Having experience living in a city (Kuala Lumpur) for around seven years, I began to take for granted the things we have in the city. In the city, we often have everything at our convenience such as easy access to shops and malls, public transport and household equipments that make our lives a lot easier. I never understood what the church pastor told us about going to places where such facilities are hard to be found to come back feeling more grateful of what we have. I have to admit that I was afraid at first to visit the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village in Pahang, but after my first visit there, I discovered that I actually enjoy experiencing the different lifestyle there.
The lifestyle at the Orang Asli village is very different from the lifestyle in the city. The people there have no washing machine, fancy kitchen gadgets or restaurants. They live a very simple life.
Most of the Orang Asli people earn their income through farming and rubber tapping. They work hard and wake up very early in the morning to make a living but only receive a meagre salary for that. Though they earn very little money, I found that they were still happy. This is very unlike the city folks who always complain about their salaries and often chase after more money.
During the church excursion, we managed to bring food, clothes and household equipments for the Orang Asli people. While distributing the donated goods, I could notice their happy faces while receiving things that would otherwise be thrown away by the city people.
Our church excursion team was blessed to be invited for an Orang Asli wedding banquet while we were there. It was a chance of a lifetime. The wedding feast was held at one of the village bamboo houses. The banquet spread was very exotic and unfamiliar to us. However, being an adventurous person, I did not have any problem eating the food served at the wedding. But what was really mind boggling was stomaching down an Aboriginal delicacy prepared specially for weddings - monkey meat and brain. Though surrounded by fear, everyone from the church excursion team ate some of the monkey meat and brain to show appreciation to the wedding host on what he/she has prepared for us. My favourite of all the food served at the wedding was the turmeric flavoured sticky rice (glutinous rice).
Overall, my trip to the Orang Asli village was very enriching. I highly encourage others to visit the Orang Asli village if given the chance to do so at least once in their lifetime.
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| The police checking point before entering the Orang Asli (Malaysian
Aboriginal) village |
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A herd of cows
grazing at the grass at the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village
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The wedding venue at the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village |
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The food we ate
during the wedding banquet. It was a feast indeed.
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The Orang Asli (Malaysian Aboriginal) village. |
