Have you ever thought about natural building? Building your own house with your own hands, sourcing your building materials from your immediate environment? I have thought about it a lot, and to me, it’s a dream I’ve had for a long time…
Natural building or sustainable building is a way to get back to nature, and be very creative. You get to create the curves and styles and moods within your home and you will discover you have a creative side even if you never knew it existed.
When I left Australia in February this year, to travel to Thailand for this intensive Natural Building Workshop I had no idea of what would unfold. All I knew, is that I loved the idea of sustainable building and I was ready for a challenge.
The island of Koh Lanta is really beautiful. It’s tucked away in the south of Thailand and has nowhere near as many tourists as the mainstream islands. Asalanta is an earthen village created by owners Aoi & Anke who are a Thai/Dutch couple with big dreams and lots of motivation. I’ve been around the world several times and it’s rare to find such people with big hearts and warm welcoming smiles. They treat each and every person who steps foot on their land like a part of their family and to me, it felt like coming home :))
Now let’s just take a step back and remind you all that this village is located in the middle of the jungle on a tropical island, so keep in mind that the environment and weather can be challenging. Like any tropical jungle, there’s mosquitos and spiders, its gets hot and sometimes rains a lot, so you’ll need to be prepared to live in this kind of environment. For me, having grown up in the tropics and spending much time in tropical rainforests I was well prepared and happy to enjoy the delights and challenges of this little patch of paradise.
Amanda Fischer lives on-site most of the year and she is the resident Natural Building Advisor and teaches the workshops. Her experience is extensive and her knowledge is inspiring, she is open and flexible and in my opinion, the perfect mentor for this type of course. I would NEVER have believed it possible to learn as much as I did in just seven short days. Sure, it was intensive and we often worked long days, but when you love what you’re doing like Amanda does all the days just blend into each other and you just love waking up and getting down and dirty each morning. Having your hands and feet in the mud and clay all day is just downright fun and I loved every minute of it.
If you’ve ever felt like throwing caution to the wind and leaving home to travel to an exotic destination to be with amazing people to learn something you never even knew could be possible, then Asalanta is the perfect place and I hope you go and experience it the way I did.
Having fallen in love with this place and everyone who lives there, we are now looking at holding some inspiring raw food ~ real food ~ wild food workshops at Asalanta. So… stay tuned for updates and maybe I’ll be seeing you in Thailand sometime soon?
Thanks for tuning in today, and please share this article and invite your friends and family to follow my blog if you find it worth your while. If you’ve had any experiences with natural building or great photos of any projects which have inspired you ~ I’d love to hear from you ~ just post your comments below ~ till next time… love life and live well x
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