Our week stay with David and his family deserves a whole
page of its own! We saw so much, visited so
many places and met so many people that I only hope I can remember to include everything in this report!
The funny thing is Parit Buntar, Perak isn't a touristy place at all. It doesn't get a mention in the
Lonely Planet, and when you speak to other travelers nobody knows where it is. So how did we end up
spending such a busy week there? Basically its attraction is that its a normal Malaysian town, surrounded
by normal villages, all inhabited by normal people. David has opened up his home and made the real,
everyday Malaysia accessible to outsiders.We first found out about David through 'Warm Showers', the cyclists hospitality website, but he also has a website of his own. And for those cyclists who are cycling in Malaysia but miss these two websites there are "spies" planted at strategic locations around his area primed to spot passing cyclists and lure them back to his homestay!
We met David on Penang Island (where he was delivering some other cycle tourers going the opposite way to us)
and cycled together the 40kms to his place. A few kilometers from his home we made a stop at a "toddy plantation".
Toddy is an alcoholic drink from the coconut tree popular with Indians. We had never heard of it and when David
explained it to us it sounded kind of improbable. A guy called a "tapper" climbs the coconut tree and cuts a slice
off the flower shoot and collects the liquid that comes out. And sure enough this white frothy liquid is sweet and
a bit alcoholic, and the longer you keep it the more potent it gets. And it tastes really good! Mmmm toddy!The next day we had been invited to attend the wedding of the son of an Indian friend of Davids. We got dressed in saris and had our hair and make up done by his wife and daughter and then looking really glam headed to the wedding. It was amazing to see the three hundred or so guests dressed in colourful saris and suits, and to watch the priest go through the lengthy rituals of marriage with the bride and groom. A lot of the time we were not really sure what was going on, with various pots of things, ashes, flowers, fruit and inlaws on the stage, but one of the rituals involved the bride and groom racing each other to reach some gold in a pot. Whoever gets the gold is the boss in the marriage.
Food was laid on for the wedding guests, and lucky for us there was a whole different section for vegetarian food.
Although forks and spoons were available everyone eats with their hands, so we decided to do so also. It felt pretty
funny to begin with, eating sloppy curry and rice with your fingers but there is a bit of a method to it and we got
used to it pretty quick. As if this wasn't enough activity for one day, we rested for an hour then headed out again to a jungle walk, or "Hash House Harrier" meet. This was a 2 hour walk through some forest with a group of 15 or so locals. I saw wild-boar-swimming pools (but no boars) and it was a great opportunity to chat to David's friends. HHH seems to be 50 percent running and 50 percent drinking, so afterwards we drank some beers to balance the healthy running.
Third activity of the day was visiting a local Hindu temple with David and his wife where a month long festival of worship was taking place. We were invited to do some dancing and clapping, and then ate more yummy veggie food off a banana leaf with our fingers.
We finished the day off by getting on the night bus to Kuala Lumpur cos Claire needed to get to the embassy for a new
passport. After lodging the paperwork we walked around the city, looked at the twin towers and ate nice food from
street stalls. We stayed with a very nice friend-of-a-couch-surfer, and the highlight of KL was hanging out and
chatting with her. The passport (officially its a Temporary Travel Permit) was issued really quick so we only stayed
two nights and then got on the bus back to Parit Buntar.Arriving in Parit Buntar at 9pm we were met by David, who whipped us straight off to another Hindu temple festival where we ate great veggie food from a banana leaf. We were happy that getting the passport had gone smoothly because we were back in time to catch the fire walking ceremony the following day.
Once again we got dressed up in Indian attire and then headed to the temple where the preparations and build up was in progress. There was praying, chanting and music going on, and a massive fire was lit. Everybody was dressed up, the females in bright Sari's and dresses. They served temple food to the 200 or so people assembled, cooked in giant saucepans over open fires. After we ate more praying and chanting continued, so David decided to break up the day by taking us for a drink at a toddy plantation!
So from temple to toddy, we decamped to a small shack amongst the coconut palms and drank fresh liquor from the trees
and ate yam curry. We both had a go at climbing the coconut palms, and even in our Indian dresses we got pretty high
up. I had a go climbing a tree without the "steps" cut in, by tying my heals together with a strap, but failed miserably.
It provided some amusement though.David assured us that toddy cannot be smelt on the breath like whiskey and beer, so we shouldn't worry about being busted back at the temple. I think he might have done this before!
When we returned to the firewalking ceremony it had moved to the river where a procession was following an elaborate chariot pulled by two cows. Some of the people who wanted to show their dedication had pierced their cheeks or tongues with big stakes, others were carrying pots of red hot ashes and one guys had loads of hooks in his back attached to cords. Impressive stuff!
It was nice to see the interaction between the Indian Hindus and Chinese Buddhists. As the procession passed Chinese
houses people were bringing out offerings to be blessed by the Hindu priest. And some Chinese Buddhist did the walk
over the fire. Its not often that religion is that flexible.When the procession arrived back at the temple the fire was reduced to hot ashes which were raked flat across a pit about 6 metres long. The men doing the firewalking (women are not allowed to) had slept in in the temple and only eaten vegetarian food for a week previously. Before they walked across the ashes they had to go to the priest at the start of the fire pit where he decided if they were fit to do it or not. Many of the guys started walking slowly and calmly but were running after a second. At the end of the fire pit a pool of milk cooled their hot feet.
During the celebrations some people work themselves into a trance, and start thrashing around and making strange noises
and rolling their eyes. It was pretty wierd to see, and the kids all got really scared when someone did it!We felt really priveledged to be part of the ceremony, so thank you very much to David for giving us this chance to attend. We were the only westerners there and as far as I could tell the only tourists. We finished the day off at a Chinese restaurant chatting with some other of Davids friends, and drinking beer and more toddy.
On friday we were driven around in Davids car on a tour of various places in the area. We started off at a pottery, and made pretty poor attempts at making pots on the wheel. We decided to leave the clay in the hands of the proffessionals and went to do something we were better at...extreme relaxation at the sauna. It was the best sauna I've ever been to (actually its the only one!), a real family and people who know type place. A local couple have built the steam rooms in their garden surrounded by coconut trees and rice paddies. The sauna is fired by wood, and special healing herbs are added to the water. Whilst we were sat outside we were bought pots of tasty ginger tea. A great detox!
After detoxing at the sauna we visited a small bird sanctuary and visitor centre. It was a place that had many
wetland birds and was working to preserve their mangrove habitat. Then off to the Chinese "Heavan and Hell" temple.
Think Buddhism meets Disneyland. Bizarre but fun. The models in "Hell" were so brutal I think they must be
tongue-in-cheek, although I cannot be sure. There was people getting fried in a big pan, sawed in half, heads opened,
hearts ripped out and eaten alive by snakes! By comparison "Heaven" was pretty boring although the view was nice.
We finished the tour off at the local once weekly night market, where we tried every item of veggie food, most of it fried. Mmmmmmmm.
Saterday, we got our bikes out after a week of not using them and cycled to some fishing villages, a prawn farm, a boat building yard, a 100 year old Chinese shop run buy a very friendly old man who gave us beer, and cruised through the rice paddies and along the coast.
When we returned we had a short rest, a shower and then headed out again to a Chinese New Year party put on by one of David's friends. In the garden of his house tables were set out and food served, along with a lot of alcohol to wash it down with. We chatted to the other guests and ate nice Chinese food. I was drinking whiskey and made the mistake of trying to keep up with the hosts, who kept refilling our glasses. In Chinese culture the word for cheers translates as "down your drink" and I was getting my glass clinked every 2 minutes!
When we moved to the next party I was already pretty drunk and so had to do some "time out" in the car. When I emerged
I found the party (an Indian one this time) in full swing, , with Claire, David and all generations of the family dancing
to funky Indian tunes! Cool!The next day I had a cronic all day hangover and didn't even get out of bed till about 3pm. Claire, who had been drinking a bit more sencibily went with David to a Hash House Harier run in the afternoon and then later to a restaurant to drink beer. By the evening I was finally feeling better, so ate some yummy curry cooked by David's wife and met them at the restaurant where I sipped a medicinal beer and chatted to his friendly mates.
On monday we said our sad farewells to David and his family, but not before we visited sandi's school and had a look around and a chat. I was really sad to be leaving, everbody was so kind to us and made us feel really at home during our stay and there was never a dull moment. We saw so much and met so many great people it was really a very special time. Athough we were only there six nights it felt like we were cycling away from somewhere that was a home for us! Thanks David and family and friends!!!