Merdeka!!!

Merdeka in Malaysian means "Independence", and this year they celebrate the 51st aniversary since they waved good bye the British.

Malaysian are very proud of their independence and their flag, and on the 31st of August they celebrate their National Day. They have some concerts and fireworks on the night before and on the 31st they have a performance with children doing all the same (like Chinese on the Olimpics but more moderated) and a parade in which you can see everything which can march.

I could have worte all this last week, but the fireworks issue had all the rigth to be there. So the Merdeka Article will be this week.

All those visits to Tourism Malaysia and the Minsistry of Culture had to reach any point, so I finally got this:


And with them I could access to the parade press area, so I could take pictures of everything and see it all from a good position.

So far I told you all my stories with some pictures, but I think this time it is better if I tell the story in images. So here you are, my particular view of the Independence Day last Sunday in Kuala Lumpur:

All these children with their caps, if you look at them from high (very high), are sitting in a way so that you could see the Malaysian flag.

The Royal Guard arrives.

And they stand waiting for the arrival of the King.

The King arrives, everybody rises.

This man is the King, inspecting the Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard leaves and the performance can start.

Duing the National Anthem everybody rises again.

This must be a very important oath, in Malaysian, of course, because everybody rised again and repeated it aloud.

And here the performance with the children finishes and the parade starts. apart from all you are going to see there were marching firemen, ambulances, dogs, even a boat with wheels.

The King and the Prime Minister.

The Olimpics and Paraolimpics from Malaysia National Team.

I was like them but on the right side, in the first line, I got a good position.

Wives were located in a stands apart, even if they are the wife of the King and the wife of the Prime Ministrer.

As you can see thy really like their flag, even in a normal day you can see many of them on the streets.

The parade finishes and the Royal Guard comes again to stand when the King is leaving.

This is the Royal Escort which goes with the King.

Once the King has gone the royal Guard leaves too.

The parade has finished and the participants are very happy (I don't know if it is because everything went wellor just becasue it finished)

When it finished you can't imagine the traffic jam of cars to pick the VIP up.

Whith all these pictures I went in the evening to the most important newspaper of Malaysia (don't get too excited, this time I didn't sell anything) and there I was talking with the graphic editor. My pictures are ok but that's all, there is nothing that they didn't have yet. Anyway he was quite kind and willing to help. We were talking for a while about photography and he was showing me pictures from when he was in Afghanistan and Irak as press photographer. He also gave me the telephone number of one friend of him who is in charge of the photography department of a national press agency (like EFE or Ruters). I met this guy on Tuesday and we will meet again when I am back from Borneo.

So at least I got a couple of good contacts from that day, I am quite satisfied.


I hope you were not too bored with so many parade pictures.