27 Jan 2012

Planting Padi - Tanjung Karang


Spent a lovely day experiencing padi planting with close friends and family.

The girls hard at work planting, while the boy chickened out because of the mud. The girls went in barefooted. Ooh yeah... ;)


Planting her hair in as well? A you can imagine, later I had to clean mud out of her clothes AND hair! :)


She just enjoyed doing the rows, and loved the muddy feeling on her feet. She described the feeling as "soft, cooling and lovely." :) 

 This is Lela's husband who's a farmer. He was very patient and showed the girls how padi planting is done.

While planting the girls came across snail's eggs

Here they're doing Jiggly dances to avoid stepping on padi and to avoid from falling...they had several near falls when feet got stuck in mud. :)  










Norlela Showed us this machine which plants baby padi plants. Definitely easier and less back breaking then using hands. The plants are filled in the "rack" on the right and is planted as the machine move and rotates.
She also showed us a different machine which is carried on the back of the farmer. Seeds are filled into this machine and then strewn onto dry land. The land has to be dry or the seeds will not grow.

Norlela again, our very fantastic wonderful guide showed the children this cotton tree too and gave the girls some as souvenirs. :)

Well after a hot hot day in the sun, we visited her village house, which is really huge and beautiful! The kids went wild here running from end to end with friends.

Then we were treated to a really scrumptious lunch!! This is just half the dishes she served us. THere' more! Yummy. :)  All in all, we really enjoyed our  trip with Norlela. Her family, her dad are just wonderful hosts, and we will definitely visit her again. :)

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After all that, we left Tanjung Karang and headed towards Sekinchan in search of the "Rice Bowl" of Selangor. First a stop over at the seaside.
We met this fisherman, and believe it or not, that's his hand made boat!!! He fishes from morn till noon in that tiny little thing!! I asked him if it ever toppled and he said "Never" and brought out his oar to show me, as well as posed for a shot. :)

This tree house was absolutely tempting and we ended up sitting in hammocks while the kids had great fun swinging on these DIY swings, made of plastic chairs, leg removed. Cool. :)
Here 2 mamas go check out if the fisherman will sell his fish and crabs. Well, they found out that he only sells  to restaurants.
And to complete our field trip, we headed to the padi/rice factory in Sekinchan. Kids saw how the rice is sieved at various levels, and how husks are collected for chicken feed, fuel and fish pellets while broken, polished rice particles are collected for making noodles.


And the final stage...collecting...

Glorious RICE!




13 comments :

marie said...

Okay, your kids have got to be some of the luckiest kids ever! Their adventures put my 'going to the park & library' and even Disneyland to shame!

Seriously how cool that they get to see all of this up close and that tree house is AWESOME! And that handmade boat, that guy is great.

Your pictures are so vivid, loved them all.

Martha Jin said...

thank Marie, but I'm sure my girl would love to trade this for a day in Disneyland too. :)

Divoo said...

i can keep looking at these pictures forever! it's always nice to see your family go on such adventurous trips and share them with us... great pictures, as usual! this is the first time i got to see snail eggs! :)

have a great weekend!

gail said...

Amazing! So much work.

Here, we see Chinese people eating white rice and that is what is most popular in "Chinese" restaurants. I only recently saw that brown rice is available. Is that true in your part of the world? Is more white rice eaten? I have taken to eating brown rice to get the health benefits, although I like the taste of white rice better!

Shanda said...

I loved this. Thank you for linking up. I spent a couple weeks in Thailand last Oct. and loved the rice fields. I even brought back some kernels to remind me!

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

Your kids work so hard...even with mud in their hair! You should be proud of them...neat to have rice

Joan Davis (Jo) said...

Fascinating pictures! Near by us, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, rice is grown. However, the process is nothing like you showed of the traditional rice paddies! Thanks for sharing!

mellymilly said...

oh wow!! this is such a great learning opportunity..great stuffs....the whole trip is organized through de palma inn kuala selangor?

Martha Jin said...

G: Yes, brown rice is widely available here too. And Milly, yup, call DePalma inn to arrange a trip. but they do charge RM40 perhead (inclusive of lunch)

Anonymous said...

What an incredible opportunity for your girls. I could feel that mud between my toes.

Tasha.T said...

Always fascinating seeing your adventures.

eddiesherene said...

This is an awesome..tremendous exposure for the kids.
Will you have such event again?
would love to join.


xoxo
aileen lee

Martha Jin said...

Will let you know when we do. :)

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