5 months in the oyster farm in Malaysia

I would like to share my experience in an oyster farm, in Kedah state, in the North of Malaysia.

The oyster farm

I arrived in this project in November 2016, thanks to the website Workaway (a platform online where you can find some project s that need volunteers : in exchange of some working hours, you get a free or cheap food and accommodation). The description was about a paradise island where you could learn and experiment permaculture. Of course, the idea sounded nice to me and I applied. At this time, living 5 months in an oyster farm was far from my expectations (especially as a vegetarian!).

The project here is made of many micro-projects and I’m glad that I stayed so long because it allowed me to have a vision more global of what’s happening in the Valley of Bujang (Lembah Bujang). When I first arrived I tough I would stay for 2 or 3 weeks but my plans took a very different twist…

I first landed at the oyster farm where I stayed for one week. I met there very friendly and welcoming people even tough English was not always easy for everyone, including me.

The project started with a partnership between Paksu, a local villager and the University of Science Malaysia. The university offered to Paksu to work with them on an oyster farm project that would in the same time improve the local community life, protect the environment and raise the awareness about it.

Many activities are developed here : oyster farming of course (the oysters help cleaning the river), planting mangrove trees, the construction of a guesthouse, a new restaurant, welcoming customers and visitors, fishing, teaching English to local kids, raising environment awareness,…
And others activities more related to the local culture : going to kenduris (weddings), celebrating the Ramadan, cooking local food, meeting people from the villages around, swimming in the river, share some kueh mueh (local finger food), etc.

Wedding between a french and a malay

Here, local people (kids, young and older people) and volunteers from around the world are working and living together. The project wants to be open and accessible to everyone. Informality is more normal than formality and to me it is very important if you want to include everyone. People from the city work with people from the countryside and they learn from each other. To me it is one of the richness of this project : social mix, cultural mix and also mix of ages.

We play Uno all together everyday !

After one week at the oyster farm, I jumped on the boat to Pulau Bidan, located 45 mn from the farm. We set sail down the river of Merbok until the ocean and there, not far from Pulau Telur (egg island) and Pulau Song-Song (pregnant island), is the paradise island of Pulau Bidan (midwife island), where few young Malays started this wonderful project of permaculture community with for goals to protect the island from mass tourism, pollution and erosion.

The island is lush, full of life (animals, fishes, insects) but also full of trashes, asbestos (let by the Australian army who had a base here in the 1980s) and the erosion is growing year after year. The project is to create a sustainable life to find an answer to the current environmental crisis.

The island is small; we can across it in about one hour. Except few locals holiday-makers and some fishermen, there’s only us : the volunteers and one, two or three guys who initiated the project.

The island Pulau Bidan

I left France only two months before and I didn’t feel like living mostly with people from Europe, as I didn’t come to Asia to meet my own culture. That’s one of the reason why after just few days on the island I decided to go back to the oyster farm.
For me, French girl from a one million inhabitant city, the environment here is totally new. I live on the water, in the middle of the mangrove, on a kind of floating house that move with the tide and the boats passing by. The place is gorgeous. I’m not getting bored of the landscapes, sunrises, animals around us (river life, monkeys, cats, chickens, monitor lizards, snakes, birds,…). But I got weary to look at the trashes passing by, hundreds of them every day… and every night because unfortunately the human pollution never stops. The locals told me that before, about 70 years ago, you could see elephants and crocodiles crossing the river. Nowadays, not anymore.

The idea of being volunteer through Workaway can be use in different ways. Of course it’s a good way to travel cheap (here I spend 5euros per day and get food, accommodation and can participate to plenty of activities in exchange of few working hours). It’s also a good way to travel off the beaten tracks.
But for me, being volunteer here means a lot more and gave me access to plenty of learning. It’s important to me to speak about it not to show off but to maybe give the willingness to anyone who read this text to start a similar adventure, here or somewhere else.

Daily life picture of people leaving the adventure, often to come back !

I’ve learned about Malaysian culture of course, which is very far from my own culture, it means a panel of de customs, traditions, a way of speaking, of interacting between people, of working, etc.
Now, I know a bit of Malay language and that allow me to speak here and in Indonesia with the local people who don’t speak English. My english also get better and now I like to learn new languages whereas for a long time I didn’t like it.
I’ve learned oysters farming, gardening, some construction skills, driving a scooter and cooking some malay food. I’ve learned about permaculture, environment and Malaysian geography. Through the hundreds volunteers I met I improved my English, shared knowledges from the world and create some precious friendships.

Work with the oysters

I’ve also learned about myself, which was not always easy but it made me growing up. To live in a different culture is not easy every day and I had some hard time but all the experiences I had have more value to me than money. That’s why I don’t think I’m wasting my time in a project like this one even if I didn’t make any money. Moreover, I have a full respect for the people who participate to this project all of them as volunteers, giving time, energy and personal savings to make this world better. Because until now they still don’t have enough money to generate incomes. The money they get goes to the poor families of the villages around, allowing for example some kids to go studying.

I can’t count the magic moments I spent here, alone, with other volunteers, with the people from the project and with some local villagers. Many feelings crossed me here in the Bujang Valley.
I could write pages and pages about the oyster farm but I’m not sure to be read because nowadays we zap quickly for fast information.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the people who shared this experience with me – which is not finish – and I would like to encourage any interested person – local or foreigner – to get involved in this project because for me this project gathers numerous criteria that make an excellent project, forward-looking.
I will not forget the generosity Malaysians showed toward me and I will always try to raise myself on their level in term of hospitality.
I will not forget the beauty of the river, the oyster’s cuts in my fingers, the stars gazing from the roof top, the bubur kacang, the uncountable interesting discussions, the car full of kids, all the roti canai I ate, the boat’s ride day and night, the monkey toilets, the smile and laugh of the kids swimming in the river, …

Swimming time !