October 2, 2025
KUALA LUMPUR – The month-long What About Kuching (WAK) Festival returns today, celebrating Sarawak’s rich cultural heritage and diverse artistic expressions.
Themed Roots, the festival is back for its seventh edition this year.
Taking place at various locations across Kuching, the event will showcase visual arts, handicrafts, cultural heritage and lifestyle activities.
Look out for Sim’s colourful stinking toe pod collection in Kuching. PHOTO: THE STAR
One of this year’s highlights is the WAK Stinky Toe Trail, where 31 upcycled stinking toe pods have been painted into whimsical characters and hidden in trees around the city.
The pods can be found around the Kuching Waterfront, Reservoir Park and Kuching South City Council (MBKS) garden. Festival-goers are invited to spot the colourful pods, snap photos of their finds, and stand a chance to win exclusive WAK Festival T-shirts.
The hand-painted pods are the works of Kuching-born, Kuala Lumpur-based architect and artist T. Sim.
“The pods are naturally unique in shape, and I love challenging myself to see what characters I can bring out of them,” says Sim. “It’s a way of turning what’s usually discarded into something that sparks joy.”
The Unitoe pod, inspired by a unicorn, is among the installations at the WAK Festival. PHOTO: THE STAR
Produced by West Indian Locust trees, stinking toe pods are brown, oversized fruits shaped like toes. When cracked open, they emit a pungent odour resembling smelly feet – hence the name.
Since 2020, Sim has been installing his upcycled creations at Taman Tun Dr Ismail’s Zaaba Park in Kuala Lumpur, a location abundant with these trees. He has collected hundreds of pods from the ground and decorated them with acrylic paint, transforming waste into art.
The project began during the pandemic as a fun activity with his youngest daughter, Cara, eight. Over time, it evolved into an ongoing art series, with Sim painting more than 100 pods.
Depending on the design, each pod can take him anywhere from five minutes to an hour to complete.
His designs range from tribal motifs and animals to pop culture icons — some inspired by the video game Angry Birds and others mimicking the masked guards from the South Korean dystopian hit Squid Game.
Sim paints the seeds on his dining table in the kitchen. In several boxes, he stores his tools, including paints, brushes, an electric drill, glue gun and jig saw. PHOTO: THE STAR
A labour of love
In preparation for the WAK Festival, Sim spent the past three months painting the pods, mostly at night and on weekends.
“It’s been labour-intensive, but very fulfilling,” says the father of four. “I enjoy the process of bringing humour and artistry together, and seeing people react with delight when they find the pods.”
His artworks were installed around Kuching a week before the festival by the organising team, turning everyday walks into a quirky treasure hunt for locals and tourists alike.
Sim says the pods also carry a larger message.
“I hope to encourage both sustainability and community spirit, showing that even discarded materials can be turned into something memorable. Hopefully these stinking toe pods remind everyone that art can be found in the most unexpected places,” the sexagenarian shares.
Hello Kuching! Meet Laughy Toes, a pod with a grin. PHOTO: THE STAR
The WAK Festival is not Sim’s first platform. Over the years, he has placed painted pods in locations across Malaysia and even overseas in Spain, Turkiye, China, India, Indonesia and Italy.
Fans who stumble upon them often share photographs online, giving the creations a life of their own.
“It’s fun to see how these pods travel,” says Sim, who posts photos of his creations on his Instagram.
“In a way, they’ve become little ambassadors of playfulness,” he shares.
Sim balances his career in architecture with his passion for art. He sees his pod-painting project as a chance to give back to the community while adding colour to public spaces.
For him, the pods are a reminder that creativity doesn’t always need expensive materials — sometimes, it can spring from what nature discards.
The WAK Stinky Toe Trail is just one of many programmes of this year’s festival, but it captures the essence of WAK’s mission: to celebrate culture, creativity and community spirit.
For more details, visit wakfestival.com or call 011-1312 0898.