the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. ~ jon hammond

search for some of the quirkiest towns in this country brings this traveller to, helly, hello, melaka town. this street in particular. so particular, that i drove this street twice, lepas tu tak puas with what i saw, i got my thankfully willing host RA to drive me to this street two more times and finally, to stop the car beside the busy traffic and flip the hazard lights on, so that i could run across the road and take photos of the sight.

just for the record, i learnt that i am not the first, nor do i believe firmly that i would be the last sick artist to be curious over this phenomenon. the birds occupy an entire lane out of an already congested three lane main road. ada je kereta datang, it will fly – but not away – but perch on the low fence or just simply make a u-turn and land back on the street. one this was evident as sunlight:: the birds have no fear at all of humankind’s big bad smoking machines.

the weird thing is, takde burung langsung yang kena gelek. i would have thought that i’d see a whole row of avian roadkills on the street tapi takde la. conclusion-nye: pandai jugak these birds mengelak kenderaan ye.

just when i thought things cannot get weirder, i saw him – the one responsible for this strange birdie phenomena – he was wearing a helmet and was clearly am man – no, a beast! – he was a beast of burden – he was – cue: drum roll – the birdman.

a deceivingly simple man can strolling across the street with a huge sack over his shoulder. and the birds obviously recognised him because as he approached, they fluttered their wings, went absolutely mad, and made way for him – as in literally, i kid you not – made way for him. why? in his sack, which he opened and poured all across the side of the street in one crooked row, was dried corn kernels. millions, probably even billions of them. it was a while guni of jagung.

no wonder la the birds went crazy all of a sudden and no wonder the birds lepak at the streets there all day long. makan free ma. i asked some locals and they tell me that this is an everyday phenomena. like clockwork this dude feed the birds. i’m sure that at some point in the past, someone must have asked the dude why he did it. and i am almost, well, yea almost, sure that there was some logical – maybe even intelligent – answer to it. today however, i am just very much content to just watch this play out in front of me strictly as a spectator. plus, i think some birds expressed their gratitude to him by way of airborne gifts.