Salamat Hari Raya!

We arrived in Batuh Puteh on the second day of Ramadan, so most of the people around us have been fasting whilst we have been steadily filling up with rice. The excitement about the impending Hari Raya celebration was communicated with us by the ever enthusiastic Jeff (our favourite guide) on our first day in the Eco camp. He described it as… “You just go around aaaaall the houses in the village and eat and eat and eat! Make sure you wear elastic in your trousers!”. 

This last week, you could feel the excitement in the village building as Hari Raya approached, and then BANG on Thursday evening, the usually quiet night filled with distant bamboo fire crackers and karaoke as Hari Raya was announced and the community started celebrating!

We had to wait until Sunday morning to join in as we were all so busy in the camp, but Hari Raya is a month long celebration, so this wasn’t a problem. So off we set with Martin, Janet and the kids, all togged up in our Baju Raya (our celebration clothes, borrowed from friends).

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have had two breakfasts before I left (one at Martin and Janet’s, followed by our normal breakfast)…because then we just ate cake for an entire morning. We basically just went from house to house wishing everyone “Selemat Hari Raya”, being fed trays of delicious cake, and watered with ridiculously sweet squash, then moving on to the next. It was a great experience and everyone was very excited about the crowd-funding project, so all in all a super fab day! 

Here are some piccies of us all dressed up! (My outfit was previously the very lovely Zaza's wedding dress! Better not spill anything then!!...)

Us with Kamsa, one of our camp runners

Kamsa and Martin (and a weeny gate-crasher)