Friendliest Locals We've Met Through our Travels

Friendliest Locals We’ve Met Through our Travels

July 14, 2016

When we travel, it’s always nice to see amazing scenic spots or go on that epic adventure through the country. It’s what makes us go there in the first place. They create memories, sure. But what really makes a trip worthwhile is the people we met along the way. How we interact with them can really make a difference, whether that is a good or bad experience. Of course, we rather have good experiences, so we asked a few travel bloggers to share their story of meeting the friendliest locals during their trips.

Tamshuk Saha | Tamz Explores – Indonesia

On the road away from my home, my family and my friends, I was visiting a place I’ve never been before and seeing faces unknown to me. As I sat on the motorbike driving through the village roads, greetings of “Hello Mr” from those unknown smiling faces filled the air around. Three weeks later as I was preparing to leave, I had a heavy heart and shed silent tears at the thought of not seeing those very faces anymore. Who are these faces and how did they become my family, my friends in those three weeks? These are the lovely people of Balebo, a small and serenely beautiful village of South Sulawesi in Indonesia.

There is a reason why Indonesia feels like home to me. This country has some of the most loving and friendly locals I have ever seen during my travels. Always seen with a smile on their faces, the people of Indonesia are extremely welcoming and helpful to foreigners, which is why Indonesia is a hugely popular country among travelers. Fortunately for me, I got to experience this hospitality on a much more personal level when I traveled and lived in Balebo village for three weeks as a volunteer. Living in the house of an elderly couple and their sons, I soon became a part of their family. From the early morning coffee to papa and mama’s (yes, I called them papa and mama) call for makan (food) at dinner, they treated me like one of their own sons. The sons became my brothers and his friends became my friends.

The young students at the English class, the kids from neighboring houses or just anybody from the village who I came across had an amazingly adorable vibe to them.

“There are problems everywhere and in this village too. But we always try to be happy. The whole village is a big family“

my best friend there said to me one morning. I witnessed that sense of a free and close-knit community every moment during my stay. Having spent some of my best days with these lovely folks, either a trip to the nearby waterfall or carrying logs with them and riding on top of a loaded truck while hanging on to dear life or those 6 hours of English classes every week, slowly but surely became a part of that community. And that is why they are the friendliest locals I have ever met.

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Delphine Ruki | Del Abroad – Singapore

I always get a thrill of excitement when I fly into Changi International Airport and the plane touches down on the tarmac; a second home coming of sorts. I have loved travelling to Singapore over the years and am happy to say that it is up there as one of my favorite holiday destinations.

Not only is it a Great “stopover” destination, it is also an interesting, historically rich and culturally diverse nation and holiday destination in its own right.

I believe Singapore is one of the safest places to visit and mainly one of the reasons why I keep returning. The locals are friendly and accommodating – just as an example, my husband and I were slightly disorientated as we made our way through the MRT station endeavoring to navigate our way out of the maze of exits to find the “Chinatown” Markets.

I must have had that “confused tourist” look of on my face (as I often do) because I had a lovely little old Chinese lady approach to ask me if I was lost and where was I going? She kindly pointed me in the right direction with a beautiful big smile on her face and I was so grateful that someone cared enough to help a stranger, she said it was her pleasure and with her walking stick in tow she sauntered off.

That simple act of kindness will stay with me forever. It was a gentle reminder that in a world that is often times chaotic and busy that there are people out there with big and generous hearts who are willing to help others.

Evan Kristine | Pretty, Wild World – France

Back in 2013 me and my good friend, Benson, was planning a month-long backpacking trip around Europe starting from Paris to Amsterdam. Not a long route but long enough to get to know amazing people along the way. We both decided that we will keep a small budget for this trip and use CouchSurfing as a way to find a place to stay and as well so we can integrate ourselves with the locals. It was, by far, the best idea we came up with because we met not only amazing people in each city we visited but also became good friends with some of them. Our first host was Quentin, a young French chef and a local of Paris – born and bred. He didn’t have so much reference in his CouchSurfing account, in fact, he had three at the time when he replied to my public request, however, we still went to stay at his place.

He turned out to be the best host we had during our trip because not only he gave us the best tips where to go but also showed us the unseen French hospitality a lot of tourists don’t get a chance to experience when visiting France. We stayed in contact for years till to this day and that week long stay at his place was considerably one of the highlights of my travels!

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Sixtina Alwardt | Six Miles Away – India

Back in December 2014 I was finally able to cross off a long-awaited country from my bucket list, being India. I have always wanted to go to India and therefore got really excited as I was going to cover the North, West and South of India in only 3 weeks.

In Jodphur we visited a place known as Potter“s House which still has a long lasting effect on me, as we unintentionally spent a few more hours there than planned.This was due to the fact that our Jeep broke down and we could not leave but had to wait for another one to pick us up. While waiting, the family, consisting out of a mother and their 4 sons as well as their wives and children, hosted us as we would be a member of their family. They offered us food (even though they had little themselves considering the size of the family) and of course Masala tea. We had great conversations about their dreams, experiences and life in India. One lesson we learned: Don’t show your thumbs up when you like something but rather form a circle with your thumb and index finger, while the other finger point straight up. Similar to how Italians do it.

In my opinion being “stuck“ there was the best that could have ever happened to us during our trip in India. This way we had the chance to get insights, opinions and experiences of how locals of the lower class in India live and how welcoming those people are. Basically they earn their money by making and selling pottery. We also had the pleasure to practice our pottery skills and make a piece ourselves. Believe me, making those beautiful pieces isn’t as easy as it looks when they are doing it. In order to get the clay though they had to walk like 4 hours to a river every few months and collect it. The whole family lived in one “house”. An open space without doors and proper “beds” as Westerners know them. Those were made out of wood and thick ropes also being used as benches to sit on- standing outside in their shop, between the self made artistic clay pieces under a small roof, where they squeeze with the 3 of them (father, mother, baby). Their kitchen wasn’t more than a whole in the ground with an open fire.

You can imagine how heart broken I was when the other Jeep arrived and we had to leave.

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Wow, those were some amazing, inspiring stories. What do you think? Do you have any similar or unique stories to share? We’d love to hear them.

By Shayan| July 14th, 2016|POW|0 Comments

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Tamshuk Saha | Tamz Explores – Indonesia

Delphine Ruki | Del Abroad – Singapore

Evan Kristine | Pretty, Wild World – France

Sixtina Alwardt | Six Miles Away – India

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