Palamariu Family Blog

The 1^st of March, Indians celebrate Holi, the festival of colors. In Delhi area this represent the first day of spring while closer to the desert, in Jodhpur, 1^st of March is the first day of hot summer.

The week before Holi, in all markets one can buy almost from each stall strong color powders like pink, green, yellow, red and orange. You may think this celebration is especially for kids, but in fact entire families are preparing to have fun playing Holi. Given the fact colors are very strong, even 1 week after Holi, you can still see on the street pink or green skinned Indians wearing the marks of the color fighting.

Besides the color fighting, Holi has a spiritual manifestation that depends from neighborhood to neighborhood. Therefore, on Holi’s eve, people gather around big fires, where they have prepared offerings and flower garlands to the Gods and are doing some sort of rituals.

We joined a neighborhood from Old Jodhpur for Holi’s eve celebrations and it was great!! The tradition there is to do a singing and dancing procession through the whole neighborhood in the honor of marriage. Whoever takes part of it has more chances to get married sooner. Together with couchsurfers from Jodhpur and Australia we got involved in the event and just at the end of it I realized that besides me and Jen (from Australia), no other women was out on the street for the celebration. In fact was more like a ritual for men

Radu was so active in the celebrations that the organizers thanked him many many times for the participation and decorated him with flower garlands.

For the past days, every morning, we had a special way of starting our day: Laughing out loud! Literally. In the lobby of Kubu Merta villa. For at least 10 minutes. No jokes necessary. Though you do need a lot of openness and willingness to try it out!

And if you don’t believe me, here are some pictures:

“Why?” is a valid question you might ask. Well, because somebody explained to us all the benefits that laughter has on our body. Even if the laughter is fake. It doesn’t matter because our body doesn’t know the difference. Just like when you watch a horror movie you might get scared, even if you know it is just a movie. As the body doesn’t know the difference. The same with laughter. If you laugh, you will feel good, even if there is nothing funny.

How about the benefits of laughing? Looking on the different websites, I especially liked the ones that say that laughing for 15 minutes is the same as going to the gym for an hour because it works a lot of your muscles (especially the abdomen- figure that? getting a 6 pack from laughing).

Also, when we laugh, our brain releases endorphins, the happiness hormones. Again, no matter if the laughter is real or not. And there are studies that prove that laughing for 15 minutes a day has been enough to lift away depression. (have a look here for more scientific tests)

So, with all this in mind, we will certainly be doing it again. It’s too fun to stop. Plus, it is FREE!

How about you? Are you willing to try out laughing out loud for 10 minutes a day?

Unlike the other years, this Christmas was a very special one. Why? Because this year I had the chance to change the myth I used to believe in: that Christmas feels like Christmas only if it is cold outside, if I spent at least 2 weeks preparing presents and only if I spend it in Alba Iulia.

It turns out that you can be filled with Christmas spirit even if you are in Bali, at 28 degrees and with no presents bought. As Santa Claus was here, spreading his magic over the Christmas trees:

Also, carols filled the air for hours in the Kubu Merta villa. People of different nationalities: Indonesians, Americans, Romanians, Spanish, Czech, Dutch, Indians, Germans, Australians accompanied by the harmonium and tabla drums we sang our hearts out. Not only that, but we also had a salsa lesson, thanks to Obed.

And, as the old tradition goes, we started going from house to house to sing carols…on Skype!! What a feeling: parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and friends, welcomed us and sang with us, each with their own unique carols.

Moreover, since Christmas is the celebration of Jesus birth, the spiritual side could not be missing. Therefore, we even had a Christmas service at the villa. Father Terry conducted a wonderful mass for a handful of Christians: Barbara, Phil, Elsha, Herman, Nula, myself and Radu.

So…we are very grateful for a happy and fulfilling Christmas! We certainly won’t ever forget it!

Has it ever happened to you to realise that you surround yourself with the same type of people?
Or that sometimes you do most of your activities with a small group of good friends?

Probably a lot of us would answer Yes to at least one of the questions.
And that is not necessarily bad.
But, as we travel and meet so many people every day, I realised what a fulfilling experience it is to have diverse people from all age groups and backgrounds on your friends list.
Because with each new person we meet, we enlarge our perspectives, options, come in contact with another world that we might not have been aware of…

And to give you some practical examples, here a just a very few of the people we met and deeply broadened our horizons:

Elsha, a trash artist and gallery owner in Honolulu, sold everything and moved to Bali for a new beginning, 68. Elsha is amazing in terms of celebrating and enjoying life, taking joy in little things and being constantly creative. Plus, what fascinated us is her openness to learn! Even at her age, she is constantly asking questions. Unlike a lot of other people her age who already have a lot of certainties.

Phil, psychiatrist, 75.  He taught us how to be grateful and appreciate what we were given in our life. Phil is also great
at seeing the good in people and letting them know about it. He taught us not to take the great things that others do !for granted and to say Thank you! a lot more.

Shakar, owner of Tibetan Art galleries in Ubud, 28- Shakar opened our minds to the possibility of setting up a business. Also, we found out from him about the option of having homes in different places. He lives for 6 months in Ubud, Bali, 2-3 in New York, and the rest of the time he travels around the world.

Menno, life-long traveler, 45. He has had 60+ jobs in his life. From being a blacksmith to growing plants, from fisherman to making knives, from playing the jembes to
selling jewelry, he has done them all! Talking to Menno is like opening a practical encyclopedia of how to do almost anything!

Tim Draper, photographer, 36. While working for Rough Guides, Tim has been constanly traveling and changing countries for the past 4 years. He shared with us about the pluses and minuses of living on the road. He also shared the greatest learning he got: to trust people and have faith in them. No matter their relligion! No matter their skin colour. Because most people are good and will give you a helping hand.

Recognizing the diversity of the people listed, you can begin to imagine how many things we had missed out on had we not encountered them.
And sometimes, when we go out and surround ourselves with the same kind of people, that is exactly what we do.
We keep ourselves closed from a lot of other possibilities. And that is a bit a pity, isn’t it?

But because today there are so many options to change that and meet diverse people, as soon as we realise this, we can do something about it.
Yes, I agree it might be easier to do it while traveling. But there are so many ways of doing it even from home.
Use CouchSurfing to find the local CSers. Or use Facebook to find some interesting groups you can join. Or simply go to a coffee shop and strike up a conversation with a stranger that looks interesting.
And be curious about what will come out of it…

As we left Lombok Island having had plenty of wonderful experiences, we got to Bali with the expectation that it can only be at least as good. And so far, it sure turns out to be like it!

We are currently staying in Ubud, the cultural and spiritual center of Bali, at Kubu Merta Guest House. It is a very special place, ran by Elsha and Phil, an American couple who had moved in from Hawai!  They are two special people, very young in spirit (even if they are in their seventies), who currently use the Guest House to host Couch Surfers!

Just to give you an idea, here are some pictures:

Yes, I know! It is like heaven! And what was even funnier was that, before coming to Bali, Radu was telling me that he would go to a 5 star hotel to ask for free accommodation. And now, at Kubu Merta, even if we hardly expected it, we HAVE it!

Also, one other great thing: we are currently 11 couch surfers here. An international community in its own right, with people who share the passion to travel and experience new cultures.

And also, because of Elsha, who is an artist and a very creative person, we even did a painting workshop together. On chairs!

Before, I never imagined that a chair can be a work of art! But know I know it is possible. Not to mention the process was incredibly fun. Each of us got to bring our contribution. With no plan. Just a flow of creativity. Somebody drew a circle. Then somebody else added some colourful tiny dots. And the more creative we got, the most ideas starting flowing!

And the result of mixing creativities rooted in different cultures:

Smiles

As you know, one of the goals of our trip is to do volunteering work in each of the countries we go to. Therefore, full of curiosity, we have been searching for such opportunities in Indonesia. And, realizing that when we know what we are looking for, opportunities cannot take long to appear, here is the story of our first volunteering experience at Peduli Anak- Lombok.

To give you some background information, Peduli Anak (in Indonesian: children care) is a foundation which hosts 60 kids. They come from very poor families, many of them taken from living on the street or in landfills. With their parents agreement, Peduli Anak takes the responsibility of offering these children a better future, give them access to education and better living conditions.
They have clean shelters, well taken care of and painted in bright, joyful colors that jump into your eyes from far away. There are special rooms for sports activities, as well as for learning to use a computer. The children have a daily routine, which includes praying 5 days a day, going to classes as well as playing. Peduli Anak also offers the children with a high IQ the possibility to go to private schools.

Regarding our volunteering, we got involved in the children’s play time. Therefore, we played several games with them. The purpose: teach them English! And they were actually very good. For example, as we played mime with them, we were surprised to hear how many words in English they actually knew already. Not to mention that their enthusiasm and energy were so contagious, that we quickly became good friends.

So, with this experience, we had the chance to revisit the fascinating world of being a child once again, with lots of playful and curious smiles, joy and fun. I must admit: I really missed the child in me!

Peduli Anak offered us an amazing present: energy and enthusiasm, hope and inspiration, and the happiness to rediscover childhood!

The pictures we took since we started traveling in Indonesia are available in Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/CristinaSiRadu

More blog posts are to come!

Stay tuned!!!

Being on Lombok Island,  we made friends with Helen and Brian a wonderful Australian family, living in Secret Gardens, near Senggigi town.

Helen is a big hash fan and invited us to go together at the Friday gathering. As you may imagine, the first thing was to ask: is that a drug addict reunion? You really do hash, we wouldn’t have guessed?

Hash is in fact a community sport activity, similar to hiking but combined with running. Someone is preparing the circuit, by placing coloured small pieces of paper on the ground and the hashers will have to run this circuit. There is no special requirement for being a hasher – anybody can join!

As we are in the rainy season, there is no day without a torrential rain. The hash day was not an exception. Imagine around one hundred people, running through a torrential rain in the tropical forest, crossing hills and some sort of local farms which had no delimitation, like they were embedded parts of the forest…

The view from the top of the hills is amazing!!! A blue-green sea, constantly dancing with the grey-volcanic sand, the top of hundreds of palm-trees covering the valley, children laughing around their homes and wondering what are these runners up to…

We even had our own adventure: we got lost! Sometimes the colored paper was hard to notice. And because we took a wrong turn, we found ourselves in the somebody’s courtyard. An old and wrinkled Indonesian grandma gave us directions. But because of the normal language barrier, there was a misunderstanding. We got even further way from the circuit.

Also, because of the rain, we took photos in a different way. With each blink of the eyes, we captured colours, curious people smiling, the view from the top of the hill, joyful naked children playing in the mud.

Remember our previous post on CouchSurfing? Well, we just had our first hand experience: couch surfing with Klaus in Lombok!

Klaus must have the BEST place in town. Here are some pictures:

Klaus's Villa

Klaus's Swimming Pool

Klaus

But more importantly, Klaus was a GREAT host. Together with his lovely friends, Brian and Helen, they gave us plenty of valuable advice on the culture and mindset of the people in Indonesia.

And as a spicy detail, one of the funniest things they taught us was the phrase: T.I.I. -  This Is Indonesia! The phrase is used to describe anything too hard to comprehend by a foreigner. An example: in a bar, because the door was too small to fit the coke machine, they demolished a wall to get it in. Afterwards, they built the wall back again. TII!

“Participate in Creating a Better World, One Couch At A Time” – This is the tag line you will find on CouchSurfing home page.

And even if I have been a member for only one week now, I am more and more convinced the tag line is nothing but true.

As we are planning to use CouchSurfing extensively during our next one year of travels, I thought of listing down some of the other advantages of CS:

- it is safe! (members can get their identity and address verified, you can check what references they have from other travelers,  who are their friends, etc)

- it is a niche network of people interested in building meaningful connections across cultures. Most of the members have both surfed on other people’s couches, as well as hosted CS-ers themselves. It is a very rewarding  give and take!

- you have a chance to meet some extraordinary people.
Just to list some of the profiles:
Meindert Bars (check out the pictures on his website!)
Klaus Wieman
Maria Renner

So, when are you starting CouchSurfing?
If you have done it already, share with us your story!