thehostelwitness

Dublin, Ireland

James Joyce always makes her laugh...

Years ago - oh, I would say maybe 8 years? - I took a week-long trip to Ireland. Dublin, specifically - the thinking being that with only a week, why rush and try to see the whole country? Its a theme that has repeated itself throughout my traveling adventures, but I can point to this Dublin trip as the genesis of that idea. Just relax and see where things go.

So young!

It had been about 4 years since graduating and my good friend Jenn was living down in Costa Rica. We were close throughout college, seeing each other almost daily, but somehow, life happened and we were reduced to email. Being in Costa Rica, Jenn would have to leave the country and re-enter every few months to renew her visa.
"Hey, I need to leave the country and come back. Want to go to Ireland?"

Of course, I said.

It was in Newark when we finally saw each other and all the nerves about traveling vanished instantly - we were like peas and carrots again.

Dublin at dusk

I can't say that we really did Dublin any justice, as we were both relatively new to the traveling thing, so we played it safe: nights in Temple Bar, Guinness tour, etc. But there were a couple "experiments", the memory of which would stick in my mind years later when I would travel more. The first, we'd spend each day picking a direction on a compass and would just walk that way, exploring as we walked along (getting lost along the way). And the second, being "cool", we avoided guided tours until the very end, when we were out of ideas. In actuality, the bus tour through the countryside was awesome and we wondered why we had waited so long to do it.

Sadly, no Bono sightings.

It was also my first time spent in a hostel. Jenn and I shared a room with 4 Russians, all black leather jackets and smokes who would stop talking whenever we walked into the room and stared constantly at my blonde-haired, blue-eyed friend. There was a Scottish bagpipe player who slept all during the day. And then, the polish lovers who would argue fiercely throughout the day, then make love all throughout the night. Poor Jenn slept right under one of their make-up, make-out sessions.

Striking up a conversation

The memories from this trip are still fresh in my memory: fish and chips every night, baileys and coffee at U2's hotel (The Clarence), a rainy visit to a pirate viking-sacked monastery, and a very cold, very long night spent at the Dublin airport.

Mom jeans when they were cool.

Jenn still lives in Costa Rica and although we don't nearly email each other as much as we once did, she's still a very dear friend.

Never a good idea to pack drunk.

Dublin Photoset

The Great Peep Sacrifice of 2009

"One by one, the peeps melt and the logs fall into the fire, causing it to burn brighter still. "

So pictures of part 2 of the Orcas Island weekend have been put up, named “The Peep Sacrifice of '09”. They say that every picture tells a story, well these pictures are but a glimpse of our pagan celebration of Easter. Christians will tell you that Easter is meant celebrate the resurrection of The Christ. Wiccans will talk about how the holiday was originally a festival of fertility, co-opted by the Christians. The truth is, Easter was always a time of sacrifice, from time immortal, back to when all life was a form of goop. They’d all get together and choose one goop to go into the lava vent to check things out. This sacrifice we remember by burning marsh mellow peeps at the stake, being of similar consistency, texture, color, and taste of that primordial soup. Only in this way can the sacrifice be offensive to both Christians and Wiccans.  

I had originally planned on just giving peeps out to everyone and letting them decide what to do with it (note, no one chose to eat them), but then it dawned on me that we could add some adventure and drama if we burned them at the stake. Cheri asked me how long I had been thinking of this sacrifice – not sure if it would have scared her more if I had actually planned it than the idea just popping into my head, but you take inspiration in whatever forms it comes.

It started to rain pretty heavily during the night, so technically the sacrifice to ensure a bountiful spring worked. It ended up being too wet for a hike, so instead we just kind of huddled underneath the tarp until we talked ourselves into the task of packing up wet gear – one of my ultimate dislikes. In fact, in all of camp-dom there is only one thing I despise more than packing wet gear and that’s the 4am potty break.

Day 2, Orcas Island Photos

Moran State Park, Orcas Island, WA

"I mean, just the fact that I can even make that ridiculous statement makes my heart high-5 my soul. "

With snow still pretty thick in the mountains, it wasn't quite yet time to break out the backpacking gear. Still, its spring - how can you not get out there?

So John, Jayson, Cheri, Kristi, Pat, and I all caught the early morning ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island for a little old fashioned car camping over Easter weekend. Probably the single biggest thing that I missed about living away from Seattle for two years was the camping. Aside from a couple day hikes out of New York and some camping experiences on the road last year, there was a serious lack of getting out in the woods time. In fact, before moving back the only backpacking trip I had gone on while being away actually involved me flying back to Seattle from New York just to do so.

Its just amazing all of the diversity of life you see out here - I mean, do you people realize that this is one of the most beautiful places in the entire world and inch for inch of soil, holds more life and biodiversity than probably 90% of the planet?!?! This trip alone saw multiple fawns munching on fauna just a bit up the road from our camp and bald eagles soaring over the sun roof on the drive over; the amount of wildlife I've seen already this year makes the whole thing a little...blah ("oh look...ANOTHER bald eagle. how quaint.") I mean, just the fact that I can even make that ridiculous statement makes my heart high-5 my soul.

Mountain Lake, Orcas Island

We were incredibly lucky on Saturday to have the skies clear up, giving us some awesome views atop Mt. Constitution. Due to a "navigational error", we hiked the longer route to the Twin Lakes and then up, giving us about a 8.5 mile hike for the day...with the 1.2 miles up Constitution gaining over 1,100 feet of elevation, it was a tough slog.

Tired and weary, we would hike back down to the camp to begin what hopefully could very well become an Easter tradition: the World's Greatest Smores (tm)and the Fire Altar Peep sacrifice....pics to come on that little encounter.

Mt. Constitution Hike Photos

Steamboat Rock, Northrup Canyon

It was looking to be a cold weekend, but the hiking bug had hit so Jayson, Pat, and myself headed out towards Wenatchee for a bit of day hiking and car camping.

After dropping off our gear at our campsite at Steamboat Rock State Park, we headed the mile or so to the Steamboat Rock trailhead. Day time temp was mid-fifties, so I was able to ditch the jacket. Along the way, we passed the leg of some unfortunate deer and blood on the rocks.



A quick scramble up the rock and we found we had the whole mesa to ourselves. Banks lake below was still frozen and we spent much of the day making fun of Pat for bringing a full pack ("training" he says) and hiked along the perimeter of the rock, daring ourselves to see how far over the cliff sides we'd peer.

We spotted a herd of about 30 deer, all keeping a wary eye on us as we passed to the east. On our way back to the trail, we found a relatively fresh carcass of an unfortunate deer (cougar?) after the coyotes and birds had taken their fill. The very cold night (20 degrees) passed with the coyotes howling through the night.

The campground was relatively clear, with only a few trailers of some nice folks and a small troop of boyscouts who kept relatively quiet. The next morning, we headed out to Northrup Canyon.

Book says this is 3 miles to the cabins and another mile to the lake, but we did all 8 miles in just over 2 and a half hours, so I doubt it. No eagles to be seen and heavy cloud cover, but it was a nice change of scenery from the day before. The first mile of trail had thick ice on the trail making it slippery at times, the last mile thick mud. Would bring gators.

Steamboat pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehostelwitness/sets/72157615761080771/

Northrup Canyon pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehostelwitness/sets/72157615888921208/

Jayson's Photos: http://jaysonmcivorphotography.com/gallery/7697136_xwmB8

loss.

During my trip to Thailand, the group visited a small school out in the country, in Ban Chaivan. It was remarkable for a number of reasons: even though by now Thailand has been well discovered, this little town was out in the country in northeast Thailand - not a very popular tourist stop. So we were somewhat surprised to learn that we were the first flesh-and-blood foreigners for many of the kids in the town.

The purpose of the trip was to see other areas that could use the Eastlake church's financial support - while for the most part, the school system in Thailand is well developed, schools out in the countryside are in dire straights financially. Really, the purpose of the trip to Ban Chaivan was just to see that there are plenty of places in Thailand that really do need help.

However, as so often was the case, fate had different ideas. Where we saw an opportunity perhaps to donate supplies to help the school, the school administrators saw something a little different. We were introduced to the little girl pictured in the left. She was suffering from bone cancer and would have to take regular trips all the way out to Bangkok for her treatment - over a 10 hour drive each way. While the government would pay for the chemo, her family could not afford to pay for the trips over there.

I'm not sure what it was - perhaps it was the chance to really make an immediate difference in someone's life - but the folks at Eastlake jumped all over this and for the next year, supported this little girl financially so her family could get her to treatment. It was a beautiful gesture and something done so spontaneously and without a minute's hesitation, it just touched my heart.

Sadly, I learned this morning that this little girl passed away on March 17th, 2009, during the course of her treatment. I hope that the Eastlake crew doesn't despair too much, for while the treatments proved fruitless, the fact that this girl knew that there were people across the globe who loved her and were praying for her - perhaps the comfort you provided was enough. As it is, I remember the tenderness and love her schoolmates and teachers all had for her and can't help but feel for their pain right now.

A busy February

Only 28 days to it, but February went by in a blaze. And although this time last year I was knocking out one of my life-long ambitions, tramping through New Zealand, February 2009 did not lack for adventure.

The first trip was a quick overnight, out to Port Angeles, WA to snow shoe Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Peninsula. Although there wasn't enough snow for the snow-shoes, the hike up to the ridge was still a great lung burner and reminder that its going to take a lot of work before camping season begins.

Jayson, who joined me in New Zealand, joined me again this year in celebration of our trip a year ago. Hurricane Ridge holds the distinction of being the highest point accessible by road in all of the Olympics, making it one of the easiest destinations to get to for some breathtaking sights. From atop the ridge, we could see Victoria, Bellingham, Port Angeles, and Mt. Baker, not to mention the entire breadth of the Olympic mountain range. Truly inspiring indeed.

After the cold and the snow, it was determined that a visit out to Phoenix, AZ was required and along with it, a stay at the sister's home. Temps hovering just below 90 degrees was just what the doctor ordered. We threw the ball around on Saturday, just like old times, and on Sunday took to Surprise, AZ to watch the Seattle Mariners take on the Texas Rangers in Spring league play. Considering that it was last March that I arrived in the overwhelming heat of southeast asia, I thought the trip to visit sun was a fitting way to commemorate the trip.

Hurricane Ridge Photographs
Mariner Spring Training Photographs

Work and Travel: How to get paid on the road

I hope that in my previous post I did not make it seem like you had to have a large stash of cash available in order to hit the road for an extended travel tour. The fact is, while savings are helpful, plenty of people travel and find work along the way. I was astounded by the number of long term, working travelers that I met along the way and I thought I’d share the strategies they used to keep going week after week. These won’t make you rich, but they should keep you clothed, housed, and fed for as long as you want to travel. Please feel free to comment if you know of any other tips.

Get a visa.

If I was in my mid-twenties and recently jobless, make no doubt about it I would be heading to New Zealand to take advantage of their Working Holiday visa program (Australia offers one as well). In short, as a member of the British Commonwealth, Kiwis and Aussies are entitled to spend two years in Great Britain without a work permit. What ends up happening is that upon graduating, all the young people leave in droves to explore Europe (after all, they’ve been stuck on an island for their whole life). This not only explains why so many Aussies travel, but also why the two nations always have huge shortages of people to fill cheap paying jobs.

In response, the government of these two countries created a program to allow some of their tourists to fill the job needs. If you are between the ages of 18-30, you can apply for a one year work visa allowing you to legally work. What I’ve found is in Australia, the work tends to fit in the migrant/farm/manual labor category, but in NZ however, it tends to be more in the service category. In Queenstown alone there are signs all over the place looking for bar tenders and wait staff. As NZ is the college break location for most of Eurasia, you get a steady stream of young, beautiful, and blonde thrill seekers bussing through town, looking for the next party. That’s really not a bad place to find yourself as a bar tender –you get the best hiking in the world in the summer, great skiing in the winter, and beautiful people year round.
 

A list of working holiday programs can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_holiday_visa. As far as I know, the only countries offering the program to Americans are New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore.

Use the Internet for more than writing home.

Perhaps you are older than 30? In that case, grab a laptop and make your way to either Southeast Asia or a cheaper eastern European nation, such as Riga, Budapest, or Prague. There are a bevy of “jobs” available on the net that pay you no matter where you do the work. On the cheap, low pay end would be something like Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. The theory behind Mechanical Turk is that there are many mundane tasks that Humans can process much better, faster, and cheaper than software would (for example, looking at a photograph and identifying if the subject is a boy or a girl). Software developers sign up with Turk and offer bounties for each process – so in our example, a developer has 4,000 photos and is willing to pay .02 cents each. Each task takes only a few seconds…so say you put 6 hours a day into this, giving yourself an average of 10 seconds to respond, means you can pull in almost $45. It’s not a huge amount of money and the work is mundane, but in a place like Thailand $45 is pretty good change to get through the day.  Keep in mind that some jobs in Turk require a certain level of hours already put in.

On the higher paying, higher risk side of it are job sites such as www.bountyjobs.com, where employers post the job they are looking to fill and as a member recruiter, you can fill this position. So if you have some recruiting experience, skype, a computer, and a decent internet connection, you can recruit on positions that can pay between $5,000 - $20,000 (and more) for a fill. This process takes much longer to do and odds are stacked against you, but it’s doable. There are similar sites looking for programmers, tech writers, etc.

Ebay. Ebay. Ebay.

Become an import/exporter. Certain tourist destinations also attract clothing manufacturers for ample supply and cheap labor, making it a haven for high quality knock-offs (which essentially are clothes made in the same factory). I met a Polish guy living in Bangkok who for years has made his living purchasing high-quality knock offs and selling them on Ebay.  In recent years, he told me that new regulations have cut down on his profits, but he’s still there, still churning away.

Use your tongue.

A lot of American’s don’t realize that they all are in possession of one of the most desirable skill sets in the world: superior knowledge of the English language. It’s well known you can teach English, I’m not going there. What I am saying is that if you speak English and are a certified Scuba instructor, you can find a job in almost any coastal tourist destination in the world. In my travels through Thailand and Australia, they were even offering to teach you how to scuba and certify you in return for a few months service. This is how a friend of mine took a year to travel and ended up living in St. Croix.

Play the odds.

It is illegal in the United States to use a credit card or bank account registered in the US for purposes of on-line gambling. However, it is not nearly anywhere else. If someone wanted to, they could play your way around the world. I’ve even heard that there are plenty of programs on the internet with a fairly successful win rate (many online casino rooms are filled with bots, making money for their owners while they are at work).

Start your own tourism agency.

It’s not that hard. You print out a few business cards detailing your special knowledge of a country you’ve been to a few places and make yourself available as a personal travel guide – one guy had been to Peru 8 times doing this. In the winter, he stayed here in Seattle and worked in restaurants, passing out his cards to more affluent couples. In the winter time, he would book 3-4 trips with no more than 6 people per group, and be their personal tour guide to these mysterious, backwards, and scary locales for a couple weeks – really, it’d be like having 3 couples paying me to take them on a week-long trip to New York.

Hang out where the travelers (not the tourists) are hanging out.

There’s an American right now in Thailand whose been serving bar at a beach shack for 5 years now. There’s a Brit in Laos who got his job chatting up an NGO (i.e. foreign-based charity) employee in a popular expat bar. I myself was offered a few jobs – one as a bartender, another leading outrigger kayaking groups in Australia (open sea kayaking is insane, btw), and more than a few offers to  work in a hostel. The point is, if you travel for long enough, you are going to run into offers to stay behind. And if the employer wants you to stay, they will find ways to make it worth your time.  

Opportunity knocks

As you all know, the axe fell today at Microsoft. 5,000 employees are to be let go and it doesn't really look good for my HR bretheren when that department was specifically singled out for reduction in the press release - when things are going great, the first people hired are recruiters, but when things go bad, they are the first to be let go. There are a lot of articles out there and blogs offering support and ideas, such as treat your unemployment like its a job, work your contact, don't give up, etc. That's all bull. Here is my own advice.

To those with families or laden with debt, I feel for you...to be frank though, this message is not intended for you.  

However, to those that are relatively debt-free and single (or perhaps with an adventurous spouse), opportunity is knocking. I can't think of a better time to pack a few changes of clothing into a backpack, pop on the trainers, and hit the road for a few months while this shit sorts itself out. Things here aren't going to get better any time soon and the dollar is on the rise. Besides, its winter in Seattle, but very warm, cheap, and beautiful in Central America. Forget about wishing you could do something like this, now is the time to do it. Your friends and family will be waiting for you when you are done.

That is the mindset I certainly have right now. I'm asked, mostly by concerned parents, about how secure I feel in my industry and I reply that everyone is concerned about the job market. I realize that everyone has their own realities to deal with, but right now my goal is to save, turtle up. I've got loans to be repaid and a condo refurb coming due soon, but if I can get through those and have enough time to put some money under the mattress, if things here come to an end - I'm heading south.

Think about it - tax refund, a $200 flight to Mexico, and 3 months of decent weather to get below the equator...why not? Plus, chances are its actually cheaper to be unemployed traveling through Peru than say, living in Kirkland, WA.

As Coach Al used to say, go barefoot in the wet grass...in other words, enjoy the moment. Right now, would you rather be at home watching Oprah reruns, waiting for a call? Or go and see if you can't find where Andy and Red ended up?

Next: Are there jobs to be had while traveling? YES.

Really?

My last goal was to come back and spend the final 2 months of my year doing absolutely nothing - just relaxing, enjoying the summer in the Pacific NW, and concentrate on jobbing come September. I'm happy to say - mission accomplished! I'm only one weekend away from making a year out of this thing, a year since I put in my notice to take the year off.

So, any regrets?

I've had plenty of time to think about things that I would do differently, had I known what I know now. Here's what I got for you:

Europe - Europe was a break-in trip for me. The idea was I would use the super ease of transportation, common knowledge of English, and prior experience here to slowly break me into the idea of traveling by myself. I pretty much broke Europe down into two zones where I wanted to spend the majority of my time: Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The most expensive and one of the cheaper European areas, figuring it would balance out in the end. While I wouldn't change the experience, I've decided that Western Europe is for smaller trips, maybe 1-2 weeks at a time. You can cram in so much with the cheap flights (throughout Europe) in a short time and putting even 5 hours into traveling will take you to a completely different culture.

Eastern Europe on the other hand, I wish I had put more time into Latvia and made it up to Estonia. Reminding myself it had started to snow the day I left, I would have liked to have done it in early fall at least. Then head down south into Bosnia and Croatia.

Australia/NZ - most travelers I ran into doing these two nations would tell me that they wished they had put more time into NZ and less time into Australia. Nothing against Australia, but the East Coast trip pretty much feels like a giant trip down the California coast line. Its beautiful, no doubt, but the small towns have a way of blending together in a giant sameness of views, people, and things to do. Having put a month into Australia, I wish I had put some time into a trip to lesser populated western coast and even spend time down in Tasmania.

New Zealand, well I can't stop raving about it. I loved it there. I wish I would have known that folks not yet 31 could get a working visa to spend a year here (as well as in Australia). I would have made a mad dash for this place right out of school. It was expensive, but by this time I had learned a lot of cheap survival tricks so didn't mind as much. I would have loved to put in some major time on the trails here.

SE Asia - Really I can't think of what I would have done better. I just wish I had more time, really. 3 months in Thailand with hardly a blink spent in Malaysia, Cambodia, or Vietnam.

S. America, Africa, Russia - You'll notice, I didn't go. I wish I had. Just ran out of time and money. In fact, going to Patagonia was a HUGE driver in the trip in the first place, but as it worked out, I never made it. From Asia, I had this fantasy of going by train from Vietnam to China, then taking the Trans-Siberian rail road all the way through to Moscow. From Moscow, work my way SW to Turkey, then to Morocco and start south through Africa. Once that was done, fly over to Argentina and work my way up north - Argentina through Peru, up north through Ecuador and Costa Rica, bus trip through Mexico, then finally back in the US. That though would easily take another year and a lot more cash.

I just wish I had more time and money. :) Don't we all? Whats done is done though and all you can do is plan for the next trip - one day.

Finally, thanks to those that have given me so many compliments on my photography and writing. I'm an amateur in all things and so getting a compliment is high praise indeed. In the year that I was traveling, two of my photos were picked up by web sites to accompany articles they were publishing, which I know isn't a huge deal, but still was enough to put a smile on my face for days. Another smile maker - I was curious, so checked and saw that I put in over 73,000 words on this site. While its not my intention to get this published, its a startling revelation that this adventure has resulted in the accomplishment of another life's goal: Here before you, albeit in digital form, is really my first book. A crudely, sometimes hastily written travel memoir shared with family, a few strangers, and many life long friends, never really going beyond that, but still - all those times I've sat down and just "wished I could write a book" and here I go, doing so without even really realizing it. Even now I can't stop smiling.

The trip, the writing, spending days doing nothing but walking around with a camera around my neck - Its a great personal accomplishment for me and something I feel that additional words or posts on this site would tarnish. All the photos have been loaded, all the adventures recorded. So until the next trip...I'm gonna log off now.

Feel free to check up on me at my personal blog site: www.seattlecasbah.com, updated irregularly.

Thanks again, everyone.

Jacob
Traveler
Photographer
Writer

Stewart Island Photoset

Stewart Island is perhaps the most idyllic sea-side community I had the fortune of traveling through in my journeys. And by idyllic, I mean small and quaint. Your grandparents would love it there. Except when its raining.

Stewart Island/Rakiura track photoset