Holiday Assignment

Hi there!

How are you doing? Im fine here. ^^ I just got back from Negeri Sembilan last Wednesday, at last!! Took me some days to settle down. We actually spent two weeks instead of three for our measured drawing in Negeri Sembilan . Hehe. That’s good news!

Well, the project was quite tiring but satisfying la. As we are following the keluarga angkat program, all of us were distributed randomly among the kampong houses. The place that we went was Seri Menanti. And within Seri Menanti there are many many smaller kampungs. The one that my group stayed is called Kg Gunung Pasir, which was far away from the others, and also furthest away from the hall that we were to gather for lunch and dinner and other social activities.

A small lovely small kampong

They are five of us in a group. The guys actually stayed in the Ketua Kampong (of Gunung Pasir) house and the gals stayed at his elder sister house nearby. Can see that the ketua kampong is quite well-to-do la. He has prawn ponds at the backyard of the house and the view was simply great. Surrounded by mountains and trees. Along the way to his house we passed by many fruits farms.

Our house

At the backyard

Water from the hill. Cold~

That's our father, Pakcik Shamsuddin catching prawns

The place where the gals stayed

In the morning at about 8 something, I still could see mists and the weather was freaking cold. It is a very rare sight for me in KL. But then the wasn’t any water heater for a hot shower =( Apart from prawns, our foster family also rears chicken and goats. There are also ducks and two turkeys at the neighbour's house.

Look at the mist, cloud, or whatever u call that

Ownself KFC

Turkey and lamp chop anytime =p

During night, we don’t have to sleep in our sleeping bags cuz they have beds. Hehe. But after I found out that their cats used to sleep on the bed when we weren’t there, I still used my sleeping bag on the bed. Hehe. The Malays like the cats so much. There are three in the house. They name them Hitam, J.Lo and Sayang. Hee..what a name. And they feed them on whiskers. Ahh.. This explains why the cats looks so fat and pampered.

Shar playing with one of the cats

Our room

Breakfasts were prepared by our family every morning before we leave the house. Sometimes they bought nasi lemak, sometimes some kuih and karipap, and sometimes the mum goreng nasi for us.

Small durians. Fruits season's in August!

Having some fun out there

As for lunch and dinner, we had our meals in the hall. The food are average. At least we don’t have to use our hands to eat eventhough I brought spoons there. =p Chicken and ulam were on everyday’s menu. Sometimes we would have fish, vegetables, potato, egg, curry etc. And fruits after meal. So that’s the time where all of us could gather and tell their sides of stories about the family and rumah kajian.

Doing our work in the serambi area

Foldable Ridsect. It really helped!

For our rumah kajian, each group were given a Malay traditional house (or surau) located close to the place that we stayed.

During the house visit

My group got a very, very old house. Not only that it is old, it is abandoned and some parts of it were already in bad condition. Some floors and walls were torn down. No electricity. Dust everywhere. But the house still stay strong on its structure. And our house was the only house located in the woods. When we first walked into the house, honestly, it crept us out.
There is a story here...

The house once owned by Dato' Laksaman Salleh, or To' La Salleh

It was built and extended by himself

Me, Sufian, Piqa, Shar and Choon Wah

The site was more like a isolated area, surrounded by trees and semak. From the main road, you’ll never realized there is an ancient house inside as it is quite covered. And the house was totally inaccessible after the last owner left the house at least 50 years ago . It looked very much like Angkor Wat when the first time the lecturer brought us to the house.

Around our site

The house is located right inside here

See it?

Angkor Wat alike

Some creatures/stuff

On the first day, we had to clear the lalang and grass around the site. Only after that we felt the house was at least brighter. But one thing all of us really hate about our site was, MOSQUITO!!! They are everywhere! Therefore every time before we enter the site, we have to apply mosquito repellent and burn some egg crates to keep the mosquito away.

Before it was cleared

And after...!!

When there was smoke, there won’t be mosquito.

It brings out the feel

Some pics inside the house:

The serambi area

Rumah Ibu

Hehe. Signing in..

The wooden staircase

Loteng (attic). There were some bats up there

Piqa and Sufian

Choon Wah and Shar

___ Next Top Model Photo Shoot

All of us

Some items found inside the house:

Old Coke and F&N bottle

Baby shirt

Cupboard

Oil lamp

Plates and Al-Quran in pieces

Handbag and old passports

Choon Wah found a very old group photo on top of a cupboard.

Very mystery feel..

One of the fella *respect* guy there is To' La Salleh

Measuring the building was one part of the project. The other part that we were supposed to do is to find out about the history of the house. So we had to ask around the neighbour, which then showed us to the relatives of the ex-owner of the house. We even went as far as to Seremban and Kuala Pilah to track them down and interview some of them. Many to do within the two weeks. Or else, we will have to come back again if the information is not sufficient for the report and drawings.

In Seremban

Interviewing daughter of the To' La Salleh

Some site work:

Taking down important details

Rubbing on the decoratives

And some people just crap around

I hope I didn’t bored you with my stories here. Like essay writing already. Hehe. I’ll attach some photos for u to see la. Twoooo more weeks before new sem begins. Wuu… Dunno should feel glad or sad. Anyway, I’ll see u again k. Keep in touch!! Tata for now ;)

Group 'Terlebih Sudah'. Opps..