Happi Village — Local services in Pahang

This is a place for spacing out. 放空的好地方。

My husband and I are visual designers with fussy eyes, but this place left a unique impression for us that we admire. But please do not expect to see the usual fancy luxury of most commercial establishments, here we can see very conscious use of materials and resources to minimal waste and harm, while achieving a good level of comfort, taste and aesthetic, this I admire a lot because sustainable materials are usually much more expensive, harder to maintain and lacking in varieties, critics might say there are use of plastic dustbin and etc, but any conscious consumer would know at this day and age we can only reduce, impossible to avoid entirely.

Love love love the concept of coexisting with mother nature, more then 1000 trees were planted next to a virgin forest, you will be sleeping and playing surrounded by nature yet being protected from the wildlife nearby at the same time, yet there are still complains about spiders and not being spotlessly clean, I think if you want to enjoy the nature without any imperfections and some visitation of little creatures, maybe.. you can consider going to Mars!?

Love the plunge pool, filled with water from nearby stream, with 100kg of sea salt in it, WITHOUT any chlorine, or coz I’m jumping in! Chlorine is not only harmful to our water system, it’s also toxin to our body, at the same time takes away the layer of natural oil from our skin, making us feel dry and cold. Sea salt purifies our energy body. I felt so rejuvenated after a dip.

I’m a big fan of healthy food. Usually healthy food are not yummy - as most would expect, because it’s not so hard to cook up a fancy meal with all kinds of processed ingredients. Mr and Mrs Liu come with a background and passion for healthy body, mind and soul, this is the whole intention of creating Happi Village. I’m more then willing to tame my overly stimulated taste buds in order to savor the goodness with gratitude. We enjoyed our grilled chicken very much, and the pumpkin soup from their own farm. The lamb shoulder was treated well, the choco fondant was awesome.

This is not a place with karaoke and fun activities.

This is a place to space out, to do nothing, to just be, and to take in the nature that wants to rejuvenate you, if you so allow. There is even a 1km forest walk nicely paved with stones.

We see young couples choose to spend their weekend here surprisingly, and true enough, when asked, they said they feel stressed out in the city.

This is a place managed by a small team led by Mr and Mrs Liu, with staff they take in and train from the under privileged communities. We will surely be back with our friends...

We were looking for a nice nature escape, and this place delivered just that! What my partner and I absolutely loved was how the carefully thought-of architecture of the whole place (the salt water pool, the wooden furniture, the eating space, etc.) and rooms blended perfectly with its green surroundings, in a non-intrusive way - and the little huskies running around the compound happily certainly added to the experience.

Like many others and the owners themselves have stressed, this isn't a luxury resort. If the thought of having a few bugs or leaves in your room isn't appealing to you, then prolly find some place else. For nature lovers who embrace all that, you'll get the sounds of cicadas, gibbons and a variety of birds serenading you the entire stay. Just nearby, you can walk to their fig and passion fruit farm.

The one thing that really does need some looking into and improvement though (like some others have expressed), would be the food. Getting in and out of Happi Village can be challenging, especially at night and taking into consideration the price tag for the rooms and the limited option for meals itself, more thought and care needs to go into the food they serve.

Breakfast was alright, 2 sunny side up eggs, some pineapple jam along with bread. They do not serve lunch, so for the two nights we stayed, we had the steamboat on the first day and the chicken chop set on the second day. Freshly harvested and sourced ingredients were something the owner seemed to take pride on, and they were undeniably fresh. The broths for the steamboat were both practically tasteless, but that was fine. The partially raw, and overly tough chicken chop on the next day was a deal breaker for us though.

They've also got a pizza stone oven and a BBQ pit, but were not usable during our stay. With the amount of fresh produce and ingredients they have, even simple salads with some oven roasted meat/veggies and potatoes would've been a better (and healthier) option. Work with the strengths of whoever your cook/chef is. Thankfully, we brought a water kettle and had some instant noodles and other snacks to fill our tummies.

We definitely would want to come back here for another escape, but perhaps once we're either allowed to cook ourselves or they put more thought into their menu.

Absolutely no issues with the service (Anis and her sister were excellent), and I enjoyed chatting with Steve, the owner. Thanks so much for the hospitality and extra touches that were put...

Stayed for 2nights in Rimbun upstairs.

Comfortable bed & liked the idea of the insulated wall in the room enabling you to smell & hear everything the nature outdoors had to offer from the comfort of your room. Hot water shower was good. Could improve by providing better amenities such as torch light, shampoo/conditioner, insect repellent. Walkway to the room was dark & we were not sure about safety as after certain hours at night, we don't spot any staff/security around the premise.

Expect bugs, some spiders & some ants inside your room. Harmless though. Still slept soundly through the night.

There is no help with luggages so pack light & bring a travel bag you can easily carry & not rollers.

Staff are generally friendly.

Salt water pool is a dipping pool not so much for swimming. Water was too cold so we didn't stay for long & the pool area was not too enticing that you'd wanna hang out there for long. Perhaps some comfortable pool chairs might help to compensate or if the pool was heated since it's generally cold throughout the day even with sun light.

Common area was nice to look at but not cozy I feel so we didn't hang out there much except for meal times.

Food - same breakfast for 2days. came with 2eggs, 2slices of bread, a home made meat patty which was too dry for my liking but the taste was good & pineapple jam. Seems like they have been serving same breakfast even from reviews from 1 year ago. If I may suggest, breakfast doesn't have to be the same thing everyday. Even if, perhaps allow your guests to choose from maybe 3-4 options of things like simple nasi lemak, western breakfast with some baked beans/sausages/pancakes, sandwiches etc. Lunch not provided so we brought some cup noodles & snacks. Steamboat for dinner overpriced. We decided to grab from a nearby stall the next night. It's not convenient to drive out easily for food so perhaps it'd be good to consider not overcharging for food in the resort & having variety & delicious food will help.

There is nothing to do there, no activity so it's a good place to unwind & do nothing if that's what you are looking for. However, the owners could consider putting comfortable seating around the premise to encourage guests to use your amenities to relax as currently your furnishing is not conducive for long hours except for the bed in the room.

Overall, the place is nice & good effort but I don't think it's value for money. Will I return? Most likely not...