Visitors from Downunder
Posted: December 20, 2011 Filed under: Dog friendly retreat in Malaysia, Uncategorized | Tags: Durian 2 Comments »
Our friends Clarence, Jean and their two teenage children - Emily and Harlan, visited KL from Melbourne for the first time recently. We spent a day in Genting Highlands and of course dropped by Semai Sayang in Bentong for some delicious durians and mangosteens. The Orang Asli family (husband, wife including a 10 years old boy) collected fresh durians for us! I was particularly impressed with the 10 years old Orang Asli boy who lived in the farm with his parents, brothers and sisters. At his age, he is able to ride his bicyle up and down the hill slope with ease and picked up durians on the way! This little boy was also very polite and respectful!
Jean, Charence and Emily absolutely enjoyed themselves and got their finggers dirty as they dug into the D24 and Musang King while Harlan watched with a smile as he does not fancy durians. Besides the durians being fresh from the trees, these species are not available in Australia. The Aussies can only buy the frozen durians imported from Thailand. We hope our Aussie friends left with some fond memories 
Time to Celebrate!
Posted: December 20, 2011 Filed under: Dog friendly retreat in Malaysia 2 Comments »
On the 10th December 2011, Semai Sayang celebrated the achievement of a major milestone – that is, we now have electricity, water, a small house and two bamboo huts built by orang asli. Very quaint!
A BIG thank you to Alden for building everything that we can see at Semai Sayang todate and for looking after the farm with Ah Sang koh. It is a now a lovely place to spend the day and the Musang King and D24 were absolutely delicious! Everybody enjoyed themselves on the day
Appreciation goes to Ian and Sharon for taking very good care of the banana plants! We look forward to tasting the fruits of your sweat in a few weeks! Also thanks to Jimmy and Vivian for being “chefs” to prepare the food for the celebration. The flourless chocolate cake, the mushrooms, wild boar curry, wild boar asam, famous Bentong wonton noodles and yong tau foo were a hit! Of course to all our friends who have supported us on this project – thank you! We are glad that you were able to join us in celebrating this achievement and we look forward to having more parties at Semai Sayang!
Semai Sayang – A lovely place to spend a morning …
Posted: December 20, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Early morning is the best time to visit Semai Sayang. The scenery is just heavenly with the distant hills appearing through the clouds as the sun rises. Ian, Sharon and Alden were busily cutting the banana leaves when Eric and I arrived. They stopped and took us trekking up the hills. The sound of birds chirping, monkeys screeching and the occassional thud sound when a riped durian dropped just filled the silence of the morning with excitement. We were all like excited little kids on a discovery trail looking for the hanging fruit that had dropped. It’s certainly a wonderful place to spend a morning!
Durian Buffet in Bentong for Charity – 11 April 2011
Posted: September 5, 2011 Filed under: Dog friendly retreat in Malaysia | Tags: charity, Durian orchard, Fund Raising Leave a comment »
Thank you all for your generous contributions towards Tan Hui Linn’s expenses as she pursues her studies in accountancy at Sunway University. Unfortunately Semai and his four-legged sisters Lola, Yogi, Lui-Lui and big brother Lucky did not get to go as the event was at a local Bentong collection store. Hopefully they get to join in the fun and durian feast soon as the house at Semai Sayang is ready (end of October 2011).
