A Wedding in Kedah and Pangkor Malaysia

Pangkor is a little island, well known by locals but little known by international tourists. It's located about 180kmn north of Kuala Lumpur and I live nearby in the town of Sitiawan, 9km land inwards from the jetti to Pangkor.

Now living here for almost 3 years and having been invited in quite a few Chinese and Indian weddings, I was still waiting for my first invitation for a typical Malay wedding. Mrs. Sabtu from the Nipah Bay Villa, a nice little hotel at Pangkor invited me for two days of the wedding of her son. The first day would be spend in a small town in Kedah, just north of Penang but the second day would be held in Pangkor, in the hotel.

Of course I was intrigued. The little town of Guar Chempedak, just north of Penang in Kedah was the scene for the first day. Guar Chempedak is a little town where, by accident I had been a few weeks earlier. I had not even remembered the little town when I passed it on the bicycle. This time I came by bus which was quite a journey. Although only 60km from Penang, busses took a long time and stopped everywhere before arriving in Guar Chempedak.

When I arrived I was welcomed by the father of the bride. He showed me around. In the back of the house people were busy preparing food. For steaming rice they were using, what they called a rice rocket cooker. It's basically a huge rocket shape cover that covers 15 plates of rice. At the bottom there's a fire heating the rocket and steams the rice. The process takes about 3 hours.

We had a meal and then the bride and groom arrived. Bride and groom were dressed in yellow and gold, quite a beautiful sight. In the house prayers and stories were told. With the arrival of bride and groom a more serious prayer session started.

Later the happy couple joined for lunch. At the same time a pentjak silat demonstration started.

The second day at Pangkor

The second day of the celebrations, a few day days later was very different. Don't get me wrong, not better or worse, just different and like the first day, quite an experience. At arrival at the hotel, I walked around, spoke to some friends, and went to see the bride who was preparing herself in the bedroom. Here many friends were helping the bride to get ready.

We were waiting for the arrival of the groom and what do you do in Malaysia when you wait? You eat. And some of the very best food I had in Malaysia over the 3 years I am here now, I had at weddings. Here at the Nipah Bay Villa it was no different. Fish, chicken, vegetable dishes, nothing was done on the cheap. The prawns were huge and fresh. But the decoration was fresh too. While I was eating I looked around and saw that the hotel was all in blue and silver (in Kedah everything was decorated in gold - color). Even all the flowers were freshly brought the day earlier from Cameron Highlands.

Finally I stopped eating. It was almost time for the groom to enter. The bride went out for the official meeting outside the gates of the Nipah Bay Villa. The ceremony outside was followed by prayers and blessings inside.

After this family and friends were invited to bless the happy couple. This procedure, contrary to some believes is rooted way back in the traditional Malay (but not Muslim) tradition.

It works this way, you take some rice and put it in the hands of both, then you take some bunga rampai and give this to bride and groom. Bunga rampai is a potpourri of scented pandan, rose petals and turmeric rice grain which is usually prepared the day before using. After the bunga rampai, you sprinkle some oiled perfume on both hand and then you shake the hands of the groom (for the women, they shake hands with the bride only). It was now time for bride, groom and the family to enjoy their meals. Later in the afternoon the guests, who kept coming and going finally left after a great day.

You may want to read more about my experiences with this Malay Wedding. Here is the link for the page I wrote about the first day in Kedah and this page is about the wedding day in Pangkor It was a pleasure to be invited for these two days and a great and colorful experience.

Peter van der Lans is a Dutchman who lives these days in Sitiawan Malaysia. After years of traveling, he cycled from Holland to Malaysia, stayed a months in the Middle East, a year on the Indian Subcontinent and 2 years in China plus a year in the UK, he settled himself in Malaysia.

Sitiawan was the perfect place to write a website about Pulau Pangkor. Later he wrote http://www.bicycle-adventures.com, an ongoing project about his journeys on bicycles.

A third website: http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com he recently build. In the years in China, he lived in Yangshuo and he thinks he can tell the story about this pretty little town in China.

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