I am traveling non stop with my partner for about 11 months now, and have stayed in many different kind of places in Europe and Asia. Hostels, small hotels, guesthouses, campings. But one type of stay which we were not familiar with before coming to Asia are the homestays. Have you ever stayed at one?
Our first trip to Asia was to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had arrived very early in the morning, very excited and motivated to discover this new for us part of the world. We were so excited that decided to walk through the busy streets of Kathmandu for 11 km, from the airport to our homestay. At this point we were not 100% sure what the homestays are, but from the name of it we were expecting to stay with someone else in the same house. And it was kind of it. The owners where shocked, hearing that we walked for 11 km with our 40kg of luggage:) But, you know, it was a great introduction to the crazy Kathmandu lifestyle!
The owner, lovely Kalpana, who became our sister a month later, showed us our room, which was in the part of the building, separated from the rest of the house. We had a quick, cold, shower and crashed on our bed. Tired. In the afternoon we were woken up with the knock on the door. Ram, the husband of Kalpana, was standing smiley outside, asking to excuse him for the interruption and inviting us to share the dinner with them. Kalpana have told him that after we had arrived we didn’t go out and didn’t eat anything. This was the best start in Asia which we could have ever dreamed about!
The place had everything we needed to cook, and the owners had given us a 20l bottle of drinking water for free. We really don’t like single use plastic, so this reusable water bottle was great, as we could simply give it back for refilling and get another one for less than 1 euro/1,1 usd. Something many tourists affraid a lot when visiting Asia is the safety of food and water. But this family immediately introduced us to the safe water, and explained everything we needed to know about what to take care of. This is one of the greatest parts of staying at the homestays. The family you share the house with. It more looked like couchsurfing, rather then a hotel, we felt so close to this people immediately. They even protected us and other guests from different tourists traps, like overpaying for taxi or fruits, explained about the local prices and gave suggestions what to take care about when we go to India.
One more great thing about homestays is often the ability to cook your own food. It is wonderful to taste new local dishes, though, if you travel for a long time, sometimes it is also great to cook something you’ve missed from home, or even simply to boil some water for tea, without having to go out:) And especially the ability to cook together with your hosts, who show you some local tricks of cooking malasa chai or sel roti (photos below)This homestay in Kathmandu immediately ticked all these boxes and set the high standard for us about how the homestays should be!
After this place we were often looking for affordable homestays in every country in Asia. The place in Kathmandu stayed at the top for the next seven months, until we visited Tuy Hoa city in Vietnam, and one more homestay. Finally, we had found the atmosphere, the warmth, friendliness we had felt during our first in Kathmandu. And added few extra boxes for the homestays: connection with local friends, introducing to the local habits (like going to swim at the sunrise at 5AM together with hundreds of other local people).
Unfortunately not all homestays are the same, and many of them just call themselves homestays, but in fact most of the times they are simple small hotels/hostels or guesthouses, without giving you any interaction with the owners and local people. I wish there was a function on google maps or on different booking websites where each property had to fulfill a set of criterias to be added to a desired category. Maybe in the future this option will be available, and I will be happy to suggest the places which can be truly called homestays.
And, as I said before, Kalpana had become our sister, and Ram our brother. It was even a small official ceremony, during the Tihar festival, which we were lucky to be part of. So interesting and emotional moment, which we will always remember, and all this because we had chosen to live in the homestay on the other side of the city, and not in the hostel which was in the city center.
Have you ever stayed in the homestay before? Can you share your impressions and feelings? Any other boxes, that you believe that a homestay should fulfill?
