How this Changi farmstay keeps things buzzing with their bee colonies & nature experiences
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his landscaping business, Country Cousins, Clarence Chua was faced with an urgent need to relocate his foreign workers.
His search led him to a shophouse in Siglap—which, by chance, came with an empty rooftop.
Immediately, a flood of ideas rushed to his mind, and together with his wife, Candice Li, he decided to turn it into a rooftop garden.
It was during this process that he discovered a nest of bees when moving an old garden shed.
“I knew nothing about bees then, so I got someone to shift it, but he was not able to come on time. So I tried to shift the bees myself.”
Several bee stings later, he successfully relocated the hive, but despite the painful experience, something else had taken root: a budding fascination with bees.
Determined to learn more, he started teaching himself—online and by trial and error—how to rescue and keep bees, eventually offering bee relocation services.
After being encouraged by a friend, he decided to pivot and start The Sundowner, offering rooftop farm experiences at Siglap—but that was just the beginning.
As The Sundowner grew in popularity, the business expanded its offerings, with the House of Melissa Evelin farmstay being its newest addition.
Building a new home
The idea for the House of Melissa Evelin came when Clarence and his wife realised that their rooftop space was too small to accommodate larger groups.
This prompted a year-long search for a new location that could house a larger apiary.
“We searched across shopping centres, empty rooftops, even existing farms. Many landlords were afraid of our bees,” lamented Clarence.
That was until the Civil Service Club reached out to them—coincidentally, they were looking to offer nature activities to guests at their Changi Village chalet.
Seizing the opportunity, the couple said “yes” to the offer and began transforming the chalet into a farmstay in 2024.
Despite the potential for a million-dollar renovation, they managed to complete the project within S$80,000, which included a small investment from an investment banker friend.
Clarence clarified that he initially sought out contractors, but was shocked by the quotations he received. “The quotes from contractors were just too high—If we went with them, we would have spent five times the amount!”
He decided to—quite literally—take matters into his own hands and DIY different parts of the project, from carpentry to painting, to save costs. Together with a group of part-timers, the chalet was successfully revamped, and the House of Melissa Evelin launched just two and a half months later.
If two and a half months seems like a short time, that’s because we knew exactly what to do, as we had built up The Sundowner from scratch in the same way four years ago.
Besides air conditioning, electricity, and plumbing, we did most things ourselves, so the main obstacle was inexperience. Who [among us] has ever built a hotel before? But we had the can-do spirit to just try.
Clarence Chua, co-founder of The Sundowner and House of Melissa Evelin
Sustaining itself in nature
At this point, you might be wondering: Who is Melissa Evelin?
She’s actually a fictional character created by the couple, who is a British naturalist and traveller—a story that plays into the colonial-style interior of the chalet.
The farmstay opened to much fanfare, with, according to Clarence, full bookings almost every weekend since last Christmas. It continues to see “strong, growing demand.”
Many of its customers also overlap with The Sundowner, as both businesses cater to the same target market—young families with more disposable income.
However, with any business in Singapore, the pressure to earn amid rising costs is one that many entrepreneurs continue to grapple with, especially when it comes to rental costs.
Located in less central areas, The Sundowner and House of Melissa Evelin benefited from more affordable rents, which allowed them to grow their audience sustainably.
“In contrast, if we wanted to start an unproven business, for example, in Orchard Road, and rely [on] its prestige to attract a crowd, we would have failed for sure, due to high rent. And the landlord will just be laughing all the way to the bank,” explained Clarence.
Currently, staffing also accounts for 20 to 30% of their costs; however, unlike other hospitality businesses, they intentionally avoid maintaining a roster of full-time employees, with only one full-time staff member on their team.
When asked about their decision, Clarence shared that one key concern is the risk of not being able to sustain full-time salaries during periods of lower demand, which might lead to layoffs.
This helps the business remain flexible and maintain healthy profit margins of around 15 to 20%.
Pursuing the green dollar
The House of Melissa Evelin reached operational breakeven in March—a milestone Clarence credits to the business’s adaptability. But the journey is far from over.
To drive continued growth, the team has introduced weekday discounts to boost off-peak stays and developed a suite of new activities that could cater to large group events, such as weddings and birthdays.
They are also supported by the SG Eco fund from the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment, which offers financial support for their permaculture tours and nature experiences.
Looking forward, although the House of Melissa Evelin currently operates on a short-term lease due to potential future plans for the area by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), Clarence hopes that The House of Melissa Evelin can continue offering their farmstays and experiences in Changi in the long run, and play a part in conserving the area.
Pure commerce is not green. We believe that combining doing good for nature, with attracting locals tourists to do the same, is a way towards a profitable future. It’s more about passion than profit.
We cannot take this concept and simply transplant it to another neighbourhood in Singapore. The vibe and narrative is just off. We hope this will show to [the] SLA the value of conserving these seafront chalets, instead of razing this area of natural and cultural history.
Clarence Chua, co-founder of The Sundowner and House of Melissa Evelin
- Learn more about House of Melissa Evelin here.
- Read more articles we have written on Singaporean businesses here.
Also Read: How this Singaporean built his own hotel brand using decommissioned city buses
Featured Image Credit: The House of Melissa Evelin
Astro is giving marketing support worth RM3 million to 200 F&B bizs under BIZone
We recently had a query: Can Malaysian businesses just play any music or show they want to on their premises?
The short answer is a resounding “no.” The longer answer though, you can read here.
But you might be wondering—what about those mamaks or bars that play football matches? How can they (legally) air that content?
Well, one solution they could be using is Astro’s BIZone.
In the zone with BIZone
Launched in 2024, Astro BIZone is a simplified pack for F&B outlets. It allows commercial establishments to air sports (and certain other content) on their screens.
Specifically, BIZone provides a full suite of live sports coverage as well as entertainment content, including the biggest sporting events such as the Premier League, BWF Tournaments, Liga Malaysia, Sepak Takraw League, Formula 1, MotoGP, NBA, cricket, and tennis. There’s also 25 non-sports channels.
Ensuring fairness, the pack also offers transparent pricing tailored to different business types and seating capacity.
A RM3 million rewards campaign
A lot of businesses, especially SMEs, might find it difficult to invest in a solution like BIZone, despite Astro’s statistics showing that customers tend to stay in a store where content like sports is playing on the TV.
BIZone’s newly announced initiative might sweeten the deal, though. To bolster the growth of SME F&B outlets, they have introduced a marketing support campaign with RM3 million’s worth of value.
Through this, a total of 200 F&B outlets will be selected as winners to receive a share of the RM3 million’s worth of marketing support throughout the campaign period.
The selection of winners will take place every month through a draw conducted by appointed Astro representatives.
Eligible outlets stand a chance to gain the following marketing and media support:
- Sports Watch Party: An all-expense-paid live sports screening experience hosted at the customer’s outlet, designed to draw crowds and turn any match night into a major event.
- Meet & Greet: Appearance by a top-tier celebrity or influencer, generating buzz, footfall, and memorable customer experiences.
- Food Review: Exclusive content creation by popular food reviewers or social media personality, spotlighting customer’s outlet and reaching thousands of foodies.
- Astro Radio Ads: Customer’s outlet featured on any one of Astro’s leading radio stations targeting millions of listeners, thus building awareness across diverse audience segments.
- TV Spots: Customer’s outlet showcased on Bulletin Awani or Borak SeeNi, tapping into Astro’s extensive national viewership for maximum reach.
This campaign is open to all F&B and commercial outlets that sign up for, renew, or upgrade their BIZone TV pack within the campaign period of April 7 to October 17.
Good for business
Tan Sian Tuang, Head of Enterprise and Broadband Business, Astro said, “Through this campaign, we want to enable F&Bs to leverage the power of strategic marketing to achieve their business objectives.”
The company wants to show how BIZone is a powerful business multiplier that delivers real value by driving footfall, increasing customer engagement, and enhancing brand value.
Beyond the marketing support, though, BIZone does sound like a good solution that F&B businesses should consider.
It might be an investment, but some businesses have been slapped with hefty fines for not following the proper channels when it comes to in-store entertainment.
For one, it was reported that year that a nasi kandar chain had to pay Astro over RM200,000 for unauthorised broadcasts.
Maybe this is one reason why BIZone has already demonstrated substantial growth since its launch last year, experiencing a 34% year-on-year increase in new customers, significantly outpacing the approximate 5% year-on-year base growth.
Astro shared in a press release, “With a potential market size of 14,000 establishments, BIZone is steadily gaining traction. This growth in customer acquisition highlights its value as a business solution for F&B and commercial outlets across Malaysia.”
- Learn more about Astro BIZone here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.
Also Read: Why Brisbane & Gold Coast should be M’sian travellers’ top Aussie destinations in 2025
Featured Image Credit: Astro BIZone
ASUS Zenbook A14 review: Lightweight, long-lasting, with lightning speed. What’s not to love?
For the past month, I had the chance to test ASUS’ latest offering under their Zenbook lineup, the ASUS Zenbook A14.
Even before receiving the product, I had my reservations against this new, ultralight laptop.
After all, aren’t laptops already pretty light? I’ve had no problem taking my Surface Pro 7 around for the past five years, and that thing already weighs not much more than the A14 despite being released in 2019.
Even friends and colleagues seem to be having no problem bringing about their hefty gaming laptops, decked with the most powerful processors and graphics cards.
As such, I had thought that the lightness of the A14 would be doing little in actually proving itself to be a standout laptop of its class.
I was wrong
From the second I had taken the laptop out of its box and onto my hands, its 899 g felt closer in weight to a notebook than a standard laptop.
Indeed, carrying the A14 around was never a hassle, and I immediately noticed the lightness of my laptop bag the first time I brought it home.
I decided to use the A14 as my daily driver for the next month or so, switching from my now two-minute battery life Surface Pro 7.
From carrying it around at events to actually using it lap-top in crowded hospital lobbies and car service centres, the A14 proved itself to be a practical work companion for the ever-moving professional with its lightness, build, and extended “edge-to-edge” touchpad which got me leaving my mouse at home.
The laptop also features a Ceraluminum build, a signature ASUS material composed of aluminium and ceramic which ASUS claims to be “lightweight, scratch resistant, shock resistant, and smudge-free,” a statement I found for the most part, to be true.
I know, I know. It’s only been a month. But as an excessive palm sweater who likes to keep his nails moderately long and is clumsy, I had half expected the laptop to show signs of wear, despite promising my editors that I would do my best to keep it looking its best (it is a review unit, after all).
By the end of the month, however, the A14 showed no scratch, held no stain, nor bore no tarnish, still true to the pretty brown beige colour it came in—Zabriskie Beige, ASUS calls it.
Moving on to its keyboard, the A14 provided a smooth and soundless typing experience, just the way I like it (maybe not for you mechanical keyboard users who want everyone to know just how much you’re typing, though).
“It feels like a MacBook,” said a writer friend, an Apple loyalist who has stuck to Apple laptops due to its keyboards and typing feel.
What about what’s under?
With it being a new product, I had high expectations for its overall performance in handling my day-to-day tasks, the most technically demanding of them being having up to 30 browser tabs running at any one time.
And for the most part, the A14 delivered.
Through the time I’ve had with the laptop, I noticed no performance issues, be it stutters or complete crashes. Then again, I’m not running Premiere Pro or Elden Ring on it, but with its Snapdragon X processor and 32GB or memory, you should be good to take it a little further.
With its claimed battery life of 23 hours, the A14 works great for those who like to work on the go, further bolstered by its Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor, which ensures no performance losses when using the A14 unplugged.
Even if the laptop ran low though, its 65-watt type-C fast-charge adapter made charging quick, even working for other devices with a type-C port and fast-charging capabilities.
Along with two USB-C ports, the A14 is also fitted with a HDMI port, a headphone jack, and a USB-A port.
The camera, however, was… fine, not really standing out from other laptop’s cameras, but it did do its job.
Now, let’s talk about what every tech brand loves shouting about, the “new” AI features, including ASUS with Microsoft’s assistant, Copilot.
In short, that did not work for me. Whether this was a laptop problem or a software problem, I don’t know, but as someone who does not use AI programmes, it didn’t really affect my workflow.
That said, ASUS claims that the A14 was built around giving users seamless access to AI models, from live captions to transforming sketches into pieces of art to even upscaling images, so if you find yourself going through third-party apps to do those tasks regularly, the A14 and Copilot might just help streamline your workflow greatly.
To sum it up
The A14 is a great laptop. It did wonderful at handling my writing and researching tasks and it would probably do well for a lot more too, given that it boasts the latest technologies and features in the tech world, from an upgraded processor to a more efficient battery.
That said, does it justify its RM4,999 price point? I think it does, especially for those who prioritise portability, AI productivity features, and aesthetics.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Lightweight and portable | Pricey if you’re not going to maximise usage its features |
| Great interface (keyboard and trackpad) | Might feel fragile due to its lightness, although it has been tested to meet military-grade standards |
| Long-lasting and efficient battery |
VP Verdict is a series where we personally try and test out products, services, fads, and apps. Want to suggest something else for us to try? Leave a comment here or send the suggestion to our Facebook page.
Also Read: Why Brisbane & Gold Coast should be M’sian travellers’ top Aussie destinations in 2025
PAP sticks to its guns to defend Marine Parade. Will the Workers’ Party risk an open fight?
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed below belong solely to the author.
People’s Action Party has revealed its team for the redrawn Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC this election, and it’s hard to even notice that it lacks the former Speaker of Parliament, Tan Chuan-Jin.
Leading the slate is the Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng, who is joined by the current Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, Minister of State for Home Affairs and National Development Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, former MacPherson SMC MP Tin Pei Ling, and newcomer Diana Pang, who’s spent 20 years in Fengshan as treasurer and chair of the Women’s Wing.
But it’s Tin Pei Ling who could give the PAP a boost within the new boundaries, after her SMC in MacPherson was absorbed into the group constituency.
She won her individual seat there twice in 2015 and 2020, with 65% and 71% of the vote, respectively. These wins proved her earlier critics wrong, who had made dismissive comments regarding her candidacy as a part of the Marine Parade GRC in 2011 as an attempt to smuggle a young, inexperienced candidate into the Parliament.
Her strong track record should give the party a boost, especially as it tries to distance itself from the extramarital affair scandal that cost Tan Chuan-Jin his political career.
At the same time, a failure to defend the constituency would be a huge blow to its ranks for the PAP, costing it a minister, Parliamentary Speaker and a popular, young MP with a bright career still ahead.
Will the Workers’ Party risk an open fight?
The leading opposition party is keeping its cards close to its chest so far and hasn’t revealed its candidates yet.
However, there has been strong indication that it was at least considering fielding its leading political transfer, senior counsel Harpreet Singh, in Marine Parade.
He was seen during walkabouts in the area over the past two years—including a recent tour of MacPherson just last month—fueling speculation that WP will try to grab the constituency weakened by Tan Chuan-Jin’s ejection.
However, as good a candidate as he might be, standing against a very strong lineup of the PAP is a big risk for the Workers’ Party, which previously announced it would contest fewer than one-third of all seats.
WP will be cautious not to expend its limited human resources on fighting fights that are difficult to win, hoping instead to find weak spots to take advantage of, like it did in Sengkang five years ago.
It’s not helped by the fact that Mr Singh is almost 60 years old already, and can’t really afford to spend the coming term outside of the Parliament if he intends to contribute as an MP.
If he fails to make it in now, it’s unlikely that the party would field him again in 2030, when he’s already past retirement age and might have a limited career as a politician ahead.
The delay in announcing its candidates suggests that the party might be weighing the option of fielding the seasoned lawyer in the neighbouring East Coast GRC or perhaps even one of the SMCs, where he could stand a better chance in a one-on-one fight (neighbouring Mountbatten SMC, in particular, springs to mind, as the PAP is fielding a newcomer there, after the four-time MP Lim Biow Chuan stepped down).
It’s difficult to say whether the decision to keep its choices a secret is a political manoeuvre or if WP leaders really haven’t decided where to place their pieces on the electoral chessboard, waiting for the PAP to make its moves first.
That said, after investing so much time and effort into making Harpreet Singh the fresh face of the party in this GE, they now have to utilise him in a way that is going to maximise his chances of victory as a leader of one of the constituencies, rather than just a member of a larger GRC.
And the PAP is not making it easy.
Check out our GE2025 microsite for the latest election-related news, find out which constituency you belong to, and who’s running where on the election battleground here.
Also Read: GE2025: Is tough luck for Desmond Lee the opportunity PSP has been waiting for in the West?
Featured Image Credit: PAP
