William and his spouse.

Ajin and his spouse.

 

William Lee, the coordinator of Koposizon Homestay in Kg Papaga, Papar shares that he went through difficult times through the years, especially during the inception of the homestay.

“Twenty years ago, I was about to retire from Government service and I wanted to do something else. I thought homestay would be a good activity to go into since, we only have to have a house with extra rooms for our guests,” he recalls.

“We also have nature and traditional lifestyle to bank on. We have paddy fields around us, and orchards with various types of fruit trees, we also have the river, for river cruises. I believed those would be of tremendous interest to tourists. 

“So, I decided to embark on this venture. I went for several meetings and courses on how to run a homestay. There also have to be at least ten participating houses in the village to form a homestay. So, I went around to tell villagers to participate, but many declined.”

Beautifying the village thoroughfare after a couple of participants joined him was also met with derision, where some passers by would remark that planting food plants were better than planting flowers along the road.

 

Johana

A participating home at Koposizon Homestay.

 

Abar

Chalets at Taburan Beach.

 

“We just kept quiet and went on with our work. Of course, it was disheartening, but we kept on with our activities, beautifying our roadside and our compound. The labour took us months.”

His first guests arrived, soon after; they were Kansai University students numbering five in all. They were good guests and took genuine interest in the homestay programmes accorded to them. 

The good-mannered and polite students were an encouragement to William, and he went on to receive more guests, they included Japanese, Koreans and Europeans among many others. They were interested and attentive guests, who enjoyed their hosts’ company, took keen interest and participated in the in the programmes offered.

William’s homestay had its share of unruly guests though, and one day, he had to contend with vandalism and teen angst. 

 

Filming in progress at one of the homestays.

 

“We welcomed 40 Arab Emirates students, mostly teenagers into our homestay. We divided the group into the participating houses. It was absolute chaos, where they refused to eat our food and demanded for fast food fried chicken, they broke furniture, destroyed toilet bowls and broke a lot of things. Even bus seats didn’t escape their hands,” William recalls.

Ajin Kulus, a member of Koposizon Homestay, says he went through the same problem with his Arabian guests, putting it up as an unforgettable experience. He never had another experience as bad as that. It was indeed an experience. But he moved on and presently doing maintenance work and value adding homestay offerings

“I have three rooms for guests at the moment. Besides offering guests our traditional food, we also have ‘Kampung Walk’ and trekking uphill to watch the sunset or the sunrise. It’s a three-kilometre walk. We have yet to build a station there so our guests can take shelter.”

Johana Joanis is also a participant of Koposizon Homestay with three rooms in her house for guests. She shares that she actually watched her friends handle their homestay before she dared to actively participate.

“My first guests were six Japanese students. They were very nice and polite, so I was able to handle them well. I manage to communicate through sign language. They were not fussy, so my first experience was actually quite nice,” she said.

“As for programmes there is no hard and fast rule. We usually cater to what they need. If they need to go to town or visit other schools, we will bring them around with us. In the evenings, we will put up a show for them, such as traditional dances, costumes and food. They are usually happy with it.

A guest at Koposizon Homestay learning to grate a coconut.

A guest riding a buffalo at the Koposizon Homestay.