Green Fairy alert: The Real Magic Behind Frangipani

On Aida's suggestion during our last trip to Langkawi, we went to Frangipani Resort for a special little tour. I think this one's a bit of a well-kept secret, but if you're interested in sustainable living, be sure to put this on your list of To Do's the next time you are on the island.

Although Frangipani is already famous on the island for its eco-friendly practices, few know the real extent of their efforts on this front. But for a mere RM5, you can get a tour of their back-of-house along with a guide who will tell you all about the resort's already impressive progress in running their business along sustainable principles.

Here's the tip of the iceberg:

Old bottles and plastic containers are re-purposed as lampshades.

They've even got their own wetlands, where the grey water (water from the sewers) is channelled to fertilise a corn patch with the most GIANT corn plants I have ever seen, then into a pond where it is filtered again via water plants until it emerges clean on the other side of the pond.

The filtration pond where grey water emerges clean!

Their backyard houses free range ducks and chickens who were busy either lolling about under shrubs, taking a dip in the cooling pond or just clucking and quacking their way round the garden when we visited. The hens really have a sweet deal though - their henhouse for laying eggs is a repurposed spa hut! These ladies sure live in style.

There's more - organic rice grown in old bathtubs, a salt water swimming pool, rain-water collection, sponsor-a-tree programmes for guests, and the list goes on.

But don't let me tell you all the secrets - go see them for your self. Hopefully it will inspire you to also think about how you can incorporate some of those practices at home :-)

La Pari-Pari : Where We Are

Some of you have been asking about progress on La Pari-Pari. Some of you even think that it is already under construction.

The truth is we're only in the early stages of La Pari-Pari's lifecycle folks. It takes (as we have found out) a lot longer to build a resort from scratch than it does to set up a shop in a mall. After all, we have to build our "shop" from scratch.

So here's where we are now, exactly:

Scene from one of our face-to-face

meetings in Ijam's apartment.

The last six months and change have been spent deep in design. La Pari-Pari was drawn and brought to paper life mainly across phone and Internet lines, with Ijam and us periodically meeting face-to-face in between. And even then, meetings have been far less than formal :-) Perhaps it's an indication of our life to come on the island?

My sister Karen, the other initial partner-in-crime who started

this whole thing. And yes, this IS a meeting!

It's been interesting for me - seeing how a business is built from scratch - as I've never been a true-blue entrepreneur before. I've always worked for people. So now, when I read about other entrepreneurs talking about how their business empires began at kitchen tables and in dining rooms, I completely get it. They literally mean what they say. I know we do, when we say that ours was given birth on tables in two different locations 45-mins flight apart.

Now that design of the resort's structure is done, it's on to interiors. Here's where I get to take out my proverbial box of crayons and have some fun!

Also on the cards are dealing with the quantity surveyor, contractors, engineers, etc, etc, etc - all just to get the documents ready for submission to the land office!

And this is BEFORE we even go to the banks for money :-)

With some luck and a lot of pushing, in about a month we should know what La Pari-Pari not only looks like from the outside but the inside too. And, we will have a logo!

Then, some time in September, we will go knocking on bank doors for the funding. If any of you can point us in the right direction, do holler!

A Few Good Fairies

It may be months away from Christmas still, but we thought it might be nice to acknowledge a few good fairies who have been extremely helpful in providing us with some useful information and pointers.

Oprah has a famous saying, "You already have everything you need." With friends like ours, it is certainly proving to be true :-)

Sheliza Shahadan very kindly introduced us to the owners of Tanamera - a 100% Malaysian-born and owned brand of beautiful personal care and spa products made from natural ingredients. I spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting with one of the brand's founders, (who incidentally are a brother-sister team) at their office deep in Kampung Subang. It's the kind of place you just wouldn't call work, since it is set in a village and the aroma of gorgeous herbs being milled on the grounds hits you the minute you step out of your car.

Apart from containing natural ingredients, Tanamera products also don't contain some of the environmentally-damaging ingredients present in most commercial shampoos and cleansers. Plus, their plastic packaging is recyclable, and they were more than happy to explore the possibility of supplying us products in larger batches for dispensers.

If you haven't checked out their products already, do so. They also have spas around the Klang Valley.

The folks at my office (yes, we still have to find a way to pay the bills until La Pari-Pari is built) discovered a new retail outlet called Body Bar in Tropicana Mall. The owner, Michelle is a lovely lady who used to work in the technology industry. Now she's pursuing her passion for all things natural with her retail brand whose tagline is "If it's not good enough to eat, it's not good enough for your skin!"

Her products are sourced from around the world and she certainly is passionate about her quest to encourage more people to use ecofriendly, natural goods. In fact, this young lady even has an edible garden growing on her home balcony!

I couldn't resist playing with all the lovely products at the shop's bar - and yes, they really do have one. So much so I ended up going home with one of their products - an amazing facial cleanser that is made using a recipe African women have apparently used for years to bathe newborn babies. I swear by it now.

Both these companies are shining examples of how Malaysian businesses are waking up to the profitable benefits of doing business the green way. And, the more I dig into the subject, the more it becomes apparent to me that skin and personal care products in particular should be green. After all, as Michelle said to me, the skin is the largest organ on our bodies. Yet, we do little to ensure that the stuff we put on it isn't poisonous.

Makes a whole lot of sense to me. Now to get Anim to crunch the numbers and ensure we can get green products on La Pari-Pari's bathroom shelves.