241. PINEAPPLE FESTIVAL - HUAT AH!

 

It says Festival of the pineapple flower in Simpang Renggam...

The Chinese Lunar New Year is round the corner. Red is the auspicious colour to the Chinese, these red/pink fruits are meant for display as the New Year decorations and as offerings at the altar. Plantation owners use this time to observe the Harvest festival. It takes up to 2 years for the fruit to get to this size and it coincides with the Lunar New Year. 

Agricultural communities everywhere observe a Harvest Festival where they give thanks for the latest harvest and ask for abundance at subsequent harvests. 

The Hindus of South India and those in Malaysia and Singapore recently observed Pongal. Although not an agricultural society, Singapore Hindu temples observe Pongal as Thanksgiving and as a cultural thingy. There's a small cow farm whose cows come out for display during an observance ceremony at a local temple...to give thanks for the milk they produce...

Elsewhere in the Western world, it's observed as Thanksgiving with the Horn of Plenty or Cornucopia as the centerpiece...that too symbolises abundance and nourishment...

Elsewhere they have their pumpkin patch, in Renggam, it's pineapple patch...a big one too...!

It's festive, it's celebratory, it's fun!

Offering thanks to Heaven and Earth for more good harvests - bowing to North South East and West...

I offer thanks that my stay was not dampened by very wet weather and I saw what I came to see. When it did rain, the group was indoors at a restaurant or in a covered area and the rain passed quickly...in any case, I always offer thanks for rain as our reservoirs are replenished.

I'm happy for the organisers that this important publicity/marketing/advertising event went well without incidence. The influencers were there, social media people, camera crew with drones, the whole works. The Singapore group played their roles well as sketching artists covering the event with their sketch pads. 

We were the tourists contributing to the blurb to lure more Singaporeans to include Kluang in their escapes into Malaysia for food and shopping...

I wrote about this in post 234 - 'Kluang is so happening'

Touch of nostalgia - my school bus once upon a time...

Plantation workers - I didn't get the job, too slow...

Flying pineapples - don't play play...

To get to the plantation for this sunrise ceremony, I was up before 4.30am. Bleary eyed, I stumbled in the dim light lit by touchlights and phone lights. We looked more like illegal migrant farm workers, herded into the back of lorries that took us into, who knows where...

But, wait, on approaching the spot where the action is, we were greeted with fireworks and firecrackers! We are the inaugural tourists from SG, a busload of us, helping to publicise Kluang and her attractions. The group played their parts well, sketching anything and everything...

As we walked towards the stage, there was this energtic drumming to announce our arrival! To round up the ceremony, the firecrackers was a good 5mins long!

The sun was late, hidden by a grey cloudy overcast sky, threatening to rain.

The youngsters acted as sketch models

The officials carried out the ceremony of Thanksgiving. As part of a tourism drive, this ceremony may become a regular annual event (methinks)

President Tharman of SG may have inspired focus on this fruit when he used it as his election symbol.   ;-) !

Street food - from the back of his car he does good sales ...

His chicken rice is all ready to go, you take what you like, when ready to pay, tell him which body part you took and pay accordingly - thigh or wing or breast...small businesses in such small towns will be sold out after we finish with them. They are literally scrapping the bottom of the rice pot to prepare the last order of fried rice! The chap above ran out of chicken and rice but had a contingency plan - he offered fried noodles with simple limited ingredients. 

Such interesting old places are not for spoilt, entitled immature brats, definitely not those with OCD...this group adjusted well as most are an older demographic who may have come from humble beginnings...

Comfort food in a little village plantation coffeeshop. Every trip to Simpang Renggam won't be complete without breaky here! The proprietor is excited as he efficiently prepared the various coffee and tea orders - black, white, no sugar, less sugar, weak, strong, ice...he had extra hands roped in to cope with this busload...

Fang Hui offers a selection of bread types toasted over charcoal, with butter and coconut jam, peanut butter. Needless to say, I drink too much real coffee when in Malaysia, and they must come from coffeeshops such as this...!

Remember my name! If you can find me...I'm somewhere in the boondocks of Simpang Renggam...

The Chinese Lunar New Year is not for another 2 weeks but because of our presence, I sense they put on this show for our benefit. It was beautifully done. It was just below the studio where we had gathered for tea...and fresh wholesome coconut water...and to show off the sketching that was done over 3 days...

Show & Tell...the art was super - there were several experienced, passionate artists from SG and Kluang.

In the vicinity of this studio/cafe are some fabulous old heritage buildings with beautiful pediments. There's so much potential in Kluang, once restored, this area would be the place to be...I'm sure the tourism people and interested parties are working towards this...first, the Singaporeans, later, mainland Chinese...the backpackers are 'by the way'

One constructed in 1931 the other in 1973. The older pink one has more 'art' incorporated into its construction, the 'younger' blue one is just utilitarian. I like the village looking mosque and its humble minaret at the end of that lane...big city mosques are loud, showy, pretty much like those mega churches. 

My train tickets between Renggam and Bekok, courtesy of KTM who gave us a carriage. It smelt and looked new and the ride was silent and smooth...train travel throughout Malaysia will be a big thing in the near future once the lines are ready, connection is easy and transfers are convenient with accommodations near stations.

The RTS (Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System) will start operating by 2026, if things go as planned. This train service will connect to services provided by Malayan Railways (KTM - Kereta Api Tanah Melayu). This was the highlight of the trip for me and my main reason to return to Kluang so soon after my last outing - to check out the rail travel. The stations are spanking new and large and will be able to handle a big load of local commuters and tourists. 

Bekok station appears deserted but from the size of the station, they are preparing for the future...

Grand entrance! drumroll please !

The drive to Paloh was an hour but what an interesting old town with homes that are dilapidated, abandoned, but sketch and photo worthy.

One of the 'Master' sketchers, Soong Ching Yee, who can do credit to a rundown village home...

The 70 year old Capitol Theatre will one day be given a new lease of life when this town awakes from its deep slumber and should the moolah start to pour in...! The movie poster below would be a collector's item, it must be an antique...

A public loo can be spiced up with just a coat of paint, limewash or a little artwork. Below, in the previous old railway station, the ticket booth is this hutch where one sees only the hands of the cashier, apparently, they remain faceless to prevent identification in the event of a planned robbery or a kidnap for ransom money, if its the same cashier who does the banking as well...

Small rural towns have been notorious as breeding grounds for gangster triads, turf wars, extortion/protection gangs. Before that, during the British days, plantation towns were hiding places for Communists, their sympathisers and so-called freedom fighters fighting the British. It was a bloody time. Singapore too had her share of those dark days...it was a tumultuous period in the history of old Malaya and Singapura...

This previous Kluang railway station has become a coffeeshop which is brilliant as there's history and character associated with it...aptly named Rail Cafe...

Kluang and Renggam towns are likened to a rail interchange. Their wall art around town pay homage to the locomotive and its evolution to today's KTM trains. A high speed rail from Singapore into Malaysia and possibly beyond is talked about...

'Start where you are, Use what you have, Do what you can' My sentiments exactly.  I serve who I see in front of me who may need my service.

The lanes can be interesting not for just the arresting artwork but the shapes of the buildings...for painters and photogs, they're simply brilliant...shape, form, function...

This church steeple caught my eye - the buildings in Malaysia's small, old towns are so retro, I love them all. They are from an era I like, art deco, but less fancy than in the West during the same era, chiefly because, I venture a guess, the pockets aren't as deep...

These youngsters performed with such gusto they really looked like they were enjoying themselves...this was at a Chinese New Year bazaar in the open. The Malaysians appear to be better integrated than the Singaporeans. At public performances there's a Malay cultural troupe dancing or an orchestra playing traditional instruments not a band with guitars and drummer belting out pop tunes, or worse, heavy metal...

Perhaps, the licensing require them to include traditional, cultural performances, but that's a good thing. 

In SG, the closest thing to traditional Malay performances I saw was in a Museum Fair where the troupes were from Indonesia, another from Kelantan, Malaysia. The music, songs, costumes, were beautiful...

We need to have more of these in the community spaces, not a large number of the Singapore public go to events at our Museums or even at the Bay Gardens, even if they're free admissions...

Back to Kluang - spotted this very very old watch shop and its owner who opens and closes his shop when he pleases. He tells me why - he hops into a coach that takes him to the casino in Singapore and returns at the end of the day and he does this once or twice a week! He invited us to tea at a coffeeshop but we had a train to catch to Bekok! Next time!

Met this artist for the first time - Tia Boon Sim of SG...

William Sim and his dragon...

...and this Dynamic Duo mother and daughter pair, Corina and Niki Paul...

Niki Paul leaves for Uni soon...no idea when we will meet again...

Watercolorist Uhky2 

The very passionate sketchers...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Huat ah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

some pics came from fellow travellers, Chankerk Teh, My Art Space FB page...Chankerk Teh of My Art Space would have been the driving force behind this event with creative imput from some Master sketchers; others would be the plantation owners, Railway officials (KTM), officials from the local government office, tourism officials...