244. SEREMBAN

The drive from Singapore takes about 3 1/2 hours with one or 2 brief stops at pitstops.

The accommodation was this retirement village - nice place, fairly new, well-kept...looking for support from the Singaporeans to retire here or as their 'hotel' of choice...

There's nothing for me to do here, I don't sing karaoke, I don't play mahjong or board games, I can't read the whole day, I can't soak in the pool day and night so what better opportunity to use this as my base to take in a day's sightseeing of Seremban town...

The surroundings - much thought went into its design with loads of space for wheelchairs...

Their dining area is open to non residents who may come in for a bite...the private areas have enough security in place to prevent non-resident intruders...

View from the rooftop terrace where there's a bar and karaoke...city lights in the distance, residential homes at the foot of this Village which is up an incline. It's location is a little secluded so not convenient to go into town unless there's wheels. They do provide a shuttle service into town...

I've tasted better. Still can't beat the roadside shops or those that operate from a cart - complete with flies...

Local markets are actually very interesting places. I've visited many but never tire of a walk through, be it in Malaysia or anywhere else in the world. 

The wet market is at street level, the upper floor is cooked food and dry goods and merchandise, same set-up as elsewhere, some goods are a little different. Some towns or states may produce their own unique local cakes or breads - Seremban has her own baked pastry bun with either a pork or chicken filling. I do prefer the ones produced in a pitstop in Johor State, Yong Peng...

They have a noticeable large number of older residents - the young ones are at work likely in the big cities where the jobs are...

While waiting for the moolah to come in to rebuild conserved or heritage structures, the cheapest, effective way to spruce them up is a coat of paint...works everywhere, works every time...

Waiting for a creative spark to paint a mural on this canvas...

The exterior may look retro but the inside is fairly newish with trendy cafes, wide corridors...had lunch followed by coffee at a small trendy looking joint run by fresh faced youngsters who look like carbon copies of k-pop boys...

I can understand why so very many young Malaysian ethnic Chinese and Indian males and females move to Singapore for work. The mall was really quiet. The footfall does not warrant big salaries, the staff just get by. They may move to larger cities like Kuala Lumpur, Johor Baru or Penang and Malacca where there's tourists but I doubt they get a lot more pay, just that they get jobs. These young people have dreams and ambitions too - they want their own homes one day, they may want to settle down, set up their own business, pursue higher education, skills training, the rest of it.

There's several hundred thousands working in Singapore, they are competing with Vietnamese young people who have the same dreams and ambitions...all have one thing in common - they are lean and hungry...they work hard.

Checked out some interesting looking old buildings along the route, chiefly British colonial government buildings which are now used by local government agencies....such large solid buildings in Singapore are now museums and the National Gallery. There're full of character...

The Negri Sembilan museum has a Minangkabau style architecture with typical buffalo horned roofs. The Minangkabau tribe's influence is strong in this state of Negri Sembilan. It could be due to its proximity to the huge Indonesian island of Sumatra, just across the narrow Straits of Melaka...

There's a good number of such buildings in Sumatra. Some private homes that are quite small will still incorporate such roofs to proudly show their Minangkabau roots. I've had the good fortune to watch builders at work on the roofs - using bare hands and barefooted, they skillfully fold and weave the roof into this horn shape structure. 

N9 is Negri Sembilan but this is not the 9th state of Malaysia...there's 13 states in the Federation of Malaysia...

Displays are within the Museum grounds...

The name drew me in - Church of the Visitation, 1848

Has a Minangkabau look too - nice local touch!

I offer thanks that I'm there in Seremban and inside this house of worship. As mentioned in an earlier post, I offer thanks at every house of worship I step into - be it a mosque, any temples, any shrine, any church, any synagogue, any Sikh gurdwara...

It's the first time I come across a grotto with 2 images of what looks like the Mother Mary, the female Yin energy...The other image is Kuan Yin and it's my first time seeing her cloaked in a fabric gown! It's interesting, every culture has their interpretations - in Vietnam, images of the Mother Mary depicts her wearing their traditional woman's ao-dai...in India it can be a sari...

Another thing that never fail to catch my eye - trees/plants/flowers. They may be cut off and left for dead but with rain and sun, new life sprouts. Even with a dried up trunk, obviously dead, there's life in it - mosses, lichen, fungus, small insects and all manner of creepy crawlies make a home in that trunk, under it or inside of it. Life supports Life - always - Mother Nature loves and nurtures all life forms that live on her organic, ever-changing body that's a living, breathing organism...

The green and yellow leaves make this palette quite beautiful in the bright sunshine. Kitsch has become an art form and it's most obvious in newer Taoist temples where everything and every figure including those from fables are included...! 

The centipede temple (Then Sze Koon) The gimmick here is centipedes, one will be hard pressed to come across any...

At this Sri Bala Hindu Temple, this caught my eye - it's something new to me - the volunteers had prepared offerings of fennel seeds and other seeds placed into those shells for a festival the next day...the temple itself is a typical South Indian one with their pantheon of gods...

The ubiquitous street art, you'll see this everywhere now in many countries. It makes the town interesting, all you need is a coat of paint to make a street light up, allow passionate artists to let their imagination take flight and viola! A tourist attraction! Some art are really good ones.

Downtown Seremban has a whole lane dedicated to street art - Lorong Seni...

Paint rollers make good displays - another brilliant installation!

Using the pipes already in place, the artist painted them as the stalks of this plant - love it!

3D art! That's a real pole I'm holding on to!

This bustop is so jazzy cool!

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The pool at the Village is nice but I can only spend so much time there, enjoying a coffee, read the mobile, maybe a book, by night it's lovely - but every day?