It was in
Ninh Phung
in Vietnam in
June of 2018 where we stayed in a small village for a month-and-half. We
were talking about how lucky we are that life had given us all these
opportunities to travel and experience the world together as a family,
and we shared with each-other how
grateful
we are to the universe and every person who contributed towards these
experiences of ours over the past few years. We talked about which
experiences during our journey inspired us to keep moving to next
city/country and which ones made us stay at one place longer. And during
this discussion, we asked each other, what would be a place or
experience that would make us stay at one place long term? We shared our
ideas with each other. We both believe that we need to be ready to
receive something we wish for. Together, we sent a wish to the universe
to have a place where we would be inspired to stay long term, and waited
for it to come our way, knowing that it'd come only when we both are
ready to actually receive that place and experiences in our lives.
Almost everything we wished for came to us in November of 2018 and we stayed at one place for almost five months (with a break of about a month in-between) and called it our home. Here is how it happened and these are a series of blog posts about us moving here, and our experiences here.
We had to take care of some visa/passport related administrative work in India and we contacted a local German-English translator in Hyderabad to translate our legal documents that were in German language to English language. During our conversations with him we shared our travel story and our experiences as a family. He was excited to hear our story and shared the story of another couple who were artists and writers living a few hours away from Hyderabad in a small forest/rural area with their dog. He said that they are traveling from jungle to jungle on their bicycles for the past few years and also recently published a book with small stories from their journey. He introduced us to them over the phone and we decided to visit them once our administrative work was taken care of. Another friend of Suresh, the translator, told us that there might be a few free homes in that area where we could request the owners to stay. Five days later we visited the couple. It was about an hour ride with auto/bus/metro from Hyderabad city, then a 30 minute bus ride, a 10 minute local bus ride, and finally a walk of 20 minutes. The place just took our breath away as soon as we got there.
The area was a collection of 40 small pieces of land, established as a community about 20 years ago and was called Navjeevan Society. About 10 houses were already built and only 4 families lived there. Rest of the area was left for nature to take over. The area was surrounded by a number of Mango, Subabul, Eucalyptus, Guava, Sapodilla, Custard apple, Pomegranate, Bamboo, Coconut, Neem, Tamarind, Drumstick/Moringa, Nuts, and many other varieties of native trees. There were also many big and small plants that covered parts of the open areas of the community. Even though the native trees survived here, this was an extremely dry area which was not kind to small plants and grasses. There was very little rainfall the previous year so the exposed land was mostly dry and the grass that grew last year was completely dried up. However, the air was very fresh and pristine, something we hadn't experienced in many months. Our hearts opened up to the possibility of staying here but we were not sure if there was a free home and if the owners would offer it to us for rent without a long term commitment from us.
We met the traveler couple who was living there for over a year. They lived in an old home with mangalore tiled roof in old Kerala architecture. They told us that when they first moved into this house, it was taken over by animals, insects and the roof was cracked up, leaking and the walls were heavily damaged. As no one lived there for many years, nature took over the place. During the first months of their stay, they repaired the house to a point where it was liveable. We had a nice home cooked meal with them, heard their travel stories, shared ours, and asked if there were other places like the one they were staying in. Unfortunately, that was the only house in that entire community that was built in that high cone roof architecture (~10 metres high), and all other homes were simple buildings with concrete roofs and brick walls. But irrespective of the type of house, we were excited to stay in that area and spend some relaxing quiet time in nature.
We met with the owners at their house. They were a couple in their late 70s who were one of the first ones to move into this community 20 years ago. They moved there after their retirement and more or less planted most of the trees and plants in the community. They had a free house to offer to us. The community had a row of 6 houses and they owned one of them. They showed us the house with four rooms (verandah, living/bed room, kitchen, and a bathroom). And the rent for a month was Rs.3000 (~€38/$42). No one lived in that house either for a long time and there was no furniture or utensils in that house. The nearest grocery shops and markets were about 5kms away. The nearest location to catch transportation to the nearby town was about a 20 minutes walk. There was no running water at all times, so water would be stored in containers. There was no internet connection in the house and the signal of the phone was so weak that we could call someone or receive calls only after walking about 10 metres from the house. The nearest home where people lived was about 150 metres away. Drinking water was about 1 km away and we'd carry drinking water containers on our shoulders and store it. There was no refrigerator or a washing machine. However, the owners were very kind to offer us their extra kitchen utensils, their extra beds & mattresses, blankets, a gas burner and a gas cylinder, and a few old paint containers where we could store water. They were happy to have a fifth family coming in to live here and especially with a small kid. We had a lot to figure out how to live there, how to interact and live among the insects and animals, how to protect ourselves from snakes and other poisonous animals, how to get our groceries and where to store them. But, as always, we had a strong belief that we we'd figure it out and the universe would be kind to us. We moved into the row house two days after our visit and committed to stay there for a month.
Continued in Part 2 - Living in the row house for a month!
Almost everything we wished for came to us in November of 2018 and we stayed at one place for almost five months (with a break of about a month in-between) and called it our home. Here is how it happened and these are a series of blog posts about us moving here, and our experiences here.
We had to take care of some visa/passport related administrative work in India and we contacted a local German-English translator in Hyderabad to translate our legal documents that were in German language to English language. During our conversations with him we shared our travel story and our experiences as a family. He was excited to hear our story and shared the story of another couple who were artists and writers living a few hours away from Hyderabad in a small forest/rural area with their dog. He said that they are traveling from jungle to jungle on their bicycles for the past few years and also recently published a book with small stories from their journey. He introduced us to them over the phone and we decided to visit them once our administrative work was taken care of. Another friend of Suresh, the translator, told us that there might be a few free homes in that area where we could request the owners to stay. Five days later we visited the couple. It was about an hour ride with auto/bus/metro from Hyderabad city, then a 30 minute bus ride, a 10 minute local bus ride, and finally a walk of 20 minutes. The place just took our breath away as soon as we got there.
The area was a collection of 40 small pieces of land, established as a community about 20 years ago and was called Navjeevan Society. About 10 houses were already built and only 4 families lived there. Rest of the area was left for nature to take over. The area was surrounded by a number of Mango, Subabul, Eucalyptus, Guava, Sapodilla, Custard apple, Pomegranate, Bamboo, Coconut, Neem, Tamarind, Drumstick/Moringa, Nuts, and many other varieties of native trees. There were also many big and small plants that covered parts of the open areas of the community. Even though the native trees survived here, this was an extremely dry area which was not kind to small plants and grasses. There was very little rainfall the previous year so the exposed land was mostly dry and the grass that grew last year was completely dried up. However, the air was very fresh and pristine, something we hadn't experienced in many months. Our hearts opened up to the possibility of staying here but we were not sure if there was a free home and if the owners would offer it to us for rent without a long term commitment from us.
We met the traveler couple who was living there for over a year. They lived in an old home with mangalore tiled roof in old Kerala architecture. They told us that when they first moved into this house, it was taken over by animals, insects and the roof was cracked up, leaking and the walls were heavily damaged. As no one lived there for many years, nature took over the place. During the first months of their stay, they repaired the house to a point where it was liveable. We had a nice home cooked meal with them, heard their travel stories, shared ours, and asked if there were other places like the one they were staying in. Unfortunately, that was the only house in that entire community that was built in that high cone roof architecture (~10 metres high), and all other homes were simple buildings with concrete roofs and brick walls. But irrespective of the type of house, we were excited to stay in that area and spend some relaxing quiet time in nature.
We met with the owners at their house. They were a couple in their late 70s who were one of the first ones to move into this community 20 years ago. They moved there after their retirement and more or less planted most of the trees and plants in the community. They had a free house to offer to us. The community had a row of 6 houses and they owned one of them. They showed us the house with four rooms (verandah, living/bed room, kitchen, and a bathroom). And the rent for a month was Rs.3000 (~€38/$42). No one lived in that house either for a long time and there was no furniture or utensils in that house. The nearest grocery shops and markets were about 5kms away. The nearest location to catch transportation to the nearby town was about a 20 minutes walk. There was no running water at all times, so water would be stored in containers. There was no internet connection in the house and the signal of the phone was so weak that we could call someone or receive calls only after walking about 10 metres from the house. The nearest home where people lived was about 150 metres away. Drinking water was about 1 km away and we'd carry drinking water containers on our shoulders and store it. There was no refrigerator or a washing machine. However, the owners were very kind to offer us their extra kitchen utensils, their extra beds & mattresses, blankets, a gas burner and a gas cylinder, and a few old paint containers where we could store water. They were happy to have a fifth family coming in to live here and especially with a small kid. We had a lot to figure out how to live there, how to interact and live among the insects and animals, how to protect ourselves from snakes and other poisonous animals, how to get our groceries and where to store them. But, as always, we had a strong belief that we we'd figure it out and the universe would be kind to us. We moved into the row house two days after our visit and committed to stay there for a month.
Continued in Part 2 - Living in the row house for a month!
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| The row house (the first one in the row of houses on left) we called home for the next month |
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