woo! had fun today! (night)
well not long ago i heard one of my uncle opened up
a restaurant or some sort.
so like almost one month later, (present day)
we decided to go eat at his place.
wishful thinking
well, somehow i saw this coming.
u know it isnt dat easy opening up a business.
so before we pay my uncle a visit, it doesnt kill to at least
give him a call to ask if its open today, or is
it still existing rite?
my mom thought otherwise, confident in the words
of her younger brother.
well, my OTHER uncle was bringing us there by car.
so i wasnt complaining.
i dont ride cars often okay.
and i rarely eat out for dinner.
so the place is called Riazz Relak (relax) Corner.
haha.
before we reached, my uncle gave his son a call
cuz he alr reached the supposed destination.
"I see Riazz Relak Corner, but i dun see anybody relaxing"
yea so i knew wad was gonna happen.
we reached.
everything was closed and locked with all the equipment outside.
"FOR RENT"
anti climax, i know.
well the good thing was, my uncle knew another restaurant nearby
so we went there.
a hundred times better.
air con, School Of Rock on Channel 5,
and a wide variety of food, from Indian to Malay to Western.
my food came last.
cuz Black Pepper Chicken Rice was not available
so i changed to Mee Goreng,
which was rather unique and delicious.
i think they added cheese or sth..
so dat was for dinner
here comes the interesting part.
sadly i have no camera of some sort to snap some pics.
but even if i had one, maybe id be too afraid to do so.
ok so i wasnt dat afraid, just cautious
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wad was going on was dat at Kampong Melayu
(Malay Village, its a heritage centre)
there was this Kuda Kepang show going on.
soo many ppl were watching it cuz events like this
are very rare nowadays.
Kuda Kepang groups were often invited to weddings to perform.
but not so frequently now.
why?
because it requires the use of
(i dunno wad it is but i wont call it "dark arts")
unknown methods
to make performers enter a trance
and from there onwards, you'll never know wad they'll do.
NOTE: my dad says dat they are not being possesed, rather entering a very empty state of mind whereby they take on the persona of ancient Javanese warriors. In other words, in dat moment of trance, they are SOMETHING else.
so it all begins with a simple line dance of some sort.
in a row, 4 men on one side, 4 women on the other.
they pretend as if they are riding horses,
made of nothing more thn cardboard,
but decorated with bells, ribbons and lots more.
they dance to slow and repeating tempo
which continues to repeat,
constantly increasing and decreasing its beat,
throughout the whole 30 mins or so.
when the women start to exit the arena,
there is a feeling among the crowd that the REAL show was about to begin.
slowly, the 4 men entered their trances.
they were made to sniff some incense.
it kicked off with one of them suddenly going berserk,
kicking one of his mates, and jumping over him.
throughout the whole 20mins or so,
u just marvel at the random things dat they will do.
u have the choice of looking at either one of the 4.
it was as if u were at the zoo.
u just stand outside the cage, and look at the animals
and try to spot which one was the most exciting to watch
which one was outstanding.
in this case, it was like watching horses.
one guy stood out.
he was very popular with the crowd
he stared at the kids with eyes opened wide,
knocked his head on poles,
knocked his forehead on shattered glass pieces on the ground,
stepped on it,
jumped over a row of three chairs,
spit water at one of the "guards"
even bite off a portion of a glass bowl
and many many more
wads amazing was dat they do not sustain injuries
not even a stain of blood.
the other 3 chose to be more gentle.
and settle with dancing,
spinning,
running around.
they were treated like real horses.
whenever they were thirsty, they went to this guy
who would just take out and give them a pail of water.
they would then put their heads inside it and drink
as if they've not seen water for days.
whenever they got mischievious and threatened the crowd,
or almost go out of control,
the "guards" would stare at them.
they would just stare back just like how an angry animal would.
there were 2 ppl who went around carrying whips.
whenever they felt like it,
they whipped the "horses"
not lightly, but with full force.
but the "horses" showed no signs of pain
im telling you, those were real whips
and the sound of the slashes were proof that the guards
showed no mercy in whipping them.
so when the time is right,
one by one,
the guards take them down.
3 ppl would take on one "horse"
tackle him down just like an animal,
hold him on the ground,
unequip his cardboard horse,
put it over him,
and whip the cardboard three times.
occasionally, additional methods were used
cuz one or 2 of them were just too
immersed in their trance.
when it ended,
it received a very well deserved round of applause.
i, one who has never seen such a performance b4,
was totally amazed.
it was indeed SUPERNATURAL
my mom further explained dat in the olden days,
Kuda Kepang performances were even more extreme
an example would be "horses" jumping at extraordinary heights.
and much more.
well im happy to have experienced it at least once.
i was told dat i was lucky
as the performance today was more interesting
thn the ones on previous days.
to enter a state of trance
and ignore the limitations of the body.
sounds cool enough.
but they say it requires
alot of discipline to train both the body and the mind
to sustain such a state.
however when mastered,
a performance like dat,
can go on for hours, maybe even until morning,
if the "guards" dont stop them.
