Supported Volunteering

~ Why Choose Supported Volunteering?
by Bruce Haxton

Travelling and volunteering abroad can be a life changing and amazing experience. Volunteering is a brilliant way to broaden your travel experiences and your perspective on the world; you may even come back an entirely different person! A change of place, pace and people can be wonderfully exciting, but it can all seem a little daunting!

A Helping Hand
If you want to go out and explore the world and make a difference too, it can be a little harder than you first thought to leave everything you're used to behind. It can also be tricky arranging all of the details of your own volunteering experience but there is a travel solution waiting in the wings…Projects! Choosing a supported volunteering project will give you a mixture of the best of most volunteering programs. You'll have unique opportunities to be part of schemes that directly benefit the community, plus there'll be tons of support available before you go and the whole time you're there, as well as insights from in country staff. On top of all that, you'll also get flexible time frames; a chance to really become part of a county's culture in a way you simply couldn't on a normal travelling trip.

These types of trip offer plenty of independence too; help and advice are usually available but not mandatory! You can be as independent as you like but will have the incredibly useful resource of in country co-ordinators to help you get to grips with your new surroundings, and to make sure you get everything you possibly can out of your experience!

Cultural Immersion
This kind of travel will give you not only the chance to see the world on your own time scale and back up if you need it, it will also enable you to make a real difference. It's a good idea to check out the credentials of the company you choose to volunteer with first. The most important thing is to make sure the projects they work with are set up by the community for the community. That way not only do you know you're making a positive contribution while you're there, you also know that the work will continue once you've left.

Another cultural bonus is that projects set up by the community will give you a chance to work directly with the locals, so you can see just how much you're helping and get a unique insight into their culture. You can also get a real understanding of the individual needs of the community; from why wildlife conservation is so important in New Zealand to why teaching is so important in India. Living with locals, working for locals and socialising with locals will definitely make you feel like part of the community!

What sorts of projects are there? There are literally hundreds of volunteering choices out there so it seems almost impossible to find the right one! Volunteering itself will always prove a brilliant and fulfilling experience but it's always best to choose something you're passionate to make it feel even more worthwhile! So what inspires you? Is it working with people, nature or wildlife; or all three?! Generally projects fall into four categories;

• Community work

• Nature conservation

• Teaching

• Wildlife Conservation

Each offers a valuable, unique and worthwhile experience; so it's up to you whether you want to work with elephants in Sri Lanka or get involved in community work in Mombasa. Projects will help you step into another life and culture as well as giving you the opportunity to give something back!

Take a look at this volunteering company for a few ideas; http://www.i-to-i.com/

About the Author, Bruce Haxton
I'm totally passionate about travel, it's been my life and work for a good few years! My travel adventures haven't really been about seeing monuments etc but far more about people and getting off the beaten track. I would like to share my many experiences and offer a little advice if I can to fellow travellers or anyone who is just about to set off on a life changing trip!

Article Source: Go Articles...

Cruise Ship Vacations: Do Your Research First

~ Anita Dunham-Potter, the travel columnist for Tripso, posted a story recently called, Noisy Carnival Ship Ruins Family Cruise which recounts a cruise ship voyage that did not live up to the expectations of the family taking it.

The Moscoes boarded the Carnival Valor for a cruise to the Caribbean. Having saved for years, the family chose Carnival because of its reputation for family-friendly cruising.

Now if you’ve read my previous post about taking a slow boat to China (or elsewhere) you can imagine that cruising on the Carnival Valor is about as far removed from the experience of freighter travel as you could possibly get. After all, the Valor has 1,487 staterooms for the high paying clientele on board. In fact the Carnival Valor has a passenger capacity of 2,974, so it’s probably no surprise the Moscoes had problems with the noise level on the ship.

The basis of their complaint is that at approximately 9 p.m. each night, the ship’s entertainers would perform their musical acts in the atrium. Unfortunately for the Moscoes, their stateroom happened to be in close proximity to the ship’s 12-story open atrium.

After numerous complaints both onboard the ship, and after they had returned home, the Moscoes were compensated a total of $900 in onboard credit (while still aboard), and an additional $500 was given to them to be redeemed on a future cruise.

The lesson here is to do thorough research before you book your cruise. A visit to the Carnival website provides pretty much everything you need to know about their ships before you book with the cruise line.

For example, you can see the Carnival Valor’s deck plans here. While you may not be expert enough to know exactly how these plans translate into the real thing, that is, into a massive steel plated ship of 110,000 tons, with 13 decks and a crew of 1,180, you should be able to get an sense of the layout of the ship, and an idea of just where the potentially noisiest rooms are located.

As Anita writes in her article, “…there is no such thing as a quiet cruise ship. They vibrate, drop anchor, have crew noise, thumping music, but more often than not the worst noise offenders are fellow passengers oblivious to keeping quiet in the vicinity of staterooms.”

If in doubt – ask. Ask your booking agent exactly were the high traffic areas are. Especially areas like atriums, onboard music venues and nightclubs, pool decks, games rooms, service centres and more.

Read Anita’s full article here...

Read more about the Carnival Valor here…

IMAGE: Courtesy of Carnival website…

Take a Slow Boat To…

~ Ever heard the expression, Taking a slow boat to China?

Well, guess what? You can still catch a slow boat to China. Or to New York, London, Piraeus (Greece), and even Sydney, or to any number of other working ports around the world. And I’m not talking about using luxury cruise ships either. I’m talking about utilising the sea lanes of the world to reach your destination by travelling on a merchant ship.

Yes, Ripley, believe it or not, many merchant ships have paying passengers aboard who prefer taking that form of travel rather than fly, drive, or by ocean liner.

However, sailing on a merchant ship is not for everyone. Here are some issues to consider before you elect to travel via this method:

• All freighter companies have age restrictions which exclude children under 5 years of age, and most set a maximum age limit of 75-80 years.
• Few merchant ships have lifts, which means passengers must be fit and healthy enough to negotiate many flights of stairs each day.
• Merchant ships are working ships – not holidays at sea. Apart from television and movies, they may also include a small swimming pool; an exercise room with not much more than table tennis, stationary bike, and a few weights; a small library of well read books; and that’s about it.
• This form of travel is much cheaper than sailing with a cruise line, but more expensive than flying.
• Your time in a foreign port is severely restricted – sometimes as little as eight to twelve hours.
• Most merchant ships carry as few as six paying passengers and generally no more than twelve. This makes for a very small and potentially intimate group of fellow passengers.
• If you prefer the anonymity of large crowds (or the crowded decks of an 800 passenger cruise ship), freighter travel may not be for you.
• If you find it hard to relax on an quiet deck in a comfortable chair with a good book, freighter travel may not be for you.
• If you have difficulty keeping yourself amused, and active, freighter travel may not be for you.

The Benefits of Freighter Travel
Given these (and other) restrictions, why would anyone choose to travel on a working cargo ship? I’m glad you asked. Let’s look at the benefits of freighter travel.

• The informality. Passengers are not required to dress up for meals. Men can leave their ties, and ladies their cocktail dresses at home.
• Freighters do not offer any pre-planned activities like cruise ships do, and mealtimes are the only daily structure. This means…
• You have time to relax on an uncrowded deck in a comfortable deck chair with a good book.
• You can sit in quiet contemplation and watch the ocean roll by for as long as you wish.
• Freighter passengers enjoy extended contact with officers and crew.
• Most freighters are liberal with bridge visitation, and unrestricted bridge visits are not uncommon.
• With ships carrying only 2 to 12 passengers, lasting friendships are often formed between passengers and officers.

Types of Freighters
There are several types of merchant ships you might consider travelling with.

Container Ships: The most popular method of transporting goods by sea is the container ship. Container ships can be loaded and unloaded very quickly. One of the disadvantages of this, as far as passengers are concerned, is that the fast loading and unloading of containers means that time ashore is usually quite limited. The ship would rarely spend more than 24 hours in port - often less in a very efficient container terminal.

General Cargo Ships: These are ships that transport cargo that will not fit into containers, such as large machinery, sheets of metal, timber, agricultural exports etc. The slower loading and unloading of general cargo - also known as break bulk - means that general cargo ships usually spend much longer in port than container ships - making them an excellent choice for passengers who wish to spend as much time ashore as possible.

Bulk Carriers: These ships transport 'loose' cargo, such as coal, mineral ores, phosphates and grain in holds below deck. Again, like general cargo ships, bulk carriers tend to spend longer times in port loading and unloading.

Other types of merchant shipping includes 'Roll on - Roll off' ships; Mail and Supply ships; and other smaller craft.

Some helpful websites to get you started:
For answers to almost everything you need to know visit:
The excellent FAQ at Freighter Trips…
...and read about the origins of the phrase Slow Boat to China…