Category: Extras

On volunteering and travel… (Volun-travel? Volun-tourism? someone check on that and see if I should trademark it.)

Having lived in Japan for three years immediately before this journey, it was clear to me there was a big difference between visiting a country and living in one. The level of connection with the people and the culture is obviously far richer and deeper than if just quickly passing through and ticking of the main sites. Aware of this, I decided to look for volunteer projects in which I could participate. After searching about, I came across an organization Volunteers for Peace, which had a large catalog of work camps and projects around the world. I looked through the list and found projects which which were in countries I wanted to visit, in months which would line up with my vague travel plans. In the end, I selected a 3-week program in Cambodia for August (as featured in Episode 3) and a 2-week project in Nepal for September (to be featured in Episode 8.)

My plan was to have these two projects as anchors for my unplanned drifting of a trip, and also, since I thought I’d only be on the road until November or December at the latest (ha!), it seemed to fill a good chunk of my schedule.

Anyway, both projects in which I participated were amazing. They allowed me to have deep connections with the people and the culture, and experiences I would not have had if I were simply a visitor passing through. I was able to escape the travelers’ trail, see places I would likely not otherwise have seen, and also leave a positive impact. I recommend you consider some type of volunteer project when you travel abroad, as it can be an enriching experience for you and those you work with and for.

However…. I will note that just before I wrote this, I did search up “Voluntourism” (because I’m sure I’d heard that portmanteau somewhere before) and half of the top results were quite negative. I can imagine there are places and projects which are more exploitative and the visitor may believe they are genuinely doing good, when in fact it is causing more harm. Please consider volunteering as a way to complement your world travels, but do some research.

For me, I had an incredible experience with Volunteers for Peace.

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I enjoy looking back on my pictures from my travels. Though many are blurry and grainy and certainly don’t capture the experience, much like my scrawled, short-hand journal entries, it is enough to trigger back all the memories and feelings of that time. I laugh now at discussions with fellow travelers that we thought we were taking too many pictures–“I can’t believe I already used two rolls of film, and they were 36 exposure rolls, not 24!!”–and wouldn’t even know if we had captured the images as we hoped until we got the film developed, which may be days, weeks, or even months (had to finish the roll!)

While a part of me imagines what it would have been like to have a digital camera or a phone of today with which I could snap 1000 perfect pics a day, recording every angle and every moment, the other part of me realizes that maybe it’s just as well. I explored and experienced those temples and ruins through the physical world, not through a screen of current technology.

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Cambodia–“Land of Smiles”–is a beautiful country with a very friendly and welcoming population. In my first visit to the country, the smiles and laughter (of the children, especially) were infectious and a many points in my journey, it was hard to think that I was not in paradise.

Yet this is a country and people that have been terrorized through war and oppression by both foreign and domestic powers. If you are not familiar with the atrocities and horrors this country has had to endure, I strongly urge you to educate yourself. If you’re short on time you can skim a wikipedia article and if you don’t like to read, you could at least watch “The Killing Fields” movie.

There are many books on the subject, but a few of the ones I read include (I have not included links, though you can track them down wherever you get your books):

• When the War was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution, by Elizabeth Becker (PublicAffairs, 1998) – Journalist Elizabeth Becker covered Cambodia for The Washington Post and writes about Cambodia’s struggles from French Colonialism through the death of Pol Pot.
• When Broken Glass Floats, Chanrithy Him (W.W. Norton Company, 2000) – Just a child when the Khmer Rouge came to power, she recounts her experiences surviving (barely) the years under Pol Pot.
• Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls and Ganja, Amit Gilboa (Asia Books, 1998) – a look at the post-war debauchery and corruption in Cambodia’s capital city as floods of foreigners with money swoop in to exploit a vulnerable country.

I read another book with “Year Zero” in the title, but all these years later as I searched the internet for it, I couldn’t find it. There are a lot of books out there–with varying degrees of quality–but please find a book or seek out a documentary to learn more about Cambodia’s history.

Before leaving Japan, I picked up a diary so I could write about my travels. At first, I was definitely uncomfortable with the whole journal-writing practice. I wasn’t sure if I had to write an entry every day, track all the details, or just summarize. Did I need to write in complete sentences? If you think I was overthinking this–you’re right–and I even wrote in my journal about my struggle to figure out “how” to journal several times. I am definitely glad I forced myself to write at least something, as even today as I read what amounts to a laundry list of chicken scratches, it triggers a number of long-forgotten memories.

Below are a few pics of my journal (forgive the handwriting, it was meant for my eyes only.)

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'Twas a good night
slept tight
but Gosh Darnit 
those bed bugs did bite!

Though not my first time in Bangkok, it was my first time on Khao San Road, the infamous Bangkok backpacker magnet. In 1997, I first dipped my toe in the waters of Southeast Asian travel and had no idea what I was doing. At that time, my first night in Bangkok (Yes, I had “One Night in Bangkok”) I slept in a cozy bed in a proper hotel and just marveled at how easy, comfortable and inexpensive my adventure was. Throughout that first trip, as well as the following few years, I learned how to travel more budget-minded and experience-focused, discovered how to independently navigate new waters, and basically, how to be a backpacker.

So I returned to Bangkok, wiser, and more experienced, and was looking forward to my journey as a seasoned, veteran traveler. I got a room at one of the hundreds (thousands?) of options available, with little more research than “well, this one is in front of me, so why not take a look?” The room was the typical offering–shoebox of a room with plywood walls that didn’t go up to the ceiling, no bathroom and a padlock to secure the door–and it was enough for me.

That first night, as I lie in bed, with half a sarong partially covering me, I noticed tiny bugs crawling around the room, on the bed, and–most noticeably–on my shirtless body. (note: though these bugs were in my bed, they were not “bed bugs.” I never bothered to identify them, actually.) I casually brushed them away, and didn’t pay them much mind except when they started to bite me.

And through all this, I wasn’t upset or bothered. I lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling fan above me (the rooms could never get dark since the hallway lights were on 24 x 7, and even if it was dark, the pop music blasting from the streets was enough to overwhelm the senses), I took stock of how I was a hard-core, battle-tested backpacker, and this is what Khao San Road was all about. The Jay of three years earlier may have been uncomfortable by the conditions, but this was all just part of the experience. If you can’t take it, then get out of the game and go back to your cushioned life of pampered, air-conditioned, clean sheets travel. Let those bugs crawl all over. That’s part of the deal.

For the record, that is NOT part of the deal. In all my subsequent stays on Khao San Road (and other Bangkok neighborhoods), I never again had issues of bugs crawling all over me, and I even found cheaper places to stay. I don’t mean to say I didn’t have occasional visitors and unwelcome roommates from time to time in my travels, but, yeah, I did come to realize that bug-filled rooms were not, in fact, a standard amenity of budget accommodations, and certainly not a requirement for maintaining hard-core, independent adventurer credentials.

So as it turns out, as much as I had learned about travel over the previous few years, I still had a lot more to learn. Then again, maybe that’s the real lesson–there’s always more to learn.

Twenty years ago, Jay Schneider strapped on an overstuffed backpack and headed off to wander around South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent with a goal of traveling until the money ran out. In Season 1, Jay remembers, relives and reflects upon this journey, reading journal entries and e-mail updates he sent to friends and family. Much like his time on the road, this podcast journey takes Jay to unexpected places, as he unpacks (unpacks–see what we did there?) what it means to explore the world, be open to misadventure and maintain a traveler’s mindset, even when not traveling. In Seasons 2 and beyond, Jay talks with other globe-trekking adventurers to hear their stories of travel asking them Where, When, How, and–most importantly–Why they travel.

Honey Roasted T-Shirts is proud to present “The Jay Luck Club.”