Before coming on this trip I had read about help exchanges and work away programs where you stay at a place for free (or minimal cost to contribute to food/water usage) in exchange for some daily work. This sounded like an appealing way to save some money, and get closer to the real way of life of an area.

Introducing Zahara Urban Farm, my home for the week

I had emailed some places in Laos but the timing wasn’t right, there weren’t any appealing projects in Vietnam and I was busy in the Philippines. So now in Bali, where I blew a good amount of my monthly budget on flights and free diving, there were some interesting projects and I thought I would give one a try for my last week here.

My own personal guard dog, one of 5 that live here currently

What a cool experience so far! It’s theoretically an urban farm, however it doesn’t really produce anything. It operates on low waste, low consumption policies and tries to educate people about this kind of way of life.

Growing plant starters out of recycled plastic bottles

I couldn’t have predicted what it would be like. The lady that runs the farm is an eccentric high energy American who has made Bali her home for more than 20 years. She isn’t around very often because her daughter is a globe trotting model now, but she has two really nice Indonesians that work on the farm around every day.

Using magic (aka science) to cut glass bottles in two

They have taken the liberty of showing me some simple tasks around the farm, like upkeeping the composting toilet, making beer bottles into glasses, making cob (a clay based building material), and I got to paint the roof of the bathroom. Really easy work, which leaves me plenty of time to go surfing (and the surf right now is perfect for me) and in the evening the guys on the farm have been letting me sample the local alcohol, which is equal parts disgusting and strong. Haven’t gone blind yet so it’s all good!

My beautiful spray paint job on the bathroom ceiling

What a great way to finish off my time in Bali. Now I’m eager and inspired to try some more things like this (possibly in peninsular Malaysia), but first I’m gonna go worship cats and go camping with monkeys in Borneo, after a brief stopover to eat lots of food in Singapore.

Speaking of cats, I get to sleep with this cutie every night. His name is Oreo, fitting due to my current pack-a-day Oreo habit