1. posing nude for art schools
2. posing for photographers
3. photo shoots / small TV roles (play the foreigner)
4. begging for money
5. singing for your supper in parks (might not pay your next plane ticket, but at least it will buy your next meal)
6. playing an instrument in public
7. washing people’s cars in rich parts of town
8. selling sandwiches at the beach
9. teaching English
10. selling your blond / red hair
11. having a portable job: translator
12. reselling small electronics, trinkets
13. pharmaceutical test subject
14. high-turnover jobs at bars and restaurants
To master the art of not paying for neither room or board as you sling yourself across the world means you are already cutting your backpacking expenses in over half. Temping at hostels is your very first way to make your money last a longer -with luck, endless- journey. It’s also the kind of thing you won’t see printed in a Lonely Planet guidebook, and this is how it’s done:
The first thing you’ll want is to ask the manager if at that particular moment the hostel is understaffed, and if he or she could maybe use your help. Your chances to hear a “Yes” will be greater during the high travel seasons than in the lows, where guests come and go, and beds are continually getting slept on and are in need of making and remaking; sheets, pillowcases and towels are constantly a-wash; and a bigger courtesy breakfast must magically appear in the dining room every morning before the earliest of risers is up.
For hostel managers Deborah and Alessandra of Oca Hostel, possibly the best and most affordable backpacker bunker in Latin America’s costliest metropolis–Sao Paulo City–when asking for a job in hospitality, your smile is your curriculum. And together with that smile, these girls add, “the ideal temping backpacker would definitely be one real friendly talkative girl or guy. If they also know about mixing drinks or speak an extra international language besides English, those are a real huge plus. Those skills are always job-getters.”
To deter people from looking through your stuff as you head out from the hostel on an outing, use nylon cable ties on your backpack.
They’re especially useful with top loading backpacks that have no zippers or a place to clamp a lock on.
Buy cable ties at any hardware store. They come in all sizes and colors and are a dime a dozen. If you can’t find them, then twist wires, the kind that come with bagged bread, can pull off some deterring effect for your stuff.
When you are out there traveling and trying to see the world on little money, the everyday things around you can take on unexpected uses for free. Nothing really has to do what it’s “supposed” to do. And thus, from an empty plastic bottle, a drinking cup is born. Two hostel coat hangers yield a clothesline, to dry your pants with in the shower of your room. Get in the habit of traveling and looking at things in new and creative ways.
Disclaimer: the electrical appliance featured in this article can cause serious injury if used incorrectly. Always follow all its instructions. All content in this site is provided solely as information. We take no responsibility for its use or misuse. Other than that, happy traveling.
Part of what makes backpackers groovy cats is that whatever favor someone does for them while on the road, they won’t pay it back, but pay it forward.
There are even pay-it-forward boxes out there. Who knows? One of them could have your name on it. Watch this video to learn how you can start your own.
In our last installment with actress Jacquelyn Richey she outlines some basic first-aid to pack. Check out her other tutorials on travel shoes and clothes.
Jacquelyn Richey is an expert in the arts of living out of a backpack. She has roughed Europe, Costa Rica, Morocco, and Cambodia; and clocked countless nights sleeping in jets, trains, ferries, castles, not to mention beaches.
LP Bluelist has just posted an inventory of backpacker personalities for the rating. Figure out if you are a champagne backpacker, a 30-something soul searcher, an impoverished gap year beer-guzzler, or you fall into some of the other funky taxonomies of world roamers. Let us know in the comments below.
Jacquelyn quotes Asian wisdom: “Lay out all your clothes and all your money, and take half the clothes and twice the amount of money”. So true. It makes us forgive Jacquelyn for not mentioning cargo pants are the coolest high-tech practical utilitarian travel garment anybody could possibly own, but that they are “geeky“, instead. (Ouch!) Check her other tutorial on travel shoes.
Jacquelyn Richey is an expert in the arts of living out of a backpack. She has roughed Europe, Costa Rica, Morocco, and Cambodia; and clocked countless nights sleeping in jets, trains, ferries, castles, not to mention beaches.
Actress Jacquelyn Richey shows the girls what shoes to take when traveling. “Everything does double duty,” in a nutshell. Check her other tutorial on travel clothes.
Jacquelyn is an expert in the arts of living out of a backpack. She has roughed Europe, Costa Rica, Morocco, and Cambodia; and clocked countless nights sleeping in jets, trains, ferries, castles, not to mention beaches.
As the new year readies its start, we wish to remember Colin Fletcher, patron saint of all backpackers. He passed away 12 June 2007 at the age of 85, but his legacy, as the author of The Complete Walker, will continue inspiring new generations of backpackers and hikers. This is the man who penned the single most important Backpacking document to date. We revere it as the Backpacking Bible. Thank you, Colin.
An experienced backpacker carries a can of Altoids. If you compliment him or her on the candy, you’ll instantly give yourself away as a tenderfoot traveler. Nestled in the can is in fact a tiny survival kit. Have a look at this kid’s.
Nice office supplies are always inspiring. Carry a glue stick and all sorts of fun colored pens and pencils and tiny Post-it Notes.
You don’t have to be all words. Have fun making sketch entries, or record your day in a collage of sales receipts, pictures, and ticket stubs.
Make friends and memories. Invite other travelers and locals to write down their thoughts or make sketches.
Don’t turn your journal into a chore. Enjoy the freedom of writing in it about whatever you want, whenever you want to, in any way that you want. Remember that behind any travel journal is the free spirit of travel.
If you lose your Ziplocs, you can improvise protection from rain or splashing water for your money, passport, credit cards, tickets, digital camera, iPod, and other small electronics. Learn how.
You’d be amazed at how creepy airlines can be that they won’t let you off the hook even if you’re dead.
“Even the dead have to pay fees
When a passenger dies, airlines usually cut them a break. Sort of. Their next of kin can apply for a refund. But even in death, airlines have figured out how to make a little extra money. Check out this clause in one airline tariff: “NOTE — IN THE EVENT OF DEATH OF PASSENGER AN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE CHARGE OF USD 50.00 WILL BE ASSESSED IN ORDER TO PROCESS A REFUND.” The airline doesn’t want passengers to abuse this “perk” so it adds, “PROOF OF DEATH MAY BE REQUIRED.”
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Know all 6 rules. Read the full article by Christopher Elliott, ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine.
What do you do if you have clothes to wash and you don’t have a bucket with you, and you also lost your universal sink plug to stop the hostel sink? For this tutorial you’ll need a sturdy plastic bag and detergent.
(1) Hang the bag on the hostel’s laundry faucet and fill with water and detergent. Careful not to overfill.
(2) Check for leaks.
(3) Dump in your soiled travel wear.
(4) Submerge. Then leave to soak for an hour or two, depending on how soiled your clothes are. . .
(5) . . . fish out. Squeeze, wring, rinse, repeat.
(6) Dump out the dirty water and rinse bag for reuse.
(7) Hang up to dry and voilá. You now have clean clothes.
If backpacking were a paid profession, then Instant Ramen Dependence (IRD) (or Nissin Syndrome, a.k.a. NS) would be an occupational hazard, and there’d be some support for the travelers out there, trying to break the habit. So until then, how do you deal with the symptoms of ramen withdrawal?
Well, the trick is to separate your mind 100 feet from the craving. 100 feet just so happens to be how far instant ramen noodles will stretch out when laid out end to end. Is this too zen? Then go eat an apple.
You might think the ultimate backpacker stove is some state-of-the-art achievement in materials technology from 3M, Dupont, or the Lockheed Skunkworks. Something with a name strung up with words like:
I’ll tell you one thing. A true backpacker would never own one (plus let’s face it, he’s penniless to begin with, and couldn’t afford the expense).
And yet, from where you least expect it, right out of the pages of a great travel lit classic, Jack Kerouac’s On the Road; comes the ultimate —and truest—backpacker stove!
Here’s the excerpt, and below, the images. You’ll know what to do : )
“Then we had to eat, and didn’t do so till midnight, when we found a nightclub singer in her hotel room who turned an iron upside down on a coat hanger in the wastebasket and warmed up a can of pork and beans.” —On the Road, Part 2, Chapter 10
A skilled hitchhiker is in fact a traveling salesman. The difference is that his customers are all car or truck drivers, and the service he sells, is the once-in-a-lifetime chance of giving him a ride. So, before you set out on your first big backpacking excursion, take a crash course on sales tactics. You’ll surprise yourself how far you can patter yourself to.
Travel Skill #17 is meant to save you good money, and it calls for a simple piece of plumbing gear you can pick up virtually anywhere, no matter what country you’re traveling in.
It’s made of rubber, it’ll cost you measly cents, and probably came from China. Yes! I’m talking ’bout the universal sink plug.
With it, stop the hostel sink, and wash your cargo pants and T-shirts. Skip the laundromat altogether.
Colin
For this tutorial you’ll need a sturdy plastic bag and detergent.
(1) Hang the bag on the hostel’s laundry faucet and fill with water and detergent. Careful not to overfill.
(2) Check for leaks.
(3) Dump in your soiled travel wear.
(4) Submerge. Then leave to soak for an hour or two, depending on how soiled your clothes are. . .
(5) . . . fish out. Squeeze, wring, rinse, repeat.
(6) Dump out the dirty water and rinse bag for reuse.
(7) Hang up to dry and voilá. You now have clean clothes.
