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World's 2nd Largest Courts Complex, KLI spent New Year's Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, or KL, as is more popularly known here. We stayed with a friend who lived just 15 minutes (when there is no jam) outside KL town .
I love the architecture of KL city although the Malaysians often call their buildings "white elephants." Unabashedly ostentatious and usually built to beat world records, these buildings are often surreal in their details and definitely larger than life.
On the 1st day we arrived, right after dinner, our friend asked if we wanted to see the newest "white elephant". As we drove up the long driveway into the latest courthouse complex of Malaysia, I was astounded! My Maharaja's Palace!
The complex took 3 years to complete, sits on 12 hectares of land, has 500 car parks and cost RM290 million. Of course, I love it but not my friend who said the complex was so big that people could not find the toilets when they need to go and drivers parked their cars illegally along the driveway when they attended court, probably for their parking summonses.
Besieged with technical problems, the ceilings collapsed one week after the complex was completed for occupation. One month later, a pipe burst and flooded the canteen. Then the manhole overflowed and destroyed many court files. The manhole overflow was said to be "due to the indiscriminate disposal of sanitary napkins which could have been going on for some time."
World's Largest Presidential Palace
India's Rashtrapati Bhavan
Now if the KL Courts Complex is the 2nd largest, then which one is the 1st? Some people mistakenly thought it was the courthouse in India. After some research, I found out that India boasts the largest Presidential Palace or Rashtrapati Bhavan in the world. Not its courthouse, the honour of which belongs to the Palace of Justice, Brussels, Belgium, apparently a favourite of Hitler.
Nevertheless, do you see what I see? The similarities between all 3 buildings and the Mughal influence?
And so in order to live up to all its delusions of grandeur, and in celebration of its 1st year of construction, the Maharaja's Palace decreed that over a thousand stalks of flowers in varying blooms , hues and sizes be sent to all the people who had left a comment on the anniversary post, at least, friends whose mailing addresses are in the Palace's records and are not destroyed by manholes. (For the commentators not in our records, do send me an email if you wish).
To these friends, I hope you enjoy the blooms from the Palace Gardens. I believe it is the largest bouquet to be dispatched from a virtual palace in Singapore in the week before and after Xmas '09.
I love the architecture of KL city although the Malaysians often call their buildings "white elephants." Unabashedly ostentatious and usually built to beat world records, these buildings are often surreal in their details and definitely larger than life.
On the 1st day we arrived, right after dinner, our friend asked if we wanted to see the newest "white elephant". As we drove up the long driveway into the latest courthouse complex of Malaysia, I was astounded! My Maharaja's Palace!
The complex took 3 years to complete, sits on 12 hectares of land, has 500 car parks and cost RM290 million. Of course, I love it but not my friend who said the complex was so big that people could not find the toilets when they need to go and drivers parked their cars illegally along the driveway when they attended court, probably for their parking summonses.Besieged with technical problems, the ceilings collapsed one week after the complex was completed for occupation. One month later, a pipe burst and flooded the canteen. Then the manhole overflowed and destroyed many court files. The manhole overflow was said to be "due to the indiscriminate disposal of sanitary napkins which could have been going on for some time."
World's Largest Presidential Palace India's Rashtrapati Bhavan
Nevertheless, do you see what I see? The similarities between all 3 buildings and the Mughal influence?
And so in order to live up to all its delusions of grandeur, and in celebration of its 1st year of construction, the Maharaja's Palace decreed that over a thousand stalks of flowers in varying blooms , hues and sizes be sent to all the people who had left a comment on the anniversary post, at least, friends whose mailing addresses are in the Palace's records and are not destroyed by manholes. (For the commentators not in our records, do send me an email if you wish).To these friends, I hope you enjoy the blooms from the Palace Gardens. I believe it is the largest bouquet to be dispatched from a virtual palace in Singapore in the week before and after Xmas '09.
29 comments:
GRIN My favourites ones are the tiny roses and the colour variety GRIN
Refereing to the beginning of your post: The biggest is not always the best...
Thank you so much Susan!!
Ouch!!! that's ENORMOUS!!! but I'd really like to have a look at it. May be soon? welcome back Sans!and happy new year! Rosanna
I like Win's palace much better than the Malaysian courthouse, I hope it will be built some day too, perhaps in full scale? :-)
I hadn't heard the word manhole before and had to check it out in my dictionary, because what I thought it meant was even worse, ha, ha!
And I love getting flowers, maybe I should write you another mail soon :-)
Wow impressive. You are so lucky to have visited there...I'm jealous :-(
I must have missed you anniversary post...off to check it out now :-)
Wow - I can't believe how much that looks like the Palace! I love the white dome; is the Palace's dome going to be white, as well?
Those flowers are really pretty, as are the baskets. Did you get them recently? I feel like you might have posted about them, but I might be mixing them up with all your baskets of fruit, LOL!
Glad to hear you're having a good time in KL.
Hey Eva, love your new profile pic! Did you lose weight though? I envy you :).
I remembered you writing on one of my flower posts that you liked the chrysanthemums so I sent you those in many colours. With a fairy garden in mind as well. These flowers are very versatile. With a bit of different colours (you can paint some of them) they can be turned into peonies, water lilies etc etc.
I agree with you totally, biggest is not always the best but Malaysia is always into building the largest or tallest. They hold the world record for the biggest floor space for a mall or something like that. But Berjaya Time Square is always crowded and traffic is a nightmare so this trip we bypassed the mall.
Rosanna, it was really mega but the view as we drove in was truly magnificent especially for me since it really reminded me of my little palace.
While driving up to a fishing village, we passed by Jln Selanggor which is famous for their fireflies sighting. Tours with boat rides in the night are organised to rivers and home of thousands of fireflies and although I have never been on one, my friend said it was magical! I thought of you, Rosanna and what we can do when you are on your South East Asian Tour! For Malaysia, there's jungle , glorious beaches (Rawa/Trengganu) and hostorical towns like Malacca. It's all time time time :) and of course there's food, food, food.
My housemate will be travelling via Milan to visit Slovenia this year. I told him the only compelling reason for such a long flight for me will be Genoa ..lol!
Helene, I am trying to imagine your very terrible alternate meaning for "manhole" and it is not pretty..haha. Is it also stinky ? I am laughing as I type. Hilarious!!
As I was packing the flowers for you, I kept thinking how I hardly see flowers in your set-up. Plenty of vases though. I picked the smaller ones so that they will match your scale. I think I gave you enough to furnish a few households:). Yours were sent out quite early on, together with Mercedes, Rosanna, Eva etc. Cindy who's in Singapore was the 1st to get 'em (of course) although hers were the later batch -had to email her for addy. I know Merce and Eva have received them. You?
^ ^ I was so happy to receive them! as you know, i can and have made mini polymer clay roses, but after seeing the ones you sent me, i thought, "Why bother?" XD
am in the midst of clearing up my area and have plans to use them in small displays so...watch out for them soon ;)
and wow, talk about a stinking disaster, eh?
:X
Hey Jayne darling, have just emailed you :). Can't wait to read all about that new house of yours. If I am moving, I doubt that I will be able to catch up with anyone. I will either be too busy or too tired.
In Malaysia, we drive for miles just to eat the best this or that. We were so tired from the trip, I had to be dragged out for grocery shopping on Sunday ..lol!
Belle! You were one of those missing records case :).
The picture with the white palace is mine. It is my sis' SuZ's impression of how my Maharaja's Palace will eventually look like. This is the picture I brought to India when I was looking for an artisan there to build it for me ..lol! I was in the wrong part of India of course. Hopefully this year, I will go to the right part, Rajasthan.
If I have my way,my palace will look exactly like SuZ's rendering.
I have made at least 3 posts on flowers. These last batch which I have sent out were bought in Thailand on my last trip there specifically with some of you in mind. These flowers were similar but not identical with the ones "sold" at the Tallulah's flower stall.
I think all beautiful homes should have flowers. And you can never go too wrong when you gift them :)
Cindy, one of my fav minis are flowers. I just want to put them on everything. Even all the external walls of my tent.
My 1st mini flowers were clay. Bought them at a beads shop at People's Park Complex. I was thrilled then. Then I found artisans making flowers with papers and I tell you, after that. you don't really want to go back t clay again because the paper ones are more realistic. The ones I bought from Chatuchak are all handmade, as I was told but probably with paper punch or something. I just love them.
Your photos are beautiful and I am dying to see what you do with the flowers :)
Hi Sans, I sent you again the mails which I wrote the 29th Dec and in January. Hopefully you'll be able to read them. If not, write to me and i'll try again. May be they are on the spam folder.... I cannot understand why mailing becomes difficult from time to time. BTW Your Palace will be the best in all times!! Rosanna
I have just emailed you, Rosanna. I used Mozilla and it does not have a junk folder. Maybe I will check on the gmail website!
But thank you for your comment on my palace :). You know, I have such high expectations of my palace that I am afraid to start and be disappointed with the end results.
Sans, don't fret about starting, the way i see it, it never ends! LOL! enjoy the process, and from what I've seen, you're already enjoying it immensely, and since it's a labour of love i highly doubt you'd be disappointed :) don't worry ok, you have a uhhh what's the 'proper' term for quality check person thingamajob? haha.
yea, i was REALLY pleased to get them as i wanted to dress up my displays and the easiest way would be to add a few blooms, which i dreaded making. some clay flowers are gorgeous but yea, it's hard to beat the paper/silk ones in terms of realism and durability.
i can't wait to start on the floral project either, i just need to get all these appointments out of the way! > <
Cindy, you are absolutely right! It's the journey and yes, I have so many people around me who can help me with QS- quality survey? Is that the term you are looking for? And you will be one of them, yes?
Dearest Susan,
Your bouquet and letter arrived yesterday. They are so pretty, and I have already thought of the perfect way to use them in my dollhouse. I am hoping to add a garden, and these would be perfect additions to the rose garden. I guess Maya must have told you that my Dev likes roses... :)
oh Sans, that will be such a fun job, bossing people around (you) like i tend to. just ask my brothers and bf how much of a control freak i am.
XD
JOKING! HA! ok i -am- a control freak, but yea QC (quality control) would be important, then again, we're not robots. i find beauty and realism in dollhouses lie in the tiny imperfections that mirror real life objects ^ ^
i really should get some more stuff done. but i'm TIRED *whines*
Ahhhhh, Maya misses Devi by the way. Tara and her are not talking again! I nearly gave you plants, Sumaiya cos I read log ago how you grew real plants in your dollhouses. But how does one compete with real plants? I am glad I sent the bouquet instead.
I am so glad you finally got something from me, Sumaiya :).
Sans, Morticial is so excited for the flowers she has received from the palace. Since I am taking so darn long on the mansion she is glad she as something to occupy her time! She'll be searching for vases non-stop now! Thank you again so much for the wonderful gift! Thanks for sharing your experiences with these buildings with us! So sad to hear about the one falling in on itself! I hope its fixed quickly! Hugs, Ara and Morticia :)
OMG, its QC of course, not QS which is for quantity surveyor , whatever that means ..lol! Cindy, you have sure got me confused! I think if miniaturists are not control freaks, then maybe they won't make masterpieces? So control away, Cindy, but don't let that blood pressure burst!
Ara, I have to tell you, those roses were bought with you in mind on my 2nd trip. When I went back the 3rd time, they don't have those anymore. I am glad I bought enough to keep some for myself :). Tara sends her love and kisses to Morticia & the rest of the Addamses. She said "finally, the telepathy worked and the flowers reached her"!
Hey you
I emailed you back...hope you got this one :-)
Hi Sans, I just remembered about the good source for photos: Google and LIFE magazine made an agreement to open the photo archive (from 1750s to today). Here's the link - http://images.google.com/hosted/life . It's not much, you can look for "India" or "India shops" or anything you're interested in, there maybe some good pics. If I'll remember something like this archive I'll let you know.
Jayne, I have emailed you back 2 days ago. Been so busy and guess what? Today I went to Little India and bought a book called "Living In Morocco" to get some inspiration.lol.
Look forward to seeing development in Bedroom 2 of your new house :).
Victoria, I can't thank you enough for the link! It's amazing and I have created a link list to include the Life Magazine's collection.
The others came from Sumaiya's Garfield blog. Thank you both ! They are priceless research material.
I think, I am caught up with you now, Sans. :)
Thank you so much for the flowers. I've already made two projects with them and I'm trying to figure what I want to do next with them. :) I blogged about it, of course. ;)
That was very generous and kind of you to send those blooms all over the world.
I seem to share your taste in buildings. They all look so grand! :)
Dale dear, do what you wish with the blooms. They are yours to dispose as you fancy, in whatever way. Etsy it if you want. I mean it! :):) The pleasure is always in the giving. ;)
Did you see them? LOL ;)
I want to go to KL, as soon as I look at the globe and locate it. ;)
The real trouble with meeting people around the world is that, then, you want to go visit there! :)
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