Gratitude is the most important feeling...

really feeeeling gratitude is one of the highest states we can experience..like love it leaves us open to welcoming in more goodness!!

I've travelled for two and a half months in three countries with $600US, hitchhiking and sleeping rarely. I have met hundreds of wonderful people, learned half a language and received four million smiles, two thousand waves, a couple of hundred hugs and more offerings than a person could wish for..

I've been fed, bathed, given places to sleep, gifts, smiles, care, attention all by strangers..many of whom I can now call friends..and this shows to me what a wonderful place our world is.

What wonderful people live here
How safe and secure I feel in this knowledge..
good people are everywhere, turn off your tv and experience it for yourself..

Here are 29 people and things I'm really really grateful, totally surprised and utterly blessed for:

1. All the amazing people who simply STOPPED cars/trucks/motorbikes/utes/vans and bicycles to give me a lift - and all those people who waved apologetically (it goes a long way to making a girl feel better)

2. An Indian bus conductor who bought me a bus ticket to go on to the next city (and a tea too!)

3. May in Paragdaran who put a four course meal in front of me with five dishes, two drinks, desert AND fruit..PLUS takeaway..and then gave me a sarong and a dress for good measure

4. mary and antares who are the benefactors of a whole BUS..supplying mostly but not limited to hot dinners, much needed coffees and teas, sugar, warm chats, an oven, potatoes, carrots, lifts to town, places to chill out, internet, cigarettes and wisdom

5. The rasta man on the beach (man, what was his name) who gave me tabacco and tea and let me sleep in his van (after keeping us up all night with James Brown's bassline)

6. All the people who have let me use their toilet, in their homes, in their shops..no matter how bad my pronunciation or how abrupt my attempts to ask

7. The kind driver who (even though he charged the other passengers) took us to the next village for free

8. Charlie for his never ending warmth and love and care...for his music..for his sweetness and for teaching me so many things!!

9. Dorota from Magick River who gave me a warm (if a little moldy) jacket to weather the frigid Asian transport system

10. Three trucks drivers who squashed us into their cab, bought us fried chicken and took us onto the ferry from Sumatra to Java for free..yes! YOU CAN EVEN HITCH ON FERRIES...then paid for us to get into the executive lounge..where we met Deni

11. Deni in Padang took us to his tiny house, where we met his tiny wife and tiny baby and insisted on feeding us a meal, a tiny meal because he was poor. He painstakingly taught us a traditional song and took us all the way to the highway

12. The man with the motorbike who took me to his family's wedding, fed me, then drove me fifty kilometres to drop me at the bus station in the next town..

13. All the people who have ensured I've had enough to drink without asking..and more..

14. The woman living under a tarpaulin roof at Muko Muko beach who was very poor and let us sleep on her wooden benches while a huge storm threatened to blow down her house, and adamantly refused to take any payment for the noodles, coffee and tea we had

15. The boys in Bengkulu who took us to their studio, drove us around in their cool van, bought us fried rice and introduced us to their mother, who fed me fried potatoes and gave me jewellery..and wouldn't let me leave until I had given her an address so she could post me a letter

16. The motorbike driver who (even though he was late for work) heroically helped Charlie and I find the highway after we had been walking lost for an hour..and didn't hit on me :)

17. All the truck drivers who nodded politely and smiled at our attempts to speak (butcher) Indonesian, gave us translations and eventually helped us to sing..

18. The awesome Iranians who picked us hitching at Port Dickson and took us to the beach for an Iranian barbeque, with skewers of marinated lamb, vodka and dancing!!

19. Jane at Port Dickson who baked fresh seed loaves and let us sleep in her beautiful house with the oh-so-clean sheets and that big soft bed..droooool...

20. The little man we met on the ferry from Port Dumai who waited like a loyal hound for an hour for our ridiculous immigration check and got us onto a cheap bus..and almost cried when we said goodbye

21. The man that bought us a cheap truck stop meal and the other richer man that bought us a lavish meal (with meat) at an eatery

22. Mr Ong who let us stay in his house near the fishing village, lots of mosquitos but bliss..

23. Estel-la for the old clothes and jewellery

24. Salamat at the street kids organic farm for refusing to let me pay for pretty jewellery and letting us pick armloads of veges and tea for free

25. The Jogja boys for taking us in, Mas Imam for letting us stay at the beach shack, Mas Tego for the same..

26. Many, many loaned bicycles, motorbikes, mobile phones, shoes...

27. The Muslim woman on the train with a beautiful smile who patiently taught me my first bit of Indonesian..though I was freezing in the air-conditioning and sneezing the whole time!

28. Santo's mum for cooking me delicious dinners over a wood fire..even though she is blind

29. Isanto for giving me love, taking me to the mountains, farms, beaches, sharing his family and promising me house, goats and brown babies!

The amazing thing is that I could go on..
and on..
and on..

with my gratitude

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
Be thankful often!!