Blog Flashbacks

Welcome to another round of blog flashbacks for this weekend. It's the first day of October, the month of my birth, and I'm getting older. I'm not too excited about that but I guess with each year that passes, I store more and more flashbacks to look back on and find joy!

First up is my visit to the Sri Sithi Vinayagar Temple in Kuantan town a year ago. It's a colourful hindu temple and I had a great conversation with an Indian lady there about religion.

Sri Sithi Vinayagar Temple, 2010

In 2009 we witnessed a stunning Bonsai exhibition at East Coast Mall on a Saturday morning, followed by a Mooncake Festival at Teluk Chempedak beach later that night. A great Saturday indeed!

Bonsai Trees, 2009

And finally, here is September's most-viewed post. I was quite surprised that this was top of the list, but people are reading it, so why don't you?!

Religion, Cleanliness and Litter

September's top posts

CPB members, vote for my photos here

Have a beautiful weekend and create some flashback moments for future years!

Mooncake Festival at Teluk Chempedak, Kuantan

Wednesday 22nd September, 2010, we celebrated the Mooncake Festival at Teluk Chempedak beach in Kuantan.

From past errors, we decided to go very early this time, around 6pm, ensuring we avoided horrendous traffic jams and easily found a convenient parking space. Around 7pm, the road to Teluk Chempedak becomes jammed and with limited parking spaces, this area of Kuantan descends into chaos with impatient drivers honking their horns at will. (I am an impatient 'backseat' driver!)

We managed to find a nice spot on the beach at Teluk Chempedak and planted our branches into the sand where we later hung our lanterns. I cut up my fingers digging deep holes in the sand so we could light candles and place them down in the holes. All in the name of the Mooncake Festival where a supposed woman looks down on us from the Moon. I wonder what she would think?!

This image reminded me of one of my more favoured tunes..."Dancin' in the moonlight, everybody's feelin' warm and bright..." Although dancing wasn't really the appropriate thing to do on a quickly filling beach!

A few cut fingertips later and this is how our little display looked!

Our display stands brightly beneath the Moon

After the candles had burned out we saw a few people passing by who fell down the hole! Rather amusing! We laughed quietly to ourselves.

There was quite a lot of imagination on show, and this was my favourite display...

...This one was interesting too...

A turtle

A display using paper cups from McDonalds. I don't think it would have lasted long!

Almost like they are building a mummy!

The excitement was elevated each time someone released one of these mini hot air balloons up into the moon-filled sky. A number of them, unfortunately, ended up mangled in the trees.

My wife turns for a picture as we watch the scenes at Teluk Chempedak

Lauren enjoyed blowing out this candle!

There were so many people by 9pm. The beach was full of activity.

I bought along two of my students, Chai, on the left, and Syarina, in the middle. Lauren was tired and fell asleep quickly later in the night at bed time.

Go and check out last year's Mooncake Festival at Teluk Chempedak HERE

Of Bonsai's and Mooncakes...

This morning we witnessed some of the most striking "baby trees" in East Coast mall in a Bonsai Competition. They were immaculately kept and stunned onlookers with their beauty and unique, ethereal air. Here are some photos of the images I liked best:

This last bonsai is my personal favourite, evoking images of a sculpture of a person leaning fully back in rhythm to a piece of classical music.

Later at night we went to Teluk Chempedak beach to join in the celebrations of the Chinese Mooncake Festival. (Incidentally, we have thus far received no less than 35 mooncakes in the last few weeks and we are just about sick of them!)

As soon as the Sun dipped below the horizon, the party started on the beach.

Scores of families, friends, and visitors thronged the beach to light their lanterns and candles in what provided a beautiful scene. As I chatted with a man from Kuala Lumpur (KL), he remarked how it was his first time to this area of Kuantan and described how different it was to KL. "In KL everyone is separate, but here all the families gather together," he remarked. "It's a very nice atmosphere."

Indeed, it was remarkably serene, with the excited chatter of children just a footnote to the occasion. I dug a hole and mounted some candles deep inside, as Lauren passed them to me one by one.

The camera flash helps to appreciate the depth of the hole, as it was getting a little breezy at times, a zephyr here and there easily blew out the flames which were too close to the surface. My wife began digging a design of her own and as I lighted the candles and placed them, it left a warm impression of our presence at the beach:

DFL representing the first letters of our names, Duncan, Fidelia, Lauren.