With a new banner tied to the car, once again we made our way in the direction of KL but this time to Stadium Merdeka where KL International Tattoo was being held. We had to park our car at VI, a school that was of walking distance to the stadium.
On the way, we met a group or “Gerak Tempur” army practicing their self defense techniques. Being a black belt holder myself, I approached them and asked for their permission to take a few photos with them. The guys were not only delighted, they even invited me to strike a few self defense poses with them. Best of all, I even managed to get a short video clip that proved that this 35 years old still has got the “moves”!
I bought 2 tickets worth RM 20 for the two of us and made our way towards the stand facing the middle of the grand stand. There I met Mr. Arawi, the man who was in charged of the Malaysian Brass Band. Here I would like to apologize for not taking note of his rank in the arm forces. Mr. Arawi was co-ordinating the performance of his bag pipes students and when I took a few photos with them, Cris noticed that the image was being flashed on the big screen. She immedietly took a photo of it as I maintained my position. I was very happy as the same image was shown on all 3 big screens erected around the stadium. It lasted a few minutes but those were the few minutes that truly “introduced” me to all present, participants and spectators alike.
After that, taking photos with everyone became very easy. Most of the people present had seen me on the big screen so they even offered to have a picture taken with me before I could even ask. Things are looking brighter.
I asked the personnel there on how I could take photos with the participants and he told me that they were all stationed in the area behind the mock wall concealing the participants’ village from public view. He also told me that the area was off limit to the public. I thanked him and spent about half an hour thinking of a strategy to penetrate the “fort”. When I was studying, I actually took up an extra curriculum activity under “ROTU”, short for Reserve Officer Training Unit. Unfortunately, when I was transferred to another branch of the same collage, I was requested to change my curriculum to Tae Kwon-Do as there was a serious need for an instructor to coach the students for the upcoming inter collage sports meet. Reluctantly I gave up my days as a training army officer and coached the team to glory. My students did so well, they made me so proud. They not only won the individual medals, they even swept clean the team events. Kudos to them for giving their best.
OK, back to my earlier predicament. I suddenly got the idea that I thought will work and proceeded to inform Cris about it. She was speechless and all she gave me was a look of pure disbelieve. I told her that she could wait for me outside while I approached the “fort” on my own but she declined. Together we made our move and when we stopped by an officer guarding the gate, I told him exactly what I had rehersed earlier and surprisingly he waved us thru! Pure heaven! So into the fort we went and these are the few photos that we took until the camera's batteries gave out on us.
Unfortunately, by penetrating the fort, we missed out a lot of the performances that night. Thank heavens the show will continue on a nightly basis until the 9th. We made our way home with renewed determination to catch the full show on the closing night, 9th Sept. 2007.
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