I was making my way to Jalan P. Ramlee at around 9:30pm to pick up my mum.

I used Jalan Syed Putra to head into Kuala Lumpur and in order to get to Jalan Sultan Ismail I had to pass through Jalan Maharajalela. As you all might know, there’s this Chinese temple right at the end of Jalan Petaling (Petaling Street, in other words). No, not the end with the shops or the Jalan Petaling pintu gerbang, it’s on the other side, near the Maharajalela monorail station. Actually there are 2 Chinese temples at Jalan Petaling, Sze Ya Temple and Chan See Shu Yuen Temple. There’s also the Sri Mahamariamman Temple.

As I made my way to Jalan Maharajalela, I noticed that the amount of traffic at his hour is quite unusual. Lots of brake lights visible and cars moving slowly. Then, there it was, as I near the weird lefty-curve (the one with the road where you can go to Bukit Aman Police HQ) I saw it. The reason.

A FIRE

No, the Chan See Shu Yuen temple was not burning down. It was the Colonial House to the right of the temple which was burning. Heck! It was not burnt down yet, the whole structure was there but it was entirely on fire. My intention was to take the Bukit Aman shortcut cutting into Jalan Hang Tuah, but since there was a fire blazing, I couldn’t turn up into Bukit Aman. I wound down the passenger’s side window to ask the traffic police whether I can turn left or not, but no I could not. Besides that, I could hear loud crackling and fire sounds. I could even felt the heat coming into my car.

As all Malaysian drivers do, we will slow down to check out and update ourselves on whatever is happening on the road or roadside. Even if 2 cars stop at the roadside to have a small discussion on how to get to somewhere, we will slow down to check out what those people at the roadside are doing. Are they arguing? Fighting? Was there an accident? If so, how bad? Which part of the car was damaged? And the most important, the car’s registration number. And then, forgo (or forego) whatever we planned to do and head to the nearest 4D/Damacai shop. So no number plates this time, but photo/video shooting instead.

I, too, slowed down a bit to capture a photo. But this is all I managed to capture. Yeah, the amazing display of lights in the center of the photo is the colonial house which is on fire. The temple is to the left of it.

I was there just last week, well, opposite it, at Dewan MCPA for the Rockestra gig. There’s another gig playing there tomorrow as well, the Angkatan Baju Malaya if I’m not wrong. I wonder how much of the building is left. Hopefully I can get a glance tomorrow as I make my way to Ruums for the Undergroundo.tv launch event/gig.