Our First Experience of Staying in a Home Stay (Malaysia)

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

Planning Malaysia Singapore tour

Two years back we had been to Malaysia and Singapore. People travel and go places, what we did, I just want to share.

 

In other parts of world, people take sabbaticals or go to same place again and again, don't plan too much for the trip or just embark but in our part of the world, we take limited leaves from jobs or schools, we plan a lot, we take packaged tours or we just go to touch the place or after retirement from job; to see the whole place without giving it a good thought at all.

 

We are not much adventure kind of people and we are more interested in SHOPPING...though the scenario is changing sharply.. young generation has started thinking like true TRAVELLERS, they are more adventurous too......

 

Here is the thinking that went into my preparations for the trip

 

1. The place to go - First thought was off course 'where to go'. We wanted to go nearby, because this was our first family trip abroad. Singapore is nearby and quite kid friendly, so for our son's sake, we zeroed in on it. With it we squeezed in Malaysia too.

 

2. Sight Seeing - After deciding about the place to visit, it was necessary to decide two important factors----- how many days we would need to spend and how much money we would need??

For that I started listing out the places to visit in both the countries. I took major help of Tripadvisor-Malaysia and Tripadvisor-Singapore. I made exhaustive list of whatever seemed interesting and see able in both the countries.

Both being South Asian countries and neighbours, their flora and fauna was got to be similar; animals, birds and insects were same. So I compared the Butterfly Parks, Zoos, Bird Parks, Botanical gardens of the two countries and chose one each from both the countries. Butterfly park and Bird Park in Malaysia (they are competitive and both are nearby to each other thus saving time in commute). Zoo and Gardens in Singapore.

Malaysia has Islands where Sarawak state is a comparatively untouched place with National Parks, World Heritage Sites declared caves and native charm. So decided to spend time there too. In addition to all these, the places unique to these countries were also included.

 

3. Rough Itinerary - I placed the places to visit in Google Maps and found out which places are located nearby and can be visited together. And from Tripadvisor Malaysia Forum and Tripadvisor Singapore Forum, I found out how much time we should give each place to see it leisurely. This way made a rough itinerary.

 

4. Planning of attractions - By searching individual websites of major attractions, I noted down their timings, ticket prices, facilities, things to take and things to remember while visiting them. Information for other attractions I got from the above mentioned Forums and Lonely Planet books.

The Road ---- Mumbai-Nashik-Mumbai

Nashik is located on the north-western part of Maharashtra. It is cconsidered as a holy city by the Hindus, many temples adorn the city. Shirdi, Saputara, Wani and Trimbakeshwar are other places having very popular temples near Nashik.

It is situated at a distance of 165 km from Mumbai. The Road journey from Mumbai-Nashik is through the Sahyadri mountain ranges, which run parallel to the Western Coast of Indian peninsula. These mountain ranges are also called Western Ghats and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Mumbai, it is a journey of about 3 hours 10 minutes by car. The places covered during the journey are Mumbai - Thane - Shahapur - Ghoti - Nashik. On the way, there are several ATMs, hospitals, petrol pumps, hotels, rest stops and dhabas. Eating joints such as Pizza Hut and McDonald's are also present on the route.

 

En route the views are breath taking, the beauty of the village Igatpuri is what words and camera can not justify. NH3 on the Mumbai Nashik expressway is two lane and the beauty, if only these pictures can do the justice

 

 

In the middle of the mountains this two lane road turns and a new mountain range emerges on the horizon.

 

 

 

A journey through mountain is supposed to be scary but this one is pleasant in a pleasant way.

 

 
 

The route by road from Mumbai to Nasik is very scenic after one leaves the Kalyan/Bhiwandi area. The road is quite good. The ghat section after Kasara and up to Igatpuri is particularly good. The traffic on the whole is not usually very heavy.

 

The journey in itself is a destination. We feel that for this road only we will come again and again. 

  

Junagadh...city I fell in love with

When planned our trip to Junagdh, Gujarat, I never knew, it would be such an influence!!!

The trip was one day only.... we had to skip the trek to Girnar due to time constraint

But the city still charmed me... we moved by our car through the roads and alleys of the city... main city looked just like any other Gujarati city till we started our journey through history of this city...

The Sakkarbaug Zoo needs special mention here due to the state of animals there...

No no ..nothing to worry about ..... though the zoo is small... many big cats are kept here in comparatively small enclosures but and they are so happily healthy

 

 

The Bird enclosures are so beautiful......

 

 

 

Then we went to the majestc Mahabat Makbara, if only the Tourism Deptt took some interest and restored the wonder to its past beauty. Just couldn't take my eyes off it. Some entry fee could have been charged too...people would have paid happily

 

 

 



And then The Upperkot Fort.. with its intersting story of Rani Ranak Devi ... but here I would like to comment about the Adi Kadi Vav (one of the oldest Stepwells). This stepwell is without any intricate designs or ornamentations but then its being oldest is the charm of it. Sad part is it's full of pigeon droppings and garbage...

If only we could taste its sweet and cool water....if it was kept clean and working.....if if if ....

 

 

There are Buddhist Caves also, which are underground and to think that many many years ago Huen Tsang had walked there !!!

 

 

 

The alleys and roads outside the Fort were adding to the old world charm of the city....

 

When going through history and folk tales of the place and its monuments, we wonder how much is true?? But they do tell some stories and take us to that forgotten era...

Passion of travelling and a busy family

Being a full time Homemaker,  makes it difficult for me to travel whenever I wish. We as a family of a school going kid and a full time professional,  have carved some ways to fulfill our passion. And I know this is the problem with most of us, when the child has holidays, the husband has important projects to finish. When husband is somewhat relaxed!!!

child is having his tests and assignments. We don't want to disturb neither the studies and off course nor the important projects. In the past we missed some of our planned holidays due to this..... Not now, as we have found some ways. I am jotting down them the way we have devised

1. We have divided holidays in two parts.. Indian and Out of India... again Indian holidays into Mumbai and near Mumbai (as we live in Mumbai) and Others.

2. When there are 3-4 consecutive holidays, which happens at least once every year, we travel in Mumbai or to nearby places. There is lot to explore.