We had breakfast at 8 – an assortment of dips (most chilli/curry flavours) with naan and roti breads. For David I ordered toast, egg and jam! Best of all was passion fruit fresh from the gardens – they are the things that look like pink scotch eggs. They were absolutely scrummy.
After breakfast was our demonstration of Orang Asli hunting techniques with blow pipes and other devious traps to catch/kill all sizes of prey from rats (just one type of very large rodent which is apparently very tasty), wild chickens, squirrels and monkeys.
Our host, Gee, explaining how a blowpipe is made (from various types of bamboo) and the poisons used to bring down larger animals. The poisons can't be extracted from snakes or spiders as the venom would render the prey inedible so they use tree/bark based poisons.
the 100 'bullseye' was scored by the guy demonstrating the blow pipe technique. David had 5 attempts - the first two made 60 (or borderline 80 for one) the last 3 went high and to the left but were in a tight cluster just outside the target. Very good for his first attempt!
I dared him!
Durians are much loved by Chinese/Malays/Indonesians but they're an acquired taste. The stench is horrible - they've been likened to buckets of fermenting nappies and old socks amongst other things. I tried the fruit in the 80s when Singaporean friends insisted I shouldn't miss out on such a treat .. Yuk!
Anyway, as one of the staff had brought some to the cooking area whilst we were there, David agreed to try some and he actually thought it was 'OK' .. brave man!
I'd photographed this odd looking shrub/fruit last night when walking around the grounds but wasn't sure what it was
This morning the guy who serves our meals handed me one of the florets to try - just the cream section/base of the floret. They call it mock ginger plant and it has a wonderful sweet & sour flavour. The juice or nectar is only produced in the mornings - they dry out and die during the heat of the day ... and in the mornings they are much appreciated by these guys ..
Daughters of one of the ladies who helps around the cooking area
So cute ...
Just before we left Gee took us around the grounds talking about the plants and trees growing there. He demonstrated how one particular shrub produces a soap like substance when the leaves are crumpled and screwed up in the hands. Its slightly tacky and can be used to stop bleeding and heal cuts, and it deters flies and biting insects for up to 30 minutes after application as well as being used as a general cleanser.
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