Malaysia
Favourited 155 times
Hi, I am Fifi and I live in a small town nearby Ipoh surrounded by organic fruit trees/veggies/farm. Few year ago, I got really ill and my asthma got worse so I decided to start living a healthier lifestyle. I started planting a garden full of organic herbs/veggies. However, due to the amount of works I needed to maintain this garden (it's quite a large area), it has been nearly impossible to do it alone therefore I decided that I will need workawayers help.
I had also been planning a lot of other projects listed in my profile so I will be very grateful if anyone could help me with it.
Gardening
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Farmstay help
Help with Eco Projects
Help around the house
Animal Care
Language practice
Art Projects
Teaching
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
-TBH, my family is used to having my foreign friends staying at with us. They love to share their knowledge of Malay culture and treat everyone like a family. By the end of your stay, we hope you will be more familiar with Malay culture. You can also take this opportunity to tell us about your country and its culture (especially when the cafe is open because we will invite school kids to have cultural exchange for free).
-My mom own a woodworking workshop (currently our family main business) so if you're interested in such, you get to see how the workers hand-carved the woods and build a gazebo (among the many things). You can also try to experience carving if time fits schedule as the wood workers aren't available all the times.
-If you love gardening and prefer organic fruits/veggies, we can share knowledge and try to live a healthy lifestyle together. There is a kitchen garden so we can cook together everyday. If you are able to bring and share some seeds to plant for the garden, we are very happy to receive it.
-Personally, I love learning languages. Right now, I'm learning Mandarin (self-study) and revising Korean/Japanese (studied them back in university days) so if I could get any extra help for these languages, that would be awesome! And of course, I can help with Malay language if you're up for it~ ;)
1. Simple task like planting trees/ veggies, water the garden, building compost area ..just about anything regarding permaculture and agriculture so if you have experience in this, you're much needed here. Basically this is the main focus right now.
2. Building a tiny A-Frame house at the garden (for future workawayers to stay). The materials are all available (we own a wood workshop) but we don't have enough manpower to finish this project. If you have experience in construction, it will be very helpful! However, the area right now is very messy thus we will need to clear everything around the farm first before we can proceed to this project.
3. We have a traditional Malay house (refer to main picture) in need of repairing and decoration. We plan to open a cafe/event space in 2020 where we will sell healthy dishes as well as making it the place for cultural exchange between the locals and workawayers. [Progress] Currently we are building a wooden office and outdoor kitchen for the cafe.
4. We are also in the middle of building a tree house.
If you do not have any skills we needed (as mentioned above), you still can message us and maybe we can try to find something else for you to do =)
The help we needed vary from time to time, we will let you know when u arrived at our place.
English: Fluent
Malay: Fluent
[UPDATED 2020]
-Currently we provide tents at the garden (together with mattress and bedding) but we are planning to build an A-frame house for the workawayers in the future.
-ONLY lunch is provided and you will not be eating the same meal everyday as we want you to learn some Malay traditional dishes; we have a kitchen garden so we will eat meals together. In case you have any food allergies or need to cook yourself, let us know preferably BEFORE arrival. If you're a vegan, you can harvest any organic fruits/veggies around the garden and cook for yourself too. However, please note that in case you want to cook for yourself using your own ingredients, you have to MAKE SURE it is Halal because we are a Malay Muslim family. (No pork, no alcohol etc). There is a shared fridge at the kitchen garden for everyone to use, however, as mentioned, alcohol and non-halal foodstuff are stricly NOT ALLOWED both inside the fridge and also at the kitchen.
-If you need to buy something, there is a 7-Eleven and other grocery stores nearby (5 minutes walk). A 24-hours laundry service shop is also available plus various chinese/malay restaurants within walking distance. On every Friday's night, there is a night market right outside the 7-Eleven shoplot.
-Please make sure you wear decent/properly covered clothes while staying here because this area is still a village and most people here are Muslims. Watch your manners too.
- We have 10 cats and a dog at the garden; during daytime the dog will not be around but at night she roams free (of u have allergy towards animals, it might be a little difficult)
- Please bring earplugs if you are very sensitive towards sounds at nights. There are many chickens here lol. (also, birds and all nature sounds one can expect from a large garden)
- Weatherwise, it is hot and humid daytime meanwhile nighttime u can expect cooler weather. We will let you know the current weather for the time u are expected to come.
- If there are anything you aren't sure about, please ask us beforehand.
-We can explore Ipoh together if I have free time. My younger brother is especially good with nature hunting (he has his own team exploring Perak state; hills, mountains, cave, waterfalls etc) and you can follow him whenever he has his expeditions. He is also interested in learning about outdoor/environmental related stuff so it will be nice if you can share your experiences/knowledge and maybe learn from each other.
-If you like river/waterfall, there is 2 nearby our place (bout 15min drive). (picnic n family-friendly, not for rafting)
-The main bus terminal of Ipoh (Amanjaya) is 8km away. You can use bus (every one hour) and Grab to get around. Ipoh is famous for its cave temples, white coffee, oldtown and local foods. ;)
-In case you want to buy things that aren't available at the nearby shops, there are some big shopping malls like AEON, Econsave and MYDIN about 15-20 minutes drive from here.
-You can reach Penang and KL by bus/train in few hours and spend your day off there too. Cameron Highlands is another popular tourist spot nearby; it's even doable for daytrip.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
More than two
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.8)
Communication:
(4.8)
