We secretly gave Mai a surprise visit

Hanoi lodging is so high compared to Nha Trang. Usually we pay only 4 star hotel for $18 but in Hanoi central / Tay Ho we are only able to get $30 for 3 star hotel. 

Earlier this morning when I went down to eat and I saw the haze is so bad in Hanoi and I do a quick search on the air quality and realise it was 25x above world recommended level. OMG, extremely unhealthy and I think Hanoi will not be a good place for us to relocate. As this is the 3rd trip this year and I think i will not come back to Hanoi anytime soon. I personally now like Dalit and then follow up Nha Trang now.

From Airbnb at Yen Phu we check out and move to lahomestay hang dau. I see the picture so nice but price at only $15 on agoda. But when we check in then the owner tell us that the hotel is newly added in the agoda and they didn’t prepare the room for us. So our 3 days booking have to cut to 1 and I need to move out again tomorrow.

Today after checking in to hotel we decided to give Mai a surprise at her Bima leather company. She was a new friend we made when we was looking for leather tools during our first visit. We decide to drop by her office and give her a surprise. 

Today big news is that the China bull market suddenly pull back and a lot of 90s and 00s are taking up loans and brought into the market. They were heavily influenced by China influencer. However as these younger generation had not accumulated much assets and those 3rd party non bank lender will see a lot of default from these group of people. 躺平了. Now is really getting harder and harder for younger generation. The economic no longer make sense even for me.  

Kulai Work Stay 流连宿 打工换宿 - Day 1

打工换宿

Okie, exciting. My friend Ben for the ID firm recommended me to try 打工换宿. Interesting concept from crouchsurfing!!! You can literally work / volunteer and exchange for lodging at different country, hence experience different culture from different country. Therefore, we decided to start our first experience at 流连宿.

流连宿

This self sustaining farm at Kulai is owned by Tai Shun. He used to work in Singapore as a mobile phone retailer and other job for many years but he ends up returning to Malaysia to start a homestay. His idea is not to keep chasing for the money and wants a farm that is fully substainable. He learn all the skill like electrical, plumbing, construction, carpentry and gardening from all around the world. More of his stories can be seen here. 

Direction

From Queenstown MRT to Kranji MRT > take SBS 170x to JB central > T30 bus for 40mins to Kulai. I went during Tuesday afternoon 12 as it was off perk and so it took me 2 hours to reach Kulai bus terminal from Queenstown MRT. No jam and straight through.

Day 1 

Banana tree only grow one branch of banana and they will weed. You can cut off the stem and sucker will start to grow from the base near to the original plant.

Compost method using permaculture, which instead of more modern industrialization method, permaculture is adopting a more traditional or natural method。

Good place as a 2nd home

Crystal shared that Kulai is a good place to start a homestay beside the hot and sunny weather which is the cons.

• - 40mins drive to JB if you want to enjoy some city time
• - 15mins drive to JB airport (small) which connects to the rest of malaysia via domestic flight. 
• - as a semi rural area, they still have good amount of facilities like police, fire, school and hospital around.