Hari Kraf Kebangsaan 2008 (National Craft Day 2008)

Last week hubby was at his client's place at Kompleks Kraf and noticed there is an expo going on. He went round and saw many interesting stuff so we decided to bring our city boiboi to check things out. They have allocated some free parking lots around. The one we parked were behind Prince Court Hospital which was labelled C which is a huge place but its kinda the rough it out kind. They just dumped gravel stones on a few parts to level the ground and have many pot holes. It's one big mess after a heavy down pour when we left. There are a couple more A and B but A which is within the complex has limited space and B is a bit of walking distance away.

There were numerous huge tents set up for the displays and each tent has a theme of some kind ie. crafts made out of forest sources, batik, international crafts etc. The layout of the displays are prominently display all around the huge complex.

There were many traders displaying rattan wares and all these items are on sale. I noticed the price here is very reasonable and you can bargain for a fair price.

There are even modern design handbags for fashionistas.

There is a stall displaying gasing, a type of traditional top which fascinates my boiboi. There's a man displaying how to spin the top. We got boiboi the starter version at only RM5.00! Get the man to test out the top first before walking away with one cos you'll need one that can balance properly. There's one displaying various traditional drums.

Then there were flower stalls fashioned out of dried leaves and so forth. Very colourful indeed.

As we walked on, I heard a very sweet familiar music. As I got closer, I saw a man playing angklung (is this how it's spelt?) which is a traditional musical instrument fashioned out of bamboos. I tell you this guy is good!

This is how they looked like individually which one can play just like that instead of rows of them shown above.

Colourful beadings from East Malaysia.

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This lady was seen weaving a rattan ball.

Fancy some old school coin box made of bamboos???

This piece of wall display is fashioned out of tree roots.

Wood carvings.

These flowers were made using fish scales!

This man is seen resting after working on his kuda kepang, a type of horse weaved out. Kuda kepang is used in a Malay dance from Johor.

The larger tents have stage in them showcasing various traditional dances and for this instance there was this keroncong session going on.

In tent number 10 (I think or could be 11), there are a few crafters around showing off their skills. Other than that you can paint your own batik or clay FOC.

You can also have your portrait sketched.

The man on the left is carving sand stones, on the right, the man from Semporna, East Malaysia was crafting wooden ships.

Over at the smallish international showcase, there is only a handful of crafters and all of them are Asian crafters ranging from dyeing cloth in natural dyes and materials from India; inlay crafting from Iran; embroidery from Bangladesh and stone carving from Nepal. Sounds rather pathetic huh?

Natural dye from plants etc are used together with mud which result the cloth came out with those cracked like prints.

The most interesting of the lot is this Inlay craft from Iran. The man saw pieces of wood and join them all up to form pictures.

Inside the main complex, there are rows and rows of traders displaying batik! Quite boring actually cos they looked kinda similar except for a couple. Also on display were Malay keris and pedang (sword).

What is expo without food haha... There is a huge tent that serves all sorts of food. Most of them are Malay stalls but I think there's one Nothern Indian cos there's a tandoor oven there. Since we just wanted some snacks, we have some very yummy cucur udang (the stall next to the Northern Indian one). From one of the stalls, I tried their bubur chacha and kuih talam. Both I have to say are superb!!! I haven't eaten such a nice creamy bubur cha cha in a long while, the creaminess is totally not over powering. They did not stinge with the ingredients for the kuih talam definitely. It's so hard to find soft, fragrant ones these days.

Overall, I find the expo quite disappointing. There were more traders than crafters. This is like a huge bazaar hahaha. I thought it would be more appropriate for them to showcase the experts' skills. Such a pity else my boiboi's generation will be totally at lost with all these beautiful crafts that we have in the country.

Anyway, it's still interesting to pay them a visit. The expo is on from 23 March till 7th April 2008. Opening hours is 10.00am till 10.00pm. Location is at Kompleks Kraf, Jalan Conlay, Kuala Lumpur. Map can be found here.