Home Away from Home
The place you didn't know you needed, until you found it.
When was the last time you went someplace that couldn’t be summed up into one sentence? Someplace where a 60-second video or a bright caption over a static image couldn’t convey the charm and uniqueness of a location. Somewhere that makes you go “huh, why can’t there be more places like this here in Malaysia?” And the funniest thing is that, you’ll find this place where you’d least expected it.
Over the weekend, I had to attend an event down in Kluang. It was a day trip, but I didn’t know anyone in Kluang so I couldn’t just find a place that I could just hang out until the event started and I didn’t want to pay for hotel accommodations because I wouldn’t be staying overnight. In a bigger city like Kuala Lumpur, there might be more opportunities to find places like gyms or malls but it seemed like a waste coming to a place like Kluang to only be relegated to a place are a dime and dozen in many other places. So it was by sheer stroke of luck that I happened upon a place like YUAN (which stands for Youth Universal Adventure Nature).
Located near Kluang’s city center, YUAN is what I would call, for lack of a better one word descriptor, a community center. Community centers tend to have a negative connotation here in Malaysia. Badly maintained places that are filled with vagrants or only used by the government for activities such as vaccination centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s what comes to mind when I bring up the name “community center”.
But what YUAN is trying to do, is that they are trying to bring back the essence of community centers which is to provide a location that is beneficial to the local community, either by providing a safe space for people to come and interact with others. As well as learn new skills by allowing the space to be used for activities for workshops and skill-sharing before these kind of activities were monopolized by influencers and relegated to co-working or event spaces. Even as I was just there to use their amenities, the host was having a workshop for the guests to learn new skills.
Guests were encouraged to use the space as they saw fit (within reason) as I saw travelers from overseas using it as a hub to plan their next travel location. The place has a rustic charm with plenty of light to make the place feel welcoming. It's a place for those who are comfortable using it as is and not if you're looking to just stay in a hotel room for your vacation. There are also accommodations for those who want to spend the night, single capsule-like beds for individuals. Their current price is RM50 per head per night and those like me who just wanted to use the amenities can do so free of charge. But if I wanted to use the washer or use the ingredients provided there for cooking, then there is a nominal fee.
The hosts, Tee and Audrey, even provided me with a list of locations in Kluang to try out and see if I had the time. And it was this wealth of knowledge that is the main draw for a community space such as this, these days I wouldn't ask a hotel staff where the best place to have local food is because most are just focused on their day-to-day tasks of running the hotel but for the hosts at YUAN, it is their passion to present the locale and give their guests the best experience in Kluang, and Malaysia by extension.
YUAN is located in a very strategic part of Kluang, nearby are pharmacies and restaurants as well as being smack dab between two malls. It's walking distance to the train station of Kluang as well.
It's heartening to see a place that one could belong to and not just be treated as another customer. The infectious enthusiasm of the hosts to not only showcase Malaysia but also give opportunities to those around them a place to grow their craft is a rarity in this day and age. While it's still early days for the staff at YUAN as they just opened back in July, it's clear that they have a clear vision where they plan to go next and hopefully we'll see more YUANs pop up in other states to not just encourage travel but to grow local communities.