Pak Hen's seminar in jakarta

Soon as the word went out to my group of farming friends in Thailand, response to Pak Hen's seminar in Jakarta was unexpectedly positive. My first concern was the language used in seminar presentation. But Pak Hen was kind to assure us he would conduct additional sessions during the evening in English.

Came 7th August '09, we gathered at Suvarnabhumi Airport to depart for Jakarta.
















Checking in with good spirits.
















Attendance was good - more than a hundred and probably 1/2 from Malaysia.
















Though several topics were covered in Bahasa Indonesia, the visual projections helped to keep interest alive.
















All participants gathered for a photo shot after 2 days.
















The third day was an optional tour to farming towns to the western end of Java - Panimbang, along the Sunda Straits between Java & Sumatra.















The journey took perhaps 4 hrs, so you can imagine the outcome of the first toilet break.
















Norodin Top's wanted poster was prominently displayed on the toilet walls outside. Andy posed beside and thought he has the bounty on his head!
















Midway we visited a small processing center at a village en-route.
















The ladies continue with their work pretending we were not present.





















Of course snapping photos of each others is another activity.
































P'Moo pretended he is the new owner of the processing biz!





















We had sea food barbeque - Indo style for lunch. Simply delicious.





































Getting off the bus finally reaching Panimbang.
















This huge bird house is sadi to produce 70Kg per harvest!
















Most Indo bird houses we saw has small entrance holes, located at multi-levels.
















'Saw-tooth' metal plate installed on top to protect against bulgary.

















Not far is what thje local named "Malaysian Complex", a group of bird houses by Malaysian investors. The compound is protected by 4m wall all roound.
















This bird house has sliding metal barrier gate to keep owls away, manually lowered each evening.





















Pak Hen's bird house in the area.
















This swiftlet was seen struggling to get off the 'parabolic' wire mesh. Something to watch out for in selection the wire mesh.
















We find this ferris wheel on a tricycle more interesting than bird house actually.
















On the day before departing, we dropped by at EKA Walet's shop to check out what are in store.

Fascinating to see these newly incubator hatched chicks.
















We purchase 100 eggs back to experiment with. They will be distributed in some of our bird houses to hatch.
















Overall, it was an informative and enjoyable trip.