A Sweet, Savory dessert

Cendol is a sweet, savory dessert, a local delight in Malaysia and I believe in Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and other South East Asian countries too. When I visited Chiengmai, Thailand, we were offered cendol during lunch. We had to prepare the dessert ourselves. A Swiss man had scooped the green strands of cendol into his bowl and had begun chomping on it. That looked like eating grass to me! That’s not the way to eat it, I said. You have to add some brown sugar syrup, coconut milk and of course, some ice shaving. I guess what appears simple and common to us is not so simple and common to someone else. Talking about cendol, I couldn't help but wonder about its origin. Is it from South India? In Malaysia, I found that the best cendol are prepared by Indians.