Southern Home — Hotel in Klang Municipal Council

Beautifully decorated, clean, organized and peaceful. Amazing host - enjoyed the chats with Oscar. He’s very sincere and approachable, helped us to find out and make arrangements for food, ferries, day trips.

Stayed with my family (2 primary school going kids) for 2 nights, he offered us the 6 pax room that has 3 bunk beds. No other guests when we were there.

Location: about 15-20 min to walk from the jetty along a concrete path that’s mostly unsheltered. Benefit is that it is far from the human traffic and noise (e.g. we observed that other homestays nearer the jetty often had karaoke systems that could be quite loud). Enjoyed the peace. Also felt secure.

Room: clean bedding with comforter, aircon works (albeit a bit noisy, but understandable given the difficulties to change/service on this remote island!), has hair dryer, mirror, ~4 power sockets, chairs and table, tissue.

Toilets: 4 shared cubicles, 2 squatting and 2 sitting with flush. Heated shower heads in all. Toilet paper, bidet spray, shampoo and shower gel.

Self-service drink area: hot/cold water dispenser, cups, plates, cutlery, instant coffee sachets.

Common area: books and travel guides (mostly Chinese), speakers to play background music (could ask him to turn off), ceiling fans, some card games.

Connectivity: no WiFi. Digi and Celcom have better coverage.

The host: Oscar has a wealth of knowledge, such as about the history/culture of this village and his backpacking trips overseas. His extended family has lived in the area for the past few decades, parents retired from shrimp catching. He studied university overseas for several years so offers a different perspective versus chatting with other villagers. Learnt and laughed so much from the conversations with him, where he also shared bits of what happened on past years such as a music concert they organized in the village pre-Covid (performing on a sandy beach at low tide and on a rooftop!) and being asked to urgently relief teach at the village primary school for a month. His home is next to the homestay and the homestay used to be his relative’s home. So there’s enough privacy, yet easy to reach out to him when we need help.

Getting there: Oscar helped us to find out the ferry/speedboat timings.

Food: breakfast was a simple nasi lemak then fried noodles cooked by one of village aunties. Dinner - Oscar helped to order in rice with dishes in a bento box. Lunch - Oscar could help to find out which shops are open. Note that the shops selling cooked food may not always be open, suggest to consider bringing some food.

The villagers were welcoming and friendly.

Other activities we did include Catching crabs. Oscar shared with us a childhood pastime - catching the crabs on the mudflat beneath during low tide with a long wooden stick that has a long string tied at the end. Curl the string around the crab then pull it up. While standing on the pavements, don’t need to go down to the mud. Fishing. Bring own rod and baits. Explored the village on foot. Took the ferry/speed boat to Pulau Ketam (头条港) for a day trip (own cost). Afternoon trip to floating fish farm, catching crabs at a sandy shore during low tide, watching the eagles - the retired village chief happened to be bringing another group out so Oscar helped us to join in (need minimum pax for trip to run). We topped up for this.

Overall, felt fortunate to be able to stay here for 2 nights as a family of 4, and that Oscar made caregiving arrangements to open the homestay (otherwise he is usually on mainland) despite only 4 of us staying. Note that most other homestays on the island only take bigger groups of about 10 people onwards.

P/s. Bring umbrella/ sun hats/ sunglasses in case of rain/sun. Also, contact him via Southern Home Facebook page messenger for...

Great homestay, the house is decorated nicely and rooms are spacious and fully equipped. The owner Oscar is a really helpful host, specially when you dont speak chinese, he will navigate you through the small town, help you get the best food and show you around, as nobody speaks english. He gets you an amazing breakfast that you can enjoy in the terrace. In front of the house you find an open space where locals spread their shrimps to dry, and you can even swim near the small pier. You can also enjoy a really...

A calm and peaceful place for a relaxing vacation, especially staying at this Southern Home which is situated at the far end of the village. Moreover, able to gather so much info from our knowledgeable home owner, Oscar added the advantage. It feels so good too to be away from the busy city to enjoy the sea breeze. I also love listening to the rolling in waves when the tide is rising. Anyway, I appreciated the company of this friendly group to make the trip complete....