Une matinée en balade à la campagne (1)...Kampung Chenua, Raub

A morning stroll in Kampung Chenua, Raub 30 January 2010

It was a Saturday morning. I was killing time waiting for my wife as it was her school's "gotong-royong" day. The sky was all bright and blue and birds were chirping everywhere. On previous occasions here, I have been noticing people driving their cars as well as riding their motorbikes across the football field and beyond... through the thickets of what seemed like a patch of jungle and farmland. To kill curiosity, I decided to take a slow walk on that path that morning...

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It was a warm and sultry morning, typical weather that reminded me of Chinese New Year season around the corner. I love the sense of melange between the fresh smell of the morning green, noisy insects and birds and rays of light bursting through the quite densely covered path that was punctuated here and there by grassy patches of abandonned farm. I was almost transported into my childhood days of abandon and carefreeness.

Old charm found commonly in villages - the Periwinkle

A common roadside creeper with flowers en masse

Heavenly bloom...a flower from a common tall tree found sometimes at the fringe of towns and villages. The bell-shaped flowers has lacy edges and falling blossoms always never fail to give an impression of ephmereal feathers.

A delicate ixora-like flower growing in a damp and dark spot

The fruits...

A common creeper introduced into rubber plantation to control weed, now itself a pest. A lesson to learn about biological pest control.

My attention was directed to the heavens by the noise from birds overhead and this sight of a dead tree trunk with a glob of orchids for crown greeted me.

Delicate multi-coloured flowers of the Lantana. We children used to call this common roadside plant "Chicken poop flower" in Chinese because of its pungent odor but really, it has nothing to do with chicken poop.

Unusual flowers dangling from a tree found along the path.

The fallen flowers on the tarmac

A skipper butterfly resting on a leaf.

Pale green flower of the terung asam.

The fruits of the terung asam - an aubergine rarely found in the market and it has velvety hair covering its fruit. The ripe fruit is usually orange in colour and is usually eaten raw as a salad. This one was found growing wild at the entrance into an 'abandonned' farm overgrown with grass, wild aubergines, lantanas, yams and the prickly mimosa.