Sunday, February 25, 2024

Malaysia - Chinese New Year Soar into the year of Dragon visits in Klang Valley & Kuala Lumpur - Day 14 & Day 15 (Chap Goh Meh) Feb 24 2024 Part 1

CNY Decor Berjaya Times Square
Jalan Imbi, Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur 
CNY Decor Lot 10 Mall
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur 
Lot 10 Hutong
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
CNY Decor MyTOWN
Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur
Peru The Great Inca Road
Exhibition, 1-Utama Shopping Centre 
 

CNY Day 15 (Chap Goh Meh in Hokkien or Yuan Xiao in Mandarin) Saturday Feb 24 2024 - marks the end of the auspicious Chinese New Year season, an important day for Chinese Hokkien in Malaysia especially in Penang, Klang & Sarawak towns where there are more Hokkiens, a few of these traditional & common practices were observed in a predominantly Chinese Hokkien area ie cultural activities (arts & crafts), roasted piglets praying & cutting ceremony in homes / temples / clans & associations, Chinese opera stage performances in suburban / small towns & villages, setting off firecrackers usually in the evening or at night, acrobatic lion dance on stilt performances in shopping malls or business establishments, live bands & fire juggling shows, young people tossing of mandarin oranges in lakes or rivers to find true love or good fortune (Chinese version of Valentine's Day) under a luminous & bright full moon (hopefully) - thus a merry ending for this CNY Lunar Dragon Year of 2024 ! 

The next Chinese Zodiac Dragon year will be in 2036 (based on a repeating 12 year cycle) ! Hence my reason for visiting as many shopping malls (a total of 18), Chinese temples (6) & touristy places in Kuala Lumpur & Klang Valley (8) in this CNY Dragon year of 2024 (make hay while the sun shines & making the 2024 Dragon year the most memorable one !) as in 12 years time, I am in my twilight years, unlikely I will have the mental & physical strength to do this act one more time ! 

Shopping Malls in Kuala Lumpur / Selangor 

  1. Aeon Big Subang Jaya
  2. Berjaya Times Square
  3. Exchange TRX Mall
  4. Gardens Mall
  5. IKEA Damansara
  6. IPC Shopping Centre
  7. Lalaport Bukit Bintang City Centre 
  8. Lot 10 Mall 
  9. Megah Rise Mall
  10. Mid Valley Mall
  11. MyTOWN Shopping Centre
  12. One Utama Shopping Centre
  13. Pavilion Damansara Heights 
  14. Pavilion Kuala Lumpur 
  15. Subang Parade
  16. Sunway Pyramid
  17. Suria KLCC
  18. The Curve

Chinese temples in Kuala Lumpur / Selangor

  1. Ban Siew Keng Temple, Jenjarom 
  2. Cempaka Buddhist Lodge, PJ
  3. Fo Guang Shan Dong Zen Temple, Jenjarom
  4. Kau Ong Yau Temple Ampang
  5. Sin Ann Meow Cheras
  6. Thean How Temple, KL
Touristy places in City Centre, Kuala Lumpur 
  1. Bukit Bintang
  2. Cultural Centre, Jenjarom
  3. Kasturi Walk 
  4. KLREX
  5. Kwai Chai Hong 
  6. Merdeka Tower 
  7. Petaling Street (Chinatown)
  8. Petronas Twin Towers 
As for the Chinese lunar year of Rabbit in 2023, I am glad that I was able to "hop" to 5 Asian countries (4 free & easy and 1 package tour) together with my family members & travel buddies:
  1. Vietnam (Hanoi, SAPA, Lao Cai, Haiphong, Tam Coc, Hue, Danang & Hoi An)
  2. Indonesia (Surabaya, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Malang, Batu & Probolingo)
  3. Thailand (Betong)
  4. China (Guilin, Yangshuo, Longsheng, Lipu, Hezhou, Zhaoqing & Guangzhou)
  5. India (Amritsar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Goa, Hampi, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Ooty, Mettupalayam, Coimbatore & Tiruchirappalli)  
One for the album - rewinding memories of my overseas visits undertaken in the lunar year of the Rabbit in 2023:

Ba Na Hills, Danang
Vietnam (Feb 2023)
Malang, Java, Indonesia
May 2023
Betong, Thailand (July 2023)
Guangzhou, China (Nov 2023)
Mumbai, India (Dec 2023)

For this auspicious CNY day (Chap Goh Meh), using LRT & MRT train rides, I made a visit to Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur & visited the Berjaya Times Square, Lot 10 Mall, Lot 10 Hutong & the commercial & entertainment district of Jalan Bukit Bintang, a famous & bustling street, most visited by local & international tourists ! After the Bukit Bintang visit, I took a MRT & visited MyTOWN mall, Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur. 

CNY Day 15 Saturday Feb 24 2024 - my solo visit to Berjaya Times Square, Jalan Imbi, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur by LRT from SS15, Subang Jaya > Pasar Seni (transit) > Bukit Bintang; one of the Malaysia's largest shopping malls. 

CNY Day 15 Saturday Feb 24 2024 - Lot 10 Mall, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur - an established, 5 storey mall with eateries, entertainment & retail stores carrying global brands. 



CNY Day 15 Saturday Feb 24 2024 - Lot 10 Hutong Food Court, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur - awarded Asia's Best Gourmet Heritage Cuisines Strong Under One Roof serving the best hawker food in Malaysia !

Cityscape of Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur - a well known shopping & entertainment district of Kuala Lumpur 


CNY Day 15 Saturday Feb 24 2024 - MyTOWN Shopping Centre, Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur - my solo visit to MyTOWN by MRT from Bukit Bintang > Cochrane, a stylish mall with international brands & restaurants on the fringes of the CBD of Kuala Lumpur.  


Day 14 Friday Feb 23 2024 - Exhibition of Peru The Great Inca Road in 1 Utama Shopping Centre (Ground Floor LUXE), very interesting & informative about The Great Inca Road system & the various hiking trails & Machu Picchu (UNESCO World Heritage site), an Incan Citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba River valley, built in the 15ht century & later and abandoned, it's is renowned for its sophisticated dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, intriguing buildings that play on astronomical alignments & panoramic views, its exact former use remains a mystery !  

Malaysia > Peru 19,237km by Air

On show was a banner promoting a 18 day 15 night tour package to Original South America (flights included) offered by a local travel agency ie Sedunia Travel.Com costs Rm31,040 (US$6,450) so get ready to fly to Machu Piccu, Peru & fulfil your dream of seeing an once in a life time visit to this UNESCO World Heritages Site or start your planning now to undertake a free & easy visit to Peru following the various hiking trails to explore The Great Inca Road - to complete this longest Inca Road system starting from Pasto (Colombia) to Cusco (Peru) & Talca (Chile), the total distance by car is approx 5,641km comparing to 5,553km if travelling by car from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia > Beijing, China ! ...... plenty of challenges & bring along a stash of US dollars to pay for your public transport, food & hostels accommodation or any hidden costs (visa fee, yellow fever vaccination etc) if you are travelling to this South American country far away from my home place, Malaysia - a distance of 19,237km by air from Kuala Lumpur > Peru ! It will continue to be in my pipe dream but dream has no expiry date ! But in the meantime to satisfy my curiosity on Machu Piccu, I will have to do a virtual travelling relying on YouTube to admire & appreciate this great wonder of mankind ! 


Trail No 1 - Cusco > Vilcashuaman


Trail No 2 - Xauxa > Pachacamac


Trail No 3 - Huanuco Pampa > Marcahuamachuco > Kuelap > Chan- Chan 



Trail No 4 - La Raya > Desaguadero