Citrawarna Is Indeed All it's Hyped Up To Be

The main event was last night..Citrawarna,the Colours of Malaysia, the big shindig that the Tourism board brought us all here to see. It did not disappoint, beginning with the resplendent arrival of the King and Queen themselves. Alighting from the Royal float, festively decorated in yellow, the king, a short balding man dressed in regal yellow robes, smiling at his subjects, being photographed by a phalanx of video and digital cameras, made his way to his big yellow easy chair on the stage. The show began and it was a crescendo of fireworks, a joyful cacaphony of deafening blasts boom boom boom from the pyrotechnics....there were thousands of dancers dressed in wild outfits. And beauty queens perched on floats.

Each of the nine provinces of Malaysia had a chance to show off native dances...I remember Sabah did one dance involving putting down these 6' wooden poles tapping them together and then they would jump in and out between them. Then men and women dressed as horses clashed in a fictional battle, and as far as the eye could see were thousands more dancers coming up to show the King and the rest of us how they could dance and shout. The music was piped in and huge Jumbotrons showed scenes of places like Sarawak, pristine beaches, and remote mountainsides on the screens as the music boomed and dancers grinned.

It was more spectacular than any blog can do it justice, and the dancers kept coming in wave after wave. Amazing! Today we fly to the eastern side of the peninsula, hoping that today we can dip ourselves in the ocean. At 10 pm last night it was 85 and humid, so we need a soak in the sea. Today more miso and seaweed to get me going!