Published by Johnny Ward on February 10, 2011

Moving to a new country to teach English is a daunting process on many accounts – culture shock, new industry to work in, the logistics involved in setting yourself up in a new country – all of these things are difficult to deal with, both practically and mentally. Furthermore, any school worth it’s salt will require to you to sign a 12 month contract when you begin your employment but often people don’t want to commit for such a long period of time. How will they deal with teaching English, will they like their new country enough to stay there for the full year? Lucky for you guys there is a great solution…

Teaching on ‘English camps’. These camps typically run twice a year for 3-8 weeks, normally around July and August along with January and February (summer and winter camps), Korea and Taiwan can’t get enough of these things but they can be a tough nut to crack. These camps can pay anywhere from $1k-$3k, they include free food and accommodation, are full of people just like you and me – young, fun, interested in travel, so all-in-all they are a great way to sample the English teaching lifestyle, experience a new country for more than a mere backpacking stint and to meet some awesome people to potentially travel with post-camp – kinda like a more grown up version of Camp America Summer camps.

Enjoying an evening off work with new friends

It all sounds too good to be true right? Yeah I know, the one drawback to the system is that the information out there is tough to come across and it’s another situation where if you know the right people then getting work on the camps is a breeze and without that way in you have to fight with endless fruitless information on another generic google search, or you end up paying THEM the school for the opportunity to work (we all know those sort of travel sites “for the small fee of $2999 you’ll get your food, board and the opportunity to work with Korean kids for 2 months!), unnecessary! I’m going to be doing another camp soon, either winter or summer and with the $3k, after camp I might take the boat from Korea to China and jump on the trans-siberian railway to Moscow and make my way through Europe by train. A couple of months on camp followed by a couple of months through China, Mongolia and Eastern Europe for a net spend of ZERO, now that sounds like fun! If you want more info about this guys, or are interested in working on a winter or summer camp in Taiwan or Korea I’m in the process of setting up a company offering positions on camps so feel free to email me on Johnny ‘at’ onestep4ward.com while I wait for my new site to go live. Happy travels!

5 Reasons why Traveling by Boat is Awesome

Published by Johnny Ward on November 06, 2010

The one recurring feature of a long backpacking stint (aside from dirty laundry and malnutrition) is public bloody transport. As any traveler can testify when you get the option of taking any other mode of transport rather than another long distance bus, you grab it with both hands. When that mode of transport is a boat, you’re in for a real treat…

I’ve taken boats up the Nile, down the Mekong, across Japan, Korea and China, from Ireland and France and I can’t get enough of them! Here are the 5 reasons why I think traveling by boats beats any other mode of transport, no contest:

1) Space. With you knees jammed somewhere up around your chin in another cross-country bus, you truly begin to appreciate the luxury of space that boats can afford. In fact, I revel in it so much that I often run to the centre of the deck and burst into spontaneous starjumps simply because I can. Seriously, you can walk around at your leisure, even sometimes order food and drinks and spread out and sleep if you really need to.

2) Leisurely pace. Some may argue that this is a negative aspect but I beg to differ. Boats are not lightning fast, far from it but this is another aspect I enjoy. You meander across an ocean or down a river at a leisurely pace, giving you time to genuinely appreciate the journey that you’re on. You can plan your next steps with all the free time you find yourself with and kick back, read a book and sanctimoniously think of all the people around the world darting to and fro in their fast-paced jobs while you, unhurriedly, enjoy the rolling of the water.

3) Cheap. This certainly applies to the boats that I take although I fully appreciate this isn’t always the case. As a budget traveler, luxury yachts and cruise-ships aren’t my haunt at all but cargo boats, slow ferries, feluccas etc certainly don’t burst any tight budgets. If you choose wisely and are in no rush, boats can be the cheapest mode of transport. You don’t (can’t) spend too much money while you’re onboard, the tickets often include accommodation and food, you can bring your own booze and snacks on board – all in all, a bargain mode of transport.

4) Exciting. Don’t even bother trying to tell me you didn’t dream about sailing boats as a kid, following in the footsteps Christopher Columbus or Vasco De Gama or chasing pirates in the high seas. This lets you (discreetly!) relive your childhood dreams in the most traditional long distance transport available. Land Ahoy!

5) Social. Possibly the best aspect to traveling by boat, certainly for a backpacker, is the social side. You’re stuck on this vessel for a long-time with a finite group of people to converse with, before too long you’ll be swapping stories like old friends.

taking a cargo boat down the Mekong river

So there you have it, I’ve nailed my colours to the mast (genius!) and made it clear that boats are far and away my favourite form on transport. If you get the chance to jump onboard a ship any time soon, do it and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed. Happy travel =)