Some shook their heads, puzzled, others giggled, and some even joined in the fun, but what's for sure is this: no-one could have ignored them.

On August 31, 2009, 200 young Malaysians decided to celebrate National Day differently - they hopped on the KL Monorail trains and decorated them with colourful balloons, the Jalur Gemilang, and stickers.

The ‘guerilla style’ event, called ‘Merdeka Train Party’ was organised by RandomAlphabets.com, the brainchild of Zain HD, who has previously organised KL Freeze and the Pillow Fight events around the Klang Valley.

For the past few weeks, Zain and his crew planned out yesterday's events carefully, communicating with participants via Facebook and keeping secrecy intact until just a few days before the event, when they revealed the meeting place.

The KFC at KL Sentral was the spot, and after a short briefing seven groups of enthusiastic flashmobbers were on their way to board the trains.

Once on the trains, the participants evoked curious stares from passengers and they sang patriotic songs, the ‘Negaraku’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ while decorating the trains with flags, balloons and stickers.

Participant Raja Azlan bounded back and forth through the train, hanging flags up wherever there was space.

"This is the best way to relate to the people, and to get them to join in the celebration - by getting their attention on the train," said the 20-year-old.

Zain, at the end of it all, was tired and panting but was glad the event was a success.

“The response to the Merdeka Train Party was great,” said Zain. “Passengers started singing along with us and a parent and her child were so excited they got back on the train at the last stop to party with us.”

“Basically what we did was, we decorated the interior of the train like we would for a birthday party, only this is for our nation’s 52nd birthday, and today is also the sixth anniversary of the KL Monorail,” added Zain.

Finnish tourists Marja Valtonen and Hanna Lappanen, who were initially disappointed that there was no large-scale National Day parade this year were thrilled to be a part of the party.

“In our country there isn’t anything like this. We’re glad we got on this train and happened to be here to join the fun,” said Valtonen.

The Merdek Train Party was organised by The Star’s Youth space, R.AGE, in partnership with RandomAlphabets.com.

Check out the video on staronline.tv.

Click here for photos http://tinyurl.com/m38p6r.