How to find volunteering job in Asia for free?
As I’ve mentioned before, volunteering is a great thing! It let’s you see the true image of a country, instead of seeing a show prepared for millions of tourist visiting the place. Although I’m not a fan of big cities, I’ve decided to volunteer in Bangkok. I was going to take care of seven cats, while their owner would work abroad.
Volunteering in Bangkok
After my trip to the north of Thailand, the time has come to travel south and take care of seven cats in Bangkok. About one hour after my train arrived to Bangkok, I’ve reached the gates of cat’s kingdom. The gates were opened by smiling J.P. – my host. We ate breakfast together, talked a little bit and he showed me around. As it turned out, there was not much work to do – only around 1-2 hours per day. And in return I was allowed to live for free in his apartment in Bangkok and enjoy everyday swim in the pool next to our apartment – dream life!
I lived for two months with seven awesome cats. Six of them were Siameese, one of them was street cat saved by J.P. almost from the street. Laski, when he was a kitten was a cat of a young girl, but when he grew up and stopped bein „super cute”, she lost her interest in him. He was starved, she didn’t take care of him at all. Once upon a time, he was „kidnapped” by J.P. and now he’s having a great life with his six Siameese step sibilings. Laski quite fast became my favorite. Among other cats Bombur was funny, Princess was lovely and Ping-Pong rebelious.
How to find volunteering during travel?
There are two basic ways of finding volunteering job. First was is the traditional way. When you travel, you just have to ask people that you meet, if they know any place, where you could volunteer in exchange for a place to sleep and free food. For example, if you would like to volunteer on a paradise island, when you get there, simply walk around and ask in local hostels, bars, shops and restaurants, if they need a volunteer. With a little bit of luck, you will find a volunteering job within a few days.
Second way of finding volunteer job is finding volunteers online. Two websites are extremely helpful with that – helpx and workaway. You can find a lot of volunteer jobs offers from all around the world on those websites. There are many volunteer job available. For example you could volunteer as an English teacher in a small Asian village, take care of seven cats in Bangkok, help in a hostel, be a bartender, help building eco-village, work on a farm of corn and many other options.
You can check volunteer offers on those websites for free, however if you would like to get contact info and apply to become a volunteer, you need to register. To register volunteer account you need to pay around 20$ – it allows you to access the website for 2 years, so the real cost of finding a volunteer job is less than 1$ a month! I’d say it’s totally worth it.