week seven: a pewterly day.

hello hello. today, i attended the school of hard knocks. this is actually a tour of the royal selangor factory here in KL, which ends with you smashing out your very own pewter bowl. i learned many things, but as per usual, i like to speak with pictures versus my words.



this is actually outside my apartment this morning. considering the early hour, this is unusual traffic for a saturday. the reason is that there is a large political demonstration downtown today, so the police cut off the roads. it's supposedly crazy bananas out there, so aside from my tour today, i am not leaving my apartment surroundings (except for the pool and the gym, obvs).



our time at the factory started with a guided tour. our guide was the granddaughter of one of the original pewter-pounders (this is what i think they should be called), so she was very knowledgable. obviously. these little animals were once used as currency, says she! i would love to pay with a little elephant.



this is she, and on the right is one of the original teapots made by her grandfather. she said that during "the war," a man leaned down to pick up the teapot when a bomb went off close by, and a piece of shrapnel flew past where his head would have been had he not been leaning down for the teapot. for that reason, he kept the teapot as it saved his life! many years later he asked the factory to fix it up, when they looked at the bottom and noticed it was stamped by her grandfather. they asked if he would sell it to them, and initially he did not, because it was his lucky teapot! as he got older, he decided to sell it to the factory as he knew they would take proper care of it. i thought that was very neat.



this is a pattern for a beer mug!



these are the chinese characters that make up the stamp that her grandfather used.



i learned the oscars are actually gold-painted pewter! also they made special coin-things for NASA. timely considering the recent final flight of the discovery!



there was a large wall of frames they have used over the years.



and provided 100 plus, a sports drink sold around here, originating in singapore. she said pewter keeps the drinks cold. you cannot argue when it came from a cold bottle.



the factory!



it is really amazing to see everything done totally by hand. and so perfectly!



the money tree is supposed to bring you good fortunes. i did not invest in one.



finally! the pewter-pounding! this is what we started with.



these were little stamps so you can pound your initials into the bottom of your bowl. i did my name, but you know. the directions on the wall said initials.



demonstrating for us.



photographic evidence i did this on my own, thank you.



my finished product!

now, for the gift shop. it was full of interesting things. some of my favorites being the following:











there was also a little cafe, with sandwiches, salads, and such. i got a tomato, basil, and mozzarella panini. it is not my panini place-styled panini, but it was decent enough. it cost 15 ringgit for the sandwich and a coke, aka $5. not bad.



finally, we end with the world's largest tankard. i have heard that malaysians love the guinness world records, and now i have experienced my first aspect of that. it was neat!

so that was my day today. in total, the tour was just under two hours. i highly recommend it, and will probably try to take people who visit me on it. it was just so neat.

Categories: kuala lumpur, malaysia, royal selangor, touristy things