or sweets (see Timeout KL), as bright as the upper part of the display.

Bangsar itself is a more upmarket expat suburb, reflected in the elegant drawing-room beneath, complete with framed photos of station staff, grandmotherly flowers (again), and the rural kampung scene relegated to a painting.

One evening after dinner I found a bonus display at Bangsar station further outside.

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KJ17 – Abdullah Hukum

A station I’ve seldom visited, with a bright display that I simply shot from the ticket gates – the mosque domes perhaps recycled from last year.  Outside, the brown-cream mosque under construction in 2012 appears to be complete, and cranes are erecting new tower blocks in every direction.

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KJ18 – Kerinchi

Again very green – as in India, often seen as the colour of Islam.  By now it was getting late for lunch and I wouldn’t have minded if I’d had to swipe out through the gate.  Being near my old stomping grounds, I knew there was a shady street stall of tasty fare around the corner outside.  But the display was inside, so I soldiered on.

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KJ19 – Universiti

The stop for the University of Malaya (I visited the campus several times in 2012), with annoyingly bright sunlight behind the display and an elegant banner contrasting with the cartoon figures.

Now comes a long stretch of track past a forested hill.  When I hiked through here three years ago I was a little nervous of the monkeys.  After the Masjid Jamek mural, I wonder if there are bigger creatures in the jungle now.

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KJ20 – Taman Jaya

A good effort from my home station of three years ago, beneath the Amcorp Mall apartment where I lived.  The only display with herons (or any bird).

Inside the mall for Hari Raya was a village house façade.

And here’s the station’s flag-draped Independence-Raya display I shot in 2012.

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KJ21 – Asia Jaya

A clean and compact display, with ketupats, duit raya envelopes and pelitas (definitions in Part One), all pleasingly balanced between ticket gates.  My sense of direction is less well-balanced as I’m on-off-on-off, and the stations are merging in my mind until I forget which platform I arrived on or which way I was going.

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KJ22 – Taman Paramount

Further from the centre, the tracks winds through tropical foliage that constantly threatens to submerge the buildings.

A modest display brightened up by the best electric ketupats of any station, while the bathroom entrance showed off their five-star win in the 2013 Clean Toilet Campaign.

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KJ23 – Taman Bahagia

Past a golden mosque dome glinting in the sun and we come to station 23.  It’s early afternoon, my stomach is rumbling, and – despite air-conditioned trains between stations – I’m feeling rather warm.  Commuters cluster under the platform fans.  Here at the penultimate stop is a cheerful display with ketupats like slices of Rubik cubes.  Only one more stage to go before I’m done and can head for the restaurants opposite Kelana Jaya.

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KJ24 – Kelana Jaya

The end of the line!  An ex-local who has emigrated to Australia and clearly absorbed the culture – sunnies on his forehead and shirt unbuttoned halfway down his chest – offered to snap me and I accepted (unusually), to prove I’d made it.  Beneath the platform, my final Raya display photo was delayed by guards toting large guns as I heard clinking and clashing.  The ticket dispensers were being opened to unload the cash into large dark sacks.

“Syawal” comes after Ramadan in the Islamic calendar, a month of celebration to balance the month of self-denial.  My water bottle had run out a few stations back and breakfast had been 24 stations away at Gombak, so it was time to break my own brief fast and transit across the highway overbridge towards a celebratory lunch.  RM7 for a dried fish, dal and flavoursome sauces on rice, washed down by an ice coffee and a chat with immigrant waiters from Bangalore and Indonesia.

Cost of an edutaining day: RM15 (under NZ$6) for three meals and drinks, plus RM12.40 on the train for 24 LRT stations and 24 Hari Raya arrangements.  I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did.  If I made any errors along the way or offended any readers, minta maaf, I hope you’ll forgive me and we’ll be kosong-kosong.  As Abu Bakar, Mohammed’s father-in-law, says at left below, “Water will not break when it’s chopped up.  Accept my sincere apology.”

And now, the obvious question.  Which station has the best display?  I can’t see a clear winner, but my favourite three were Damai (KJ8), Bangsar (KJ16) and Asia Jaya (KJ21), with a big bonus prize to Masjid Jamek station (KJ13) for its moving and amusing murals both inside and out.

Rapid KL Ramadan: Hari Raya Blessings on the LRT

Trains and tunnels, ketupats and kampungs, fasting and food and forgiveness.  I take the Kelana Jaya line across Kuala Lumpur, rediscover the city, and learn how Malaysians celebrate the end of Ramadan.

Light Rail Transit and the Ketupat Challenge

Three years ago in Malaysia I was charmed by the Muslim fasting month.  The array of Ramadan greeting cards in the supermarket, some with Arabic calligraphy swirling around lamps and mosques, others with comic cartoons in Malay slang I hardly understood.  The vibrant colours and aromas at the evening Ramadan markets, where I’d wait with hungry locals for the prayer call to sound at dusk so we could eat.  And the displays at the entrance of each Light Rail Transit (LRT) station for Hari Raya, the Malay celebration at the end of the fasting month that’s elsewhere known as Eid.  Evoking both spiritual values and the rural life of yesteryear, some reminded me of nativity scenes and Christmas.

Now I’m back in Malaysia, again in Kuala Lumpur during Ramadan, and thought it could be fun to visit and photograph each station’s Hari Raya decorations. I thought it must have been done, but Google found surprisingly few shots of said station decorations.  The challenge was on!  What better way to reacquaint myself with the city’s geography while learning more about Malaysian culture?

The Kelana Jaya line begins at Gombak to the north-east (terminus photo above), soars over roads and rivers on elevated rails for eight stations, dives underground beneath the CBD for another five, then re-emerges for more great views past 11 more stations before it terminates at Kelana Jaya to the south-west.  In all, 29 km through 24 stations.  (17 km of further track and 13 new stations are under construction.)  In 2012 I could list them all by heart, as both places I stayed were on this line.  (For more info, see Wikipedia.)

As I set out, a whole two dozen stations seemed intimidating.  Would I get through them all in one day?  At least I’d already seen and shot four or five LRT displays in the past fortnight, so could leapfrog over several stops.  I soon found that some Ramadan displays were inside the ticket gates and others further out, so I sometimes needed to exit the system for a clear view.  This meant paying another fare, but public transport costs much less than in New Zealand and it was a chance to poke around the station, practice reading Malay signs, and search outside for food and drink.

I learnt from station staff that Rapid KL, the public transportation operator, sets an annual theme for their Hari Raya decorations.  One year it was kampung or village.  The end of Ramadan brings the country’s biggest holiday (like Christmas in the West), when Malays gather with family in their home town for a week or so.  Malaysians share a sense of nostalgia for this “balik kampung” or return to the village, and malls throughout Kuala Lumpur have life-size models of village houses (see The Star’s 2015 photos here).  The day before Hari Raya two weeks ago 1.6 million vehicles clogged the highways out of town.

When I was here three years ago Hari Raya fell near Malaysia’s Independence Day so, I learnt, Rapid KL had a combined Merdeka (Independence)-Raya theme.  This explains why the 2012 LRT station displays included so many Malaysian flags, as in the photo above.  Last year’s Hari Raya motif on the LRT was mosques.  For 2015 the theme is “ketupat”.

Ketupats are pouches the size of a small fist in the shape of a diamond or a triangle.  They resemble items woven from flax by New Zealand Maori.  In one market I watched women wind ribbons of coconut palm leaf around the fingers of one hand, then tuck and turn and pull and presto – the ketupat was done!  The pouches are filled with rice and boiled until it expands and is compressed into a dense lump.  They are then cut open, and the rice cake typically diced and served with spicy beef rending or satay.  Over Hari Raya ketupats adorn greeting cards and posters, dangle on shiny green and yellow ribbons, and twinkle in chains of lights like on a Christmas tree.  You’ll see plenty below. (See Wikipedia on ketupat.)

Setting out with Lemang

Last Wednesday morning I left my guesthouse and walked to station number 7, Dato’ Keramat.  My dictionary defines “keramat” as a place that is “holy and sacred, endowed with supernatural or magical powers (such as the ability to cure sickness)” – an auspicious stop for my start.  On my way I passed a rack of bamboo tubes over a charcoal barbecue, like some infernal pipe organ as it billowed with smoke above the flames.  These were another Hari Raya special of lemang.  Hollow bamboo is lined with banana leaf and filled with glutinous rice and coconut milk.  Once cooked for several hours and cooled, the tubes are split open with a machete.  The compressed rice is sliced into disks and served much like ketupat rice cakes, with a more smoky-coconut flavour.  Lemang are in hot demand during Hari Raya – some stalls prepare hundreds per day.  Look out for bamboo tubes in the Raya photos below.

From Dato’ Keramat station I worked my way to the northern end in almost vacant trains, gloating to see the city-bound coaches were packed.  I then shot back to Damai station, jumped over Ampang Park and KLCC where I planned to eat dinner, and continued stop by stop to the far end (bar another jump over Taman Jaya and Asia Jaya where I’d been the night before).  For our photo journey online, however, let’s embark at the northern terminal of Gombak and track through the stations in order.

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KJ1 – Gombak

Serenity at the end of the line, almost in the jungle, with the vapour trail of a plane hanging still in the sky.  There’s a parking building for commuters and buses leaving for the Genting Highlands and Batu Caves.  The Hari Raya display was tucked behind the ticket office, so I had to swipe out of the station.  I bought nasi lemak for a classic Malaysian breakfast: rice cooked in coconut milk, with salty anchovies, peanuts, spicy sambal sauce and – in this case – quail eggs.  Wrapped in a tetrahedron of banana leaf for RM3 (NZ$1.20).

As well as toy ketupats dangling from the bamboo fence and filling a cane basket, the Gombak display featured other items I’d see all day.  A metal and glass kerosene lantern, wick lamps on poles and models of oil lamps or pelita that flicker along pathways to village houses during Ramadan nights.  There was a mock wood fire under a pot for boiling the ketupats, a silver bowl and teapot for rinsing fingers before eating, and a basket of white and purple onions.  Later stations added baskets of cinnamon sticks, red peppers, or other spices.

The greeting on the big green diamond (with the cute little train fronts) is in Malay – “Selamat Hari Raya”, while the poster at left is in Arabic – “Salam Aidilfitri”.  1436 indicates the current Muslim year of 1436 AH, the number of lunar years (354 days) since the Hijra, Mohammed’s move from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD.

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KJ2 – Taman Melati

This station featured more pelita and ketupats, and pink artificial flowers which looked more like a bouquet in my granny’s house than a Malay artefact.  There was also a greeting from the staff, roughly reading:

A blessed Aidilfitri from Rapid KL.  We workers of the Taman Melati station wish you happy Hari Raya, complete forgiveness [more on this in Part Two], and a safe journey to your village.  Drive carefully.  Be careful on the highway.  Remember, dearly loved ones are waiting your return as a family.

We pass a pretty mosque dome, pink with daisy patterns above the lush green undergrowth, then corrugated iron roofs scattered among the foliage, before tidy rows of tiled roofs and Chinese restaurants announce the next stop.

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KJ3 – Wangsa Maju

I simply shot this display over the ticket barriers.

I loitered here a few weeks ago at the neighbouring Ramadan Bazaar (see Timeout KL feature), where I bought the new-fangled fusion of Maggi murtabak (see Wikipedia): instant noodles fried in a batter pancake.

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KJ4 – Sri Rampai

This year’s display included paper figurines in a garden and a cane trap for fishing in rivers (at right).  From it dangled small envelopes for “duit raya”.  The National Bank reported withdrawals of RM 500 million the day before Hari Raya this year, 90% in one and five ringgit notes.  This is given in green envelopes to children as they visit houses with Hari Raya greetings.  The paper estimated that 5 million Muslim children 14 years old or under might receive five ringgit at each of 20 neighbourhood houses, making RM 100 or NZ $40 each.  This Malay tradition combines Muslim giving of alms, especially at Ramadan, and the red Ang Pow packets of cash delivered at Chinese New Year.  It reminds me of Halloween trick-or-treating in Colorado when I was six, filling my pumpkin-shaped bucket with candy as I knocked on doors around the block.

A mosque from last year’s decorations (1435 AH) hung on a back wall.

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KJ5 – Setiawangsa

Cubic cloth ketupats above coconuts on the floor.  There was also a “Pearl Word Corner” with posters of quotes like “Success comes in a can, not a can’t” and “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses” (Abraham Lincoln).

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KJ6 – Jelatek

One of my two closest stations, where I often embark.  An electric flicker in this fire, and I saw people posing for photos with the parasol.  Outside the station is a muddy lot covered in yellow cranes and again I hope construction won’t quench the city’s soul.  From the last stretch of track I saw a billboard by the motorway, “Sayangi Kuala Lumpur” or “Love KL”, and I do!

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KJ7 – Dato’ Keramat

Ketupat pentagons, strange frilly balls, and the apt (though misspelt) message, “Keep calm and eat ketupat”.  My second nearest station, where I began my tour.

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KJ8 – Damai

Perhaps my favourite display so far, tidy and symmetrical, with its dignified blue carpet and cushions hinting at Middle Eastern opulence.  The service counter was adorned with the tinsel greetings you see in many shop windows at this time.  Lots of hibiscuses, Malaysia’s national flower.

South of Damai the train dives below ground in a tunnel that’s sometimes square, sometimes round.  The Kelana Jaya line is fully automated with no drivers, so there is a clear view out the front window.  As we accelerate I’m reminded of the psychedelic swirling in the credits for the old sci-fi series of Dr Who.

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KJ9 – Ampang Park

Here I ticked off my 24^th display, the last one of the day.  Like me by then, it seemed a little tired – I pushed a letter falling off back onto the poster at right, and straightened the carpet.  Then I rode the escalator down to the platform, trained back to Jelatek Station, and walked the 15 minutes home.

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KJ10 – KLCC

Traditional Raya icons, including a split open bamboo-rice lemang, plus cut-out white leaves I thought looked more Japanese.  “Lebaran” is another name for the festival after the fast.  Behind me two guitarists were strumming and singing at a “Busk Stop”.

Down the station corridor is one of the city’s biggest malls, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, with a huge kampung house for Ramadan on the concourse beneath the Petronas Towers.  Outside the mall is Malaysia’s biggest model ketupat, as acknowledged in July by the Malaysia Book of Records: 12m high by 9.8m wide.

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KJ11 – Kampung Baru

Kampung Baru is one of my favourite places in KL, a suburb of traditional wooden houses on stilts, with carved verandas and chickens on the ground and a lovely variegated roofscape of corrugated iron in autumnal shades.  Not far off above the rust loom the gleaming sci-fi Petronas Towers.  The bustling Ramadan Bazaar (see Timeout KL), was the first one I visited this year.  I bought a Roti MacGyver for dinner – a bread roll filled with black pepper beef, all wrapped in crispy deep-fried batter.  Believe it or not, that night I hung out with Chinese friends who were watching American reruns on TV (good old Fonzie in Happy Days!), and on came my first episode of MacGyver since I was a teen!

At the Kampung Baru station I especially liked the cards distributed by Prasarana, the parent company of Rapid KL, listing the virtues of Ramadan in the form of a Metro map.  Peach-coloured Line 3 runs from Gratitude at top left through Familiness (how to translate such abstract nouns?),  Honesty, and Bonds of Hospitality to the interchange station at Relationship where it joins brown Line 4 (coming from Willingness via Pardoning, Happiness, Friendship, and the Blessing of Father and Mother).  The two lines proceed together through Blessedness, Sincerity, and Celebration and terminate at Homecoming.  Pink Line 5 departs from the Village Compound, passing through stations of Nostalgic Longing, Divine Blessing and Brotherhood en route to Forgiveness.

As we’re nearly halfway to the end of the line, I hope I’ll receive Raya – Jaya forgiveness if I take a break and pick up the remaining stations in Part Two.  If you’d like a break, here’s a love song to Ramadan by my favourite Muslim worship singer, a Lebanese-born Swede who also sings in Malay and tops the charts here.

You can continue the Hara Raya journey through Kelana Jaya stations 11 to 24 in Part Two.

Trusting the Companion on the Way to Malaysia

I take wing on a prayer and verify Biggles, leave camera, guidebook and Gucci behind to find playground, housewives and life.

So much has happened since my last communication, it’s hard to remember that for many back home it’s just been a few more days at the office.

Last Tuesday morning, after a night of talking to my sister in Berlin, helping Mum, final packing, and four hours sleep, I shot off for a morning run, camera in pocket, to catch final memories of my home suburb – even passing my first school, May Road Primary.  Once at the airport, check-in was smooth, although with so much hardware security scans are a pain: unpacking and repacking my computer, power supply, hard drive, camera, Kindle, phone.  I was on Malaysia airlines and my boarding pass was in English in Malay, making me tingle with an exotic anticipation.

I had a window seat, though the wing blocked the view.  Once upon a time, the personal entertainment consoles; compared to iPads, they feel sluggish and clunky.  They still offer a linguistic bonanza.  I frolicked around in Berlitz basic Hindi, two Bollywood flicks, the interactive Holy Quran, and relished all the movie languages: from English, French and German that I learnt at school, to tongues that span the Orient from east to west: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, Tamil, Hindi, Arabic.  I perused my New Straits Times, imagining myself sailing out to the colonies when the paper was founded in 1845.  Daily temperatures in Kuala Lumpur, I learnt, currently range from 24-32 degrees Celsius, but are a cooler 12-26 in Delhi, that city of myth where I’ll be next week!

Hanging on the rear wall were “Muslim prayer leaflets”, with pertinent supplications in Arabic, Malay and English.  “Allah is the greatest… The One Who has placed this transport at our service… O Allah, You are The Companion on the journey… I take refuge in You from the difficulties of travel, from having a change of hearts and being in a bad predicament…”  I said Amen and then read on the back: “In the name of Allah when taking off and landing, verily my God is most forgiving and merciful.”

Thanks be to God, we arrived with no predicaments.  The sun was setting as we touched down 45 minutes early at 7:45pm, in 30 degrees heat.  A few minutes later, on board the shuttle from the satellite terminal, I was surprised it was already dark.  I recall reading in boyhood romances of Biggles in Africa (or the like) that night falls fast near the equator – and by gad he was right!

My in-flight companion was a young Chinese chap who’d moved to Kuala Lumpur for his work with Huawei, the Chinese manufacturer of my new phone.  He invited me to share the company-funded taxi to his flat in central KL, which was just a few minutes down the road from my accommodation.

After that auspicious arrival, I found the guesthouse locked, with no reply to my ringing and knocking.  I was a little nervous alone on the back street after dark, but a passer-by offered his phone to ring the guesthouse manager.  Its screensaver displayed, in big colourful lettering, a message I needed to remember on my solo challenge: “Trust in God”.  Below was the verse, echoing the on-board Muslim prayer, “God is our refuge and strength: a very present help in trouble.”

In 2004 I spent a week in Kuala Lumpur ticking off Lonely Planet’s recommendations.  The last few days, however, I’ve been considering a multi-month stay when I return from India, and it changes your perspective!  I’m roaming without a bag or camera – just umbrella and water bottle in pockets.  I’ve felt very safe, no-one’s tried to sell me anything I didn’t want, and I’ve only spotted tourist traps from the train while en route to outlying suburbs.  KL proper has about 1.5 million inhabitants, but it’s nearer 7 million with the contiguous satellite cities, which may be better accommodation prospects.

Yesterday I struggled along – and hair-raisingly across – central KL streets in the midday dust and noise and heat.  It was not idyllic and I wasn’t that glad to be here.  Half an hour later, I stepped out of the train in Petaling Jaya to the west, and heard more birds than traffic.  Below the station was a park.  I walked around its small lake with a cold bottle of Coca-Cola-copy drink.  Kids swinging in playgrounds; a ball from a schoolyard rolled down the hill – a cheerful “hey uncle!” when I threw it back up; old men chatting or sleeping in a shady pavilion; many trees – should be able to sling my travel hammock – and exercise stations around the circuit.  I could imagine living here.  KL is a booming city, full of cranes and construction sites, but much of it has an almost rural feel, with fields of palm trees and lush greenery overgrowing embankments.  Most buildings look looking rather dilapidated and frogs croak in the canals at night.

Two stations up the line is the University of Malaya campus, with busy streets but lots of fields and its own lake.  Of course I checked out the library.  In the “Blue Zone Quiet Area – no noise” I saw more blue from Facebook than study on the computer screens – students are the same everywhere!  During an afternoon downpour I shared the umbrella by a chicken-rice with two high school pupils.  Rain briefly cools the air, but when the sun returns it steams up like a sauna and fogs my glasses.  Signs on trains threaten 500RM (approx. NZ$200) fines for smoking, eating, littering, sticking gum.  But on campus they read: “No smoking at University of Malaya … RM10,000 (approx. NZ$4000) penalty or 2 years imprisonment”!  Central KL was nicer in the evening cool, as I relaxed with sizzling roti bread and tasty chicken curry in an outdoor eatery.  I thought of that University sign with more appreciation when a guy at the next table lit up…

On my hunt for KL living ideas, I’ve had a fun catch-up with one of my former biochemistry lecturers, the person who first paid me to program, who recently moved here.  I bought a book of KL maps and found the Expat Magazine.  It targets bods in power ties not bums in gender roles like me, but I ripped out a few resources.

I emailed and Skyped from Starbucks wifi in upmarket fashion malls.  Their glitzy glamour is a novelty at first, making Kiwi malls look pretty tawdry, but soon comes to seem plastic and sterile.  I was charmed to find a suburban mall where real people shop – and I may soon too!  It felt much more like a home.  There was a RM10 shop (like our $2 shops) with cheap crockery and cutlery like I might need for an unfurnished flat, and the “Handy Fix: your DIY store” for household appliances.  A row of safes suggested there are more handy burglars here than at home.  My heart warmed to see “Reader’s Paradise: Rent-a-book” with a range of classics and contemporaries, and find that Giant supermarket stocks essentials like peanut butter, toilet paper and Sanitarium “Weetbix Bites” from New Zealand, the box labelled in English and French.

I’ve seldom been overly conscious that Malaysia is a Muslim country.  I’ve seen pretty mosque domes and tessellating lattice grills, as well as separate Muslim bathrooms for washing before worship, but heard no prayer calls, and the central malls seem western, commercial and secular.  This suburban mall, however, had stalls of henna hand dye, Muslim headscarves, and long gloves that recalled Victorian Englishwomen.  A stand of Islamic literature, CDs and trinkets for devotion was manned by a Palestinian. All much more interesting than Armani and Christian Dior.  I can’t wait to live in this world for a while.  I breathed a prayer of thanks and half regretted I’m going to India first.