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The Kenduri Khawin.

June 28th, 2010, posted in Random rants, Shennanigans, Travel

Two post back, as you guys know, were on the brief introduction on Kampung Parit Penghulu, the homestay kampung that I lived in while i was in Melaka.

The first thing we did when we were united with our foster parents, Pak Cik Lokman and his wife is to attend KENDURI KHAWIN! (: I can haz rendangs!!!! :P

We were one of those lucky bunch who gets to attend kenduri. Other people were not so lucky because their foster parents do not have a car to bring them around.

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These are the foods served there. Rendang ayam, Kurma and Buah Nangka! All of it are ograsmic.

Ok here’s the epic #phail part. Feeq a.k.a Meaningfool a.k.a Feeqsays ask me :

WHERES THE RECEPTION COUNTER? DO WE NEED TO REGISTER?

Haha. Seriously, Pak Man and his wife and me LOL’ed at Feeq for not knowing how Kenduri Khawin is held. :P From that moment, i jokingly called Feeq Melayu Murtad :P But honestly, you cant blame him cuz he is from *coughs* Singapore.

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Basically anyone from anywhere can just walk in, sit down eat and have fun without the need of worrying whether to register or not. You dont even need to give ang pow or anything. All you have to do is fill the place up and eat away. Now that’s the true spirit of the Kampung people.

Not only that, foods in Kenduri Khawin in Kampungs were never catered instead were cooked in a gotong-royong sesion with family members, friends and neighbors.

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Like any other Malay wedding, there a silat performances but with different variation! This Silat is done by a silat sifu.

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How the place looks like!

Then we headed back to home where ANOTHER kenduri khawin was held. But this time, its Pak Cik Lokman’s neighbor. It’s a lil different but the food rocks at the end of the day :P

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Yup, this is the different variation of the silat. Somehow they use kids as their performers and theres one guy’s hairstyle beats JONYKT’s one kau kau :P

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Ok here’s where they bersanding. (:

Yup, so this part is where we enjoyed ourself and feasted ourselves with Kenduri Khawin done on Malays Customs. We learned alot on the traditional food, ways and performances during a Kenduri Khawin. Not bad for a budak bandar like us huh? :P Anyway, im not feeq *whistles. :P

 

Stay tune for other fun activities we did in the Kampung !

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Experienced the fun of Kampung! Part 1 – Brief History!

June 21st, 2010, posted in Events, Food, Random rants, Shennanigans, Travel

Guys, even wondered how a kampung lifestyle is? What is their daily routine? What do they do for a living? Where do they live? (On top of the tree? lol) What do they eat? Or even, what do they do for entertainment?

Well I’ve been wondering this all my life and thanks to Mo Ad Media, NewsZapped and of course Tourism Malaysia, my questions on the kampung lifestyle are answered. Mo Ad Media organized this homestay, while NewsZapped are responsible on handling us and Tourism Malaysia sponsored the whole 2 days 1 night trip! Thanks for everything! (;

Ok i am not here to tell you guys like what did i do from the time i left KL to the time i broad back a bus to KL ; filled with camwhore pics and little or zero explanation on the stuff that is displayed in my blog, but rather i’ll share with my readers, the easy going, unique, exquisite lifestyle of a typical Malay Kampung in Melaka with explanation for those who are curious!

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Yup! This is where we blogger stayed. I forgot how many, but roughly 15 i guess. Oh wait, this is not where we stay, this is what the whole homestay is called! We live in the kampung people’s house (: As the place name explains, Argo tourism. Bet you can expect what is coming up next!

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Ze bloggers looking a lil lost. They say “Rusa Masuk Kampung” :P We were greeted with greenery, left and right. Then the kompang welcomed us! (: It feels really like high school where the students ALWAYS plays the kompang for ANY occasion!

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Ini dia, En. Suparman Bin Abu. He’s the president of Kem Model Insan homestay. He was the one in charge of dividing us among our foster parents and he did talk about the village, the aim of the homestay and what service they provide.

So well, basically Kampung Parit Penghulu is a Kampung in Sungai Rambai in the District of Jasin. Its like any other ordinary kampung with Paddy Field but in 2006 it was transformed into a homestay under the initiative of Tourism Malaysia. Besides homestay, they also provide all those team building camps with games and etc and cater to the customers request. Cool huh!

Apart from that, this kampung is like directly on the border of Melaka – Johor. You can literally step to Melaka and Johor in like say 5min? Daymn thats near! (:

Here’s a video of a typical kampung house in Melaka shot by Rebecca’s HTC DESIRE! WOOT ANDROID FTW! :P

En. Suparman call this kampung a “SPECIAL” kampung. Why? Because this is one of the only KAMPUNGS with HSDPA connection by DIGI! Seriously, i litterally get full 5 bars everywhere i go and there’s wifi connection at the Balai Raya and some homes. Im lucky my foster parents have Streamyx in the box! :P

Lemme show you the twitpic i did! haha

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SEE?! haha. Also everyone in this kampung is tech savvy ok! Dont judge the book by its cover. They know what is blogger and what blogger does! They too have DSLR with NISSIN AND METZ FLASH MOUNTED! And also, they have FACEBOOK! Seriously you’ll be surprised! But honestly, i think its because of the exposure they get after their kampung is transformed into a homestay. I believe they are catching up with the people in the city!

so stay tune for the next post on what we did and experienced in the kampung.

till then, adios!

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National Geographic Store’s blogger session!

April 15th, 2010, posted in Events, Food, Random rants, Shennanigans, Travel

Thanks to Rebecca and Ogilvy we bloggers were given a once in a lifetime chance to experience what Nat Geo is all about (literally) and yea, we too manage to hang out with Tan Sri YTL. (that was seriously unexpected =) )

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Ok before we get more into the itinerary for the night, here are some fun facts for my dear readers.=) 

This Nat Geo store is the 4th store in the world and 2nd in Asia.

The Nat Geo In-House Cafe is the 2nd in the world and FIRST in Asia! Woots.

The people managing the cafe and store are Singaporeans. xD

Even Singapore doesn’t have the cafe! And well, you guys guessed it right… the pioneer to all of these would be of course….>> IMG_0484

Yep! Someone who doesn’t need to be introduced. Its none other than Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, the founder of the local multibillion company, YTL Corporation. Despite having awesome classy foods and beverages, Tan Sri has already classified this get together as something informal. How more informal can it be when the first thing that Tan Sri said was “Give everyone a beer”. Not only that, Tan Sri was constantly saying that he love bloggers. He shared with all of us, his early days in pioneering YTL with bloggers. Well, as quoted by Tan Sri “ I LOVE BLOGGERS” !

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Tan Sri then moved on with his impromptu ‘speech’ or rather discussion with us bloggers. He was constantly getting feedback and question from us bloggers regarding our expectation on Nat Geo in terms of local contents and items. Tan Sri is really passionate in bringing Nat Geo to our shores all because of his deep love for mother nature. He then explained that this store is not about money making, profits or what not, its about educating young people on our nature. He also said that as our mother nature is fast dying, its only about time before out younger generation would not be able to appreciate it anymore and that is what Nat Geo is all about. To educate and if possible, preserve these ‘treasure’ through pictures, videos, activities and hand crafted items.

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Tan Sri also said “ I would be very disappointed if all of you were to buy toys that are not of Nat Geo. These toys here are to educate the younger generation! “ ( So people, you know where to get your toys next time. xD )

His passion on Nat Geo, our nature and educating the young really blew me away. Never i imagine a millionaire like him would even care about preserving our nature what more bringing Nat Geo to our shores. I salute Tan Sri for his enthusiasm.

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He then took passion and enthusiasm to the next level. Something that all of us don’t see it coming. He define both words in a whole different meaning.

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Yup! That 15 is for 15 bloggers and 888 is the price tag for National Geographic’s: The Genography Project Kit. 

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Avid Nat Geo fans would know what a Genographic project kit is. For the rest of you, allow me to explain. Well, the Genographic Project is a project initiated by National Geographic in effort to trace our ancestors throught DNA. Its a project aimed at charting new knowledge on human migration history. In another words, the kit that Tan Sri bought for us bloggers is a kit to take samples of our DNA to be sent to a laboratory in the States to determine our origin/ancestors. =)

The whole idea of this project itself blew my mind. I’ve never heard of this and i never imagine that we could trace our roots just by using our DNA. And oh yeah, the price tag for the kit just made me go GAGA!. LOL

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To Tan Sri, RM13k may be nothing for him, but the passion and the outcome for this project echoed million times louder than whatever shit that other so called ‘nature lover’ would claimed. The sincerity speaks for itself and Tan Sri set us a prefect example of what preserving and loving nature is all about. Putting profits aside and concentrating solely on efforts to educate, preserve and conserve is something that we all should admire and respect.

Yup! Enough of words, now lets look at the pictures. =)

 

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Located in the heart of the city, precisely in the upcoming up class swanky shopping mall that is receiving a new face lift, National Geographic Store would definitely be a hit among locals and tourists. To be honest, this store is not just a store. As quoted by Tan Sri, ITS AN EXPERIENCE! It offers what we could not get to feel, touch and see. It offers you an experience that would remember for life. Thats what Nat Geo promises to deliver. So guys, head down to this new kid on the block and be.. blown.. away. =)

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