JOHN CURTIN WEEKEND 2009

By Aegis

A FEW WEEKS AGO~~~
garh... i noe i shud hav updated this post long ago..
the John Curtin Weekend 2009 is a week b4 i went back kch for the JOTA..
2nd weekend of october..
well.. as the registration is quite early, and that time i only noe pei fong, n he is not the type to go tis kinda stuff, i went to register myself.. (bored die at home arh xD)

well whatever it is, i joined..
RM10 for the whole trip..
got T-shirt worh.. worth it liao la xD

well the journey started on a tmd early morning..
woke up 6sth, took my bath, waited for the bus which arrives on 7.30am at the bus stop outside my premises..

our destination: RUMAH GINGDAN~
the trip took about 1.5hrs..
tried to sleep bt jz cnt..
maybe due to the seats not suit my sleeping methods..lols
then finally, arrived~~~^^

well, not as expected, the longhouse we went is no longer a longhouse anymore..
it is rather semi-D houses....
it is said that the former longhouse has been burnt down..

our arrival was very the welcomed by the villagers..
they prepared tuaks (luckily no malays in our group =P) for us..^^
they dressed in their traditional Iban costume n played their traditional Iban musical instruments..

then comes a Tarian Ngajat~ cool chin! xD

their shield~^^

saw a very cute child thr oso.. playing handphone lagi!! xDD

well this is the tuak we were served..
we were given about near half of a glass..
tastes nicer than beer =D

after all those presentations n speech stuff, we went to our own foster parents' home..
as soon as we put down our bags, their daughter came n asked us
"lu tau makan durian??? makanlah!"
this may sound nice..
bt its jz d beginning of the torture..............

they had a cat.. dnoe whether its theirs o not la.. bt its cute ^^

they rear a dog too.... =.=

their backyard are used to store their crops and plant new plants... dnoe wat they are used for..
perhaps sold? or planted on new grounds..

oops!! i tink tis pic was left out when i was rotating all the pics.. ^^ or rather.. accidentally rotated it ==
anyways..
the guy thr is my foster dad..
d food is nice =D
n they cook damn lots of rice >.<
after lunch, another of my newly-met friend's foster parents brought us visit her farm..
and man... it IS big...
11 hectares... imagine tat!

tis is a fruit almost similar like rambutan...
nicer than rambutan! =D

then i had d chance to actually pluck a fruit tat i loved so much too..
they called it buah tarap.. or darap.. wateva.. i called it tat way too =D

i plucked one down.. n was bullied by the others cz they din ate much =.=
i had to eat most of it.. bt it WAS nice!!
and the flesh inside, A LOT!!
unlike those sold in markets, only a few biji inside =.=

the fruits were part of the 'torture' actually..
after tat, most of us were brought to visit a real, traditional longhouse..

they even have astro ahh........

even better than the chalet u live in Damai... ^^

i was kidding..
those 2 up thr are houses that cannot be joint to the original longhouse cz it was toooo long..
below is the traditional longhouse..
25lots of 'houses', it is about 10ft per house.......... i 4gt d figure edi actually >.<
they rear ~~cocks~~ chickens too ^^

there are a FEW fire extinguishers placed on tiangs of the longhouse..
bt most of them are already either expired or no pressure dah..
fail arrrr the government...

it is sort of their Iban culture that they serve foods n drinks to visitors..
yea... we were 'tortured' again in that traditional longhouse.. >.<>.< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX-hSPMsGTbECuWcT-VH2rMbULNnJezg9OuS3PsalLDfZR0EKh4oLiSMuBjbu-0zj8swtPufNoj4CeHPGvCppJOmPHWChJudxNIPKIz6snT34GI7GcUroR3TVIOZLV7dDAghOBSpK5G1U/s1600-h/Image033.jpg">
b4 our dinner, we went to another longhouse..
AGAIN, DRINKS n FOOD...
we were stuffing as much food as we can n reli suffered badly due to food =(

and then DINNER was a real torture too >.<

tat nite, was FUN!!
they taught us their traditional dance - TARIAN NGAJAT ^^
we oso had games n dances bla bla bal~
many tried, bt failed to get it..

on the other hand, many escaped the dance by pretending to be photographers xD

that's for the 1st day anyway..
we slept soundly.....

and..

woke up at 7..

breakfast was kinda light.. *thank god!!!*

and my foster mum brought us to her dnoe whose de kebun xD
together along with quite a few ppl, we prepared ourselves..
my foster mum was kind enaf to let me drive their HILUX!!! xDDD
damn! xD
well i drove d black one and her son-in-law drove d white one (below)..

n u see that german shepherd thr??
it jumped up onto d hilux by itself..
no need any external help, oni an order by master, up he go! ^^ pro chin.. pro pro than ohjiji de xD

everything's set!! and off we go!!

our adventure began with simple simple plucking those rambutan-like fruits which we are gonna bring home =D

these are bario paddys ^^
which are sold at quite a price in the market..

then, off we go to our next adventure - DURIAN!!

we werent that lucky..
we could not detect any durians, whereas the villagers get the durians lyk they can see it thru those grasses...
damn....
we found one!! bt it was rotten.... so we left it....

these are baby durian trees ^^

well, our luck came and we found 4 together ^^

as monkey as i am, i climbed d langsat tree to pluck langsats xD

then, we took a short break while an uncle climbed up a buah debai tree..
a fire was set up, and we ate those freshly picked durians =P

a beautiful effect caused by the sunlight shining towards the smoke created by the fire ^^

behold, buah debai! =D

this is d tree d uncle climbed up..
the video has been posted up in my facebook..
take note! no gears no nothing..
only a some sort of cloth which fix the position of the branch and a long cloth to transport water up..

and we were down thr preventing the branch from slipping...
while waiting, my frens bullied this small boy xD

this is d effect stated earlier taken by my fren using his camera..

after all d work, back we go...
our durians effort =P
took a nice refreshing bath and LUNCH!! woohoo!! xD

seems lyk this dog wants to have his lunch too xDD

as we were already tired, we took a rest and waited at the tuai rumah's varendah..
learning how to play their instruments! =D

this instrument, i tel u ah, is reli lyk a bazooka...
don bliv, take a front view of it..

aint cheating u rite? =D

this lil baby wants to learn too xD
cute die......

a grandma joint in the fun ^^

oh well...
the time for our departure has almost arrived..
every1 had gathered at the varendah...

we took our group photo and our family photo.....
while some others are busy getting phone numbers of hot babes xD

the time for depart has arrived...
the bus has arrived to pick us back home......>.<

we say our goodbyes, and left the memorable place..............

below are the things tat my foster parents gave me...

3kg of bario rice @@ tats a lot!!

a pack of buah debai!! (it costs around RM8 per kg in the market!!)

some of the rambutan-like fruits and langsat ^^

and last bt not least, DURIAN!!!!!! xD

damn they were tasty! xD

took them out n placed them into a container to be frozen.. they're way nicer that way.. trust me ^^

oh yea..
it seems that their iban culture reli never faded...
not only their instruments, costumes, food, bt oso their slogan...
we noe it..
we read bout it b4..
Rentap said it...