Experience Culture Trip to Kuala Selangor & Sabak Bernam (pt.3)

How does city people understand about local light industry? Like how the traditional local snacks (for example, keropok) we usually buy from shops and markets are made? What is the process of painting colorful batik we usually see from clothes and fabrics? These are what I (a KL city girl) experienced and found out on the third day of the trip.

We went to a local snacks production house in the morning. Unfortunately the factory part was closed that day, so we only able to witness the making of light snacks in a traditional and old kitchen.
I'm glad that I was able to see almost the whole process of making local snacks, Rempeyek.

From the process of mixing various ingredients to frying the batter, I found that it's not an easy work to produce these snacks unless one keep practicing and repeating the production process because a lot of techniques are involved. People who makes these snacks has to understand how much portions of the ingredients to be added, remember the techniques of mixing the ingredients and frying, etc.

Witnessing how the preparation works.

Here's mixture of Rempeyek ingredients. Quite a lot of
ingredients inside such as eggs, garlic, rice flour, ikan bilis,
prawns and peanuts.

After a long wait, frying process was carried out. The oil took
long time to be heated up.

Rempeyek which was almost done.

Since I am a nata de coco lover, I was so looking forward to the visit to nata de coco factory after that. I thought nata de coco is a kind of jelly made of a special jelly powder or whatsoever... During the talk, I only know that it is produced by coconut water fermentation with bacterial cultures. And the original taste is sour, not sweet at all. And it takes seven to forty days to form a such thin layer of nata de coco. And not only food, it can be used for other purposes i.e. medical usage, processed as facial mask, etc.

I know too little things about my favorite food...

We got chance to visit the factory too after the introduction
talk, but we couldn't access the production area and the
packaging area was not operating that time. This is one part
of the production area.

After that, we spend whole afternoon at Sungai Haji Dorani Homestay, a very "kampung" style tourist place.

We were served with some light meals - curry puffs, tapioca cakes and syrup drinks before we start any activities there. Their light snacks are very tasty, seriously, especially the tapioca cake! Usually I don't like to eat tapioca or any food made of tapioca but this is really nice and acceptable for me!

The first activity we did there is batik painting. I tried to paint batik before during my Pendidikan Seni class in secondary school so it is not a fresh activity to me, yet I found it interesting because it's easy to master the techniques and paint it like a pro.

We were grouped to share the paint.

After batik session, it's finally lunch time! I found that I feel hungry easily during the trip idk why...
The dishes were very traditional-Malay style - ulams, salted fish, omelette, syrups, etc., plus we sit in a long row on carpets, I feel warm and delighted for this lunch experience.

After energy intake, we were going to spend the energy on catching fish.

My reaction: "W-what? We're going to catch fish? Seriously?"

And we were told that we will be dirty and wet. I never catch fish before, I only eat, and I couldn't imagine how it would be at all... My feeling was complicated - I was looking forward to try new thing but I afraid of it at the same time.

We stopped in front of a small pond with mud, and the organizer told us that we are going to catch fish IN THE MUD.
I was like......







The mud is so slippery and soft that I almost scream out when I stepped into the mud. It feels like you are stepping on sh*ts... I had to move slowly and carefully as I didn't want to fall down and make myself muddy... but it's quite hard to do so.

I was so afraid to step inside the pond because the mud was so soft as if I was stepping on slippery fish and I feel so geli and creepy...urghhh! I admit that I am very coward...
But at the end, I manage to overcome the fear and got my feet inside the mud, because I kept thinking that I can do it too if there's people who can do so.

I'm still feeling amazing and proud that I did it! And I had even caught a fish! Achievement unlocked!

Steps to catch a fish...?

Check point: Pasar Pasir Penambang
Shopping for fresh and cheap seafood experience gained.

It was interesting to see Ms Raja, our tutor to negotiate with hawker so that we get cheap price for BBQ ingredients to be used at night (as shown in video below).

After shopping for BBQ ingredients, we finally went to check in our second accommodation - The Kabin at Pantai Remis, Kuala Selangor, a boutique hotel using industrial recycled-shipping containers as its significant concept for the whole design. The metallic facade is so outstanding that I could recognize it from far.

The use of raw materials i.e. stones, wire mesh, steel, etc.
made the resort unique.

It's real container... I was deeply impressed! Concrete
columns support the upper container, its rough finishes made
the overall feel more industrial.

Although the container we lived is small, the interior is fully equipped - air-conditioned, small living area besides of sleeping area with built-in storage, heat-insulated partitions instead of metal wall and two bathrooms with hot water supply. How nice if I could build and own such house!

The walkway is a bit narrow though. But the interior
environment is comfortable, in terms of furniture, thermal,
lighting, etc.

What I observed from the resort design are the compact living ideas, mixture of cozy and industrial ambiance, metal structures with concrete supports on some parts and interesting layouts where they named the containers with states of different countries. Mine is Rotterdam, a city in Netherlands.

Seriously, I think we should spend two nights here instead of staying in the previous resort. I have not enough time and effort to explore the whole resort!

Since I am foodaholic, I was so looking forward to the BBQ night!
Volunteered as preparation team member because I would be lazy to clean after eating and I think I would eat until the end or the time when cleaning team start doing their task.

Prawns and squids cleaning skills gained.

We did it fast as there were many people in the preparation group and I think we all were super hungry already.

We have awesome cookers in the group, making the seafood mouth-watering and appetizing!

FOODSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Worked hard, played hard, ate hard.

Post of my day 4 trip here!