From Medan to Brastagi

It was an interesting journey on a bus from Medan to Brastagi which went through some scenic countryside and hilly Batak country.  It gave me a chance to look at the simple life of the people in that area.  There are quite a number of large, high rise, modern buildings in Medan but it was the simple, rustic and unchanged lifestyle of the people there that caught my attention.  While much of Medan city itself has undergone changes, there are still a lot by the wayside that has remained the same since the last half century or so.

The Polonia airport at Medan is the main entry point to North Sumatera

Medan, like most Southeas Asian cities, is riddled with traffic jams. Public vehicles like this van-taxi is one of the most popular means of transportation around town.  However, we have been told that it is best for foreign visitors to try getting only on the yellow ones or the blue ones because their charges are more reasonable.     

Another mode of public transport is this motorised trishaw.  They are seen almost everywhere in town.  Some are modified to look more attractive while others make do with just a cover from a discarded advertisement poster. 

Foreign visitors again has been advised not to use this popular local mode of transport because they can charge totally unexpected rates.  Always bargain - if you can speak their language - before getting on one.  In Medan, a 70 -100cc Japanese motorcycle is attached to the carriage but in  the nearby town of Siantar, the ancient Triumph, Harley Davidson and  Norton motorbikes are used.

Right in the middle of Medan is this monument of Justice.  It is located within the compound of the Rahmat International Wildlife Museum.   

The signboard of Rahmat International Wildlife Museum where visitors can view stuffed animals.

Also located within the compound of the Rahmat Museum, is the office of the Indonesian Red Cross Society. 

A closer look at the motorised trishaw.

Amidst the busy traffic, a bread vendor is plying his trade. 

At another part of town, artists too make a living by selling giant custom-made wedding cards which are very popular.  These are displayed at weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and even funerals.

At junctions where there are traffic lights, there will be young boys and girls selling all sorts of things from newspapers, flowers and even providing entertainment - like this boy and his friends, they will sing songs for a few rupiahs.

They are performing when the traffic lights turned red and motorists are entertained by them, then a few kind souls will toss a few rupiahs to these young singers. 

In smaller towns outside Medan, the trishaws rules the roads.  Here in this town, there are special parking bays for such trishaws. 

Along with the trishaws are mobile stalls selling food.  food is one of the popular ways to earn a living here.

Somewhere in the countryside, is this interesting stall selling tuak or local palm wine.  The fresh one is quite nice to drink - sweet and does not have the strong smell like our local toddy.  

A few blocks away is this place selling BPK or babi panggang karo - Karo roast pigs.  No, I did not try any of this, following the advice of my guide.   

As we traveled across Batak country, we noticed there are so many churches built across the countryside.  Every village has its huge church of the HKBP or Huria Kristen Batak Protesten.    

Apart from HKBP churches, there are also some isolated buddhist temple too.  At Lumbini, there is this beautiful golden buddhist pagoda.

Finally, we arrived at Brastagi.  It is a hill resort type of town.  The main attraction in the town is the fruit market.  

This is the location of the fruit market, which also sells flowers and clothing.

The fruit market at Brastagi

Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiping

The Mid-Autumn Festival which is more commonly known as the Mooncake Festival in Malaysia, or the Lantern Festival in Singapore, is one of the few important Chinese festivals celebrated on a large scale in this country.  However, in this small town of Taiping, the Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated on a moderate scale this year.  There is no processions as was done a few years ago but still individual Chinese clan associations carry on the tradition of providing the local community with some element of festivities.  

Mooncakes of all tastes and shapes are promoted at all departmental stores and the prices of the "branded" ones reach the moon.  For cheaper, but not necessarily less tasty ones, try the wet markets and night markets.

Thus, it is from this delicacy that the Malaysian gave the festival the name "Mooncake Festival".  The arrogant Singaporeans chose not to have the festival related to the word "moon" because they argue that man has already stepped on the moon and so to have a moon festival would render themseves mentally backward. Hence, they changed the name to Lantern Festival.   Classical kiasu mentality, I would say.  As Shakespeare said : Giving a rose any other name, will make it just as sweet.

Now, in Taiping we have the Kwantung Association which has never failed to bring in a Chinese Opera troupe to perform for a week each year, to celebrate this festival.   This year was no different, so here are some pictures of the performance:

   

 

 A gathering of generals backstage

              The white-faced character in Chinese opera is usually given the role of a clown or small soldier

 The generals are those with flags on their backs

A short video clip of the performance

            The opera was sponsored by generous donors and their names were displayed on these flyers. 

It is sad to note that such cultural performances do not attract the younger people and this is why some Chinese associations would rather choose to stage modern pop concerts than traditional operas.  The loss of interest in traditional arts is quite universal and something needs to be done to rekindle interest in them amongst the younger generation or else another living heritage will face extinction.

AT THE LAKE GARDENS

In the meantime, while the opera goes on, at the nearby lake gardens, lots of people gather to light up lanterns and candles.  In the past, when most people lived in villages with areas where children can go around playing with lanterns, such luxury is now gone.  The roads are simply too dangerous for children to walk in groups with lanterns.  As a result, the lake gardens provide an ideal venue.

            This lady came early with her family and prepared home-made colourful paper lamps  

                     Here's what her lamps looked like after she has lighted them up with candles.

 The younger people let off fireworks, not those expensive ones, but good enough to keep everyone happy

.

People just find a place to sit on the ground while the children lighted up the place with lanterns.

 Children find it fun to see and mix around with so many other people and each family or group tries to be     as creative as possible with their arrangement of lanterns and candles.

                      Some hang their lanterns on trees while others put more effort on the ground.

All in all, the lake gardens was quite a beautiful sight to behold but then, if only there are more responsible people who will also remove whatever rubbish they have before they leave the place, it would be better.  Hopefully, with all the hypes about the environment, the younger generation will not just give lip service to such ideas but put them into practice too.

 

 

 

The Rainforest World Music Festival 2011

The Rainforest World Music Festival 2011 was held at the Sarawak Cultural Village, Santubong from the 8 - 10 July 2011.  This annual three-day event has never failed to draw large crowd of foreigners as well as locals.  this year, the newspapers estimated a crowd of around 20 thousand people for the first night and 25 thousand for the second and the third nights.   Most of them are repeated visitors, which means they come back year after year. Why and what's so special about this festival?  So, this year, I make it a point to get there to see it for myself.

The music and songs played offer alternatives to the mainstream music heard on radio and television.  No lady gaga lookalikes, just good musician playing good tunes and singing in their own native language.  Most people don't understand the lyrics of the songs but the beat of the music is universal, and it comes straight from the hearts of performers.  There is a strong bond between the performers and the crowd below the stage.  There is interaction and total physical response between the two which is seldom found in modern day pop concerts.  I have a few clips here and hopefully you can see what I mean.  However, please bear in mind that these clips were taken using a cheap, low-specs, point and shoot digital camera - so the quality may not be very good.

ISKWEW FROM CANADA

This short video clip is from the performance of the Iskwew from Canada.  They are from one of the native tribes there.  Their songs was about the universe and brotherhood - all sang in their own language - and in the middle of their singing, they came down from the stage and asked everyone to join hands in a circle and move in a clockwise direction according to the beat of the song.  Gradually, more and more people joined in, and just imagine thousands of people held hands in a giant circle that moved to the beat of the universe!  That's how powerful these performances are!!

LEWETON WOMEN'S WATER MUSIC FROM VANUATU

  

This is a unique performance by six very pretty women from Vanautu.   The performance was done in the afternoon with them singing an introductory song on the bank of the lake - as seen in the video clip above. Since they wore nothing except for some leaves, it would not be too safe to perform at night with all those infamous Sarawak Woman-Eating crocodiles lurking around the lake That aside, they gradually went into the lake and started their music by beating the water with their hands.  The unison of the beat create a base for them to sing their song.  It is truly a natural form of rainforest music.  

HERE ARE SOME STILL SHOTS OF THEM GOING INTO THE LAKE AND BEATING THE WATER WITH THEIR BARE HANDS TO CREATE MUSIC 

AN ACCORDION WORKSHOP AND JAM SESSION  

Liza Haley, from the USA, showing the audience her skills on the accordion 

 

There were also workshops on the different musical instruments held in the afternoon and I attended the one on accordion.  Here, five different accordion players from five different countries and who speak five different languages came together to share a common ground - playing the accordion.  Each of them tried to explain to the audience about themselves and their accordion and then suddenly before the session ends Jaoquin Diaz from the Dominican Republic stood up and suggested that they have a jam session - all agreed.  He started playing a popular tune and then one by one jammed in with his/her own unique style - the result - fantastic music from them, done without practice.  Here's the part of the jam session in the clip below: 

             
VICTOR VALDEZ TRIO

This trio comes from Mexico and the audience simply loves them.  They play beautiful Mexican folk songs to a contemporary beat, keeping the audience on their feet.  Again, they have a good rapport with the audience. When a group asked for a special song which was quite popular, they agreed to play it for them even though they never rehearsed that one before.  The result? - just look at the clip below:

The Rainforest World Music Festival is all about connection - positive connection between performers and audience.  The performers did better and better when the audience responded positively.  The audience's response energise the performers and in return their performances turn the audience on.  This year 21 groups from different parts of the world performed together to give the occasion a feel of a good music festival, however, there will be some groups which will not be as appealing to the crowd as others.        

In this festival, the audience is a participating one and not a passive one which stays seated in their places.

So, if you plan to go to next year's festival, be sure to be a participating audience or you will not enjoy the whole thing to the fullest. Do not go with certain expectations for you will surely be disappointed if your expectations are not met.   

 

The New Club Taiping

The New Club Taiping is actually an old club, it is in fact the oldest club in South East Asia.  The origin of the club can be traced back to the British Administration period in history where planters needed a place to meet and socialise.  The history of The New Club can easily be found in many other blogs and thus there is no need for me to re-mention it here.  What interests me is the fact that much of the "colonial" aspects of the physical club house still remained intact and functioning.    From the roof right down to the toilet, traces of its colonial past are still there.

This official board was erected by the town council to give a brief history of the New Club which was said to be established in 1894.

 This is the old wooden building where the present day administration office, library and guest chambers are located.  Built in colonial style on concrete pillars, not much of the design has changed.

The walls and windows still retained its original shape and design.  And even the awning for each of the windows are so well restored.  I have not seen a better preserved wooden awning like this one anywhere else in town.

Although there has been a bit of adaptation done to enable air-conditioning, the windows still have the old-fashioned awnings which add character to the building. 

This is inside the man's toilet.  No where else in town has the colonial day urinal been better preserved and is still in service.   Even the ventilation windows are from the original toilet.   

     These urinals look so solid and can still last for a few more centuries if they are properly managed. 

On closer inspection, one could still see the trademark of the manufacturer on each of the urinals - it was manufactured by Doulton Co. London.   The toilet itself is not the old one, this is a new toilet but the contractor has been told to retain and reuse as much of whatever that can be used in the process of renovation from the old toilet.  Cultural conservationists should take a leaf from this - if we cannot save everything - at least save as much as possible.       

Then we have the conference room.  This is again a heritage building made of wood.  The interesting aspect of this building is that it is build on steel stilts.  It must have come across the mind of the designer that to avoid the perils of destruction by termites and the tropical weather, steel could be used to overcome this problem.  

Today the building still stand on the strong steel stilts and the interior of the building has been modified to accommodate air-conditioning, but the doors, windows and the exterior design have been retained.  The New Club may seem to be just an insignificant small building in a fast developing town, but there is much to be learnt about restoration of old buildings without causing much destruction to their original forms and character.    

 

The Taiping Dobi Line

There is this area near the Taiping Lake Gardens where the old-fashioned laundry service is still available and it is more commonly known as the dobi line.  There is a flat and the laundry shops are all located on the ground floor.

There is an open space in front of the flat and this is where the washed laundry is being dried in the sun.

What is interesting about this service is the way they hang the items out to dry.  Ropes are used for this and the pieces of clothes or cloth are gripped by two pieces of twisted ropes.  No pegs are used at all.  

The laundry shops lined up the ground floor and there is a good mixture of Indian and Chinese doing this business.  They still do it the way their fathers and grandfathers did it, many decades ago. 

Once the cloth and clothes are ready, the ropes are raised above the ground by supporting poles.

Here we can see an old man pushing a cart full of wet laundry and getting them on the ropes to be dried.

Morning is a time when we can see them coming out to dry the laundry, most of which are washed by hand.

Most of the items come from restaurants and small hotels around the town, but they still get a lot of business from loyal individual clients too.

Then as evening approaches, it is time to collect the dried items back before night fall.   Usually on a hot day like this and with the wind constantly blowing across the open space, the laundry will be dried in the afternoon.. 

 
At present, this place is facing competition from modern laundry shops in town which use washing machines to do the job.  The main problem, however, is not one of changing the mode of operation, but one of the lack of man-power.  The younger generation no longer wants to continue doing this kind of thing, even though they are never short of clients.  Only time can tell if this particular institution of our society will remain or will it disappear in a few generations' time.   Washing machines are certainly not as pretty looking as the scenery we have here and now.