Taste of island hospitality

Taste of island hospitality
Thursday November 2, 2006
Story and photo by Christina Koh

FOREIGN tourists coming to Pangkor Island will soon get a chance to visit the homes of certain residents there in a year-round open house programme.

Tourism Malaysia officer Shahrim Tan said the programme, involved five homes each in Kampung Teluk Dalam and Kampung Teluk Gedung.

The two locations promise to be interesting as Kampung Teluk Dalam is a Malay fishing village while Kampung Teluk Gedung is located near the Dutch Fort and Sacred Rock (Batu Bersurat) tourist attractions.

The plan is to eventually have more year-round open houses in other parts of Malaysia.

Pangkor assemblyman Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir praised the open house programme as it would expose tourists to how Malaysians live and celebrate their festivals.

“This is in line with the state government efforts to promote Pangkor especially since it is one of the top tourist destinations in the state.

“I hope that developers will not interfere with the natural beauty of the island,” he told reporters during a Hari Raya function at Kampung Teluk Gedung recently.

Hosted by the village and Tourism Malaysia, the event attracted locals and tourists from England, Iran, Jamaica and Kuala Lumpur.

For an hour, Dr Zambry even played tour guide for the visitors as he showed them how to grill satay, explained Hari Raya customs and invited them to try out local delights like lemang, dodol and assam laksa.

MALAYSIAN DELICACY: Ratigan trying his hand at grilling satay. With him are Dr Zambry (left), Mason and Iranian tourist Reza Khedmati.

Helen Mason, 23, a personal assistant from Britain, said that she and her friend Benoit Ratigan, 34, had been in Malaysia for three months.

“We happened to hear about the event when we were staying in Coral Bay Hotel. We’ve been enjoying the scuba diving and jungle trekking in Borneo and other places,” she said.

Lending more interest to the event was local snake catcher Awaluddin Man who sprang a surprise when he dropped by with Mina, his tame king cobra.

Awaluddin, 70, showed the curious audience how he carried the snake by gently draping her on his shoulders, which encouraged Ratigan to take a picture with the king cobra. - The Star.

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