Merdeka Parade 2007

I missed the Merdeka Parade last year coz I was lazy to wake up so early in the morning. This year is quite special as it is our 50th National Day, so I arrived the place before 6am, and the parking space was full! In fact, most of the parade groups, with thousands of participants, were ready and gathered at the Wawasan bus terminal before 7am.

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More than 50 groups from government departments, companies, organisations, schools, etc. joined the Merdeka Parade 2007. The weather was good. Everyone was in great mood. When I walked among the parade groups, a lot of them asked me to take their photo and wanted a copy of it. There are also some people who looked really serious.

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There were also a few organisations that we never heard of. For example, I thought Pemadam Negeri Sabah was selling eraser (rubber). Actually they are the “Terminator” of drug-abuse.

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As usual, the parade was started at 8am at Promenade Boulevard, the road next to Promenade Hotel, Marina Court, and Wawasan Plaza. There were a few shows in between, so it finished at 10:15am. I recorded two cool video clips in my last blog, you may click here to check them out.

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The road was expanded recently so its wide was doubled up. Since the crowd was not allowed to stand in the road, that means I could not come very close to take the photos of parade, like in year 2005. And it was more crowded this year, which made photo-shooting difficult. Luckily I brought a small foldable chair with me. Very tired to carry it around, but it let me to stand high and photograph without being blocked by people (and umbrella!). No choice lah, I am so short. Coz I shot from higher level, so I could include more faces and subjects into my photos. The outcome is very rewarding.

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However, I got too many photos so I only shared those special ones in my photo album. I used two camera to take pictures. Most of the photos were taken by my new Canon 400D SLR, another one is my old Sony Cybershot DSC-H1, coz it got 12x optical zoom and video recording function. Almost every vehicles with 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wheels were in the parade that day.

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At first I thought I would see many Sabah bloggers around, but surprisingly I saw none ler. Where were you guys? Maybe you were at the other side. Hope to see your blog later. Probably due to the “NegaraKu” news, everyone stood stiff while narional anthem was played. Earlier the government also has warned the photographers not to move around. Suddenly everybody becomes so serious about it.

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Though it was morning, the day was getting hot soon. Then the party was over after 10am and thousands of people dispersed. In minute, Promenade Boulevard turned into a quiet place. Overall, I am quite happy with what I got, as they are all stamped with the memory of 50th Hari Merdeka, something of great value.

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Actually the show was still on, even though most has left. There was a demo of modern high-speed patrol boats on the sea. I tried to take a few snapshots. The boats were far away, but the waves they created were so strong that they caused big splash once they hit the shore. It caught me by surprise. My pant and camera were wet. Fortunately, the camera was ok.

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Related Posts:
Merdeka Parade 2005
50th Malaysia National Day

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo