MOHAMMED'S BIG BIRTHDAY BASH!

As I was making my way through the streets of Georgetown's (Penang) Chinatown, I came across a large crowd of people dressed in traditional clothes. Everyone was assembled in front of a large mosque and I soon understood that a parade was about to start. Without a moments hesitation I dashed into the middle of the crowd and started taking photos . Even though I had quite awful blisters on my feet I managed to go on the whole march , which was anything but short. At one point , I was trailing behind the parade. On the other side of the street I saw a Caucasian who shouted to me in American English " Did you know about this or did you just get lucky?!" I shouted back , "Of course I knew about it!" This was half true. I had known that someplace in the city there would be a parade in honor of the Prophet Mohammed's birthday. However it was pure luck that enabled me to stumble upon that parade just as it was beginning. I would guess that about a thousand of Muslims took part in the long march which was enlivened by constant chanting and shouts such as "Allah akbar". At the end of the parade many people started eating special traditional dishes in the street and several men invited me to eat with them. Unfortunately, I declined their invitation because my feet were killing me, and more importantly, my camera's batteries were completely dead.