Wau Puyuh

Wau Bulan

Kampung Kichang. Kelantan.

23 Oct 2006

Bas 10 took me to Kampung Kichang, renown for its traditional kitemakers. I arrive at the kitemaker centre to find out from' Ra' her kitemaster father has passed away a year ago. Another male (either uncle or brother) also knows how to make kites but he is not keen to continue the tradition.

I told her I would have liked to have met him and ask if she had any of his kites on display. There were none, all had been sold. The ones in the shop were predominately the manufactured non-flying souvenir types.

I returned back to the road to be punctually passed up by the bus-the driver waving off my signal comically . Not a good stopping area? Rather than waiting for another bus at the next stop, I continue to jalan jalan whereupon I stumble upon a crowd of people. Three men shuffled flaming coconut husks from one clay pot to another. They were making akok (coconut egg treat) the traditional way, using husks to heat and I was lucky as this was the last day they were doing it.

A local couple making off with purchase pause to ask me about my origins. As coincidence would have it, he was wearing a Pasir Gudang international kite festival shirt. KB was as far away from PG within penn Malaysia without crossing borders. I enthusiastically told him I just came from there , drop the names of mutual friends, and ask if he was a kitemaker. "No, a seasoned flyer. But you are in luck, the best kitemaker lives right by here." In fact, after he left, the akok makers said the footpath behind the kiosk leads to his kampung "village." Seeing my eagerness, they teased I would be kidnapped if I headed that way and better stay put and extended some akok for me to sample.

I kindly decline because I was fasting like mostly everyone else for Ramadan but still much to their surprise. I got in queue to buy some famous akok for my hosts in KB meanwhile doing my best to field questions about how much Malay I know, my interest in kites, reasons for "puasa"fasting, and my experience of it. The akok crowd who greeted my initial curiosity amusingly and warily sent me off with a friendly farewell of smiles and waves. I made a mental note to arrange a proper visit with kitemaker post-hari raya and backtracked to catch my bas.