Songkran Festival 2011-Wat Rajaphohong Teluk Wang

Songkran Festival : Wat Rajaphohong, Ara Kuda ( 16-17April 2011)

Drove back 150km all the way on a highway road just to be at home sweet home after a stressful week.I AM OFFICIALLY suffering from a HOMESICK syndrome .
Packed my backpack and hit the gas station to pump rm15 petrol and am off to go home alone. Nobody wanna accompany back so i hit the highway road alone at 6pm on Saturday evening.

It was by first encounter to depend on rm15 petrol and i dare to take the risk.
A friend dare me to travel with the amount i have in my pocket
and i did! stupidity is what you wanna label me, but at the same time i did used my so called 'common sense ' and basic maths calculation okay.
Burned my favourite songs into a cd and played it all journey long as the radio reception got bad at some part of the place.Only 3 hours of sleep on the night and after getting my hand off Endocrinology mid term paper and i decided to spend my weekend at Bukit Mertajam. Final is just 2 weeks away but HACK it! i still need some fun to get me motivated before i even start rolling the ball for the final examination.

What i have in my blue wallet: RM34

My challenge:
To reach Tambun Exit from Kampar with RM15 petrol
Toll from the Gopeng exit to the Tambun Exit: RM19

The journey
Speed: 120km/h

OMGIIADST( OMG im in a dead sh*** trouble)
8km before i even reach the tambun exit, at nibong tebal my petrol orange light pop up! it popped because it appear suddenly. I stayed calm try to find the nearest petrol station, but yet failed to encounter one. So worst come to worst, i'll just stayed in the car and wait for my superhero to send me that petrol bottle to refill.
but however am LUCKY to get away with it, manage to reach the tambun exit and my car is still rolling on the road. I pumped in petrol once i reached the tambun Caltex station.

Moral of the story: NEVER DO STUPIDITY but 'Common sense act' again.Always pump in RM10 extra in your petrol tank if your traveling on a highway road.

Weekend was a blast . I rather describe it as a wet Sunday! They had beach party in Kampar Club and i had Songkran Party at Wat Rajaphohong.Before i even go further, just let me give you guys some idea what is Songkran Festival

Songkran Festival is celebrated by the Thai community and at some part of Laos( pee mai lao) and Cambodia( chaul chnam thmey). Songkran is adapted from the Sanskrit 'Sankrata' which mean to make a move or change.In this , it referred to the move of the sun into a new zodiac( Aries).It is known as the Thai New Year for many centuries and it is believed that Songkran shows some similarity in Indian Festival, Holi.

The most significant event of Songkran is the splashing and throwing of water. It is believe that the water purify and cleanse all the sin of the devotee.The most important of Songkran event is when it is the time to pay respect and visit the elderly. Devotee went to the wat( Thai Buddhist Temple) early morning to give and offer food the monk .Later on, the devotee cleanse Buddha images from household shrines by bathing it with a Thai Fragrance( nam boon).It is believed to bring good luck and prosperity in ushering the Thai New Year.

Here are some snapshot of this year Songkran.
and this is what i must say
You don't have to go all the way to Thailand
Just take a visit to Wat Rajaphohong, Ara kuda
and you will be mesmerize with the unique culture
and celebration held my the Thai community
best of all, admission is free and you get to
experience a hot, splashy, wet Songkran yourself



Me and my family reached around 9pm and were just in time for the Miss songkran. The parking lot is totally light up from the reflection of the moon's light. It is a full moon and indeed a beautiful night to hang out with family and relatives.

RM1000 were given away to the winner of this very own Thai Miss beauty pageant. The crowds stand the chance to vote for the Miss Songkran by purchasing flowers from the counter and the profits shall be donated to the wat.

The stage are all set up for this big event

This year Miss Songkran winner goes to contestant no 5 from Jitra.

Cultural show performed by a group of dancer

Cultural Thai Song were sang and more line up performance to entertain the crowd



My cousin who took part in Miss Songkran.(love the flowers on her hair)



Auntie and her friend were busy chatting till i approach them to take picture together


Mumy and her 22 years old daughter who look so super tired


Thats ko vid and my tao tao( grandma)
My brother and meMy cousin's daughter

Her balloon fly up and up in the air as she release the string from her hand after 2 minutes this picture was taken and trust me she sang 'negaraku' well although she is only 3
The trios who always fight, eat, play together, chong yi, jia hui and chong yeuk
My counsin in law, and his daughter rathisaa
One of the difference that the Thai committe introduce this year is the bathing of the Thai's chendi. It is believe to bring good luck and prosperity to the devotee.
Day 1 ended, got back home at 12 am and drop dead on the bed.
The next morning, went for a long mass for Palm Sunday at St anne church and got back here for Songkran festival . Today will be the most awaiting day of the festival.The water splashing session kicked off at 1.30pm. Four fire engine trucks with 2 lorries were seen at the area.



The afternoon is burning hot, sunshine is all set for a happy Songkran celebration

One of the fire truck getting all ready for the water splashing ceremony
4334 fire truckThe water is prepare to be released from 8metres crain of fire engine truck. The water sprinkled around the area like a rain drop * awesome*

The event started off with the cleansing of the Buddha figure with fragrant water after a chanting of prayer by the monks .


A young women seeking some advise from a nun
Bunch of my cousin selling water guns and talcum powder. The money will be donated to the wat
Me and my cousin
After Palm Sunday, we headed staight to wat rajaphohong, Ara Kuda for SongkranFire engine truck no2, getting ready with the equipment

Ohh, thats my cousin viroth. giving me a killer macho pose with the gun
Devotee place coins which is believe to usher good luck and prosperity in life
Childrens are getting all ready for the big water event
The Youth of the Wat Rajaphohong

and now let the excitement began, villagers regardless of different race and background were seen splashing water and enjoy getting wet and playing under the hot sunny day. They were all getting ready and excited with their own water gun ,pail, fragrant talcum powder to attack each other on this yearly grand celebration.Adults and children were busy drenching water on each other with water gun.

Spotted my cousin's husband lorry and have to tell you this, he loaded his 4 big tanks with ice cold water. Am talking about cold ice water on a hot sunny day! hahaa.. Magnificant , we would like to bathe in the cold water in the tub itself. The cold ice water is just so refreshing

The fire engine truck on the siren and high speed of water accelerated from the hose
Party gone crazy over water, i randomly steal people water in the pail and start splashing them

This is how i look after 30 minutes soaking wet

Thats my brother and my lil cousin's son
Oh, and this is how i looked before getting all wet.
and taaa DAAAAH! thanks people for the awesome saa waa di pi mai
My lil cousin's daugther( Rathisaa) with her water gun

Another cousin's daugther ( she is a lil bit shy)
Me with chong yi. He is 10 this year( i wonder how the time pass and the years gone) they grow up so fast.

The music went on and on and all the Thai were busy dancing 'rambung' as the singer sang and dance on the stage. The party goes on till 6 in the evening.Betel leaf with nuts is what we had at my grand's place after a wet Songkran

My weekend is a blast, met most of my cousins, cousin's daughter and son, grandmother, uncles and aunties. We gather at my grand's place and visited my new born cousin's son , baby ryan charice . The evening is filled with chattering and laughter. Children were busy playing with the sand and the elderly exchanging stories and plans.I am very lucky to be part of the Thai community and at the same time, am very proud of my own heritage.

You guys gotta be there to experience your very own Songkran. Its held 13-15 April but the event is celebrated mostly on Saturday and Sunday of the week. Mark your calender next year and get ready for a wet afternoon celebration. Remember this, you do not have to travel to Thailand to experience this very own unique event , just hit the road and drive to Ara Kuda and you will came across this Thai Buddhist Temple on the way to Lunas.

Experience it all in Penang, a diverse unique cultural state.

Volunteerism Run -New Village Tronoh Miles

Volunteers Work For Change

Date: 1O April 2011
Venue: Kampung Baru Tronoh Mines
Time:7am
Direction: Sekolah Ayer Hitam Labu----->Kampung Baru Tronoh Mines
Fees: RM10

10th April 2011 is the date where we challenge our stamina
to withhold the 8km run , change our biological clock
and woke up at 5am on a sunday morning( am talking about SUNDAY where most of us will be still in bed )
rebecca's black song is still playing in my mind( its friday, friday, gotta get down on friday) except that replace the friday with sunday when i forced and dragged myself out of my bed.
We assembled at the westlake basketball court to catch the UTAR bus, line up and got in the third bus.
It was pitch black when i looked outside the bus's window( had no idea where is Tronoh mines ) and we all expected it to be a long journey
turned out that its just a 20 minutes journey from kampar
Pei vern and Cherly

Arrived at 6.15 am at Sekolah Ayer Hitam Labu
Registered ourselves to get our numbers
bread is all they provided us for breakfast
Here is where the boring long awaits part starts
We had a long waits till 8am, approximately 2 hours of waiting
and here is where all the nonsense stuff and program we create
to fill up our time

Act 1-We realize that the organizer dint slot in the upacara menaikkan bendera and menyanyikan lagu 'negaraku' ,our national anthem
So we decided to show some patriotism except that we have one lil problem that we couldnt find our flag, indeed somebody is smart enough to replace it with a cap instead( we named this Improvisation )

The prefects( pei vern, po zhen and chia voon is ready standing beside the flag pole)

the cap is tied onto the string and pulled up
pull up and up and up and up and up and up

Till it got stuck up there!Tangled. HAHAHAHAA. They were all panicked for a moment
The teachers and students gonna be shocked to find a cap instead of a flag on Monday assembly
Managed to take down the cap and untangled the string at last( was a great relieved)

me and pei vern

Cheryl smiling so happily to run for 8km run
My crazy friends(chia voon, po zhen and trishal)
our numbers were in order(0162,0163,0164,0165,0166)

and we all waited till the sunrise for them to start the race , in between we manage take group photos.
Before the run

This is like 5 minutes before the run starts, we werent aware that the run starts, because it started off so sudden
bag pack on, and we feel like a school student again

During the run( Trishal walked damn fast )


Along our journey, we discover great trees that bear good fruits, such as this papayaMay us, human kind be fertile just like this papaya :)



C-O-C-O-N-U-T
I love this kampung, it brings back my childhood memory , and the fresh air is so refreshing.
Budak yang bangkit awal awal pagi Ahad

We ended our race about 9.10 am, and lined up for food and refreshment
Filled in the survey form to obtain our certificate
Only 10 participant who completed the run were rewarded
Collected our goodies bag and discovered stuff in it that we love
except for the magazine

You see the problem with UTAR is 90% of them are Chinese
Even the Malay here speak mandarin
or you can easily find Indian who enroll them self as a Utar student write and speak Mandarin
They gave us a Chinese magazine and expect us to read them
us being the 'buta huruf' enjoyed looking at the pictures and criticizing the fashion style instead

Secondly, they converse 95% all the time in mandarin , and the remaining only talk in English when they are forced to. We being the minority were upset at some point on the language command and direction they gave was not clear because it was in Mandarin
Although i am a half chinese and do understand 50% of mandarin myself, i do get irritated and annoyed at some point. What about the minority who does not understand Mandarin?
Performance was a Chinese song,at least they do have some brain to put one Mc who speak English and another one Chinese, we were not that blurr.

Great effort is being put up by the final year of UTAR public relation students, good publicity and creative banners and poster we seen everywhere in the campus. I simply love the printed advertisement they put on the staircase. It is creative indeed( kudos to the one who came up with the idea)

We were not that dead, , expected to be so dead tired after the run. At the end of the race, i discovered we only ran 5km. The initial plan to make it 8km where we suppose to start from Kampung Baru Tronoh Mines to Sekolah Ayer Hitam Labu and back to Kampung Baru Tronoh Mines were changed.We only ran from Sekolah Ayer Hitam Labu and back to Kampung Baru Tronoh Miles.

Having to wait under the hot sun till 1pm, we decided to take the public bus back to kampar. Being in a public bus with a bag pack on feel like a student again.


Cherly and Trishal

The school that we lepak in after our run
Looking at the scenery and planning for our next penang peace run, penang bridge run and ipoh run.

At the end of the day, i reckon that we all completed the run and felt so happy to be apart of the volunteerism campaign till that i realize something............................................................................................................................................................................
How do we contribute just by running?
smart right !finish the whole run and only start asking myself why do we even run in the first place ?
Try to find and read the program book but they don't really state where the money we register for the run goes to. ( it must be me who don't pay much of attention during registration for the run)
Finally a friend of mine told me that the fees we paid to join the run proceed to the Tronoh mines village school to upgrade their amenities and to buy new books. :)
and am prety sure that they handed the cheque to the VIP or person in charge on the stage after the run. Just that we all went M.I.A and hiding in the school after having our brunch.