Getting Free Room/Board While Traveling: My First Experience Volunteering

Looking for more in Chiang Mai

In month two of this 6-month mini-retirement, I found myself in the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, a beautiful, mountainous city surrounded by jungle as far as the eye can see. This being my first time to Thailand I had high expectations for this visit, and I was definitely not disappointed.

The city of Chiang Mai gave me a great first glimpse at Thailand and the wonderful culture, food and people who live there. The food was cheap and delicious, it was a great walking city with plenty to see and overall it was not an over-commercialized tourist destination like many great cities around the world are becoming. Almost no brand-name hotels, people heckling you to buy something at every corner and no overdeveloped apartment complexes. It felt like a true Thai experience.

Our first 5 days in Thailand were spent exploring temples, visiting an elephant sanctuary and eating awesome (and cheap!) street food. On average, we spent about $25/night for a basic room/private bathroom and meals cost about $3-5 for the best Thai food I’ve ever had. So needless to say, but I was hooked!

The desire to stay longer in this city was pretty obvious, however, playing tourist was getting a bit old, and we wanted to do something that made us a feel a bit more useful and productive. Also, we were probably eating too much pad thai and sweets, so we were in need of some physical activity to keep us from getting fat!

 

Eating a peanut butter/banana/nutella crepe from a food stand at the famous Sunday Walking Street Market

Before leaving on my mini-retirement, I had looked up interesting ways to spend your time while traveling through new countries, and one experience that many people mentioned was volunteering along the way, as a way to give back to the local community in which you are traveling and also save some money by getting free room/board.

So this is how I stumbled across a service called Workaway and decided to give it a shot in Chiang Mai.

 

What is Workaway?

 

Workaway is an international online service that allows members to contact one another to organize homestays, volunteering and cultural exchange. Volunteers are expected to contribute an amount of time each day in exchange for accommodation and food, which is provided by the host. Workawayers pay a yearly fee of about $25-30, depending on if your profile is for a single, couple or family, and hosts do not have to pay anything to list their place.

Basically, you either create a profile as a volunteer or as a host, and then you can search for possible hosts/volunteers via Workaway’s online platform. As a volunteer, it’s important to list your skills and interests as a way for potential hosts to know if you will be a good fit. I searched for places near Chiang Mai and came up with a few hosts whom I messaged to see if they were currently looking for volunteers and in need of the skills we had.

(Tip: spend a lot of time creating a detailed profile and crafting messages to potential hosts. Many highly-rated hosts get A LOT of messages so you need to show them that you will provide value and not just be looking for a free holiday)

 

Where We Volunteered and What We Did

We ended up matching with a homestay about 15 minutes outside of Chiang Mai called Rice Barn and Rooms. The resort consisted of 8 unique rooms that were part of a larger complex that consisted of a pool, coffee shop, art studio and small farm. It was run by a lovely couple named Alistair and Nok, who basically ran the place completely by themselves, with the help of their housekeeper. And their three dogs!

One of the dogs named Jesse, who we nicknamed “Sad Panda” because she always had this sad look on her face

Though it’s a thriving business with guests coming in and out every day, it still felt home-y and comfortable, and we immediately felt like we belonged as part of the family.

Most of our days were spent working through the morning until lunchtime, and then maybe an hour or two after lunch to finish up any jobs before the day was done. In the afternoons and evenings, we enjoyed time at the pool, going out to the local markets and making home-cooked meals which we missed so much.

 

Lauren working in the kitchen to make a homemade stir fry!

The jobs I did consisted of manual labor around the property such as moving pavers for a new walkway, digging trenches for new electrical lines, replacing roof tiles and cutting the grass. Lauren helped the housekeeper clean the rooms, sweeping and raking the leaves and helping Nok in the kitchen. Definitely a bit of gender bias with the jobs, but that was okay!

Each day was a great experience to learn something new and really feel good about putting in a hard day of work. The food we were served was excellent, and it was a welcome relief to have some home-cooked meals. Also, the rooms were all immaculate and extremely comfortable so we felt completely spoiled staying in one of the beautifully decorated guest rooms (which was not booked the week we were there) with air-conditioning and our own bathroom.

 

A few of the jobs I did throughout the week, such as resetting the pavers and cutting the grass

Would I Recommend It?

Overall it was an incredible experience and a great way to get to know the local Thai culture. Al and Nok were great hosts who made us feel like part of the family for a week. We enjoyed great food, had plenty of laughs and learned a lot from each other. We learned way more about Thai culture from spending a week helping to run a local business than we ever could have from just playing tourist in Chiang Mai.

And as for the financials, given our budget of $75/day, over the course of the 7 days and nights that we stayed there and worked, we saved over $500! Though likely we will definitely be spending this money during our current stay in the more expensve Thai islands to the south, but hey, it’s money saved!

 

So if you’re looking for a new type of travel experience next time your abroad or in the U.S. (yes, Workaway does have plenty of hosts in the good ole USA), I would definitely recommend checking out Workaway. And if you’re ever in Chiang Mai, check out Rice Barn and Rooms as it was the nicest place we’ve stayed so far during our travels!

 

Looking proud of myself for successfully moving a few concrete pavers. Though I would have to redo a few of them later!

 

Question: Have you every thought about volunteering abroad as a way to see a new country? What are you thoughts?

Leave a comment or send me an email!

 

NYPFGuy