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Not the Destination, But the Journey

My Travel Writing Scholarship 2011 entry - My Big Adventure

WORLDWIDE | Monday, 28 March 2011 | Views [149] | Scholarship Entry

It is common that the reason behind traveling is to get to know other cultures. As travelers, we want to know more about cultures other than our own. It is simply an act to experience something or somebody else. But, with my latest traveling with couchsurfing, I realized that traveling is not only about them or theirs. Something about us is also on the menu.

Couchsurfing is basically another social network media but with more emphasis for travelers and traveling issues. However, what makes this media strikingly different from others is its immediate ability to get travelers and people across the globe connected in very physical terms. It does so by facilitating them to share an important part of traveling requirements: a place to sleep (represented in a couch). By sharing this basic need of traveling, people is expected to 'participate in creating a better world, one couch at a time' as its branding slogan shows.

Being hosted and offered a couch to sleep on (or a decent bedroom, if we are lucky) free of charge is certainly a promising benefit from this. Imagine how much money we can save from allocated hotel/hostel budget, if we are hosted. However, it is not so much about getting a free couch which is interesting. It is the interactive character of the exposure between travelers and the locals which attracted me the most. By stepping into the host's door, and even their private bedrooms, travelers are expected to experience the hardcore of local culture. Meanwhile, the hosting locals can also gain knowledge and experience on other cultures from the very first hands.

My wife and I were lucky that we experienced the benefits of this global community in our European travel in September 2010. A couple of bikers hosted us for our first night in Paris. We spent the night by exchanging long yet interesting talks about social and political life both in France and Indonesia. A Parisien writer, hosted us for the second night. With him, the most interesting part was not so much about his whole apartment where he lodged us. But it was the fact that we had time to discuss crealism, Paris' latest philosophy movement, which he helped to develop. A nice family of Italian script writer also hosted us during our stay in Rome. They rewarded our short course on Javanese script writings with an original Napoli pasta recipe.

However, it is wrong to expect that couchsurfing will always deliver good things. Exhausting search for potential hosts, continuous rejections to couch requests, or lodging uncertainties because of sudden decline to previously accepted requests are among things which might bring you to tears. But with more advanced communication skills, we would find many interesting people out there to interact with at minimal difficulties. With all of its ups and downs, couchsurfing is definitely worth to try. Because it does not only bring us to the destination, but most importantly to the journey.

Tags: #2011Writing, Travel Writing Scholarship 2011

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