Off-grid Connection

I’d Rather Be… off-grid!

There is much to praise about technological advancements, which I am very thankful for. Especially the convenience of information and communication. Yet, with the instantaneous availability of information, it also infers an increase in level of impatience with others and with ourselves, which consequentially leads to an increased amount of stress. Not to talk about all the emissions and radiation that we are unknowingly absorbing. hehe. But this is the world we live in, so I shall just live with it, and make the best out of it.

I had the good fortune of living off-grid for a good four months, and it was an unforgettable experience. Technological advancement gave us a modem to connect to 3G network even when we were deep in the mountains. That was enough to maintain sanity, and I was happy to go off-grid on everything else. I don’t want to sound like a broken record writing about this all over again, so you can read about it here, while feasting on the images in this post!

Storage for water pumped from the lower level

Filtration system built out of vernacular materials

The panels that gives us convenient water flow

Frog housing

Frog housing under construction

Where flowers grow on land rather than in pots

Baking a cake! In our homemade solar oven

Bamboo ties from our backyard mountains

House of dried leaves for our three little pigs

The vanity of pretend-pots when plants have direct access to land

How many architects get to construct buildings with their own hands? 🙂 I am very proud to show off that I did. My dad’s generation built their compound and houses with their own hands too, and I am happy to have the chance to live up to what he / they did. I have friends in developed countries who also built their own places with their own hands – something I was envious of, but no longer something people could do in my country. Hence, tada~ this is what chasing dreams look like. ❤

More dreams fell in place when I was invited to join the team in their solar panel installation trips! This was one job that I could not help much with – wiring things up and climbing onto the roofs to put up the panels. Hence, I helped with the documentation (taking photos!), passing tools around, and playing with the children. 😀 Awareness is important! It was that trip that I learnt that each school only has 1 solar panel that lights up 3 lightbulbs so that they do not have to rush home before the sunset and there is still light on rainy or cloudy days. Some bigger schools have 2 panels, and they get to light the classrooms and the kitchen! And that batteries are expensive things – where I lived has no battery, so we only have electricity when there is sun.

school with a view

connected to nature

happy and carefree

We also went on one leisure adventure together further up north – into the forest, and down the rapids. We cooked with the firewood we collected, skewers made from the wild bamboo found where we were, and drank off teacups made on the spot. Locals really have amazing knowledge – two of them went into the forest to collect more greens to add to our meals. Haha, the leader of the pack was absolutely right when she adamantly told people “we are jungle people”.

❤ I am so blessed to have made it to the group of jungle people. ❤

team kayak

happy feet (mine!)

stone soup

mega large satay (skewered meat)

tea cup and tea light