Second workaway project .. preparing new yoga centre in Malaysia

Selamat datang! (Welcome)
"Ananda Asitima is a non profit spiritual & ecological centre set in an organic vegetable farm in north west Malaysia. We welcome volunteers to help us develop our project and join in our daily practice of yoga & meditation. In addition to serving the local community we offer yoga, meditation, holistic health and self help retreats."

http://ananda-asitima-mu.weebly.com

At the moment there are nine volunteers here comprising tw young women from Malaysia (one Chinese one Hindu) a young couple .. she is Spanish he is Scottish ..  a middle aged Australian woman ...  a middle aged Scottish woman and a young German couple of Turkish origin and the manager is a middle aged woman originally from Hungary ... English is the common language but needless to say there are a lot of different accents . We all have to cook (vegetarian) so the daily diet is very varied and everyone is expected to work the first hour of every day in the organic vegetable gardens .. and then I am repairing problems on the volunteers housing and extending a veranda roof. 

Previous volunteers

A local resident scorpion

Farm pond

My toe and a local moth

Canine residents enjoying an evening snooze

Reception hall

Mangoesteen (extremely yummy!!)

Travelling in Malaysia by plane, bus and taxi

For someone bought up in what is known as the 1st world, travelling in Malaysia comes as a bit of a shock in as much that the friendliness and helpfulness of the locals is unlike anything you will have ever experienced before.  When i stepped off the bus that had brought me from Kuala Lumpur airport to the centre of the city a man waiting said hello where are are you going and to my reply Sungai Petani he wrote out a ticket for the equivalent of £10, said come with me and strode off shouting into his walkie talkie.  My immediate thinking was that I was about to be duped, probably sold off into slavery and never seen again but fortunately a saner side said stay with him and see where we end up.  Eventually the walkie talkie got a reply and a man with one arm appeared in the distance and I and my ticket were handed over ... again we strode off going eventually down to an underground car park where the bus for Singai Petani was leaving in 3 minutes.  This all happened while every car on the street seems to be hooting .. most people seem to be shouting .. the car fumes thick ... street vendors are trying to sell you everything from cold drinks to curry and it appears to be chaos and confusion but it all works as is shown by my finding the right bus for the next stage of my journey and trundling off through the constant traffic jams within 10 minutes of arriving.  The bus journey itself took 7 hours with 2 stops and all around me were people wanting to know where i came from ... how many children i had .. where am I going and all of them determined to ensure that i got off at the right place with instructions of how to get to the next village where the yoga centre was located.

Tea and toilet break

I wonder if it will catch on!

Highly recommended 

Back-packer hostels in Kota Kinabalu

When I first began to consider seriously the logistics and costs of travelling for 3 months or more Iin Malaysia and other countries of South East Asia  I had in mind that after the initial costs of flights there and back I wanted to try and live within my basic UK state pension and not  dip into savings or monies from the sale of my  house.  Workaway . where you give 5 hours a day for five days a week in return.for board and lodging was going to be one way of saving on outgoings ... and backpacking hostels would save on.the major cost of accommodation when between workaway projects.  Having now  stayed in 2 for a total of 8 days I can recommend  them as a way of saving and getting to meet other people to share Information and experiences.  At the moment I am staying in the  Borneo  Backpackers and can highly recommend.  I have the bottom bunk of a 10 bed dormitory which at the moment has 2 young Chinese girls .. they sleep in the same top bunk .. a young man from Australia and another from Indonesia.  In spite of the cramped space ... the room measures 4m x 4m ..everyone  is extremely considerate regarding noise .and we all have information to share.  The staff are unbelievably helpful .. the showers / toilets acceptable.  ..breakfast is a bit basic but you can prepare your own food if required ..there is free drinking water ... Internet connection ...  communal computer ... and television so you can keep up to date on the football championships!!

BASIC COSTS (in £ per day)
Hostel ...............................5.0
Extra for breakfast  .........0.5
Lunch (cafe 50 metres)   0.75
Dinner .......    "    ...............1.0
TOTAL ............................£7.25

Needless to say this is not 5 star living but it is interesting to note that there are a lot of Chinese here. .. both backpacking and more conventional ways of travelling .. and they are particularly fastidious!

When I walked out from KK one Sunday morning.

My walk today was unplanned other than going on the opposite direction from yesterday. As luck would have it I was in the centre of a Sunday market within a few minutes with the usual mixture of the unusual .. the bizarre ... and straightforward tat!  ... but what was interesting was a group of 20 or so people at the edge of the street givng reflexology treatment to passers by.   Not much unusual in that you might think but . .. they were all blind as were the group performing just down the street from them ... what an amazing idea.  Further on I found a stall selling what looked like very sharp swords modelled on what the locals used some time ago in their headhunting occupation! ... considering in the UK it's now quite difficult to even buy a sharp kitchen knife it came as rather an amusing shock!

Having soaked up the Sunday market I continued in the general direction and nearly turned back when I found myself in the middle of a run down industrial estate .. but eventually I was into a tree lined avenue with the sea on my left and in the distance a cove beckoned.  The area turned out to what I imagine is where the prosperous go 'play' at the weekend with a sandy beach and a loud event going on with guest speakers .. games on the beach .

street vendors selling local.delicacies and hundreds of young people competing by building sandcastles and painting ..It was really good and as I was the only white face in the entire crowd I knew I was in the right place!  

As per normal everyone was incredibly friendly and many wanted to practise their English ... just as I was leaving a group of young schoolgirls called out to me and after going through the usual where do you come from why are travelling alone we had photo time (this is the closest I will ever come to having my own harem!)  It was another hot walk home but on the way I saw a lizard ... nothing exceptional in that .... but this one was 1 metre long!  Unfortunately before I could find my camera he had shot off I into the undergrowth but talking to an Ozzie in my dorm he would probably have been a monitor.  All in all a good day.

Kota kinabalu ..mosque ..museum and heritage village

It has been an interesting but exhausting day.  Having made a posting on trip advisor to see what others could recommend as of interest in KK (kota kinabalu) I was out of the hostel at 6.45 and striding out towards the Mosque which is 3 miles away.  This time of the morning is a joy in any country (providing the sun is out!) And more so here as you know that within 3 hours it will be very hot and very humid. However the consequence was that I was there by just before 8 and nothing was open but a least it gave me time to take photos without the cars obliterating the view.  It was very disappointing  ..having gazed in wonder at the mosques in Afghanistan ..Turkey .. Iran many years ago this structure is a "carbuncle" to say the least (IMHO!)  However up the road was KK museum so after wondering around for an hour I retraced my footsteps and bought a ticket.  The main building is quite ugly and you are not allowed to take photos so i walked down to the heritage village which was idyllic (in comparison to the modern equivalent I had passed 5 minutes previously ...see photo) but very well laid out and having seen the real thing when I was on my 1st workaway project a week ago it looked authentic)  after an hour or so I went to have a look inside the main building but it was very dull and no mention made of the 'White Rajahs' which I had read about last week and can really recommend.  For a quick glimpse at this fascinating but unknown (by me anyway) piece of British colonialism here hopefully is the link to Wikipedia .. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rajahs . ...i finally walked back to the hostel at 1 pm and it was very very hot!
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Gaining courage!

Having read all the travel blogs before I set off on my own I landed in Malaysia totally paranoid that I would have all my belongings / money etc stolen within 24 hours with the result that I have been quite timid in venturing out into the big wide urban 'jungle'.  However I am finally beginning to relax and having observed that the locals leave clothes on parked motorbikes .... and having talked to and observed lots of young travellers ... so  many young women travelling on their own with enormous rucksacks ... that I was determined to find the busiest noisiest most jammed packed eating place I coould find ... the noise was defeaning ... the decor blinding from dozens of fluorescent lights ... and I sat there in awe! ...3 dishes ... a pot of tea served at the same time in true truck driver fashion came to the grand sum of £3.50

Will this be my first successfull blog post

Not much text as I'm using my smart phone (if only i were smart enough to be able to use it!!) Bit of a jumble with pics but the first is from a bird sanctuary in a mangrove swamp ..  the second is a flower in the grounds outside ..a view over the swamp from a hill and local housing built on stilts.