The previous Saturday (18/07/09) was the Bon Odori festival held at Esplanade, Penang. Finally I went after 2 years of setbacks from broken promises and bad weather. The festival was great and the turn out was suprisingly many despite the A(H1N1) risk warning. Just goes to show our Penangnites' daring spirit.There was the usual dance, food (at unusual prices), drums, dance, dance, dance oh and did I mention dance? Food was more expensive than usual (MYR 7 for a chicken rice) but I guess it contributes to a good cause...at least I hope it does. After much observation I realised and I think the most profitable stall was the one selling flavoured shaved ice, for MYR 5 you get a cup with 2 flavours! (Whoopa-dee-doo). Both of my friends bought a cup each (lychee with honey dew and dragonfruit with something) and I got to taste test their purchase and to be honest, I could hardly make out the flavours except for lychee and it tasted even weirder as the ice melts and the flavours mixed. Other than that, there were stalls selling 'Yukata', photo booth, gold fish and not to mention Asahi! Which I found to be quite weird considering that it is considered to be a public event where there will be minors around but hey, I am not going to question the government's decision about that any further as I had my fun indulging although I found one of the stall helpers to be quite rude when asking for a smaller denomination. The following is a quote of what he said to me, "Hello, if everyone gives big notes then where are we going to find change?". I could accept the fact that he needed smaller denominations but I just dislike the tone that he used, even a dvd peddler would have better manners than that baboon.
Back to the filler of the festival; dancing which basically was like on loop the entire night except for some pretty interesting performances (forgotten what it was) and I missed the drums performance, other than that dancing seemed like it was pretty much it. There were 3 main dance sets, 2 of which performed to the tune of some Japanese songs and 1 to the tune of 'Rasa Sayang' and in all honesty, I hate Rasa Sayang now not because the dance spoiled the song, but I think they over played the song. Some might say that my statement is biased as the 2 other Japanese songs were played in a loop too but here is the thing, the Japanese songs has a theme and was mellow where as the Rasa Sayang was too loud and kind of pop-ish. Not surprising my 'self entertaining mechanism' started to kick in and the lyrics of the song changed in my head which I will share will you in a minute.
**Wait for 1 minute here**
(Sung to the tune of Rasa Sayang)
**
Lala fesyen, eh,
Lala fesyen fesyen eh,
Eh, lihat lala sana,
Lala fesyen fesyen eh.
*Sing whatever typical lyrics here* (Apparently there are several versions)
Repeat **
Which brings me to the next topic, Penangnites will never fail to amaze me with their sense of fashion as I saw many lalas and there was even cosplay by some. There is a time and place for everything but I guess some have failed to grasp the concept and I have nothing that I can add about the lalas just that they were the source of my amusement and so I dedicate the song to you all.
Found a video on Youtube that contains 2 of the 3 songs that I mentioned earlier that was played in loop (first 2 songs in the video).
There were also some interesting performances by our local institutions such as USM with this number known as Yosakoi genre and some high schools which did the Soran Bushi.
The highlight of the festitival was of course the fireworks which many of the Japanese companies in Penang sponsored and it was spectacular! It was suppose to come up at 2200 but it came on approximately 30 minutes earlier. I suppose they figured that the attendees were sick and tired of listening to the 3 songs and dance performed at least twice in a row over and over again. Anyways, I find the finale to be a rather emotional finale as I watched the fireworks display a brief flashback of my desire to watch it with the one I liked during the first Bon Odori festival I attended which was quickly wiped away with a smirk and a laugh.
And here are the rest of the few pictures that was taken, what Savannah dubs as Foong's and my hamsap pictures (cis, it is called photographic souvenirs ok Sav).
Foong's eye candy
My eye candy
The highlight of the festitival was of course the fireworks which many of the Japanese companies in Penang sponsored and it was spectacular! It was suppose to come up at 2200 but it came on approximately 30 minutes earlier. I suppose they figured that the attendees were sick and tired of listening to the 3 songs and dance performed at least twice in a row over and over again. Anyways, I find the finale to be a rather emotional finale as I watched the fireworks display a brief flashback of my desire to watch it with the one I liked during the first Bon Odori festival I attended which was quickly wiped away with a smirk and a laugh.
And here are the rest of the few pictures that was taken, what Savannah dubs as Foong's and my hamsap pictures (cis, it is called photographic souvenirs ok Sav).
Foong's eye candy
My eye candy
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