Homestay in the State of 9

Saturday 10 – Monday 12 October 2009

Our next homestay is in the village of Laman Bangkinang, Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. As with the first one, we were greeted by traditional music and the throwing of yellow rice. Sakit juga terkena ia. Made a pack with Sofian, one of the participants, to wear our 2009 Rainforest t-shirts. Semangat only we boria like that. Rainforest rocks!

There are more families involved in the programme here, around 30 of them and ours foster family was Mak Saadiah. Thank god her house was one of the nicer ones. Some were saying their foster houses were not as well equipped or clean as ours. 4 of us were placed in the room upstairs. I booked the bed.

Rainforest borias and our kampong house for 2 nights

The village folks held a mock wedding for us that night to show us how it’s done the Minagkabau way. The grooms are not allowed to walk to their brides so they were carried on their best man’s shoulders instead. The rest of the night was spent watching cultural activities by the village folks and also the Temuan tribe. All of us had to wear baju kurungs which we borrowed from our foster family.

Mock Minangkabau and Malay wedding

Visited the Istana Seri Menanti the next day to check out the Minagkabau architecture which came from Indonesia. Unfortunately, the palace was closed for renovations but we had to complete a few tasks there such as looking for information about the place, playing tenteng, a traditional Negeri Sembilan game and drawing a part of the palace.

There’s an interesting story to how the word Minangkabau came about. Back in the days, provinces in Indonesia used to wage war against each other with the victor conquering the loser’s province. The leaders of two provinces decided against their people’s bloodshed and sent two kerbau or buffalos to fight against each other instead.

One province sent an angry female buffalo whose calf had been taken away from her. Seeing that, the other province sent a buffalo calf with a knife tied to his nose. The female buffalo died when the calf went to suckle her and the knife pierced her belly. The word win in Indonesian is ‘menang’ and they won using ‘kerbau’ so that’s how Minangkabau came about.

At Istana Sri Menanti

Visited Jeram Tengkek, a waterfall near the village but it was quite pathetic. Water was slow as it’s the dry season and there were rubbish all over the place. Selangor has much better waterfalls. There were a few families having picnic there though. Did a stand upper there. You’ll think it was that awesome after Juliana’s done editing with it. Never believe what you see on TV.

Jeram Tengkek Waterfalls

We had to participate in more kampong games and the organizers went all out this time. First was hitting balloons with a blowpipe, rolling a hoop with a stick, then running with a bamboo pole between our legs, walking on coconut husks, shaving coconuts and balancing on pinang tree trunks. The last one was tough as none of my team mates wanted to get wet so it was yours truly for both tasks. Fell down in the muddy waters twice! Sheesh.

Village games

That night, we had more cultural stuff and a ‘Ratu Kebaya’ beauty contest. All of us had to take part. I wore my kebaya made out of Thai silk I tailored 6 years ago. Damn tight already wei.. buttons were bursting. Shy only. Was 5kg thinner then L. It was more cultural stuff again. Learning about culture is all good and all but there’s something called TOO much culture. I need to speak English. Help. I don’t think I can survive a kampong life. Will go absolutely bonking mad.

‘Ratu Kebaya’ and cultural night