…my cuppa iced coffee…

The day dawned bright and clear as befitted the last day of the competition. We were hoping that today we would be able to score good marks in order to improve our overall standing against the other teams.

The tasks for the third day:

1. Sell vegetables
2. Bake “bahulu”
3. Produce rice traditionally
4. Make kites
5. Paint fences

Sell vegetables

The first task on the final day was each team had to sell vegetables. And by hook or by crook, the amount collected must total at least RM20. Each team will then use the money to buy a seedling to be planted around the area, in line with the theme of the competition: Go Green.

Even though we were one of the last teams to set up a booth, we managed to sell everything pretty fast. I was lucky enough to get hot-selling items like mushrooms and “tempe” when asked to draw lot.Some teams were not that lucky. But in the end, everybody succeeded to raise the required RM20 and purchased the plant.

Bake “bahulu”

“Bahulu” is a traditional Malay cake made from a mixture of egg, sugar and flour, and baked using a specifically-made mould in a preheated oven. Traditionally, hot coals or coconut husks were used, placed on top of and under the mould. Nowadays, however, people prefer to use ovens as they are a lot more convenient.

If you’ve never tasted “bahulu” before, they are really quite delicious. And go very well with hot black coffee too. Perfect for that cuppa afternoon tea.. errr coffee, that is.

Our task was to bake the best “bahulu” in history, and to impress the judges so much that we would be awarded with the highest score. We almost made it, but alas.. we forgot to check the temperature of the make-shift oven (we used too much coconut husks) that the “bahulu” we baked turned out to be a liiiiittle bit overcooked.Okay, they were almost burnt. But still edible, though, so that did count for something.

Produce rice the traditional way

The next task required us to produce rice.. from rice.. using the Malay traditional tools.

Rice from rice? Indeed. This is one of the occasions where I found English language is rather limited. Whether it’s still on its tree, raw or cooked, the word used is still rice. In Malay, the equivalent and corresponding words are “padi”, “beras” and “nasi”. A lot easier to distinguish, no?

Anyway, we were to use the tools above to produce “beras” from “padi”. The “padi” will be put into the “lesung” (the wooden block with the big hole) and hit with the “alu” (the big, long stick). The idea was to remove the “beras” from their husks which would then be filtered using the “nyiru” (the flat, triangular tool).

It was actually easier said than done. The “beras” tended to break when hit with the “alu”, making it difficult to get them whole. These will be collected and weighed, and the team that produced the heaviest would get the highest points.

Make kites

After everybody had completed all 3 tasks, we gathered at the Centre for the final task at Dorani Homestay: make kites. I can’t remember when was the last time I made one but it was definitely ages ago. We were given 4 bamboo sticks, strings, brown and coloured papers, glue, scissors and half an hour to produce 2 kites. We completed ours but whether they were air-worthy or not, I have absolutely no idea.

Lunch was then served, that was the first time ever I ate catfish. Yeah, I know.. it wasn’t that big a deal. But just like eating eel, some people are quite squeamish about it. Myself included.

After lunch, there was a short ceremony to plant the seedling we bought earlier today. Since we were running short of time, only one tree was planted. The rest, we left with the organisers to be planted later. We then took bus to Taman Alam for the final task of the final day. Finally!

Paint fences

We were supposed to do this task yesterday, after collecting the garbage from the mangrove swamp. Since we were rushing to get to the Sungai Sireh Homestay, it was postponed to today.

Each team was allocated a section of fences, a couple of rollers, brushes and a can of black paint to turn the rusted fences into a work of art worthy of Picasso or Michaelangelo.One thing for sure, though.. I sweated buckets during the whole painting process. Damn hot!

Final task completed, we went to the final destination for the whole competition: De Palma Hotel, Kuala Selangor. Everybody was tired, but instead of resting before the big event that night, most of us went frolicking in the pool. It was just hilarious. Quite a few became victims of being thrown into the water. Then it was a game of water volleyball between the boys and the girls. Man, that was fun!

Closing & award presentation ceremony

Unless it is broadcasted live on national tv, almost no event in Malaysia starts on time. And so it was with the closing ceremony, which started almost an hour late. Before that, we were treated with a small fireworks show, courtesy of the organiser, in compensation for the big ones we were going to miss that night. Hey, it was new year’s eve. There must be fireworks, right?

Everybody was starving, and by the time we were allowed to eat, all of us had big holes in our midsections. Sigh…

To cut it short.. the weather was great, the dinner was okay (the “rojak buah” was excellent), the show was so-so, the atmosphere was wonderful.. all in all, it was a good event. Although by the time they were announcing the top teams, I could barely open my eyes. They did the countdown to 2008, I think but I was already in bed, happily celebrating new year in my own way.

Here are the overall ranking and scores of the participating teams:

So that was the end of the Visit Malaysia Year Go Green Selangor Travel Race 2007 competition. I was quite apprehensive in the beginning about the whole thing, being not much of an outdoor type of person, but given the chance, I would gladly do this again. It was so much fun, doesn’t matter whether I win or lose.

The story is.. the next VMY Go Green Travel Race would be held in Kuching, Sarawak. Interested?

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Related post:

• VMY Go Green Selangor – Day 1, 29 December 2007
• VMY Go Green Selangor – Day 2, 30 December 2007