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

A Flurry of Firsts

Mama Piang’s had a lot of firsts that contributed to my eventually settling down in Southeast Asia. It was the first place I learned foreign words that weren’t in my phrasebook. Mama would yell them at me from the kitchen adjacent to the restaurant area as I called out food orders to her. “Boh bpen yahng” was her slang for “whatever” and was used by both of us with emotions ranging from gregarious to infuriated.

It was the first time I taught in Asia. I eventually managed to communicate the rules of my favorite card game to Papa Piang and he ran around the restaurant whooping and hollering like a player scoring the winning goal the first time he beat me. It was the first time I fell in love with dishes that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere back home, like the spicy mushroom soup that Mama described as the “Piang family food.”

Finally, it was the first time I experienced Asian hospitality. One of my newfound favorites dishes left me with (my first case of) nasty food poisoning, and Mama Piang took me to her parents’ house. She made a bed for me and rubbed herbs on my feverish forehead while her husband managed the bungalows and restaurant. If you have the time to spend some of your vacation sitting barefoot on a stoop trying to make new traveling friends and wooing old ones, I cannot recommend volunteering enough. It’s possible you’ll find more of what you’re looking for than you ever will doing jungle treks and visiting art museums.

Ryan Farley / Own Work