Sun N Soil Backpacker Hostel

It was awesome. The owner was very friendly. The rooms are also nice.

I went as a volunteer to this place for a week. The form and their listing on the awaraji.com website said a volunteer must work in total per day for five hours of skilled work (which i initially signed up for ie social media marketing and graphic design) and unskilled work of helping with the check-in and check-out of the guests. But on my first day itself I was overburdened with twelve hours of work (morning ten to night ten) including all the menial housekeeping work like making beds after the guests leave, folding the blankets, washing the utensils, arranging the utensils in their kitchen, making tea/coffee and sometimes food for the guests, being a gatekeeper, welcome guests, arrange food for guests, do the billing until night 11pm, open and close gates continuously like a watchman and watch their pets etc etc. All this I was made to do by a certain individual called Mr. Aaquib moin, who had come to the hostel 2 years back as a volunteer himself. Who most of the time apart from some random wood work is mainly seen loitering around with the single female guests. He had an attitude as if he owns the place. And the actual owners , a sweet friendly warm couple who were a saving grace, worked in the city so stayed out till evenings from early mornings out of the hostel. So this great Mr. Aaquib made me work like 10-12 hours a day , with two instances being the guests eating up major portions of the food which i had painstakingly prepared for myself. I felt so pathetic there tbh as my time as volunteer that i decided not to continue. I saw they treated the foreigner volunteers differently. At one instance a guest dusted her dusty blanket on my face and asked me to change it. Mind you there was no daily house-help here and a cleaner comes periodically (once in 3 days approx). There's no cook too. This is a mild heads up to the folks who are going there as a volunteer. Especially if you're an Indian. You'll be squeezed till the last drop. I had a terrible experience that left me traumatised! My goodness gracious!! Btw i was given a girl's dorm to stay in where a foreigner guy also was staying. Wierd. In comparison to a Egyptian female volunteer from last year who was given a comfy private room with attached bathroom. The biasness speaks volumes!