Guiness World Of Records Affairs 9 July 2006

===========Sypnosis/Summary ===========

Weekend outing was fun with visits to 2 Guiness World of Record events – the Asian Cultural Lantern Festival which aims to enter the GWoR with it’s longest porcelain dragon lantern and Bookfair on Doulos, the oldest active passenger ship as recognized by GWoR. These 2 places are excellent for family outings and superb for photography (pretty challenging as lighting is on the 2 extreme ends, one in the dark and the other with too much sunlight). Just make sure you bring a fan and crowd repellent or anti-crowd depressant. And of course, timing is everything. Go at night for the Lantern Festival (obviously) and if your children or you can sleep late, loiter until 11 (opens till 12 am) so that you can take good pictures. For Doulos, reach the West Port Jetty at 1:30 sharp. Believe me, you don’t want to queue in the sweltering heat as the habour and the ship, although shaded, can reach a temperature that surpasses the fainting level.

========== Full Story ===========

The weekend was quite eventful. First of all, got an invitation to a vocal audition for a Jazz song but failed to attend due to my “busy” schedule (An excuse, I was ill prepared actually ahaha). Another invitation to a mamak get together and also a buffet lunch at Crowne Plaza also didn’t work out. Well, you must be thinking I had a pretty tight schedule… On the contrary really… I just did 2 things (for my situation, it’s a lot already…. apart from the weekly chore of washing clothes.)

Ok, on Saturday night… we went to the 2006 Asian Cultural Lantern Festival. That’s after sleeping the whole afternoon. So Bryan was pretty fresh that night. In fact, he woke up and said, I want to go see the dragon lantern now. He’s been bugging us to go for the lantern festival ever since his uncle (my brother) showed him a newspaper cutting of the event. Pretty good memory for a 4 year old. Well, we reach Bukit Jalil Stadium after a short drive from Subang via Puchong. It wasn’t difficult to find the place at night as the place was brightly lit with all the lanterns in sight from the main road. Luckily for us, parking wasn’t any trouble too as we found a space near one of the entrance (there are a few entrances). We paid RM10 for the entrance (RM5 for adults and free for children under 6) and went in with an open mind. Hmm actually the lanterns are mostly the plastic type. They add in motorized characters (most of the exhibits can move, squirt water, exhale smoke etc..) to spice up the exhibits. Lanterns that represents buildings is big enough for people to walk through them.

The main highlight would be the dragon which is made up of porcelain plates, cups and saucers, spoons and small wine glasses - cleverly tied together to form the longest porcelain dragon in history. Quite an amazing effort, thus, it’s no wonder why they are trying to get it listed in the Guiness World of Records.

Besides that, the next amusing lantern would be the moving Buddha which is quite huge and has moving eyes and arms and can squirt water and emits smoke. Quite a crowd magnet. Didn’t really manage to get near the Phoenix as by the time we reach there, Brandon was already quite put off with the crowd. He is allergic to crowds. We didn’t even try to wade through the small crowd to watch the Chinese Concert which was happening somewhere in the middle. Food were sold but not sure if there were Chinese food or Malaysian. Also, we rather gave the kiddie rides (which pops up here and there as some of the lanterns came with rides) as it’s really… err…. not impressive (the real word I wanted to use is “Low tech” and “lau beh”… ). Of course, Bryan would want to ride on anything, but luckily Papa was around to put a strain on the rein. So Bryan just amuse himself with the various insects on display (of course, he likes the Beetle the most –MushiKing, the King of all Beetles) and of course the dinosaurs. He was quiet amused with the huge Brontosaurus and the Stegosaurus Lanterns. He would’ve loved it better if there was a T-rex but there weren’t any. Just a Velopciraptor and Triceratops and a few others. Probably T-rex wasn’t a species found in China ha ha.

All in all, it’s a nice place for family outing and photography. Just don’t expect anything spectacular, it not something out of this world! And I am sure Brandon would not want to go again (ironically, I think we went to one years ago when we were still courting). We left the place after about 1 hour or so. From some of my photos, we were sweating quite profusely hahahaha so probably Brandon dislike the place due to discomfort and worry about mosquitoes rather than boredom (Note from Brandon: actually boredom too). Bryan of course doesn’t want to leave the place as he never ever wanted any family outings to end. As we left the place, he said he wanted to go on the rides. When papa said no, he tried his luck by saying he wants to go see the ship. “I want to go see the ship now, I want to see Doulos now! Pleaseeeee” … Yes, that’s another newspaper article which my brother showed him and again, he’s been bugging us to go board the ship ever since. Anyway, Bryan was appeased after we told him that we’re going to go to the place tomorrow.

Sunday, another interesting day. Went out for dimsum before embarking on a long trip to Klang. Port Klang was quite a maze though as we are not sure which port the Doulos was docked. Made a couple of phone calls to each of the port only to end up with a “Tak Tahu la” answer. In the end, Brandon’s sharp eyes found some small ground level road signs directing us to West Port, the place where the Genting Star Cruises dock. As we visited a friend on board the Superstar Virgo (one of the Star Cruises) before, we were quite familiar with the way without having to rely on those small signs. We reached there at 1pm. We were asked to return at around 1:30pm as the ship is only open to public at 2pm. So, Brandon took us on a land cruise around Pulau Indah (where we bought a packet of a sotong only to find that it’s rotten – luckily we opened it straight away hence, we got to exchange it for another pack). Then we took some photos at the Tentera Laut’s front gate. Left hastily as the army guard came out to question us but he didn’t really mind us taking photos. Being respectful of authorities, we don’t want to be thought of as spies so we just took a few pictures and left. Furthermore, it was almost 1:45pm, and thus, we returned to the jetty. Bryan was already so restless, alternating between, wanting to board Doulos and requesting to board a ship. When we reach the jetty, we were shock to see the number of cars that were lining up to pay the Jetty Facility Fee of RM1. Earlier, the place was almost haunted with only 2 to 3 cars, now it was like there was a Megasale! Anyway, we manage to get our car into the car park nicely (again quite lucky to get a place near the arrival hall). When we disembark from our car, the afternoon sun was almost unbearable. However, we see some people lining up in the hot sun as the Arrival Hall was already filled with people. They were all waiting for the gate to open at 2pm. Since it’s only 1:45pm and Brandon would never go in line esp in the hot sun, we decided to walk around the area under the shade of the building. We found a Star Cruise lounge and waited around there when suddenly Bryan says he wanted to pee. Great job Bryan because the washroom was only available in the arrival hall! So we had a great excuse to get into the hall and guess what, by the time Bryan finish, the gate opens, and Brandon manage to get a place in line as the line was already moving. Bryan was sooo excited when we were walking on the jetty towards Doulos. He keep saying, “Oh no, the boats are moving away, quickly let’s go”. There are some small sampans moving around the dock a distant away. When we finally go up the ship, Bryan was quite disappointed as it wasn’t moving. Well, I was glad that it wasn’t moving as Doulos is already 92 years old, being the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship (as recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records).

Anyway, Bryan wasn’t interested in the books on sale and neither was Brandon interested in pushing through the crowd to go to the children’s section. So we just browse the Cooking section and some children books out in the front and decided that RM8 for 100 units (the books are labeled using international units so that they don’t have to change the price tag at each of the over 500 habours of the 100 over countries it has visited) is too expensive. Wanted to buy a globe for Bryan (those blow into a ball type) but decided that 150 units which translate into RM12 is not too worthy as Bryan would be more interested in kicking a ball than to find a country in the globe. I think I’ll rather expose him to Google Earth when he is older. So I used the RM12 to get a Starbucks ice blended Mocca Latte to cool us down from sweltering deck. Bryan got to see a bit of the green sea from the railings and told me that there are no sharks. Before leaving the ship, we took a picture with one of the crew who incidentally are one of the volunteers to board the ship with the purpose to serve God and the nations they visit.

A word of advise to those who want to visit Doulos (which incidentally, is a moving, floating bookfair organized by a non-profit, private, charitable organization registered in Germany and is currently docked in West Port, Port Klang till 31 July before moving to Pasir Gudang and Kuantan and later Thailand). Go at 1:30pm. That’s because, when we left at 2:45pm, the queue was from the SHIP up to the arrival hall and more! When we went in at 2pm, the jetty was empty… with just us walking towards the ship and stopping over here and there to take pictures. This is because they can only allow a certain number of people aboard the ship at any time. The slight difference in timing can cause a massive queue and plenty of frustration, so plan your time well.