26 July 2008
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
The 322 participants of the Eunos Harmony Trail had their breakfast at a specially reserved ballroom of Grand Seasons Hotel.
A couple of us, including my family and I, walked up the 272 stairs of the Batu Caves. It proved to be an excellent morning exercise. Later, when we were on our way down, we saw Mayor Zainul with Hindu priests at the top too.
Within the Batu Caves are Hindu Temples and more stairs, haha.
Monkeys were running about, grabbing flowers for their breakfast. As the tour guide puts it, the monkeys are legal robbers. They could grab your bags and cameras but the police won't help you in retrieving them.
After the visit to the Batu Caves, the participants set off to Kuantan. Kuantan is situated at the East of West Malaysia while Kuala Lumpur was at the West of it. The journey took a few hours. In my bus, bus no. 7, someone bought a Karaoke VCD and Mr. Yap sang along. During the journey, one of the air-conditioner cover fell off and sparked off some candid complaints. When we reached Kuantan, the driver was lost and could not find the restaurant where we would be having our lunch.
And then, we finally reached our lunch stop, Hai Tian Lou Seafood Restaurant. The participants of bus 7 occupied tables 19, 20 & 21. I was seated at 20. Those at 20 were always very full after meals because table 19 and 21 kept passing food that they can't finish to us.
All the participants were led to the basement and watched a video on how Wan Fo Dian was created and the history of Pang Buddhist Association. Mayor Zainul gave a speech of which he mentioned that he has mixed blood of Indian and Malay. In Singapore, Muslims are minorities but in Malaysia, it's the other way round. If we were to include China and India, then it would be a whole lot of a different scenario. Therefore he called for us not to segregate people according to majority-minority but to live together harmoniously. Then he exchanged gifts with the Pang Buddhist Association.
The organising committee led by Mr. Michael Fong PBM treated the participants with durians (worth RM1200). There was also refreshments provided by Pang Buddhist Association.
At the main hall of Wan Fo Dian, there is a jade statue of Buddha. The statue is carved out from only one piece of jade. The hall was decorated with 15,000 small caricatures of Buddha.
Next, we headed to the Church of St. Thomas (Roman Catholic), situated right beside our hotel at Grand Hotels International. There, the Priest Eugene Benedict gave a speech which highlighted that as early as the 19th century, Singaporeans had gone to Kuantan to teach Christianity to the people. The church itself had also its roots from Upper Serangoon. Mayor Zainul also reciprocated by describing how we came to the Church with divine assistance.
During refreshment time, some Eunos residents presented a song.
We then checked in to the Grand Hotels International. No one in my bus believed it was a 4-star hotel. Nevertheless, we did some washing up and assembled downstairs to attend dinner.
Mayor Zainul gave a speech and also exchanged a gift with the representative from Malaysia tourism board. To a grand finale, he led the residents to the Eunos Song <<爱拼才会赢>>, a Hokkien song "Strive to Succeed". All the participants rose, clapped to the tune and sang along. It was a rather proud moment.
The Church of St. Thomas held a Mass for those interested, while the rest turned in for the night.
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
The 322 participants of the Eunos Harmony Trail had their breakfast at a specially reserved ballroom of Grand Seasons Hotel.
At about 7.30am, we had a change of bus again and headed to our first attraction for the day -- Batu Caves. Within the Batu Caves, there are Hindu temples. Hindus make up less than 5% of the population in Kuala Lumpur, according to the tour guide. Here lies the tallest statue of a Hindu God in the World, with a height of more than 12 storeys high. When it was launched, a helicopter had to be used to put on the garland for the statue.
A couple of us, including my family and I, walked up the 272 stairs of the Batu Caves. It proved to be an excellent morning exercise. Later, when we were on our way down, we saw Mayor Zainul with Hindu priests at the top too.
Within the Batu Caves are Hindu Temples and more stairs, haha.
Monkeys were running about, grabbing flowers for their breakfast. As the tour guide puts it, the monkeys are legal robbers. They could grab your bags and cameras but the police won't help you in retrieving them.
After the visit to the Batu Caves, the participants set off to Kuantan. Kuantan is situated at the East of West Malaysia while Kuala Lumpur was at the West of it. The journey took a few hours. In my bus, bus no. 7, someone bought a Karaoke VCD and Mr. Yap sang along. During the journey, one of the air-conditioner cover fell off and sparked off some candid complaints. When we reached Kuantan, the driver was lost and could not find the restaurant where we would be having our lunch.
And then, we finally reached our lunch stop, Hai Tian Lou Seafood Restaurant. The participants of bus 7 occupied tables 19, 20 & 21. I was seated at 20. Those at 20 were always very full after meals because table 19 and 21 kept passing food that they can't finish to us.After the sumptuous lunch, we went to Wan Fo Dian (万佛殿, hall of Ten Thousand Buddha Images) managed by the Pang Buddhist Association. There we took a group photo and it was published in the China Press, a Malaysian newspaper.
All the participants were led to the basement and watched a video on how Wan Fo Dian was created and the history of Pang Buddhist Association. Mayor Zainul gave a speech of which he mentioned that he has mixed blood of Indian and Malay. In Singapore, Muslims are minorities but in Malaysia, it's the other way round. If we were to include China and India, then it would be a whole lot of a different scenario. Therefore he called for us not to segregate people according to majority-minority but to live together harmoniously. Then he exchanged gifts with the Pang Buddhist Association.
The organising committee led by Mr. Michael Fong PBM treated the participants with durians (worth RM1200). There was also refreshments provided by Pang Buddhist Association.At the main hall of Wan Fo Dian, there is a jade statue of Buddha. The statue is carved out from only one piece of jade. The hall was decorated with 15,000 small caricatures of Buddha.
Next, we headed to the Church of St. Thomas (Roman Catholic), situated right beside our hotel at Grand Hotels International. There, the Priest Eugene Benedict gave a speech which highlighted that as early as the 19th century, Singaporeans had gone to Kuantan to teach Christianity to the people. The church itself had also its roots from Upper Serangoon. Mayor Zainul also reciprocated by describing how we came to the Church with divine assistance.During refreshment time, some Eunos residents presented a song.
We then checked in to the Grand Hotels International. No one in my bus believed it was a 4-star hotel. Nevertheless, we did some washing up and assembled downstairs to attend dinner.We had a grand reception at the entrance of the restaurant. There was a dragon dance performance followed by lion dance. Malay drummers lined the stairways to the dining hall.
Mayor Zainul gave a speech and also exchanged a gift with the representative from Malaysia tourism board. To a grand finale, he led the residents to the Eunos Song <<爱拼才会赢>>, a Hokkien song "Strive to Succeed". All the participants rose, clapped to the tune and sang along. It was a rather proud moment.
The Church of St. Thomas held a Mass for those interested, while the rest turned in for the night.Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
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