Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014 (Part 5, Last one)

Finally, the last checkpoint for JJK Pulau Pinang is the St' Georgian Girls School. Where they opened up a homestay which in in dorm style so they called it Dormstay Casa Georgian. With can uphold up to 300 visitors on weekends and school holidays but only 100 visitors on weekdays. As the school students are up to 200 students.

The main purpose of opening a Dormstay is to teach the students in their entrepreneurship capabilities regarding their subject in school. 100% operates by the teachers and the student, which they also provides services for team building and tour packages in Pulau Pinang.

The St. Georgian Girls School.

"The Dormstay" was actually the students dormstay. And that is why on weekdays, they can only accept 100 visitors to stay. SO for those who wants to stay here better pick on weekend. The more the merrier.

The headmeaster - Puan Shariffah Afifah. Thank you on giving us the tour.

The TV room.

Lounge area.

Tea time while entertained by the schools's Jazz Club. Jazzzzzz

Silat performance when we first came.

Another bussiness by the students - the schools koperasi. Its like mini supermarket. 

Handled by the students.

Thank you St Georgian Girls School, Gaya Travel and SKM for this opportunity :)

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014 (Part 4)

Next homestay - Koperasi Homestay Sg. Chenaam Nibong Tebal Berhad. The story for its name came from a story of a father and a son. One fine day, it was raining and the father being a fisherman could not go down to the sea. As when it is raining, it is not safe to go to the sea. But then his son is hungry and he said, "Ayah, che na'am." which means "Dad, I'm hungry."

Despite the raining, the father went down to the sea for the sake of his son. So that is how this villages get its name Sg Chenaam. Here, I have a roommate. A tour guide name Kak Salmiah. At this point, I think I have food poisoning thus, not much of info I can get but I'll try share on some stories on my stay here.

This is my foster family - Abd Halil b Ismail's family.

The activity that we did here was the launching of JOM JELAJAH KOPERASI PULAU PINANG 2014 By Datuk Nik Ali. And some local activities the next morning like - Pukul Bantal and Tangkap Itik dalam kolam.

The launching ceremony of Jom Jelajah Koperasi PP 2014.

The beautiful scenery of Kampung Sg Chenaam.

This is the game of Pukul Bantal which is when you hit your partner with a pillow while trying to maintain your balance on a tree trunk. It was surely a fun activity for the tourist who came to stay here.

Its the girls time to play. It was full of laughter seeing them trying to balance while hitting the opponent.

Catch the duck ! This activity is strictly for those who know how to swim. As the pond/swamp/river is a bit deep in the middle.

Congratulation on you, you Singaporean guy. Sorry, I forgot your name.

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Next we head down to Koperasi Homestay Seri Aman Pulau Pinang Berhad. Which is on an island called Pulau Aman, but still considered as the mainland. Not the island. Homestay in Pulau Aman is the only homestay on an island. With the cpacity of 300 villagers in the island it will surely give you the experience away from the havoc of the big city. You have to take a boat at the Jetty Batu Musang.

They only have 1 school - 13 teacher and 28 students, 1 clinic with only 2 nurses, 1 mosque, 1 kindergarden, and 1 multipurpose hall. Their in-house product consists of belacan which is prawn paste, ikan masin or salted fish, traditional snacks and handcraft items made by the women in the village.

Besides than homestay, they also have budget hotel and chalet at an affordable price. The best part of going to Pulau Aman was taking the boat for an island tour for about one hour which cost about RM150 for 12 people. They even have bicycle for rental as the roads in Pulau Aman could not cater for cars. 

This is the place - for the boats of course.

The jetty itself. It was a nice view for me.

All aboard !

With the famous blogger Tatie from Kisah Tatie

We're here ! At Pulau Aman.

The traditional snack - Kuih Kapit

Belacan or shrimp paste.

The making of belacan.

The final product. RM 5 each.

The making of ikan masin.

The oldest Sukun tree. See how big is the tree trunk?

On our way back...

Dolphines ! I get to see dolphines ! There are two of them I think.

So cuteeeeeee. It was hard trying to catch a picture of it.

Last story coming up. You may grab a cup of tea.

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014 (Part 3)

Third place that we visited under the SKM was Koperasi Pasar Aneka Taman Selat Butterworth Berhad. Or as local people say Pasar Karat. Pasar Karat is like your normal pasar malam / uptown but with a little twist. They sell vintage items like old and rare radio or oil lamp or just some second-hand stuffs.

Here they call this place as Pasar Karat "Rope Walk". Why rope walk? Because the first Pasar Karat was once opened at a road known as Jalan Pintal Tali which translating to Twine rope street but it may sound hard to pronounced so they came out with the Rope Walk. My first thought was, the shops were guarded with rope. Haha. What an imagination.

The people incharge to guide us through the Pasar Karat "Rope Walk".

An old radio that is not for sale but for show purposes.

Piring hitam, I must say this is vintage.

Hello owner of the next stall. Haha.

Old iron. Used with burning charcoal.

Ahaaa ! I bet this is the one that made u overawed ! (tergamam)

Haha.

More coming soon. Wait ahhh.

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014 (Part 2)

Still in Homestay GDW Mengkuang Titi, Pulau Pinang, before departing to other Koperasi we were invited to check out on their in-house product such as - Madu Lebah Kelulut, Dodol, Maruku dan Bedak Sejuk.

A bit info of my foster family - Encik Mokhtar bin Zakaria and Puan Che Amah bt Saari. They have 5 children 2 boys and 3 girls. Three had already married and two still studying. They have been involve in this homestay program for quite sometime now.

Some of the funny moment that Puan Che Amah or mak as what I called her, there are some times when foreigners (mat salleh) came to their home for stay, they tried to dip in the bath tub, where as in our malay culture the bath tub is for the purpose of collecting water as in 'takung air'. But for them is like a pool. I wonder how can they dip in a tub so small? Hehe.

My foster family.

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Now, let's head down for their in-house product. First up is the Lebah Madu Kelulut. According to the workers that was in-charge, the bees are stingless and ussually are active in around 11 in the morning. The taste of the honey depends on the flowers. If the flowers is sweet, then the honey will be sweet. In one trunk of a tree, they have 6 queens in it and about 15,000 bee workers. The collecting of the honey might take up in a week. And it might cost about RM120 for 1 KG.

This is for sure one in a life time opportunity ! Thank god the bees were stingless. Imagine if not. I'm dead.

As you can see, I'm slurrpiingg the honey from their nest and it was good. The taste is not too sweet.

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Bedak sejuk or direct translation is Cold Talk. Haha. I bet u know what bedak sejuk is. If not, please google. New infi for me about this bedak was, it was made out of rice. Not the cooked one okay. The raw rice. I googlled both nasi and beras and it still came out rice. So nvmd. 

The process of making this bedak was they had to soaked the rice for a month but change the water daily. And after that they grind it until it is smooth. Letting it dry in droplets size for like a week before packing it for selling purposes. They way of using it is, take 3/4 bits of it and add in some water and put it on your face. and let it dry.

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Last was their Maruku snack. Some people called it Jejari Ikan Bilis. The spicier the better. The Miljaya (Maruku) owned by both mother and daughter - Jamaliah bt Abu Hassan and Nur Amira bt Abd Aziz.

The signboard.

The machine  used to make the Maruku.

The final product.

More stories coming soon. Stay tuned.

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014 (Part 1)

A big thank you to Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia and Gaya Travel for giving me the opportunity to join Jom Jelajah Koperasi Pulau Pinang 2014. It was a good experience for me while I am still in my internship.

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A bit of info on Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia - Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia (CCM) is an entity that was incorporated on January 1, 2008 which previously known as the Department of Cooperative Development Commission (NCC). The main purpose is to oversee the growing of SKM cooperative sector and ensure it is able to develop with effective and systematic. In my understand is, if I'm not mistaken, SKM helps those who involves in small medium business.

A bit info on Gaya Travel - It is a travel magazine that had just won the best travel magazine recently. Man, I haven't had more info about this magazine. If I'm not in my internship, I wouldn't now the magazine exist ! Thanks internship. Haha. You can click here for more info on the magazine.

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The view in front of the cooperation.

Some of the tools being made by the villagers.

Example of Keris which cost about RM150.

Encik Haji Ahmad Shukri bin Nordin giving short speech to the media representatives.

Ustaz Azhar showing on how the tools are being made. 

First the iron will be burn at a high temperature.

So that it will be easy to mold.

The workers hitting with two types of hammer - small and big.

To make the eye 'mata' of the tools.

The new machine that can hit with more force than human.

4 days and 3 nights of pack activities in Penang was surely tiring but most of all I'm enjoying every bits of it. Let me share some of the activities held by them. On the first day, after departing from MaTIC, KL, we arrived at Koperasi Pandai Besi Pekan Darat Seberang Perai Berhad, which is famous for its iron-making tools like keris, parang, pisau, kacip and much more.

Why is the cooperation called "Pandai Besi"? Because in the old days, those who have the skills of making the iron tools are known as those who are good in iron as in 'pandai besi', and that is the reason behind the name. 

This cooperation has been operated as early as 1841 and the skills of making it has been pass down on generation by generation. As times goes by, the skills of making it has been upgrade from using traditional utensils and man-power, new machines have been given to speed-up the process of making it, but the people still prefer on the traditional method. 

The one that interests me is the making of the keris, a traditional Malay dagger. There are two types - Lok and Sundang. The keris which has a lot of 'lekuk' is called Keris Lok which the 'lekuk' can be as much as 17. Where as a clean straight keris is called Keris Sundang. The making if keris can be as long as 1 year due to customer preferences. 

Thank you to Encik Haji Ahmad Shukri bin Nordin and Ustaz Azhar Hamid for the opening statement and introduction.Ustaz Azhar is the 7th generation in the iron-making industry.

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In the evening of the same day, we arrived at Koperasi GDW Mengkuang Titi Pulau Pinang Berhad. Which consisting of a homestay package. For those who wants to run out from the fuss of the city, you can choose to stay at a homestay and enjoy the life of the people living here.

Some sport activities known as Sukan Rakyat were done in order to create a bond between the village people and the tourists. Such as Tarik Upeh - which you need to sit on a Pinang tree leaves and two people will pull you to the end, Pancing Botol - where you need to life a bottle by only using a bait of small twig, and Lari dalam Guni - running in a sack, which makes me walked like a penguine. Here, besides than preparing and serving their local dish like Nasi Ramuni which made from the leaves of Ramuni tree, we were presented with Penang's traditional dance - Boria.

Welcoming banner of the event.

The dishes being served.

The famous 'Tarian Boria'.

And lastly the media representatives.

Staying with a foster family for a night, is what the SKM is trying to promote since this Mengkuang Titi Cooperation is one of the cooperation being handled by the SKM. With an amount of 29 homestay in total, it is surely enough if you want to do events involving homestay rather than staying in a hotels. With roughly of RM100/per head, or more, it will surely worth the money if something different is what you seek.

More stories coming soon.