Relax - Field trips for families

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Rice is white, so the padi fields where it is grown have to be the same colour. So thought 10-year-old Felisya Hazlan until she saw the lush green fields at a kampung in Negri Sembilan, Malaysia.

It was also the first time the Primary 4 pupil saw, fed and ran from live squawking chickens which were after the corn feed she clutched in her hands.

“I’ve only seen chickens in photographs and on TV, so at first I was scared. But I soon found it amusing that chickens chased after people,” she says.

She had her reality check when she went with her family on a two-day, one-night holiday homestay at Kampung Lonek in June last year.

Her father, Mr Hazlan Aris, wanted to show his three daughters, aged 10, eight and six, the padi fields and expose them to the different Malay cultures.

“They eat rice every day but they don’t know where rice comes from. At least this holiday is more educational than just going to a hotel with a pool,” says the 42-year-old teacher who had visited the kampung twice with his school students on excursions.

Turning holidays into extended school seems to be catching on among parents who want their children to see and learn beyond textbooks and classrooms.

IPC Tours, which customises educational tours and homestays, reports a 30 to 40 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of families signing up for kampung homestays in Malaysia. At least 60 families signed up for homestay holidays with it last year.

IPC senior sales manager Ken Chen says kampung homestay trips were originally organised for schools but are now offered to families.

He explains: “Students return home and tell their parents about their experience and the teachers themselves take their families back there.”

According to the Malaysia Tourism Board, which has teamed up with travel agents to promote homestays, popular states for homestays are Negri Sembilan, Johor and Kelantan.

Its spokesman says: “It’s good for those looking for a unique package holiday not too far away from home and more importantly, which is affordable.”

Ms Badariah Ahmad, the chairman of the Kampung Lonek homestay programme, says homestays for families have been available at her home in
Negri Sembilan for the past four years, but visitor numbers rose only in recent years.

She adds that more than 50 per cent of her kampung’s visitors are families, student groups and community centre groups from Singapore.

She says people can visit the padi fields, try their hand at rubber tapping, feed chickens at poultry farms and learn to make dodol, a sweet Malay cake.

“Some children think that rubber is black because of the tyres and have never seen fruit trees or chickens before,” chuckles the 58-year-old.

For urbanites, there is a downside to experiencing a different life from one in the city. While feeding chickens and sweating it out in the padi fields might be a fun holiday activity, the simple homestay accommodation with no air-conditioning could be far less enjoyable.

Mr Hazlan says that although the toilets at Kampung Lonek in Negri Sembilan are clean, modern flushing types, there is no hot water or shower facilities. Instead, guests bathe using a pail.

Different kinds of seafood and dishes from a kelong, which is Malay
for a wooden offshore platform.

His daughters were also “freaked out” by the insects that hovered around the lights in the house at night.

“It’s a very good experience for the children. I felt I was reliving my childhood too,” says Mr Hazlan, who grew up in a kampung near the sea in Johor Baru.

In addition to farmstays, kelong stays are also getting popular with families.

Madam Chew Chai Wah took her 10-year-old son Cyrus Tan on a three-day, two-night stay at Kelong Kawal in Bintan last week to have his first taste of kelong life. Kelong is Malay for a wooden offshore platform.

Although slightly modernised with concrete structures, the kelongs are still largely made of wooden planks and stilts, reminiscent of their role in the traditional fishing industry in the region.

“Experiencing kelong life is just not the same as learning and reading about it from textbooks,” says Madam Chew, a 50-year-old butcher who also wanted her son to learn how to catch fish.

She added that the soothing sea breeze and wide open sea were also a good opportunity for her son to have a pleasant break before his exams after the school holidays.

Catering mostly to families, Kelong Kawal owner Lim Hai Chua says his place gets busy during the weekends and especially during the school holidays in June and December.

Almost 200 people booked stays at his kelong during the second half of June this year. His kelong has 28 twin-share rooms, which can accommodate 56 people or more if families are willing to squeeze.

His toilets, though clean, need to be manually flushed using a pail of water. There are no water heaters or shower facilities. Visitors bathe with rainwater collected in huge water gallons.

For Primary 4 pupil Cyrus, bathing with cold rain water was not a problem. In fact, he says the best part of his kelong trip was learning how to fish and “eating a lot of fresh crabs and fish”.

“The kelong was similar to what I had imagined and learnt in school. It really is a simple life – you get to fish and the house is made of wood,” he says.

Farmstays in Taiwan and homestays in Japan are also becoming popular with families, say travel agents.

CTC Holidays’ senior vice-president of marketing and public relations, Ms Alicia Seah, says her agency’s Taiwan tour packages with farmstays have seen a 15 per cent year-on-year increase. The bulk of bookings is for the long year-end school holiday.

She adds that countries such as New Zealand and Australia, which used to monopolise farmstay experiences, are now “mature destinations” that many Singaporeans have visited.

Ms Cathy Woo, who went with her family on a CTC Holiday Taiwan tour in June, says the Shangrila Leisure Farmstay that was included in the itinerary was the highlight of their trip.

A family in a photograph taken during a farmstay in taiwan, where
they learnt to make tang yuan (rice dumplings). Such homestays are
catching on among parents who want their children to see and learn
beyond textbooks and classrooms. These homestays also enable
families to learn about different cultures.

Although it was only a night’s stay, the 37-year-old secretary says her three sons, aged 12 to 15, enjoyed themselves playing with traditional tops and making tang yuan, or rice dumplings.

Unfortunately for them, they missed out on the fruit-picking season. Otherwise, they would have had the chance to pick peaches, plums and mulberries.

Her sons also had to get used to the proximity of wildlife. She says: “They found the loud cricket sounds scary.”

But her youngest son, 12-year-old Ying Kang who is taking his Primary School Leaving Examination this year, says: “I think I can get used to it.There’s no stress over there.”

Indeed, children may be made of sterner stuff than their parents think. Felisya, a true-blue city slicker, says she will be more prepared should she return to the kampung.

“I want to go back because it’s very interesting. But next time I will bring along insect repellent.”

Where to go

MALAYSIA KAMPUNG HOMESTAYS

3D/2N Kampung Lonek Homestay in Negri Sembilan
Cost: From $190 a person (includes all meals and land transport)
Activities: Sow padi seeds, make Malay sweet cakes, visit poultry and fish farms, tap rubber
To book: Call IPC Tours on 6338-5772

3D/2N Kampung Temenin Baru in Kota Tinggi, Johor
Cost: From $190 a person (includes all meals)
Activities: Visit coffee and oil palm plantations and rubber estates, camp in fruit orchards, take a boat ride to watch fireflies, make cakes and chips, visit fish, poultry, goats and dairy farms
To book: Call IPC Tours on 6338-5772

INDONESIA KELONG STAYS

3D/2N at Kelong Kawal in Bintan
Cost: $230 (includes ferry ticket to Tanjung Pinang and all meals)
Activities: Go island-hopping and fishing and take banana boat rides
To book: Call Mr Lim Hai Chua on 9789-6513

3D/2N at Ocean Bay Resort in Bintan
Cost: $178 (includes land transport and all meals. Ferry to Tanjung Pinang not included)
Activities: Snorkelling, island-hopping and other water sports (additional $15)
To book: Call Jason Ang on 9369-6228 or e-mail info@oceanbaybintan.com

JAPAN HOMESTAYS

World Ranch in South of Osaka
Cost: 8,000 yen to 19,000 yen (S$125 to S$297) a night, depending on the season, includes choice of cottage that can accommodate families of up to 10 persons, breakfast and dinner meals
Activities: Get up close with rabbits, goats and lambs, milk cows, go horse riding, pick chicken eggs from the coop, visit a dog village
To book: E-mail: info@worldranch.co.jp

Earth Embassy on Mount Fuji
Cost per night: 3,000 yen (room), 2,000 yen (treehouse and tent) and 1,500 yen (camping space without tent), includes choice of room, treehouse or tent, all meals
Activities: Visit organic farms to learn about organic cooking. learn to plant and harvest a field, go horse riding, feed sheep, learn how to make soap
To book: E-mail: stay@earthembassy.org or visit www.earthembassy.org

TAIWAN HOMESTAYS

5D Taiwan Leisure and Hot Spring
Cost: From $713, includes 2D/1N at Flying Cow Leisure Farm in the Miaoli county
Activities: Feed and milk cows, learn to make milk cookies and ice cream, go horse riding, visit an organic garden

7D Feast Hunter
Cost: From $993, includes 2D/1N at Shangrila Leisure Farm in the Yilan county
Activities: Pick peaches, plums and mulberries in February and March, starfruit, guava and pomelo from July to October and oranges during winter, make Taiwanese dumplings, make lanterns, carry a sedan chair.

6D Leisure New Discovery
Cost: From $893, includes 2D/1N at Toucheng Leisure Farm in the Miaoli county (Eastern region), Half-day Bei Guan Leisure Farm’s Crab Museum
Activities: Feed cows and baby sheep, collect fresh chicken eggs, pick fruit and vegetables, learn about wine-making and local wine culture, make lanterns, learn about crabs at Taiwan’s first crab museum
To book: Call CTC Holidays on 6536-3995, for Taiwan Free & Easy Tours, call 6536-3345. Prices include airport taxes and surcharges

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.

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