Hand Drill_Fig Tree & Petai Belalang wood

Hand drill... The most primitive, the most primal, and it’s probably the most difficult of all the friction-based fire making methods.

I’ve tried to play with different woods of different hardness from different plants. Seems like the common fig tree (for hearth board) and Petai Belalang wood (for drill) makes a great “anti-blister” combination so far.

 

Bowdrill Fun_Saga Wood

Friction fire (Bowdrill) using materials from around the neighborhood...

It was a cloudy, damp and windy day. So it was a little tricky to get an ember, and making sure the smoking dust didn't blow away.Nevertheless, we did get a fire going, and had a great time just being outside, playing with sticks and grass.

 

Family hiking, seaside, fire and wild foods (October 2014)

It's been awhile since I've posted here as I have been posting through Kawanbike Penang Facebook. Now I'm looking at a backlog of blog posts in my draft folder and I thought I should start posting...


Penang island is truly blessed with many natural attractions. Regardless of where you are living within Penang, nature is just a stone's throw away. 

I've been introducing my children to the natural world since their early years and I'm glad I did. I love to see them running around, exploring, getting dirty, discovering seashells, and sampling wild edibles...  

 

As usual, gathering as we hike...  Fishtail Palms are abundant along the trails. The core is edible and the fibrous bark on the tree makes extremely good tinder for fire starting.

 

Children are natural foragers... 

They enjoy wandering in nature, collecting and gathering. They are so good and 

took no time at all gathering up these wonderful shellfish from the sea as I was 

busy building a fire.

The ultimate wild finger food...  

Foraged shellfish cooked in the embers of a fire at the beach itself. Simply natural!

 Sea Almond... 

One of my favourite wild foods. The nut is very delicious, tasting almost like almond. 

Most people don't realize it's edible, but I've had this since I was a child.

Sea Almonds are often quite easily gathered in large numbers with very minimal effort. 

They are often found littering the ground beneath the tree.

A Beautiful Merdeka Day 2014

We, ourselves and us...
Celebrating true freedom, peace and joy in harmony with nature. 

Shampoo Ginger... Wild man’s shampoo that grows along the stream banks.
A simple squeeze out of this flower gives you a natural aromatic shampoo that cleans and moisturizes the hair after a long day in the stream. 100% natural and it's free! What could possibly be better than this?

 Plenty of free snacks available too... The jungle Duku season is at its peak.

Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta)... Another useful wild plant that grows around there.

This is one of the most useful wild plant every outdoor kaki should know. Locally known as Senduduk Bulu, the medicinal value of this plant is well known to the kampung folks. The berries are edible, taste sweet and succulent, a bit like a deeply flavored blueberry. The leaves can be used for washing dishes and can be crushed and applied to cuts and wounds or rub against leech bite to stop bleeding.

 DIY Superlight Wood Stove in Hexi burning mode in action...
No picnic is complete without a hot, steamy pot of noodles. Yumee!

Adventure in Wild Food

I’ve always been fascinated by wild food since I was a child. Like many kampung kids, I would spend almost all of my time outside with friends playing around the kampung. Picking and gathering wild food that nature has to offer for snack, medicine and masak-masak was a common practice of those times. Wild food has never failed to provide some much needed flavor and calories to keep us going for all day long.

Though the nostalgia for my kampung days has long gone, I have never lost the desire to continuously learn, discover and supplement my diet with wild edibles.

Wild Purslane... The most nutritious green plant on Earth and it’s free! The best part about purslane is it grows just about everywhere, all over the world. You don’t have to go far to find this “superfood”. This little patch of succulent wild purslane was found on the side of the alley behind my house.
 

Google it out! Find out why this wonderful “weed” was given the title “The most nutritious green plant on Earth”

Taste fresh, soft, crunchy with a little lemony zing. This nutritional powerhouse “weed” makes a super tasty salad that even Mr. Hendrick would approve.

 Yummy wild edible for self-sufficiency and survival. Can be eaten in almost every way imaginable (raw, cooked or pickled). So step outside and look around, you may find your free superfood.

Hari Raya Fun 2014

A little bit of “kampung feel” hari raya fun at home...
Made some toys, cooked some nice BBQ and made a lot of noise. Popp!!!

 

"Caplong" The classic kampung's toy gun... They can play all day long with this.

 ...and we makan all night long too! Juicy Ayam Percik Fusion, finger lickin good!!

DIY Superlight Wood Stove

Ooops!... I did it again. 

For whatever reason, I just can’t get enough of stoving...

 

 Click here to see more!

My Childhood Game

As a child of the 70s-80s growing up in a kampung, there's no shortage of fun to be had even without the hitech gadgets and downloads back then. Many games were creatively created from scrap and natural resources found around the kampung and the kampung itself is one big beautiful playground.

I miss those good old days so damn much! But like it or not, technology has changed the way we live today, let alone how our children play.

  Sharing a piece of my carefree childhood with my children...

 

On a trip down memory lane...

Let's get out and play!

Bahco Laplander

My Monday Blues cured almost immediately when I see a package from USA waiting at my doorstep.
I finally got my hands on this rugged little Swedish beauty after searching high and low for one (locally) without luck.

Lightweight, compact and extremely efficient. Bahco Laplander has earned its reputation as one of the most well known folding saws on the planet. Ironically, in all my years of enjoying the outdoors, I've never actually owned/carried a saw. A saw seems redundant, and I have to admit that I'm a big fan of Parang. 

 However, on second thought, safety comes first. Engaging in wood processing activity (in the presence of children) with a saw is much safer compared to a swinging Parang. Besides, it's interesting to see how would a Laplander live up to its reputation, and how well would it fare in the hot, humid and wet tropical jungle.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2013

I skipped my evening MTB ride yesterday...

... and I'm so glad that I did.

Peace!