Working in Hostels: The Best Way to Have a Cultural Experience on the Cheap

New Places, Old Friends

After my long stint in the citywide rave of Vang Vieng, the peace and tranquility of the 4,000 islands was exactly what I wanted. I randomly picked one of the overnight islands named Don Det. While walking the four kilometer loop of the island looking for a place to stay, I ran into a friend I had met in Thailand before joining my ill-fated group. She was sitting on the stoop of a restaurant raised on stilts overlooking the river. Along the southeast Asia backpacking trail, random run-ins with old hostel dorm-mates, even an entire country away, is about as common as running into co-workers at the office watercooler and I’d become a bit numb to the surprise.

She called me over with that “We’ve been friends for a lifetime!” tone that travelers will defend to their grave. We caught up briefly and she asked where I was staying. With my full bag on and my story about arriving that morning, there was no question about whether I’d found a place yet.

Within ten minutes of catching up with my unkempt “old friend,” I was in a five dollar private riverfront bungalow. Mama Piang’s, as this establishment was called, was made up of six of these bungalows and a restaurant along the riverfront—all separate from each other. When I met my friend, Amy, she was volunteering at the hostel I was staying in in northern Thailand and I don’t know how I didn’t realize she was doing the exact same thing here.

Ryan Farley / Own Work