I met a long time friend few days ago at a Hardware shop. I have not seen him for many years. It is sort of a lost contact. I have lost my mobile few times and all the contact inside gone that included his number.
He saw me and patted me on my shoulder and called me “Sifu”. It was great to have seen him again. I was looking for a table saw there. He has not changed much.
My Friend: Sifu James! Oooi what are you doing here?
Me: Hi E, wah what a surprise. I am looking for table saw. Haven’t seen you for a long time how have you been?
My friend: As usual loh...normal..loh..
Me: Are you on your own or still with that company…?
My friend: Yes still the same company lah. Not like you. You are better than me lah. I am still working for people.
Me: Hey don’t say that. What about your farm? I heard that you all wanted to start swiftlet farming few years ago then what happened?
My friend: No lah , I didn’t start still waiting for the regulation and licenses. I don’t dare lah after the people from the government come and kacau.
Me: But I heard that Ah K is doing quite well with his farm. I met a friend from our Kampong few months back when I went back for Ching Beng. He said Ah K is harvesting many kgs of nests every month. What happened to you? I thought both of you bought one unit of shop lot each for the purpose of Swiftlet farming.
My friend: It didn’t materialize lah because I was afraid and I don’t want to go into it illegally without proper licensing and without the guidelines. Ah K went ahead. You know his nature of job lah…taiko thing…. He is not afraid and don’t care about all the paper and license thing one.
Me: E, what do you mean by illegal? You mean you want it to be legalized first before you invest? You said that 4 years ago and now you still saying it today.
My friend: Ya lah, should have gone into it now wasted 4 years. Ah K now has more than 2 farms. Maybe I wait another year and see what the outcome of the guideline is.
Me: Ha..ha.. E ..you could wait if you want to but many of your friends are already accumulation their harvest and wealth while you’re still waiting. How about Teh Tarik ?
My friend: Ok no problem let me buy you a drink so that you could teach me some of your swiftlet farming skills.
Me: No problem. I could teach you anything you want but if you don’t own any farm no matter how much technique you have learned is of no use.
So both of us went for Teh Tarik at the mamak across the Road.
This is what happened to a friend of mine. After 4 years he still hesitates to go into swiftlet farming. While he is still waiting for the so call guidelines most of his friends are already harvesting nests.
Mr.E didn’t go into it because he is a kind of person who follows the book and live by the book. It is not that he is afraid of losing his investment. He has me as a friend who is willing to teach him anything he wants. We were from the same Kampong and go to the same school. I knew him too well.
Secondly you need to have a farm in order to learn more skills in Swiftlet farming. But sad to say so there are many out there that includes Consultants who don’t own a single farm but is being engaged by many to design and build farms.
Good Farming All.