April 25, 2007: Life in a Kampong

Hi everyone,

I was brought up in a 'kampong' (village) and lived there until I was 20 years old when I first left my kampong to further study in Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. But I always looked forward for semester holidays to go back to my kampong. Even though I am currently lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur, deep inside me I am still a kampong girl who loves nature more than anything else.

So, one of the agenda during Howard's holiday in Malaysia was to take him to my kampong for him to experience the kampong's life. But because of the house that I bought in my hometown, Kulim is located in a modern housing estate I took Howard for 2 days and 1 night in my eldest sister's house in Bikan. Bikan is quite a remote area with a very minimum basic facilities.

Here among other things, H experienced 'the making of lemang' - glutinous rice cooked in a bamboo. Here are some pictures:

My brother in-law preparing young banana leaves that is used to line the inner side of the bamboo. Banana leaves are cut into strips and later rolled up to cover the entire inner surface of the bamboo.

While my sister preparing the coconut milk.

After all the bamboo have been lined with banana leaves, it's time for my sister and I to put in the glutinous rice into the bamboo.

Only 3/4 of the bamboo is filled with the glutinous rice - the rest will be filled up with coconut milk.

H feeling bored, no one to play with.... So he's peeping my little grand niece Farah Dania who's still asleep . Hehehe

We filled up all the bamboo, while my brother in-law preparing the fire. My sister is checking out to see whether the fire is ready.

The coconut milk is poured into the bamboo.

My brother in-law showed H how to do it.

It's now time for H to try..... while little Farah looked with full amazed! hehehe

Camera, action! Smile darling!

While waiting for lemang to cooked, we wondered around my sister's fruit orchard - but unfortunately it is not fruits season yet. Can you spot the 'rambutan' flowers - it will only bear fruits somewhere in August!

Wait! I saw a pink fruits! This is not a seasonal fruits - we called it 'jambu air' (Herb called it water apple)

I'll get it for you Hon!

Here it is!

While I was busy looking for fruits, H is now happy because he has friend to play with. H playing 'give me five' with Farah.

Well, this looked familiar! One of the kampong chicken soon will be turned into chicken curry! Yum yum! My sister cooked chicken curry to be eaten with lemang.

After almost 3 hours - with my sister checking on the fire from time to time and also turned the bamboo every few minutes to ensure that the glutinous rice is evenly cooked, the lemang was ready! BUT unfortunately because we are so excited to eat while it is still hot AND because the chicken curry that my sister made is soooo delicious we forgot to take picture of the cooked lemang!

Anyway here's picture of lemang that previously posted on my blog

You should be able to see more pictures when H uploaded it on flickr. And maybe he would like to share his experience being beaten by lots of mosquitoes while staying at my sister's house!

Love - Larra