Rumah Papan Pandamaran — Attraction in Klang Municipal Council

Rumah Papan Pandamaran is a museum you can eat in. A restaurant where the menu changes with the weather. A homestay that doubles as a classroom. It’s all of those things, and depending on when you show up, possibly none of them. Imagine your grandmother’s wooden kampung house taken over by two very friendly locals with encyclopaedic knowledge of Klang history and an unhealthy obsession with gac fruit. That’s the vibe here.

The house itself is a lovingly restored relic, a skeleton of the “new village” era, patched up, polished, and now filled with history exhibits, handmade crafts, and the occasional tourist trying to figure out whether they should sit down. The bedrooms are a makeshift gallery. Every corner has a story. And yes, someone will happily tell you about it at length.

Then there’s the food. If you book in advance, you’ll get a private dinner for eight to ten people. Seasonal dishes, backyard vegetables, and always, always a cameo from the gac fruit. Gac soup. Gac rice. Gac juice. Gac desserts. By the end of the meal, you start to wonder if the couple are quietly running a cult in honour of this spiky orange orb. At least it tastes good.

Show up without a booking and you won’t get fed, but you can still hang out. Maybe buy some gac products, peek at the exhibits, or join their weekly excursion into Klang to shop, eat, and learn why locals think bak kut teh is a birthright. If you’re really committed, you can even barter your skills in exchange for lodging. Teach a workshop, wash some dishes, harvest some fruit. Leave with memories, a mild sunburn, and probably more knowledge about Pandamaran’s road names than you ever thought you needed.

The best part isn’t the food, or even the history, it’s the couple who run the place. Call them Ah Fai and Mei Yun, call them historians with legs, call them community builders. What they offer is memory: of kampung days, of a Hokkien village built on grit and survival, of food that still tastes like it came from someone’s own yard because it did. Visitors leave with sticky fingers, a head full of history, and maybe a jar of gac jam they’ll never figure out...

It's been a very fruitful two weeks in Ban Cuo. Get to experience a lot out of expectation, definitely received more than given. It matches with the information provided and expectation. I enjoyed my time there whether it was watering the plants, curating content, being creative, host paper making workshops, helping out where whenever needed and spending time with the host. Everyone is very nice here.

They appreciated and valued everyone as individual and really follow the guidelines for working exchange and did not treat as labour. I love hearing their stories and being inspired of how ordinary people make very extraordinary decisions not for personal fame or monetary/ materialism but for a good cause and purpose. It's not easy work, they are committed and dedicated in everything they do. Happy to be connected with like-minded souls who are trying to make the world a better place.

They have a vision in local tourism and they put out things to public with their highest quality like local fresh produce, diy natural ingredient products, local guided walks. They know their craft really well and are in my eyes the expert storytellers of Klang, never met anyone doing what they do.

I think when our fate cross paths, we will meet again. But before then, they have all my blessings and support in the work they...

I had a great time doing a work exchange here! During my stay, there's a special Mid-Autumn Festival event organized by the host, I’m thankful that I had the chance helped out with it and really enjoy the festive vibes. The daily exchange tasks were fun and varied, such as helping with the house guiding guests and learning about Pandamaran’s history. I even got to help with some photography! But of course the main job was watering the plants everyday at specific times, otherwise will see the plants become brown from green😂

The people there were super nice and welcoming. Staying alone in this traditional wooden house was peaceful, although I must admit that on the first night, I was a bit scared and had to switch on the lamp to sleep😨Luckily, there's another volunteer joined during my second week, so I didn’t feel too lonely. We hang out and explored together, which made the experience even better. The food was delicious and big portions with reasonable price, one person is not able to finish, need share share, that's why I am so thankful when there's another volunteer joined 😁😄

The only “problem”? I came back with a tan!! But that just shows I had a great...