Pesta Tanglung (Malay : Lantern Fest)

We never used to take note of such events, but since we have Zara now and would like to expose her to as much as we could, we spotted a banner around KL the other day about this Lantern Fest in Central Market happening on Sept 30th.

While dressing Zara up, she asked for her jeans to wear. When I took out the jeans we bought recently, she said, "Don't want this one. Not nice. Want the flower one. The button got flowers one.".. So she chose what she wore.

Off we went to KL town. Firstly, a stop at Lakes Gardens (yet again) to feed the monkeys and a round of play in the huge play ground.

While feeding the monkeys, one of the monkey touched Zara's hands while trying to reach out for the peanut. She immediately said, "Don't yike (like) monkey touch Zara. Go home (asking us to bring her home)! Don't want feed monkeys any more!" (Recently, although she likes animals still, she prefers not to touch them or let them touch her except the cat in our house.) We finished throwing the last bit of peanuts from the open pack (with Daddy carrying Zara), and then left for the play ground.

She greeted the 'friendly' dinosaur first. Then it was off to the ginger bread man bridge. She loved the swing there. She said the see-saw is better than the one from our park.

When it got dark we headed to Central Market and had a quick bite at the food court. The Lantern Fest was at the Central Market car park. They were giving out free paper lanterns, goodie packs with drinks and mooncake (but we didn't take it since we don't really fancy mooncakes). There was a lantern making contest, and the lanterns were hung in Central Market itself for every one to view and judge. There was also a stage put up for some cultural performance.

While some VIPs were making speeches, we just explored the surrounding. We found out there was going to be a lion dance, and a lantern procession.

Touching the Lion's head, she only wanted to touch the head with her straw. Exploring while waiting for the speeches to be completed.

We even managed to see a Dragon Dance, something not as common as the Lion Dance. It was quite nicely done (with the dragon twirling, twisting, flipping about chasing after a ball), and our very first experience seeing one.

Lantern procession (the photos didn't turn out quite well). Dragon and Lio Dance.

We left when an elderly lady took on the stage to sing some Chinese oldies. :P