JANUARY 8

📍 CHINATOWN

Today we met all the students from Daesin, who were all very welcoming and lovely.

We then hopped on a bus to an urban farm, where the owner explained what he does, which is to produce food and dairy for those who are in poverty. He also teaches young people about agriculture.

The farm was very picturesque, with a variety of animals such as goats, dogs, peacocks, cows, herbal plants for medicine, flowers, vegetables, etc etc.

There were also two farm dogs who were very cute and loved the attention. One kept teasing the cows, which was very funny to witness.

There was a perfect spot with a bench where you could see the city view too. One lecturer described the area as the ‘Beverly Hills’ of Kuala Lumpur.

This was very true, as we saw a variety of stunning houses and condos. It was interesting that he chose this area.

He explained that it was important to have a farm in the city, as kids in KL have little knowledge about farming and gardening. He stated that the kids think that vegetables are grown at the shops.

The farmer told us that he has had eviction notices multiple times, as there have been noise and smell complaints, particularly being in an upper-class area.

He has said that he has taught his students to resist these issues.

After the farm, we went upstream, to the ‘River of Life,’ a historical landmark, that links the Klang and Gombak river together. In the middle, was a mosque, ‘Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad.’

I also bought food at the markets, I forgot what it was called, but it was plant-based and very delicious! I really liked the visuals of this particular vendor, with many witty vegetable-themed jokes.

This was one of the only plant-based restaurants I saw in KL, which was very cool!

We hopped on a bus to Chinatown where we visited RexKL, a space where artists display their work and hold events such as concerts and raves. The architecture was fascinating, as it looked like an old warehouse.

We visited the rest of the building, where there was a bookstore at the top, that appeared almost as a maze you could get lost in. I spent ages there, admiring all the books, signage, and art.

We then walked to our next location and we had no idea where we were going! We asked the Dasein students, and they didn’t know either! The walk was actually alright, as we saw a lot of interesting markets, local restaurants, and pretty buildings.

I then went into a stationery store called ana tomy, where you could build/make your own custom notebook. From there, I bought stickers and washi tape from an artist named Humana.

More photos from today:

The toilets in this building were a bit disgusting, yet cool at the same time. There were numerous stickers on the paper roll dispenser and so many rave posters on the walls leading to the toilet.

We then finally were at our destination, which was an array of art stores. This included a vinyl/cassette/CD store upstairs, named Tangdang, that sold music from wacky niche genres such as ‘Grindcore.’