People and places: Life and wild life

Seven days already in California and I can say here is life and wild life.

Seven days, driving on the cost of California from L.A. towards San Francisco with two days in Yosemite Park…

I did not write anything until now because I was hoping to understand more of the life here and change my feelings... Los Angeles immediately after Fiji was feeling like a slap in the face. Yes, here are clean hotels like I know them from Europe, yes, there is wi-fi everywhere, civilization…restaurants and expensive shops…but no humanity. Seven days in US and I did not talk to anybody then the hotel clerks, waiters or shop sellers. It is very strange though. They are all very polite and smiling. In every store one enters is welcomed with « How are you doing? » which is quite annoying…in case you are not doing well ;)

I have no story about anybody I met here, but I know there is life and wild life in California.

It is the life of humans and the life of wild animals, which are really wild, and that one can admire. Since we are here we have seen: seals, elephant seals, sea lions, sea otters, two different kinds of squirrels, condors, hawks, dolphins, pelicans, ducks and a lot of other birds I do not know the name. This is amazing here and I have never seen anywhere else until now so much wild life one can simply observe (without being in a Zoo). I felt really small in the middle of all the mightily nature in Yosemite Park and thankful I did not see the bear J.

But there is another type of wild life in California: all the homeless people that are everywhere: in the streets, in the stores, in front of the churches, in the parks etc. There are young or old, men or women…there is a huge number of them everywhere. I have even seen a small report of about 7 minutes at the main news about homeless people, entire families living in the sewers of L.A. It is because of them I did not write until now. I did not know how to write that in spite of the beautifulness of the wild nature o this part of US there is always a certain sadness filling the air… and the difference between the rich people, luxurious houses and places and the site of these homeless people is huge and extremely obvious. Only a blind could ignore it. During my life I never saw such a number of homeless people in any country of Europe, including in my own where those having my age remember the streets of Bucharest after the 90s.  I do not know why they are in this situation…I can only observe that between people with a 9 to 5 job, near reach people wearing on them more the ten thousands dollars, near all the wonderful things of California are living them: a special category of people, some having still a human look, some just deteriorating and having an empty gaze in their eyes.

More the society is “civilized”, more we are independent, “free”, less we care about the others…and still I haven’t been to Africa or India…Overall in Fiji probably were more poor people but the fact that there were living in families, villages, clans, the poorness was not so obvious because there were living a community. The lost souls of California are alone.

Seems that California (and I say California because I do not want to generalise to all US) is full of contrasts. So, yes, California is great, I have seen on one hand wonderful things but on the other hand also other kind of things showing or just confirming me that nature is better then what we call humanity…or that somehow humanity can act unnatural. 

People and places: Laughing - the best Fijian feature

The Fijians* are big, no matter if men or women. There are strong and happy. Fijians are laughing almost all the time: when working, when there is a joke, when they play or talk, when there is an embarrassing situation and even when is dangerous. They are helping and laughing…it is like a therapy: the danger does not seem so big anymore; the embarrassing situation is becoming just funny. No wonder that there are considered as one of the most happy nations. Their laugh also is from the heart; from deep down their belly…one can hear it and start laughing as well. It is like pure happiness, like there is no bad in the world, like there is just that moment going on forever.

Fijians sing a lot too. They sing when they are not laughing ;) and they do it in church as well… as Fijians are very religious.

I would like to be able to transfer the feeling I had being in this country…because I was not feeling as visiting but as being, living, changing…The way Fijians live is contagious: strongly connected to their culture, to their small piece of island, to their way of being: happy, warm and welcoming. Besides this the food is just amazing. And this again I cannot make travel through my writing: the taste of food, the smile of people and the deep happiness of the moment. The only thing I could do and I am gladly doing it is to enclose all of this in my heart, in my being, in the cells of my brain…hoping that from this small seed will grow a tree…I seed of myself, of my feelings and perceptions here about this people I met. A moment in life that I enjoyed as a saturation of natural beauty, of nice people and of love.

I came here to meet my friend from childhood, to keep this relation alive and as strong as possible. I leave with much more then that…

I’ve learned a very nice lesson from this simple living people and maybe making stronger the belief that what we call poor people live their life more fully then us, the ones from "civilized" countries. Vinaka**!

* Fijians which are not having indian origins

** Thank you in Fijian

People and places: Fabrizia from Fiji

On the 6^th of January we arrived on the main island of Fiji and we started our travelling from Nandi towards Suva stopping for a couple of days in Mango Bay.

Here is like the green house of the botanical garden: 27-29 degrees and humid, green plants everywhere, palms, papaya trees, different kind of trees with wonderful red or yellow flowers, thousand of exotic wonderful flowers.

In the first day of our arrival our friends from here took us to eat at the Eco Café of Fabrizia. I never tasted in my life such a good grilled fish with rice and, you will not believe, ferns. Seems that the local ferns are cooked a little bit steamed with coconut milk, salt pepper and is giving this amazing “contorno” as she called it. I never felt so at home… So practically we landed in a deep, wonderful Italian atmosphere surrounded by a typically Fijian environment: the house and the small restaurant are build in traditional manner with bamboo, directly on the beach, children are playing in the water…

Fabrizia is a brave, hard working, wonderful Italian woman. She married a local Fijian years ago and she build this small business: a place of Paradise that she and her husband are sharing full-hearted with their clients. Everything is home made: gorgeous lemonade, amazing marmalade, vegetables from the garden, natural growing chicken, fresh fish from the Ocean etc. Maybe you will think it must be like this everywhere on the island. Apparently not: the locals are more and more attracted if not fooled by the mirage of civilization and forgetting bit by bit their tradition. So, they started to prefer “tin houses” to the more difficult to build but much nicer bamboo houses, they prefer drinking merely Coke, Fanta or other chemicals to their natural juices (here is a paradise for bananas, pineapples, papaya and other amazing fruits).

We were going to eat there one more time, before continuing our trip. This time was a genuine Italian pizza we enjoyed in a very relaxed and happy atmosphere…I do not even remember when I laughed last time so much and so deep in my heart. 

People and places: starting and Hong Kong

I am going to start posting a few stories about our small project of travelling around the world. I say small not because the world is small but because even if we make a complete tour of the planet we stop only in Hong Kong, Fiji Islands and California (between Los Angeles and San Francisco).

We started our journey on 31st of December with a flight from London to Hong Kong. Midnight cached us in the air…almost sleeping. We just said to each other Happy New Year and we went to sleep ;) It was one of the less ceremonious New Year’s eve we have ever spent…but we were eager to arrive in Hong Kong. The start of the year was announcing itself GREAT.

On the 1^st of January we arrived in Hong Kong…and we stayed until the 5^th of January.

Hong Kong (meaning the Incense Harbour) was GREAT and did not disappoint me at all. People were smiling a lot and every time they have seen us with the map figuring out our way, they stopped and ask politely if we need help. Being jet legged had a big advantage: we were starting very early in the morning. This meant we were in the metro during the rush hour. With a population of more then 10 million people I was thinking it will be hell…worse then Rome, Paris, Bucharest and other big cities I was accustom with. In fact, not at all. No matter the hour or the place I never seen overcrowded places, I never felt aggressed or in danger. Also, I did not see angry or upset people… And I have to admit that at least the metro system was one of the most organized and I supposed the rest of the public transportation was not worse as they were very few personal cars in the city.

Every neighbourhood has its own “world”: financial place with international restaurants and stores; street markets for all kind of goods, golden fish market for aquarium fishes, flower market, traditional Chinese medicine market, dry food market, ceramics market, jade and jewellery street etc. Hong Kong has its hills with amazing nature and hiking paths, we did a few. Inside the city, wherever possible, surrounded by the forest of skyscrapers, were also parks with amazing big and almost suspended ficus trees. In these parks, the Chinese, especially the elder ones, were practicing sports of all kinds from jogging or tennis to yoga, chi qong or tai chi. Nice to see and feel this of relaxing and healthy atmosphere…Another place I liked was the sea food market. The food is also something that we enjoyed even if we were not exactly courageous in our choices: different kinds of noodle soups or dumplings, salads and some small baked bread. In any case the Chinese cuisine as I new it from Europe has not so much in commune with what I have seen on the table of the people there and in the places were they were selling the food in the street. By the way, the smell was incredible good and people were queuing to eat there.

In other words, first experience with Hong Kong: nice people, nice places to visit (we did not cover too much in our 4 days there), nice food…and for whose interested quite good for shopping.