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Thursday, December 27, 2007

A Vietnamese Visitor In Town....


I was very suprised to received a call from Mr Phuc, a Vietnamese, who came to KL to learn more about swiftlet ranching.

We met yesterday and have a lengthy discussions about swiftlet farming.

He was actually about to board his bus to Spore but I told him that he should stay and join me for a trip to Tanjung Karang, Selangor.

He was so glad that he aborted the bus and stayed back.

This morning I drop my wife at her clinic and proceed to pick Mr Phuc for the long trip.

I took the North South highway from Jalan Duta to Rawang. From Rawang I droved up toward Kuala Selangor via Batang Berjuntai town.

I took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach Batang Berjuntai town. We stop at the town and I shown his four to five shops converted to birdhouses. He was so excited and took his camera and he became my first eco tourist visitor from oversea.

He was becoming very excited and wanted to stay longer. What I observed was his curiosity about the bird call sound. It seem that there were three differrent sounds played. Then he ask me which one is the best? My answer was simple. Observed yourself which one have the most response? He pointed to one that have lots of birds flying around in and out. So that was the best sound.

Now my biggest problem. "Harry can U get me that best sound?"

Ai ya ya, I cannot just break into the house and get one for him, can I?

Anyway we have some brain storming and came out with a very genius idea on how to collect all these birdcall sound for our use or sell to those who wanted them badly. Sorry cannot decribe here. This is our secret ma !!!



We boarded our car and proceeded to Sungai Rambai Swiftlet city. I really love this unique architectureand design. Yes that colorfull birdhouses plus one office in the middle. We drove to the entrance and ask the Security guy to let us in.

" Hello uncle, I got this special visitor from Vietnam. He wanted to see the birdhouse from inside. Is it okay sir?". He gave us a long smile and give us the green light.

We entered until the back portion and took a few pictures. Stayed there for abour 10minutes and proceeded to Tanjung Karang.

We say thank U very much to the Indian security guard and hope to see him again. No problem, he answered.

Passed Kuala Selangor town and proceeded to those birdhouses located in the Sekinchang padi fields. I could not believed what happenned when I stopped at one of the contruction site of a birdhouse. My Vietnamese visitor was so excited and he walked straight into the building. Luckily the owner were out for lunch.

There were a few workers (Indonesians from Surabaya)and they were nice to let us in. I spoke in Indonesian Malay and they seem to like it and became very friendly.

We asked a few questions and collected wood samples both the ceiling panel and corners covers. The meranti wood is with grooves that are suitable for swiftlet to grab when resting or building the nest.

We managed to climbed up to the upper floors (3 stories high) and took some trouble to climb to the roof top.

Looks interesting and well done job.

What about the pilling works before they build the house? One of the Indonesian guy indicated that they use mangrove trees trunks as the piles.

The side room is designed to place the sound system and store room.

The top roof have a water pond suitable for a 10 inches depth of water.

That was it.

I told him that the trip was over and lets go home.

On the way back he wanted me to arrange one more trip for his farther to come to KL.

Wah liow weh, I need to take this profession seriously. Perhaps I need to prepare a two or three days birdhouse tour to include:

1) Site visit to Kuala Selangor: 1st day.
2) Site visit to Setiawan, Perak: 2nd Day.
2) View How Birdnests are Harvested.
3) View How Birdnest are Processed.
4) Visit Shops Selling Birdnests.
5) Dinner served with birdnest soup.

Travelling to use Toyota Estima.

Price tag: RM1,200 per head excluding hotels and lodging and food??????

I am sure the Malaysian Minister For Tourism will soon publish this new eco tourism in their Year 2008 Visit Malaysia. He he he....

What do You think ??????

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