A Journey of A Thousand Food Containers Begins With A Single Step

Wet, wet, wet. Langkawi had an unusual weather pattern for the month of March 2011 as the month ended with three days of rain. The island needed the rain as I believe this would be a compensation of a very dry spell in year 2010.

Rain or shine, the show must goes on as this little girl in the picture demonstrated how to jiggle in the rain.

What was the turn up like on 30th March 2011?

When Mandy and I arrived at the Tapak Ramadhan in Kuah town, a bus from Kolej Kommuniti was parked there and lots of people were taking shelter from the rain under two huge canopies. The sound system was setup with the radio deejay from Langkawi FM making announcements before the event was officiated by Kak Zuraidah and Dario of ToptoTop.

 Kak Zuraidah with a lady who came all the way from Singapore for this event

Kak Zuraidah, the woman who made this happened and Dario (right) from ToptoTop

Dario gave a short briefing to everyone with a message about plastics should be eliminated, blah... blah... and Kak Zuraidah delivered her message in Bahasa Malaysia. A quick short briefing was followed by giving out cloth bags which were sponsored.

Dario showing a handful of cloth bags to be given away while Kak Zuraidah looked on

The march to the pasar malam after a group photo!

The "gung ho" team

Do you notice a tiffin carrier clamped in her arms?

Some of the participants came unprepared and they "bungkus" (take away) the food bought from the stalls wrapped with those new small and medium plastic bags before tucking them away into those pink cloth bag. Oh well... I guess this kind of event must be done more regularly so that they will eventually get the point.  

This picture below is my highlight:

Amongst the crowd, this lady was spotted carrying an old fashioned rattan basket (my grandma used to have) with the food stuff in the used containers. She is Mandy!

Kak Zuraidah has given me an update that the Langkawi Town Council has suggested to do this similar gathering once a month starting with the pasar malam in Kuah town. Apart from the individuals who practice "Reduce or No Plastics", there are four companies which are doing so: 

1) FOS shop in Langkawi Fair - no plastics given on every Saturday

2) Barkath (book shop) - no plastics given DAILY

3) Wildlife Park - Same as Barkath

4) Petronas Station in Telaga Harbor Park - on every Saturday 

Kak Zuraidah said this in her email to me, "Switzerland took 20 years but with Penang in the lead, I am sure Langkawi will take less than that."

Well, Kak Zuraidah, I totally agree with you on that. One reason being that Langkawi is a lot more smaller than Switzerland. 

Congratulations Kak Zuraidah! Once again, thank you so much for making this event happened. I hope this does not stop here. With regular gathering such as once a month will be a good start in getting the Langkawians to create a clean island. And of course, the love for nature.

To end my post here, please watch this. I love those stick figures cartoon!