Javi and the fireworks

How could I explain you all this…

During August it has been the second Malaysia International Fireworks Competition in which participated teams from Canada, China, Malaysia and Spain. On the 24th it was the turn for the Spanish team, so I thought that I could go to see it and also to take some pictures for my project.

So that Sunday, when we were having lunch before going to Putrajaya (a new city built 25 Km southern from Kuala Lumpur where the most important ministries are and where the competition took place), I thought… “And what if I make an interview to the leader of the Spanish team and I try to sell it to any media in Spain?”. So while I was in the train in my way there Zuzana made me the favour of finding some information on the Internet about the Spanish Team and I was preparing some questions in my notebook (in paper, not a computer).

When I arrived there, you can imagine: no, it is not here, ask there (a trip to the far away there)… No, it’s not here either, better ask over there (another trip to the far, far away other there)… and all this in a light rain. Finally I manage to arrive to one place where telling again the same story, “I am a spanish photographer and bla bla bla…” they tell me to go up these escalators with a security guard at the bottom (who lets me pass, of course).

When I arrived on the top of that escalator (there was still another escalator to go up), there was another security guy who tells me that he has to ask about it. All this without any accreditation, of course. Finally a man called Heng Ken Hau comes (this one doesn’t care about changing his name to Jimmy, Peter or something similar) who is the General Manager/Finance Director of a company called “Global” and which it seems is in charge of organising this whole event. Again, I tell him the whole story and that I want to interview Patrick Brault… yes, that was the name of the leader of the Spanish team. The man tells me that now it’s impossible because the Minister of Tourism and the Ambassador of Spain are upstairs and it is just impossible, that he doesn’t know if the team be there after the show and that the press day was yesterday anyway; I tell him that I knew it (false) but that I was not in Kuala Lumpur (false)... After insisting a bit he tells me to come after the show and then he will see if it’s possible to do something.

So I leave with that feeling “maybe he told me that just to make me go…” while I am scratching my head. So I go out of the Convention Centre and I go to look for a good place to take pictures of the fireworks.

And of course, here it is the best place waiting for me, sure… Even if it was still two hours before the fireworks (I had been walking and asking all around for two and a half hours) all the good places are already full of freaks with their tripods, and don’t even think about the centred ones. And I also knew that the pictures taken from a lateral view… they were not going to be so acceptable for newspapers.

Then I looked for a place more or less in the centre with some Malays who were not too tall (that was not the most difficult) and I asked them if they didn’t mind if I stayed behind them. They told me that it was ok for them and after a while we started to talk (also very kind, as most of the people here). As you can imagine after two hours they had already made some room between their tripods for me and I had a place to take pictures relatively centred.

The show begins and we all start taking pictures like maniacs. After some minutes it started to rain, what a pity, it is not that it was raining a lot, but enough to put the camera away. At least I had time to take some pictures, like this one.


The show finishes, everything was very beautiful, everybody is very happy… wet but happy… and after talking a bit with the people I met and saying goodbye, I go back inside to try again. I reach again the top of the first escalator and I end up again wit Mr. Ken Hau. But this time he tells me: “Now it is possible, they are up there”. So Javi goes up and waits until a Malaysian TV Station finishes the interview with Patrick Brault so I can make mine.


In the meanwhile I am handing my business card out to everybody, of course, just in case they need a photographer and they don’t know to whom they should call.

So when Patrick finishes with the television, we are introduced, I take my notebook and we start talking. Very easy, really, when people cooperate everything is very easy. He was not only answering my questions but also telling me many things about how they made the show, all the problems they had, the rain… so it was not the typical interview like a tennis match (I ask you, you answer me), it was more a whole conversation that afterwards I transcribed into an interview.

We finished the interview, everybody left and I took some notes while the rest of the waiters there removed the tablecloth and the cover of the chairs. When I finally got out of there it was almost half past eleven and there almost everybody had already left. Patrick was waiting to get into the van from the organization to go to their hotel and I asked him if they were going to Kuala Lumpur, but he told me that their hotel was close to Putrajaya. So I went to a woman from the organization and I asked her how I can reach the train station, which is really far away from there (I knew there were still trains to Kuala Lumpur). The woman told me that there was no way to reach the railway station but if a taxi is ok for me they would help me. I told her that a taxi is perfect for me (as you can imagine) so she told the driver of the van of the Spanish team to take me with them to the hotel and then to call a taxi for me.

So here I am, in the van with the Spanish Team, we talked a bit and it was ok, but let’s say that we didn’t finish as close friends. After a while I sit in the hall of the hotel waiting for my taxi and I take my notebook to write down some things while I still remember them.


My taxi arrives and I go home, just 15€ for a 25 km ride, quite ok. Once I am at home I take Zuzana’s telephone (calling to a fix phone abroad is quite cheap) and I think: “forget about little things, let’s do it right, first I am calling to El País” (El País is the bestseller of the newspapers in Spain, apart from the sport ones, of course). So I call them, I tell them the story and... well, a bit disorganized. First they seemed to be interested in it and they even asked me to send some samples of pictures while I transcribe the interview, after some time they ask me one picture in high resolution and they ask me for the caption I want when they publish it. And then, they were going to call me, but they were not calling, I called again… finally yes, they say that probably they would publish it on Tuesday. So I go to sleep with a smile on my face, imagine, in “El País” in the cultural section and nationwide. Great, isn’t it?

On Tuesday I talked again with them and they told me that they are not publishing it because the person in charge just arrived from holidays and bla, bla, bla… I know that on Wednesday anything that happened on Sunday is not news anymore, so I gave up. I admit that I felt a bit disappointed and a bit frustrated, but ok, there is nothing I could do.

Since I was not satisfied I thought (yes, I thought one more time)… “And what if on Friday, when they anounce the winner, I go there and if Spain wins I take some pictures from the price giving ceremony?... maybe they could publish that”. And I decided that so I would do.

The week passes and I am getting ready for Friday. By the way, Tomaš, Zuzana’s brother, arrived on Thursday.


Finally Friday arrives and Zuzana, Tomaš and I go to see the fireworks. We take the train, then the bus and we arrive where the bus stops, which is a bit further than the other side of the bridge you can see on the picture on the fireworks. Well, the bridge is closed because there are installed on it some fireworks (meaning, explosives) and due to safety reasons it is not possible to cross it.

Javi tells again the story to the policeman but this time improved. “I am photographer from Spain, I came last week and I made an interview with the leader of the Spanish Team. I have to go today to the price giving ceremony because if Spain wins the first price it will be news tomorrow and it has to be on the newspapers…”

Nothing, it cannot be. I talk to another guy who is organizer, I tell again the story to him and I take my card holder with the business card of my friend Heng Ken Hau (together with my other cards of people from Tourism Malaysia, the Ministry of culture, the International Film Festival of Kuala Lumpur…) and I tell the organizer that I was with him last week. Everything went far much easier. “Ooooohhh…. Yes… from “Global”… yes… yes…” Things are right now, now there are three people from security with three scooters to take Zuzana, Tomaš and me to the other side of the bridge.

Once there (the same far away “there” from the week before) we walk up to the Convention Centre and I go directly to the escalators from the week before and the person from “Global” down there tells me that the price giving ceremony is on the same floor in a stage which is close to there. I go to that stage and I don’t see anybody around there, so I try to find anybody else to ask.

Then I find another woman, I tell her the story and I show here the card of my very close friend Heng. She tells me that she is not organizer of the Competition,that she workes for the Convention Centre (there were some other events there) and that she is helping me. She makes a couple of phone calls and she tells m that the ceremony is on the first floor. So she takes me to the famous escalators and she tells the guy from “Global” that I know Mr. Ken Hau and that I should show him the card that I showed her before. Immediately the guy let’s me go up and apologized to me (I think he really had no idea about where the ceremony was going to be).

I reach the top of the second escalator and there is another control with some women who ask me where I am from. I tell them that “I am spanish photographer”, “from where?”, “from Spain”, “Aaaaahhh… Spanish Tema?”, “yes”… let’s go inside. Ok, we’ve got it, here we are.


I think that it is because my friend Heng didn’t see me, if so I don’t reach this point no even in my dreams.

So I prepare the camera, I take some pictures, I walk a bit around and I see a man who looks as if he was Spanish and whom I think I had seen the week before leaving at the end of the show. This man.


So I think that I should meet some other photographer because I have no idea about who are all those people around there. Then I saw I photographer wearing a T-shirt with the crest of the Valencia Football Club (???). This is my chance, I start talking to him and after five minutes he starts running saying that the Minister of Tourism is coming. This was a really funny situation. Here I am, with my North Face bag, with all the other photographers and cameramen taking pictures of the Minister of Tourism, there is only a small problem, from all that mass of people coming I have no idea who the Minister is, so I take a lot of pictures with the wide angle really open to the top so nobody is out of the picture.

Later on I would find out just by myself that the Minister of Tourism is not a man, she is a woman. Yes, that small problem with genders in English.

So this woman sits in the same table where is sit that man who looks Spanish, who finally results that he is the Ambassador of Spain. Ups… the Minister of Tourism and the Ambassador of Spain together… there is no doubt that Heng wouldn’t have let me in even though the close friendship that we share.


When the photographers have finally finished shooting the VIP table we move a bit aside and the ceremony starts. The photographer guy I met tells me that I should move fast because there are many photographers and cameramen and when the presentation finishes it is going to be very crowded. So I immediately stick to him and as soon as I see him moving I go with him and we kneel in front of the centre of the stage. That was also very funny. I looked around all those photographers and cameramen all them with their accreditation… and me wearing my T-shirt from the Oceanario de Lisboa.

In the ceremony they start to introduce everybody and afterwards they start giving the prices. One to every team for participating, then the second price and then… the moment arrives… “And the first price, with xxx points out of a total of 400 points is… for the Team of… Spain!!!”

Yes!, yes!, yes!... “Receive the price the Ambassador of Spain Mr. José Ramón Barañano”. For you to have an idea about where I was, here you are a picture of the price giving from the Minister of Tourism of Malaysia to the Ambassador of Spain.


When the ceremony finishes, in case I didn’t have enough I went to greet the Ambassador and I told him if he wouldn’t mind that afterwards I take some pictures of him alone with the trophy. And he tells me that better at that moment because afterwards they will have to attend many people. So he gets up from the table, he takes the trophy and he goes to the centre of the stage to pose just only me.

Well, mission accomplished, I get out to see the fireworks with Zuzana and Tomaš while we are walking down the hill to go home and call as soon as possible. But it was not going to be so easy, if in the way there the bridge was closed, now it is absolutely close. Before opening it they have to check that is completely safe and that there is no firework unexploded. So, since the bus leaves from the other side of the bridge, we can’t take the bus, we can’t reach the railway station and we can’t take the train back. What a pity.

I stop a small truck from the police to ask them but they don’t get the hint that they should drive us to the railway station. I ask another policeman about what we can do and he tells me that we can do nothing, the only option is a taxi, but there are no taxis around there.

So we decided that as soon as we see a car with only two people I will ask them if they could drive us. One minute later we see a car in which a guy is trying to put the camera on the car to take a picture with his girlfriend (or wife); I see it perfectly clear. I tell them the story, I take a picture of them with my camera and since they are from outside Kuala Lumpur I ask them if they could drive us to Putrajaya railway station. We will never know if they really wanted to go to Kuala Lumpur or they were simply so nice (that they were) that they wanted to take us to Kuala Lumpur. The fact is that they left us almost in front of our building (and I think they didn’t leave us closer because we didn’t let them). These are our nice friends.


Once at home I called again “El País” but after all they were not interested in it, at least they called me to tell me that they were not interested in. My second try was ABC, another important newspaper. They told me that they were interested in it for the regional edition of “Comunidad Valenciana”. So I wrote again the text because they wanted indirect speech instead the interview and I sent them four pictures, two of them of the fireworks, another one of the interview with the TV station and the fourth one from the price giving ceremony.

So finally yes, I have something published in a newspaper.

The first thing I saw about it was on the website of the newspaper. It is quite funny, on the Internet they published my text, but they didn’t publish my pictures!!!. I haven’t seen the newspaper yet (the printed version of the ABC from Comunidad Valenciana still didn’t reach Kuala Lumpur), but I know they published one picture (the one of fireworks you have here). So in the end I have to say that am quite content with this.


I think it really doesn’t make too much sense here, but… if you can read Spanish, or you want to see my name on the Internet, you can click here.