the prison formerly known as "Pudu"

i had always wanted to take a closer look at the Pudu prison in KL, not from inside a moving car that drives pass the prison walls, but from at least two or three feet away from the prison walls itself. i think it was last year when a bunch of lomography enthusiasts staged a kind of "demonstration" to prevent the tearing down of the old prison by pasting photos and such on the prison walls. nonetheless, the demolition still happened, despite protests from the public to turn the prison into a national heritage site.

a little over a year later, the prison is still standing - its outer wall adorned with graffiti, messages, and such. i'm not sure why its taking the government so long to tear down the building - maybe some kind of legislation is underway to preserve the prison as a national heritage site. but whatever the reason pertaining to the complex still standing at its present location, it was a must to at least encounter this iconic structure that every KL-ite recognizes.

initially, CM and i only expected to take some pictures of the outer wall and all the graffiti adorning them. there certainly wasn't any way in and in all honesty, i assumed that the prison was currently all locked up and nobody was allowed in. that was until some worker opened the prison main gate from inside and invited us into the prison to have a look around and take some pictures. skeptical, but nonetheless excited, we took up their "offer".

stepping into the prison was akin to my experience at the Tuol Sleng genocide museum and the Choeung Ek Killing Field in Phnom Penh. it felt somber and quiet, but the biggest difference between the two locations in Phnom Penh and the Pudu prison is the overwhelming sensation of discomfort i felt as i walked past the prison cells and dark hallways in Pudu. at least in Phnom Penh, the locations were open to the public, but Pudu in itself was deserted (having being locked away from public visits) and walking the prison complex with no one around was "eerie", for a lack of better ways to describe it.

the prison cells were dark, dank, and generally uninviting - the graffiti and scribbles that adorn the walls within the cells were somewhat beautiful, yet sad and depressing. i couldn't quite bring myself to enter any other cells anymore after stepping into the first one and taking a look at some of the scribbles. the greenery encroaches the prison complex, there was a lot of junk chucked inside random cells, and there was even a mattress in one of the cells, which brings me to wonder how could anybody sleep here at night. maybe he's an atheist.

after looking through most of the cells on the ground floor and generally feeling some kind of ominous sensation of not being welcomed here, we decided it was time to leave. we headed to the main gate where we entered from and lo and behold, the gate was chained up and padlocked. i expected something like this to happen the minute i stepped into the prison complex, and for some reason we were pretty much calm and didn't get too worked up with the padlocked gate. we went looking around for the workers who had let us in earlier - CM and i going separate ways to look for them.

it was only a few minutes after splitting up when CM call out to me and said the workers were approaching the main gate in a huge tractor.

it would've been so much more interesting had the workers rammed through the main gates with their tractor, or better yet, if they hadn't shown up at all. in a very anti-climactic manner, they unlocked the main gate and we were well on our way out to make like sardines in the various public transportations out of KL.