I felt so grateful because i got the chance that might not everyone get. i used to be a Congkak teacher and all my students were the foreign tourists..can anyone imagine that? :) when i'm doing my practical at Kelantan Tourist Information Centre, my weekly task is teaching the foreign tourists how to play Congkak at the Cultural Centre or Gelanggang Seni. As you know that Congkak is one of the famous traditional games in Kelantan besides Gasing, Wau, and many more. So, as for me, i should only teach Congkak because i'm a girl :) Congkak is mostly play by the girls in their leisure time and it is still being practice by the youngsters in order to preserve the authenticity and uniqueness of the Kelantanese culture. well, let's get back to me. i teach Congkak at around 4 @ 5 pm after all the foreign tourist finished watching the
Art of Self-Defense (Silat Tari), Kite Making (Demo Buat Wau) , Coconut Husk Percussion and ultimately, people can learn and play Congkak with me. Usually, there are three or four teachers who will teach them how to play. while i'm explaining to them how to play, the foreign tourists give a very deep attention towards my explanation and they seemed to enjoy that game very much. Fortunately, they are easy to understand and they can play it very well. sometimes i lost to them :( huhu..but i just wanna give them chance :)
Well, there are many styles of playing Congkak because people seem to have their own rules. Firstly, I explain to them about the name of the game which is Congkak, and there will be two players. Each player has their own house at the end of the Congkak board and they will be seven holes on that board. Each hole consists of seven marbles. In the first round, both players can play by taking all the marble in the first hole by their right and put each marble in the following marble until reach their own house. After that, they can take all the marbles in any holes and play it by putting each marble in the next hole until it reach to the other hole. When they are running out of marble and reach to an empty hole, and unfortunately they have to stop and let the opponent continue. If the opponent is running out of the marble and reaches to an empty hole, he or she has to stop and give to the other side to start playing again. Congkak is a very easy and enjoying game that people should play and experience it if they come to visit Kelantan.
Enjoy your visit to Kelantan and don't forget to come to the Cultural Centre to watch the other traditional games and performances. :)
