Photo: Francesco Rachello
Kindness goes a long way, even when it is just a small act.
Imagine a hostel in which revelers tip-toe silently through the dorms, cups of tea appear beside your bed while you’re in the shower, and your bill has already been paid when you go to check out.
A figment of my imagination? Not necessarily.
Inspired by Danny Wallace’s book Random Acts of Kindness: 365 Ways to Make the World a Nicer Place,
1. Do the washing-up in the hostel, even when it’s not yours.
Photo: mynameisharsha
2. Write your top tips for nearby places and post them on hostel notice boards.
3. When you’re hosteling with friends, invite solo travelers out for dinner and drinks.
4. Travel with a plug-in mosquito repellent and keep the dorm mossie-free. Raid makes a good one.
5. Offer to guard other people’s stuff at bus stations while they buy their tickets.
6. Buy a CD from a local busker, copy it onto your iTunes and leave the CD in the hostel.
7. Pack some biscuits and a magazine from home and give them to a compatriot who has been traveling for ages.
8. When you’re heading out for a heavy night, leave your toothbrush and whatever else you need out on your dorm bed so you don’t have to rifle through you backpack at four in the morning.
Call or Skype your friends on their birthdays. It’ll mean all the more that you’ve remembered to call from the Amazon.
9. Offer to make the hostel reception staff a cuppa joe.
10. Call or Skype your friends on their birthdays. It’ll mean all the more that you’ve remembered to call from the Amazon.
11. If you’re next to a nervous flier, keep them talking during take off and landing to take their minds off the flight. Hold their hand if need be.
12. Rinse the hostel shower after use and clean the plughole.
13. Use cloth bags for your stuff rather than plastic ones. Your dorm mates will love you for not rustling in the morning.
14. Pack a few pairs of extra ear plugs and offer them to people trying to sleep in noisy dorms.
Photo: m-louis
15. When you get on a local bus, pay for the person behind you too.
16. Buy a bag of dry dog food and feed the strays as you wander around a new city.
17. When you leave a country, give your left-over currency to travelers heading in the other direction.
18. Support new businesses that aren’t in the guidebooks.
19. After you take photos of other travelers, email them your pics. If you take a great shot of a local, consider printing off the photo and taking them a copy.
20. Call your mum and tell her where you are.
Got one of your own? Add your random acts below.
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31 Comments... join the discussion!
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love #20…if momma ain’t happy then no one is happy!
Way to spread the love!↵ -
Love this list. I think doing little things for other is so important even when we’re not traveling.
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Nat, small typo in your description: “IS she does, she really does intend to learn Catalan this time, honest. ”
You did number 15 in Chile???
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Corrected, thanks!
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Great ideas you have here, thanks!
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Lovely suggestions, Natasha. Next time I’m hostelling, a copy of this article is going to end up on their noticeboard.
My suggestion:
Forgive Accidents Instantly.
I was hostelling in Scotland and had a top bunk. Stupidly I put my glasses next to my pillow, not on the table (far below) – and in the middle of the night I moved, my specs fell through a gap in the bunk and smacked the gentleman in the bottom bunk right in the face.
I wasn’t aware of this at the time. All I knew was that I was woken by someone shouting something (probably very rude) in Korean. “Nutter”, I thought to myself, and went back to sleep hoping I wouldn’t get murdered before the morning.
The next morning, I saw my glasses placed on the table, put 2 and 2 together and was immediately excruciatingly embarassed. No wonder he shouted. And my first thought: “I’m going to get lynched when he’s back”. But then I saw a note tucked under them. It said “So sorry to wake you, your spectacles fell on me and I was surprised. Many best wishes, *signature*”.
My first thought had been that he’d hold a grudge. But it seems he forgave me instantly. And that really touched me, and made me a little ashamed at my default lack of faith in his good nature.
That’s stayed with me.
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Buy a CD from a local busker – I get that. This is an act of kindness.
But “copy it onto your iTunes and leave the CD in the hostel”???!!!!!
That is stealing from the busker!!!!! Instead, you should leave a note saying “there’s a great busker at the corner of such and such street – go check him out.↵ -
A lot of those cost money, but aren’t a bad idea.
When I went to Chicago last year I bought a one-week transit system pass. At the end of the trip, there were two and a half days left on it, so I gave it to a guy in the airport who had just arrived in the city, and was just about to buy his own pass.
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@ Jeff – Yes, I always try to pass my transit pass on to the next traveler I see coming in as I’m going out.
Also love the earplugs idea. If someone had handed me some earplugs at a couple of the hostels I’d stayed at before I started carrying my own they would have made my list to instant sainthood.
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This is great!
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i love the idea of calling friends on their birthday..i have told myself last year that will make little surprises for my friends on their birthday…i like making short AVPs..collecting different pics of them, putting them together on a short vid with their favorite song playing along with the slideshow..i also have old video tapes of my childhood which i plan to have it converted from 8mm to dvd…it’s nice to have all the memories in digital format
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Thanks for all your comments.
I love the stories about the glasses and the note beneath.
Re phoning your friends: I phoned a friend of mine on Xmas Day from Peru and was so glad I did. She was home alone eating pasta and delighted I’d called.
Keep the suggestions coming!
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This is one I always try to do– if you’re reasonably fluent in the local language, and happen to notice a fellow traveler having problems, take a few minutes and play translator. It can be for anything–I’ve helped people decipher local transit options, figure out vending machines, or translate directions. It takes little of your time, and is a big help to the person needing it. (And face it, if the situations were reversed, wouldn’t you be glad if someone offered the same for you?)
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I am sure you got the one about feeding strays while you were in Chile. I did that exact thing while I was there.
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@ Lana: Of course. Lots of strays to feed there!
It’s been the strangest day. Close friends accounted for but still lots of others I’m waiting to hear from. Big love to everyone in Chile.
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A nice pay-it-forward list for the traveling backpacker.
Do those plug-in mosquito repellents really work?
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@ Brian:
Believe me, I get eaten alive by mosquitos and speak from experience! The Raid plastic one with the blue tabs works a treat. They are the only ones I’ve found that do. The Raid glass one full of liquid doesn’t work at all for me. It’s best to plug it in before it gets dark.↵ -
Great ideas except #16. You should NEVER feed stray dogs. Not only does it encourage them but depending on where you are (SE Asia for example) they may be rabid!
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Laverne, I’m sorry I have to completely disagree.
How exactly do you encourage a dog by feeding it? I don’t think animals need any encouragement from us to stay alive, it’s a natural instinct. If it’s between an animal struggling to find food in bins or being given food that has nutrients in it, I’ll go with the dry dog food every time.
If you’re talking about dogs begging for food that’s not generally a problem in South America, they’re usually pretty shocked to get it. And frankly, if a street dog is begging for food, it generally means it’s hungry.
What encourages stray dogs are: lack of education about the importance of animal welfare and how to care for pets, lack of social welfare/low cost vets, lack of governmental programmes to sterilise street dogs and lack of financial support for animal shelters. Sadly, many governments just round up and kill stray animals rather than pay to sterilise and/or care for them.
In Chile and many, many other countries there are no cases of rabies. Agreed, it’s a problem in some Asian countries, but even so, I for one couldn’t stand back and see a dog starve if I could do something to help. Most dogs won’t bite you if you’re giving them food and vaccinations against rabies are available as is medical care if you’re unlucky enough to be bitten.
Please, especially if you’re in Chile right now, feed stray dogs. They’re at the bottom of the pile now more than ever after the quake and need your help. And don’t forget to give them some water too. Thanks.
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Oh the plastic bag rustling! I think that is one of my hostelling pet peeves.
I like to pass on my still-valid parking meter vouchers to backpackers if I’m leaving the spot and there is a backpacker pulling in (during the season there are many). I figure they need extra time to find all their stuff in the vans they hire here in NZ to travel round in.
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Well Said Natasha, I’m really happy that you advertise this as a good idea. I live in Zambia and if more tourists here did that it would make driving around town much better. Currently my eyes well up every time i go out just seeing the strays.
(My dream is to win the lottery and open a big mansion for all the stray dogs to live in with vet care and food!, and then another for cats, donkeys….)
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Nice ideas. The dogs in Chile are something else — so mellow — and most seem well fed. My added suggestion is to leave small bars/containers of soap, shampoo, etc. (that you may have picked up from hotels where you’ve stayed) in the hostels that don’t provide them.
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If you have credits left on your phone card as you’re heading back home, give it to another traveler.
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you often get bananas with breakfast in asia
there are hungry kids and older people in asia
take them with you each day and hand them out
when asked for something↵ -
Great tips ppl. I have decided to go backpack round europe for year,maybe more, and my start money is almoast to nothing, so if you could send me some ideas for start-up (this is my first time) at fghraja@yahoo.com i will be more than happy!
P.S. Sorry if i missspeld something wrong….↵ -
Use a cloth or scarf to cover your eyes at night so the light can be left on for the late comers.
My first night in a hostel in Tokyo I left the dorm room light on for the only other girl saying there that night with me. She thanked me the next day and I felt really good. That night she was gone and there were a few other people staying there. I got back late to the light off and smashed my toe on a table. Simple courtesy goes a long long way.↵ -
It may seem obvious or simple, but saying “thank you,” or “hello” in the local language and making sure you have really good eye contact when you do so. So many of us tend to look askance for much of our lives and avoid real contact, but nothing says a silent ‘I love you” better than looking someone in the eye and really seeing them as we have contact at the store, waiting for the bus, to the person bringing you your breakfast, to the person sweeping the street, selling flowers, or even selling lottery tickets!
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I love to stop vacationers who are taking family photos and offer to be the photographer so the photo shows the whole family. It just delights people when I do this and makes my day!
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Great post, help other backpackers is better tha being helped.
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That’s an awesome list. You should make it into a “Compulsory Guide To Backpacking The Planet” handbook or something. Maybey make them into flyers to leave at every backpackers you visit.
Tom.
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