My Independence Day

I went to The National Museum y’day. Well, the thing that Bryan loves the most is the stuffed animals section. Other than that, he was only interested in those videos that they play. The room he hates most is the section where they showcase the Porcelains of the World (he keeps asking me to go back to the animals section). By the time he reaches the Music Instruments and Arsenal and Armour section (last department we visited), he was already restless.

Anyway, the museum was just as I remembered it way back when Dad brought us there. Can’t remember how many years since I have been to that place. Brandon suddenly decided to go to the Museum after failing to go to the National Zoo (again!) due to the heavy downpour. The stuffed animals part was also the most impressive parts for me coz they had a lot of specimen. They had tigers, leopard, monkeys, deers and even an elephant, rhinoceros and a tapir. Of course all the smaller animals which are quite usual for stuffed animals are there like insects, squirrels, flying foxs, birds, bats, rats, cats (hmmm they don’t have dogs ahahahah) are available but not worth mentioning coz it’s quite “dead” as they are stuck to the wall. The most impressive dead animal there is the 22 feet crocodile and the 10 feet Giant Grouper fish (there were 2 specimens) which was on display right at the entrance. The fish was as big as the Malayan tiger. Impressive! Bryan was not afraid though, but Brandon was horrified and warn Bryan not to touch those formalin glazed display. Also, there weren’t any snakes (or I don’t remember seeing them). The stuffed mammals displays were good as they were preserved in a few jungle-like displays to project their original habitats.

Brandon was quite interested in the first room we visited which displayed the different “adat istiadat” of Malaysia. “Berkhatan” (circumcision) was one of the main display. He stayed to watch the whole video on it. I was interested but I wasn’t patient enough go through the video so my knowledge on this “cutting skin” ceremony is still zero after the visit. And he was also very interested in Wayang Kulit and took special care to educate Bryan about it by letting him watch the video on wayang kulit. But Bryan was more interested in finding where the “slide” was as he thought that there was going to be a playground around the area (we walked through the garden where they display canons, Frank Swettenham and King Edward earlier).

While looking for the slide, Bryan was temporarily distracted by the huge model of Burung Petalawati (so the myth goes that it was Deity Siva’s mode of transport). And of course there were different display of all the different ethnic groups of Malaysia, all complete with their costumes and customs. Brandon was disgusted that the mannequins all looked like European. He complains that they could at least modify the mannequins to look like Malaysians. Hahahaha… Never knew he was such a detailed person. I found the way they portrayed the Chinese, Malay and Indian very aptly as they show the Malays are mostly nelayan, with their kolek (malay dragon boat) and making dodol in the kampong halaman…. Then the Chinese are mostly businessmen, with textile shop, kopitiam, kedai runcit, fortune telling & “kedai jual alat sembayang” and goldsmith shops. Then for the Indians they made a Batu Caves replica and show them taking the Kavadi up… hmmm…… makes me wanna laugh as they portray taking the kavadi up as a way of life. Sigh… Another thing that’s worth complaining is their video in the room that was suppose to show “faces of malaysia”, the one where they show black and white strips of sejarah (on war and kemerdekaan I think). The video was horrible as it has run too many times… with lots of “petak petak”. I can hear people going in and leave immediately while saying, “Gosh, they play pirated CDs here! Ha ha”

Well, that’s the trip to the national museum. Not bad for RM2 per adult. Then we adjourned to Tugu Kebangsaan for some photo shots. Bryan was only impressed with the fountains… He asked me if there were crocodiles in them. I bet he didn’t even notice the black monument of the soldiers. As I was busy taking pictures, I forgot to remind him that those were the soldiers who fought and sacrificed themselves to give us independence. Well, maybe next independence day then. Or he can learn from the pictures after I developed them. After all, he is more attentive to books and videos rather than the real thing. In the museum, he was more interested in the videos and drawings on the wall than the real thing which was displayed right in front of him. Boy, he has so much more to learn…….