Matthias Virassamy Mpu3343 Culture & Lifestyle IN Malaysia.

To close these 7 weeks of discovering the culture in Malaysia, I will finish with a last post about the city of Melaka.
Melaka is a must-see city in Malaysia, you absolutely have to go there. I went one weekend with my friends. The city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A river crosses the city lined with small houses. Melaka was conquered by the Portuguese and then British. This has obviously left some traces, including a small district where all buildings are painted the same red. This city is also endowed with a great Chinese inspiration but there is also an Indian district, the Little India.
Multiple Asian and European influences have given the city a unique multicultural identity that manifests itself in material and immaterial heritage. With its buildings, churches, squares and fortress, Melaka presents the early phases of its history beginning with the Malay Sultanate in the 15th century and the Portuguese and Dutch periods that began in the early 16th century. Melaka is a historic colonial city on the Straits of Malacca that has endured a succession of historical events, mostly related to its former function as a trading port linking the East and the West. It reflects the meeting of cultural elements from the Malay Archipelago, India, China and Europe.
My first impression was strong, I find the city beautiful and I was surprised as my visit progressed.
I loved this city, for food lovers like me, it is paradise, you will find your happiness. There is a variety of food for all tastes. This city is full of good things at low prices and for that you have to go to the Night Market at Jonker Street which is very famous.
It is a huge market crowded with various foods. At the entrance, there is a huge illuminated tiger statue that I find very beautiful.
In Melaka, I liked to visit the mosque that I talked about but also the River Cruise on which I went by boat. Along the river was illuminated by purple neon lights. The city is very bright at night as well as during the day thanks to the colors of the buildings, I loved to walk there at night to admire the colored lights and enjoy the atmosphere. I also ate at a restaurant along the river that offered an affordable, good quality menu with a peaceful environment and view.
I really enjoyed this trip.

Through this project, I have tried to share with you all the beauty of the culture in Malaysia and I hope I have made you want to travel to this fabulous country. I also hope that I have shared with you my love for Kuala Lumpur and hope that you will love this city as much as I do.

Thank you for following me and see you soon ! 🍤

Hi everyone !

Today for this week of discovery, I'm going to talk about Ramadan. Malaysia is a country where diversity of culture is present and a large part of the population is doing Ramadan.
Ramadan is the "holy month" in the Muslim religion because it is the month of fasting and contains Laylat al-Qadr. Fasting in the month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam. During this month, Muslims, meaning adults and children who have reached puberty according to the currents of Islam, must not eat, drink, or have sexual relations from dawn until sunset. Ramadan is considered the "month of charity" because when it ends, the worshipper must pay alms, the zakat al-fitr. The name Ramadan was given to the ninth month of the lunar calendar in the Arab world long before the advent of Islam, which refers to the extreme heat of summer. It is also the month in which many other important events in Islamic history are commemorated. Ramadan lasts 29 to 30 days and the end of the fasting period is celebrated with the festival of Eid.

After visiting a Chinese temple last week, I had the opportunity to visit a mosque during a weekend with friends in Melaka. Masjid Selat Melaka Mosque is a mosque that was opened on November 24, 2006 by the supreme ruler of Malaysia Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail and was built with a cost of about 10 MYR million. It is a completely different architectural style from the Chinese temple but I found it equally beautiful since it is built on stilts on the water.
I had never had the opportunity to visit a mosque even if it is not missing in France. In France and particularly in Nantes, there are several mosques but they are not touristy and do not have such a beautiful architecture. I was able to go inside and visit it.
During this visit, I could hear the call to prayer for the first day of Ramadan and it was a very significant moment.

I wish all Muslims who are doing Ramadan this year well.
See you next week for the last post ! ☪️

Hi everyone,

This week, I'm going to tell you about the Thean Hou temple, the Temple of the Goddess of Heaven located in Kuala Lumpur. It is a beautiful Chinese temple with bright colors, red, green, gold, white and richly decorated. You can see columns and sculptures of Chinese inspiration and other beautiful ornaments. At this level, you can also admire a breathtaking view: in front of the temple, the skyline of Kuala Lumpur with in the distance, the KL Tower that stands out, accompanied by the two Petronas Towers.
At the time of the Chinese New Year - the Tet festival - many animations take place inside the temple: theater, singing, dancing and handicraft take over the place.
When I arrived at the place, I found it incredible, it was the first time I visited a Chinese temple. I had never had the opportunity to see one before and this diversity of culture in Kuala Lumpur made me travel to Beijing in China in an instant.
This temple is very famous for hosting weddings and probably also for photo shooting because it's an ideal place for that. Thean Hou Temple is a six-level temple of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was completed in 1987 and officially opened in 1989.
Usually I go to Indian temples more often when I visit my family in India and the common thing I found was the construction work, that is the materials and the roofs are very elaborate and there is a lot of detail. It allowed me to discover a new kind of Asian temple. It is a beautiful discovery and it is a must visit for all the tourists who come to discover Kuala Lumpur.
Although it is a bit out of the way, it is really worth seeing and offers a very nice view of the city!

See you next week, take care friends! ⛩️

Hello everyone !

This week I was able to discover the wedding culture in Malaysia, especially the Chinese wedding.
Traditionally, Chinese weddings are very different from Western weddings, even in terms of colors. Red plays an essential role in Chinese weddings, as this color is associated with success, loyalty, honor, fertility and love. Traditional Chinese marriage is a ceremonial ritual within Chinese societies that involves not only a union between spouses, but also a union between the two families of a man and a woman, sometimes established by pre-arrangement between the families.
Marriage is very important in Chinese culture and according to Chinese tradition, a man or woman should not marry a person from a different social environment because this will cause problems for the future of the couple.
Despite the attachment to traditional ceremonies and cultures, Chinese marriage is becoming more and more westernized due to the opening of the country. Indeed, many couples dress in smocking and white as in the West and organize a big ceremony.
Finally, the traditional wedding has completely disappeared in modern China, but still exists in rural China and among some minorities. The traditional Chinese wedding is done in 6 steps, the first step is the proposal, then follows the engagement, the removal of the bride from her parents' home, the religious wedding, the wedding festivities and finally, the wedding night. The festivities usually last two to three days.
During my visit to Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, I was able to attend a wedding. This temple is known to host many wedding ceremonies. It is a beautiful red Chinese temple but I will have the opportunity to elaborate more on this temple in next week's post.

I leave the suspense to next week for the discovery of this temple aha.
Have a great week ! 👩❤️👨

Hello everyone !
During this fourth week, I discovered Batu Seremban.
Batu Seremban is a traditional game played in Malaysia, it refers to the West coast of Malaysia where the game was brought to Singapore from, whereas on the East coast of Malaysia, the game is known as Batu Serembat. In the past, players used to substitute today’s pyramid-shaped cloth bags of sand or rice with actual stones or seeds.
The game of five stones is believed to have originated in Ancient Asia, during the Siege of Troy in 1184 BC. Played sitting down, the game that involves a complete set of eight steps, has been said to improve eye sight, memory, and concentration..
It's a classic game that children love but it can be played at any age. It can be played by 2 to 5 players and requires 5 small cloth bags. The cloth bags can contain small stones, pieces of fruit or rubber...

This game brought back memories of my childhood, I was surprised to discover that I already played it as a child with my family at the beach without knowing that it was a traditional Malaysian game. My parents taught me how to play it because they played this game in India as a child.
The principle is simple, you just have to throw a stone or an object and catch it. During the time left to the object in levitation, you have to catch the 4 other objects left on the ground before catching the one in the air.
This game is declined in 5 levels of different difficulties and allows to develop the ability, the reflexes and the speed of the children.
I already liked this game a lot when I was a child, it is fun and I was very happy to play it again while I was traveling in Malaysia.

See you next week for a new discovery. 🪨

Hello guys !
The theme of this third week is the discovery of Malaysian culinary specialties.
I chose to discover the Roti canai which is a traditional Malaysian recipe from South India.
It has been modified and made famous by the Mamak, the Indian Muslims of Malaysia.
Roti is the Urdu, Malay and Indonesian word for bread. The word canai may refer to the name of the city of Chennai, formerly Madras, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu in South India, to the preparation of channa, a chickpea-based dish cooked in a spicy sauce originating in India, where this type of bread is traditionally served, or more simply to the word canai which, in Malay, means "to roll out thinly" (the dough) or "to knead".
The roti canai is to Southeast Asia what the butter croissant is to French and Austrian cuisine or the Molfetta to Moroccan cuisine, similar because of the layers of greased dough. The roti canai consists of a dough made of wheat flour, egg and water, which, after several hours of rest, is worked with a large amount of fat.
When tasted, the roti canai is soft inside and crispy outside. It is flaky and can be eaten with a sauce on the side.
I enjoyed this tasting, the dough was good and I prepared it in the pan. I had already seen this specialty in a restaurant and the smell had charmed me and made me want to taste it. The inside surprised me I thought it would be crispy but it is soft and comes to soften the flaky and crispy outside. The taste can be compared to a quiche dough for example and goes perfectly with a sauce in which it can be dipped.
I invite you all to taste this Malaysian specialty. 🍽️

Hello everyone !
This week I had the opportunity to participate in a Batik workshop with my friends.

The origins of batik go back a little over a thousand years, and this printing technique, using "thrift", is found in many communities in West Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
This form of textile painting reaches its peak in Javanese batik, the most elaborate of all. The places of manufacture still very artisanal are in Java, where we differentiate two great styles:
- The royal cities of Solo, Yogyakarta and Banyumas in
the center of the island;
- The northern coast or Pasisir, represented in
particular by Cirebon, Pekalongan and Lasem.
In Indonesia, outside Java, we find the styles of Jambi and Palembang, two regions that have historically been influenced by Javanese.
Malaysian batik differs from Indonesian batik by having a more simple style and designs covering larger areas of fabric.
This technique was also used a lot during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco period in Europe, especially with Madame Pangon.
The technique is still used today by contemporary artists and visual artists or for demonstration to tourists

The canting, which is the drawing instrument, is a kind of pen that I was not familiar with at the beginning because it is not common in Europe.
But as the workshop progressed I learned to use this typical Indonesian painting tool, it has a good grip and is easy to use.
Thanks to the canting, a delimitation is made on the lines of the drawing so that the filling is easier and that the colors do not mix. The coloring of the drawing is very pleasant since it is a painting on fabric, also atypical support changing with the traditional canvases.
For my first painting, I chose the KL Tower as a model. I am very attached to it because it is the view I have from the window of my apartment. At night it lights up and I wanted to represent it in this perspective.
As for the workshop, the place is warm, authentic and peaceful. It is a place where we can let our imagination and creative spirit run free which is very stimulating.
Kuala Lumpur has seen the birth of a true artist in this workshop and I can't wait to return.

Thanks to Alexis, Amine and Yao for sharing this activity with me.

See you soon 🎨

~My encounter with the dragon fruit~

Hello everyone,
Welcome to my new page where you can follow my adventures in Kuala Lumpur for the next 6 months.

Today, I wanted to try a new culinary experience, here it is not what is missing aha because Kuala Lumpur enjoys a real culinary diversity. There are exotic fruits like the dragon fruit. This fruit is mysterious and colorful, emblematic of Asian exoticism, I was curious to taste it since I had heard about it and I find it very beautiful.

There are 3 varieties of dragon fruit but I was only interested in the Pitaya which is the pink dragon fruit. The dragon fruit is not from Asia at all, but from Central America ! This plant initially developed in the dry areas with low rainfall in southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. If in the common imagination, the dragon fruit is an Asian fruit, it is because it was introduced in the 19th century in Vietnam by French colonists: this atypical fruit was then the preserve of the Vietnamese royal family, before winning little by little the local bourgeoisie. The cultivation of the dragon fruit then became more and more important in this country, to the point of becoming the first export product of Vietnam, becoming very popular and very consumed in all Southeast Asia.
Moreover, this name of "dragon fruit" is the one given by the Vietnamese to this fruit whose plant reminds the sinewy dance of the dragon, a mythological creature very present in the Asian culture. Its original name, Pitaya, almost unknown in France, comes from the endemic location of this fruit, Central America, and means "scaly fruit" in the Amerindian language.

Coming back to my tasting, I was intrigued by the scaly aspect of its envelope who is very easy to remove. You have to cut the two ends and you discover the fruit inside, which to my great surprise was not white but red.
At the tasting, I appreciated the center of the fruit, more I approached the center more I could feel the sugar and the juice in my mouth but also a lege acidulous side. However, the extremities are less sweet and have less taste, I do not know if it is related to my choice of fruit or if it is the case for all.
All the exoticism of the dragon fruit made me think of Japan by its color and its shape but also by its name.
I think I will eat it again in the future in Kualla Lumpur, the dragon fruit could become a fruit that I consume daily. The pitaya is a fruit rich in vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants and minerals. It is very low in calories, which is why it is used in some diets.

See you soon 🐉