30/11/2025

ON SUNDAY November 30, 2025 theSunday Special III

Small town living Kuala Pilah is a small town where every one knows each other. Although Allan and Irena try to maintain the privacy of their space, the locals have always helped spread the word about what they do. Their neighbours are mostly family members, as they are literally in Irena’s hometown. La Hilir has also opened up work and business opportunities for local establish PHQWV VXFK DV FR̆ HH VKRSV UHVWDXUDQWV and other places of interest, by promoting them to the guests of the glamping site. Allan is just happy to play a tiny part in improving the local economy and tourism. “Life in the village is simple and slow paced; it’s the ideal place for what we want in life. We believe that everyone has a unique skill or talent that is special to them. If you know how to use it, it wouldn’t really matter if you’re working in WKH Ṙ FH RU RXW LQ WKH IRUHVW

Allan Casal and his wife, Irena Adam, were once among these people until they finally decided to move from the big city to Kuala Pilah, a small town in Negeri Sembilan, to start building their own little piece of heaven, La Hilir, from scratch. Allan described it as a private place for people who love nature but need privacy and exclusivity. The luxe glamping site consists of three tents, among other facilities, such as an open dining area, a MDFX]]L D ¿UH SLW DQG RI FRXUVH $OODQ DQG Irena prepare every meal for their guests straight from their home kitchen. “My wife and I have worked most of our youth. We managed to start a family and got our own little place on a mortgage in Petaling Jaya. We live a typical urban lifestyle until one day we looked at our choices and thought that there must be something more than what we had back then. We felt drained from the demands of that lifestyle and wanted to break free from the vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. We wanted nice things too, HYHQ VRPH WKDW ZH FRXOGQ¶W UHDOO\ D̆ RUG That got us into debt. Saving became almost impossible. Basically, we had poor ¿QDQFLDO OLWHUDF\ DQG PDGH SRRU ¿QDQFLDO decisions,” Allan recalled. The couple agreed that they did not want to continue living like that and they thought hard about how to raise and nurture their three children for them to KDYH D GL̆ HUHQW H[SHULHQFH JURZLQJ XS be able to go on a grand adventure, so that they may look back and take all the good from it as life lessons. Allan and his family always loved camp ing. To escape the city, they used to go to Cameron Highlands for a short weekend trip to camp. They enjoyed the fresh air and cooling weather but were not big fans of the noisy campsites and the less-than ideal toilet situation. This is how La Hilir came about. Allan started talking to Irena and their children about how amazing it would be to build a tiny house and use it as an icon, a symbol of their adventure, until eventually the whole lifestyle became their brand. “It was a do-or-die moment. At the end of my career in publishing, I was the sole breadwinner and it meant that when I stopped working, there wouldn’t be any salary coming in, plus the unanticipated pandemic happened. There was no turn ing back, so this had to be the right choice from the get-go. We had to make it work, somehow, to the best of our abilities. Al though now, looking back at what we have built together as a family, I can proudly say we have made the right choice,” Allan said. The hardest part for the family in the initial stage is having to downsize and sacrifice the comforts of city life. The IDPLO\ RI ¿YH EHJDQ HGLWLQJ WKHLU OLIHVW\OH before the big move by making changes in their consumption and downsizing their possessions. “It was at the beginning of the pandemic when we moved to Kuala Pilah. It was a totally new experience, but we thought we had an advantage by deciding to stay there instead of our place in Petaling Jaya. There wasn’t any money coming in since everything had to be delayed, including the development of the glamping site. But we also took it as a challenge to build the site ourselves and the rest is history. We’ve been building the site from day one and continue to do so to this day,” Allan shared.

Comfortably sustainable Sustainable living may lead people to FRQVLGHU D WR EDVLFV RU WRWDOO\ R̆ WKH JULG lifestyle. It promotes the use of solar energy, natural water sources and peen composting toilets, which for some people can be too overwhelming. La Hilir is not really that hardcore in its practice of sustainable living. “ ,W¶V GL̆ HUHQW ZKHQ \RX KDYH NLGV ,W¶V not just about making ends meet or how we get electricity and water; rather, it’s WKH DELOLW\ WR DFKLHYH D VHQVH RI IXO¿OPHQW while doing what we love day in and day out. We love creating and sharing beauti ful spaces in our home with others and that, to us, is our version of sustainable living. We are now able to continue doing what we love while making a living out of it,” Allan explained. T KH ¿UVW WKLQJ WKDW RQH ZRXOG QRWLFH upon setting foot in La Hilir is the design of the place. It mainly uses timber sourced from a nearby local business that sells used wood from old houses in Kuala Pilah. Allan upcycled beams, planks or ZKDWHYHU KH FRXOG ¿QG DQG EUHDWKHG QHZ life into them as furniture or a design feature around the site. La Hilir was built while preserving all the natural elements around it. It is referred to as “regenerative practice” and goes beyond sustainability. “We allow the forest around us to regenerate itself. Instead of letting it adapt to us, we adapt to the existing terrain and we design around it. Most establishments ZRXOG RIWHQ ÀDWWHQ IRUHVWV DQG WKHQ SODQW new trees and plants, but here we let the local flora and fauna flourish,” Allan elaborated.

Allan has been building the site primarily on his own from the beginning and continues to do so to this day.

The couple loves creating and sharing beautiful spaces in their place with others.