miércoles, febrero 21, 2007

The creation of a New Star: Going through my ghosts

Stars are the places where large atoms are built. Past generations of stars formed the gas and dust from which the planets and life were made.


A new star is born whenever a star dies. Death in this sense is not an end, but the beginning of life.


The Sun is the source of almost all the energy used by living things, including humans. We could not survive without it. A star (such as the Sun) is a ball of gas which has, at its heart, a nuclear fusion reactor.

In life, we need both, sun and atoms. Atoms can play the role of who we are, as we are made of atoms, while the sun can tell us how lightly we wish to live. Body and spirit, here we are. Human heart is naturally like the sun, wanting to feel bright and making others people's life happy. We could say, there is a part of the sun in each human.


A very important part of my life was gone all a sudden some time ago. I became a dead star. I lost hope, I lost who I was, I lost my own and my way. What is more, I lost faith and trust in love - one of the human essences.

In order to be a living and shining star, I should get rid of the ghosts of my past life, fight them and overcome the situation. One of my good friends told me once that "Tough times do not last. Only tough person does".


This, my third trip to Thailand, has given me part of the courage enough to overcome my past.




Ghosts will cry my absence keeping silence, and I will start being a new star, shining in the sky. A new creation has been done.



This is me, world. Find me in the sky, as I am wishing to be the most shining star. The time to be reborn is coming, when I can create myself, find the strenght inside me, and live brightly as the sun lights me.


Welcome back to life!

miércoles, febrero 14, 2007

The experience of rafting !!

I'll talk today about the experience of rafting, which I joined for the first time at the end of November last year with my coworkers and some friends.



On a sunny saturday, we decided to go to Kuala Kubu Baru, about one and a half hours drive from the center of Kuala Lumpur, where Selangor river lives along green nature and nice views.
We had a training for 10 minutes, where the masters explained about safety and asked us to sign (quickly) a document declining all their responsability on whatever could happen to us. Such a nice welcoming, scary if anything happened to us!!


We got into the boats carrying our equipment, that is a helmet, a protective lifejacket and an oar, never expecting how the experience would be...






Going down to the river calmly, we were spreaded in several groups, a total of six people in each boat, including two masters who helped us to manage the directions. So, we were actually sitting in the middle of the boat, with our oar, and a lot of excitement waiting for us!


There are five types of rapids, classified from 1 to 5 according to their difficulty, one means the rapid is the easiest one, and five is the most complicated and dangerous, not only rapid, but also a falling around less than two meters height with the boat!

Once you are in, there is no way to avoid it but FACE it... you gotta go all through it, even praying not to sink!! haha...


We thought some of the rapids would be like 2 or 3 only, but we found out on the way that some of them were even 5!! and with level difference... :D


So, yes, as you can imagine, some of the boats did sink on the way down to the river... the rapids are quite exciting, when you go down and the master asks to use the oar left or right so quickly you feel as if your life was totally depending on it ! (and actually it does haha...)


This is a nice teamwork cause all of us have to move at the same time and follow the instructions properly.


In the middle of the way, we did stop for a while to take rest and take some pictures on the waterfalls, it was such a nice view!


Sometimes we even had to stop for a while and carry on the boat ourselves in order to skip picky stones or avoid narrow spaces that the boat couldnt pass through... it was a nice experience fulled with nature, risk and a lovely, quiet ending!

Totally we did rafting for about 5 Kms, passed through about ten rapids, and enjoyed a calm swim at the end of the circuit. After such an experience, to feel relax and calm down on the river, you can just let the current take you away peacefully, enjoying the nice views, feeling alive!!

Let's go for it more times!


I would like to go rafting again, maybe some time later around Kuala Lumpur with my friends. Its a good experience, as long as the boat doesnt sink...hehehe :)

viernes, febrero 02, 2007

Thaipussam


Sorry I have been busy for work and travel in the last days and just came back to Kuala Lumpur and update my blog with new events...

I wanted to write about some trips I had done before, but this time I was so impressed by Thaipussam that I just couldnt wait to write about it!




So... lets go for it!







February 1st is a special day for indians in Malaysia, they do celebrate the Thaipussam, which is the most important event of the year.

This festival is celebrated mostly by the Tamil, the lowest race group originally from india who settled down in Malaysia during the british colonization.



Its name, THAIPUSSAM, comes from the following origins: THAI, which is refering the tamil month of Thai, and PUSSAM refers to a star (which is the highest point during the festival). - sorry nothing related to Thailand on its name hehe... - Thai refers to the 10th month which is very important month in the tamil calendar and its celebrated always during full moon, because they do believe the full moon is a passageway to reach the brightest star.
Pussam is actually in the zodiacal sign of Cancer.

This festival is also celebrated in South Africa, and it used to be in India as well but since some time ago the Indian authorities forbid it and now its only in Malaysia and South Africa where its held. Lucky me I could see it even once in my life!



This ritual commemorates both the birthday of Lord Murugan, the youngest son of Shiva and Parvati, and the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a lance to defeat the evil demon Soorapadman.



There is a big statue of the Lord at the main entrance of the Batu Caves.


Well what I could see there.... firstly the devotees do fastening for one month before the festival, in order to purify their body.



Then on Feb 1st, they come walking from the Indian temple in Chinatown to the Batu Caves, which is around 15 kms far, quite a lot of distance!

The devotees shave their head and do the fasting, to:

1. ask god a favour, or

2. to fullfill a vow, or

3. to show repent of their sins.






they also put juice squeezed from yellow lime juice on their body, as they believe it will help to numb the skin when they get hurt...



Actually the devottees believe god will help them to relief the pain on their body and prevent from bleeding.

During the day before Thaipussam,the devotees use to break coconuts along the way to the Batu Caves.


This breaking of old coconuts along the road where Lord Murugan, the god, will pass, is a ritual.




Many devotees will pledge a certain number of coconuts each year and to fulfil their vow, lorry loads of old coconuts will be lined along the roads where the chariot of Lord Murugan passes. The coconut water is meant to wash clean the roads.



The devotees bring along kavadis, which are devotion acts, bringing since simple milk pots till the most devoted act, which is a mortification of the flesh by piercing skin, tongue or cheeks. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind.


The scenes are bit hard to see depending on the time you reach the festival. I have been there twice, on the first day where it was still quite empty, and the second, which was fully crowded and with lots of devotees.

The second day we went there by train. I have never seen such a crowded train in my life, nor even the subway in Tokyo can be compared.
Lots of indians pushing hard to get in to the train as if they were refugees escaping not to be caught by the police.... took us almost 3 hours to reach by switching trains since they were sooooo crowded!

When we finally reached there we went to see the devotees along the river and the scenery was quite impressive. I could see a full ritual of mortification, from its beginning since the devotee is totally conscious and later on its transit to trance and going into the temple after that.


The change of attitude on the devottee is amazing. First the priests do the piercing hanging pieces on his/her skin, and the most impressing devotion act consists on hanging 108 pieces in their body.
After that, the priests give them some powder and at the same time hearing the traditional music and crowd and incence they come into trance.

This switch is something must be seen...his eyes point to nowhere in the crowd, his head starts stunning rythm of the music and he goes nowhere. The priests have to take him and stop from running uncontrolled till he becomes more calmed and can be controlled. Its then when the priest loads on him a small golden shrine on his body, or do the last piercings before going into the cave.


The crowd around him who was at the beginning curious is now scared to see this new human being.
They feel like its sight is lost nowhere, cannot recognize things easily as when they were totally conscious. Some devotees become agressive, most are calm even in the crowd who are scared of seeing them in trance.




Not only men do this ritual, also women, even young boys and girls. While I was walking around I saw one man (probably husband) taking care of her wife who was also in trance.





And even a family trying to calm down their daughter who was on the way to trance, who seemed to be possessed.... quite amazing.


We climbed to the top of the Batu Caves, 272 steps up, in a full crowd. The views from the top were surprising as when you look down you see how many people is joining the festival.




The authorities expected around 1,500,000 visitors this year.

In just two days its a big traffic jam, isnt it?


Finally we came home 6am, feeling so tired. The festival was really something.

A unique experience I do recommend to see once in your life, to get to know how different the world we live in is and how different beliefs human have.


At the end, a short note: even on the crowd, I could see only one chinese guy attending the festival. I wonder do really chinese and indians get along as good as it seems here? Will indians attend Chinese New Years events in two weeks? Wait and see. :)


**** Thanks to Py and Hellewise for their helpful explanation! ****