Flowers, flowers...

Greetings!

The next day after my finals, I went to Monash to visit the Global Village managed by the AIESECers. It was actually a 2-days event. As I've once joined Global Village during my exchange, I was curious as to how others organised their Global Village. It was quite a huge event I would say, seeing how they advertise it everyday in Facebook. For those who do not know, the purpose of Global Village is to showcase different countries' culture.

The grand view

They made it like a station game. It has 8 stations which represents 8 countries, namely China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Poland, Egypt and Morocco. Players have to register themselves in a counter where they collect their "passport" and "flying ticket". 

Then, like any other station games, players have to go to every station to complete the missions. There are stations where we need to guess the tea name, drawing henna, painting Easter egg and so on. 

My first henna

After completing a mission, players will receive a stamp and after collecting all the stamp, players were given a chance to spin the spinning wheel. My sister got 2  free movie tickets and, for me, a sweet pack. 

After this, me and my sister, together with her boyfriend and my friend went to attend a long-awaited event - Light Sensation. It is basically to see a display of 30000 light up white rose.

The entrance ticket costs RM 20 per person. Since we bought it in 7-eleven before 6th of September, it costs only RM 16. It is located in MAEPS, Serdang and this event will last till 17th of September. 

It took us about 30 minutes by car from USJ 14 and it is located inside MARDI - Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute. Thus, besides fake flowers, you can take this chance to enjoy real plantations, such as herbs, fruits and so on. Since the doors are not locked and there is no "No Entrance" sign, I supposed it is open to public. For plant lover, this is definitely a chance not to be missed. It took us quite a while to reach the main entrance of the event by car.

The entrance

Around 5 pm, we started to queue up to get the entrance band. At around this time, there was a guy that approached the visitors. Someone called him Dato', so let's call him Dato' for now. So, Dato' approached the visitors and told us that he needs volunteers from the public to join in a special event that they had with Inti students. That was, they wanted to create a new Guinness World record of lighting up the most LED. He said that it is a meaningful event as they are going to light up 708 LED, which symbolises the number of months Malaysia becomes independent since Malaysia's Independence Day, ie 59th x 12 months. In return for joining the event, the tickets will be refunded. Since Dato' also said that the roses will only be lit up after the event finishes, we decided to join in the event.

Little do I know that this event turns into a waiting game. We were gathered in an area and were told not to go anywhere. So, we did. After we received a water bottle from them, we were brought to another waiting area for a very short briefing. As we had to wait for the Inti students to arrive, I asked if we could enjoy the flowers first. And, "no" was the answer. So, we waited.

Waiting area

At around 6pm, I could only see a few lines of Inti students. Each line has 50 people and public volunteers filled up a line. We were told that the event started at 7.30pm. But, you know our country's style, Malaysians are hardly on time (and I never get used to it). During this time, I thought of slipping away to enjoy the flowers but we were under "surveillance". There's nothing to do but to wait. Luckily, I had with me my friend and my sister, if not I would have bored till death. Now, you know why it is a waiting game. 

At around 8 pm, the event started. We were given a LED rose and we did some testing. Instructions were given and a round of rehearsal was done. What we had to do was to light up the LED one after another, like an electric circuit. Failure to light up the LED in 5 seconds or if the light turn off in the middle, it is consider a failure. We were given 3 chances. Before the event started and before they yelled at us to keep all our phones and camera, I got to take a picture of the beautiful white rose. 

After a fail attempt, we gave it a second attempt and we succeeded. We created a new Guinness World record!! Everyone cheered. Although I was really nervous then as I was afraid that I might fail them, but to be very honest, besides feeling relief and super tired, I didn't feel proud at all, maybe because I wasn't feeling the accomplishment. 

The moment of success

With the end of the event, we were dismissed and the Inti students were immediately sent home without having a chance to enjoy the lit up flowers. I pitied them as I still saw them waiting for the bus when we were leaving. We were told to wait until all the students have dismissed to collect our refunds. Me and my sister, however, chose not to refund it as we did not have a chance to see the non-lit up flowers. So, we decided to go again the next day, which we did. After collecting the refunds, the public proceeded to enjoy the flowers. There were long queue in the photo taking area. It was free for one day, but not for the next day we came. As the crowd was huge, we did not stay for long. Thankfully, the next day, the crowd was far less and we get to enjoyed it. Now, let's enjoy the beautiful flowers.

A panorama view of the flowers. It's a flower in a flower

Just right after it was lit

Flowers and sky, what could I ask for more?

The two most beautiful things that do not last for long

My favourite

There is also a night market which sells loads of food. Surprisingly, there are more Japanese and Korean food than Malaysian food and there are some really interesting food here. These are some of the food that we bought.

It is the infamous nitrogen food that is said to be able to imitate a dragon blowing "hot steam" from its nostril. My sister's boyfriend bought it for us to try as he said it will be good experience trying it. Originally, I thought they gave us chocolate ice cream. To my disappointment, it was only a chocolate biscuit. It would have been perfect if it was an ice cream. However, it was really fun to play with. If I remembered correctly, it costs RM 15. An amazing price for an unforgettable experience. 

We also got to try this amazingly fresh watermelon juice, which is blended right on spot. A perfect "drink" for a hot day. Again, it costs RM 15.

The inside? It looks like this, which made it really hard to finish everything.  

Hope it does not ruin your fun reading this post XP

For your information, the parking is free before 5 pm and it costs RM 10 after 5 pm. We did not know about this. So, for the second day, we ended up paying RM 10, which I complaint for the whole day. I supposed the rent is really expensive. After we parked our car, we saw some people taking a bus up. So, I recommend those who do not want to pay the unreasonable parking price, to park in the area where the buses are and take the bus (maybe the bus ride is for free or maybe they are cheaper than the parking). 

I guess that's all about it. Hope you enjoy this post and see you in the next post!