Postcard from Southeast Asia

Richard Meros has been known to find inspiration in unexpected places. Leaving his native New Zealand to investigate what the world has to offer, he ended up in Southeast Asia for the better half of this year with plans to keep on moving. He caught up with us just long enough to trigger some wanderlust in those of us who are currently bound stateside.

How long have you been trekking around and how long do you plan to continue?

I have been out of New Zealand for four months. One in SE Asia, three in India, with about eight months left going overland to Turkey then Cairo, detouring via Georgia and Azerbaijan and possibly returning to NZ sometime in late 2010.

What has been the most unexpected delight so far?
The travelers I have met in India are far more interesting than most of those I met on my 10 month jaunt in Central and South America in 2006. I really did not expect so many fascinating people and it made me wonder if I am so different now or whether it is them.

You do a good amount of traveling, what makes these tourists different? Are they mostly Western or Asian tourists and do you notice any differences?
There is an enormous amount of Indian tourists in India. There are many less ‘home’ tourists in south-east Asia. Westerners are received with good-natured curiosity bordering on harassment from locals.

A year is a long time to travel, how cheaply are you managing to live?
In India, 500 rupees a day, which is pretty cheap. I just use local transport and eat local food and every now and then try a nicer hotel.

Any ridiculous translation experiences you could share?
My favourite was in Northern Laos when reading a set of rules for the guesthouse, no. 11 was: “No one can argue with the Questhouse” If only, if only, if only every other guesthouse was a questhouse.

Have you stayed in any hostels?
I stayed in a few monastery hostels in Hiomachal Pradesh in northern india, but the beds are generally suited to the asceticism I have tried to moderate in my end-of-the-world personal aesthetic.

At this point, you must be enjoying some pretty good street food?
Best street food, beyond chai, is the Kati Rolls from Kolkata. Seeing the word “vegetarian” so often in India is godly.

Have you had any charming encounters during your travels?
In Sonamarg I had a very nice time trying to play with a group of children who knew a few english words, though these words were generally in the refrain of “one ___ please”. They could insert words like school, pen, toffee, rupee, but not much more. The setting was in the area below a glacier where their nomadic families camped over the summer. Why they were camped a hundred metres below a glacier I cannot say, winter nostalgia. Anyhow, we sung them some Tracey Chapman and Jens Lekman and the Maori version of New Zealand’s national anthem and then played a game where I grabbed their hands and flung them about in the air. It’s nice to be able to play with kids and not worry about what real adults think.

OK, so you’ve been around the world. But have you ever been to Portland, and if not, when are you getting here?
Never been, though I have been to Oregon’s northern and southern neighbours. I will, or may, or could be there some late summer 2010.

Richard Meros is part of a publishing collective that lives at www.lawrenceandgibson.com.

live music, free beer

If you haven’t been to the outdoor open-mics at the NW and SE Hostels this summer, you’re missing out.  Both offer great atmosphere and live music for free, all summer long.

The SE Hostel Open-Mic (see below) runs Wednesdays from 8-10pm on their newly remodeled outdoor stage. On the other side of town, come join locals and passersby this Tuesday at the NW Hostel Open-Mic from 6:30-9:30pm; featuring homebrew and cheap brats and veggie burgers. This week’s featured performer is Chelsea Smith from the music project Sewblue.

“Spainards are so persistent!”

An article on Hostelling from an old Forth Worth 1950’s newspaper details the exotic adventures of traveling and hostelling abroad. And on $2/day no less!

click for full view

here’s a poll, hostellers!

Note to subscribers

I’ve noticed that the email formatting isn’t always streamlined well when delivered by WordPress via email. I’m not sure why that is yet, but in any case it’s always good to click directly to the blog every time there’s a new entry. That way you can see the pictures in their full glory, embedded in the lovely WordPress template. And don’t forget to press that comment button  :)

Hostel Nostalgia

As we continue to gear up for Hostelling International’s 100-year anniversary event next weekend, the nostalgia is coming out of the woodwork! I had the great fortune of interviewing an old-time hosteller recently about her experience as a Troop Leader with American Youth Hostels back in the 1950’s (now formally a subsidiary of HI). The picture to the left is from one of her domestic trips – she spent 6 weeks on a bicycle with 12 other women staying at hostels along the East coast in New England. So many amazing stories! I will post some stories and pictures on here shortly but keep your eyes peeled for the exhibit at the anniversary event and the alumni event (in August) where we will showcase some of the old American Youth Hostel paraphernelia. Portland resident Maureen Long (who took this picture) remembers the good old days first hand and will be there to tell the stories- back when hostels were 50 cents a night!!

Save the Date – Anniversary Party in 2 Weeks!!

JUNE 13th, 2009

HI-Portland, Northwest Hostel
425 NW 18th Ave

1-5pm
Family Friendly Events ~ FREE!
The afternoon will bring hostellers, Hostelling International members, and locals together for a free public celebration with:

• Children’s Activities (World Twister, Arts Table, Bean Bag Toss)
• Hostel Anniversary Scavenger Hunt
• Unveiling of Community Wall Murals
• Informational Displays on our Educational Programs
• International Snacks in the Cultural Kitchen
                              
• And More!

6-10pm
Live Music, BBQ, Silent Auction, Speakers ~ Tickets $20

• Live Music
• Silent Auction benefiting intercultural hostelling programs for Portland Youth
• Traditional German Barbecue (with veggie options)
• Our World – People, Places, Culture Exhibit (by Canadian Photographer Keith Levit)
• Keynote Speakers
  - Altaira Hatton, “110 lbs. of Hell on Wheels”, shares her travels to 393 cities and 29 countries in her wheel chair. 
  - Harmony George Jaursch, CFO Girl Scouts Oregon tells of the important connections between Girl Scouts and Hostelling
• Meet our National Board of Directors who will be in attendance 

Reserve Tickets now@ 503-827-0405 or email anniversary@nwportlandhostel.com.

Postcards from South of the Border

Native Portlander and nomadic wanderer Pura Caitlin sat down with us via email to tell us her view from the South. Since November of last year, she has spent her days backpacking through the colorful urban and rural terrains of South America, staying mostly in Hostels. Her blog, Pura Caitlin, captures both the provincial and the breathtaking wonders of the places she visits. Since we’d rather be backpacking in South America right now, we decided to pick her brain a bit.

So what made you take off traveling at this point in your life? How did you choose your destination?

A terrible American job market? No, in all seriousness, I travel because I can. I started with study abroad gigs in Mexico and Spain while I was still in school, and now at 24, I´m giving free range to this terrible pull of the wanderlust. I´m a gypsy, what can I say? I choose my destinations based solely on gut feelings and barely examined inklings.

What are some of the most amazing things you’ve seen on your journey?

In no particular order:

1. Picasso´s Guernica, a massive painting of the bombing of a small town in the north of Spain during theSpanish Civil War. I saw it at the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art in Madrid. It took up an entire wall and it made me sit down and cry- it´s depiction of the human cost of war was absolutly mind-punching.
2. Lagos, Portugal. It´s a small beach town on the Southern coast of the country. It was the first real backpacking community I´d ever experienced and I was hooked from the get-go. You work for peanuts at a party bar, rent a room with a local family and meet amazing transients every day of your life? Sign me up. 

3. The street art in Bogota, Colombia. I had no idea when I came to the capital that there would be such an avalanche of creativity. The graffiti on the builidings in La Candelaria, the historic center of downtown – I’ve never seen anything like it! Think ´Where    The Wild Things Are´monsters in Techni-Color and bubble murals in glitter paint and larger than life stencils of the Notorious B.I.G.

You have mostly stayed at hostels throughout your travels. Have you made any good connections? How has your experience been?

Hostels have been the major constant in my nomadry. I´ve fallen in love at hostels, landed jobs at hostels, created art at hostels… Some people go to their local bar or to their office to find like-minded individuals, but I head to a hostel. One of my favorite hostel experiences has to be the group dinner. When you´re a hobo like me you don´t get too many home cooked meals, but when you`re at a hostel you can rally a group of similar hobos to all contribute to to a feast. You crack open a bottle (okay, box-we´re all on budgets out here) of wine, trade recipes, set off smoke alarms and then you get to eat! Amazing. Hostels, they´re your home on the road. Live them, love them.

How easy (or difficult) has it been to connect with locals while abroad?

In my experience, meeting locals is all about your willingness to put yourself out there and go the extra mile. Some places have been easy to make local friends in, but I´ve also been places where the indigenous culture was a lot different from mine, like where I´m at now in Colombia, and I´ve had to make much more of an effort. In general, if you sit down next to someone and start talking about life, they´re going to be stoked regardless of what country they´re from. When in doubt, fall back on universal archetypes, like Harry Potter, or how crazy Paris Hilton is.

What is your itinerary, or when are you coming back to Portland?

It´s changed a thousand times on this trip, but I think right now [my partner] Erik and I plan to bomb through Southern Colombia, catch waves on the beaches of Ecuador for a few weeks until we can find a cheap flight out of Quito up to Guatemala… then check out a meditation school we´ve caught wind of on Lake Atitlan, maybe a volunteering gig, up through Mexico back into California by June… and then Burning Man. I´ll be back in Portland sometime between June and September, hopefully to a triumphant homecoming involving trumpets and microbrews.

Any tips for saving a buck while traveling?

We’ve been spending $15/day down here in South America. Some of my weapons in the war on spending money include: Economy sized bags of rice and beans, walking instead of taking a taxi whenever possible, scaling back the boozing and schewing tours for self-directed sight-seeing.

Enjoy your trip Caitlin, and keep us posted!

International Exchange Program accepting applications

The New York Times had an article this week on Hostelling in Europe, recounting how “serious quality improvement” in hostels worldwide has brought them to the oh-so-glamorous forefront of minimalist budget travel; making it easy to connect with new people and new cities.

In other news, the IOU Respect International Exchange Program’s submission deadline is April 30th. Apply now for the opportunity of a lifetime – participation in a global youth conference in Paris and Annecy, France in the summer of 2009. Click below for more information and a link to the program. The moderator of this blog was a former participant in the IOU Respect conference and would be happy to answer any questions regarding the program if you email her.

Introduction

From July 31 – August 14, 2009, young people ages 18-23 years old from Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, France, and the United States will gather in France for the fifth IOU Respect international exchange program. Hostelling International is proud to deliver this meaningful learning experience. The program is an intensive experience of living, sharing and learning together in an effort to bridge cultural divides.

Postcards from Egypt

The author of this blog is giving a presentation at the Hawthorne Hostel on Tuesday on her trip to Egypt this summer. Come for the pictures and stay for the Happy Hour!