When travelling, we always want to squeeze in the local experience with our sight seeing. Sight seeing gives the knowledge of history or architecture of that particular place.
To taste the local flavour we try to eat local, try to commute by local transport available, try to shop in local market or if not shopping then just wander in local market and foremost try to live with local people, if possible in their OWN HOUSE.
When I was quite young, my parents had taken us to Kashmir (India). There we had stayed in HOUSEBOAT with a Kashmiri family. Me and my brother had grown very fond of the children in that household. We had eaten their food and shared their room. I used to follow the elder daughter of that family wherever she went, whether its for washing utensils and clothes or cooking food or spreading clothes on the clothes line. That was so many years ago. Sharing houseboats with their owners in Kashmir has been a great attraction for many years in India but home stay culture in other parts of the nation has started sprouting very recently.
When we planned our first foreign trip to Malaysia and Singapore, we tried to find a suitable Home stay.
In Mulu, Sarawak is an island of Malaysia, which is known for its natural beauty with Gunung National Park, Various caves, streams, rivers and pinnacles etc. The caves are declared World Heritage sites by UNICEF and some of them are open for tourists. The National Park is in a tropical forest. Tourists move there on boardwalks. Whole experience is unique. A local home stay seemed the best choice to stay there instead of a hotel or resort ( though there were very few of them at that time). We were able to find a decent Home stay. The information for Home stay was available online and in Tripadvisor Mulu Homestay we could find the Home stay we stayed in.
From the Home stay's face book account we got their contact nos. and names of owners. I called them and did the booking and inquired about the amenities and rates.
On reaching there, when stepped out of the small aerodrome, we found that a jeep was waiting for us. All the Home stays owners share the jeeps and collect guests from airport at the time of incoming flights and drop them to their respective destinations.
Owner's wife was a beautiful lady, who inquired about our country and talked a lot about Indian film stars and songs and singers. Though she didn't understand the meaning, she sang Bollywood songs on karaoke and she was fan of Shahrukh Khan.
There were UK, Malaysia, Japan, Spain and US nationals staying there. The Home stay was a Malaysian home with extra rooms for guests and a hall, serving the purpose of dormitory. Rooms were basic, neat and airy. Owners had three cute cats too.
We got a big room with six beds and an open cupboard with plenty of shelves to hold our luggage.
The owners offered us the trips to the caves in lesser price than the National Park authorities and helped in our planning.
We were allowed to use their drinking water, if we wished. Early morning all the guests were served continental and local breakfast, cooked in the owner's kitchen, at the breakfast table together. We enjoyed the yummy food a lot for whole of our stay and interacted with other occupants too. It was a beautiful experience having breakfast with so many people of various nationalities and sharing our experiences and talking about our countries.
We took bath after our each adventure there and washed and left our clothes to dry on their clothing lines, which that wonderful lady collected at the time of rains in our absence.
When we returned from our excursions, we were also offered food by the house lady, though it was not included in our package and therefore we refused to take.
We had local food in a local restaurant. In Mulu, street lights were not there, so we used to return to the Home stay in torch light in the night after our lavish dinner in the local restaurant, with sounds of insects and giant lizards and dogs's barking, which was a little creepy but at the same time added to our adventure. The giant Lizards also make sound like a dog.
Air was so clean and population so scarce. We saw their local school, hospital and my son became friends with owner's children and cats.
We just loved the experience. Talked a lot with the host and shared so much information with them.
This experience has made us greedy. Now we are looking forward to many more such home stay experiences:))))
If you have any unique experiences of staying in home stays please share in comments. I would love to learn more and utilise the information in our future journeys.
Links to similar posts:
1.
Planning Malaysia Singapore Tour
