Perhaps it's time to tell you how it happened that I live in Laos practically for free.

In Russia, volunteering is considered some kind of common cause that benefits society, done by people out of enthusiasm and a desire to help others. In traveling, volunteering has a slightly different meaning.

Volunteering is an opportunity to travel very cheaply for adventure lovers. In other words, you can find a job that will take 3-5 hours of your time daily, in return you will get the opportunity not to pay for rent and food. There are two popular services that I know of that help bring together travelers and hosts (owners of volunteer projects).

1. workaway.info
2. worldpackers.com

Both are paid, costing about $50 per year.

Actually, I've wanted to try to participate in some volunteer project for a long time and in Laos I had such an opportunity. Two months ago, when I was in Laos for the first time, I looked through Workaway, found a project that suited me and wrote to the host. There were no vacancies then. Returning here for the holidays, I decided to try to write to the owner of the project again. That's how I found volunteer work as a photographer.

My task is to take photos for a website that is currently under development and for social networks of several types of businesses. As you understand, this is exactly what 100% suits my skills and my interests. In return, I get a room in a good hotel for two with a neighbor (another volunteer), breakfast and lunch).

The work itself most of all reminds me of my stay in a summer camp for children. It's about the same as there, I just walk around and take pictures.

After I crossed Asia, it wasn't so interesting to just travel to different places and see the sights. Besides, there aren't many interesting places for me in Southeast Asia that I haven't been to yet. That's why I hitchhiked from Vietnam to Laos and that's why I'm participating in a volunteer project - it's a new experience for me.

There's another plus - I'm the only Russian-speaking volunteer. The other guys are from England, Ireland, Romania, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Myanmar. As you can imagine, I speak the worst English in this company)) And I hope that by communicating with more advanced people in this area, my level of English will improve too. Although, of course, it can be difficult in a large company to listen and understand the meaning of a conversation. In such a conversation, I simply do not have time to ask again or slow someone down, as I do if we communicate with someone one-on-one.

Lifehack! Initially, I doubted that I would like volunteering, so I did not pay for a subscription to volunteer services and therefore I did this: I looked through the workaway, looked for a project that suited me, and then found the contacts of the owner of this host on Google and wrote to him directly with an offer to participate in the project. If this experience suits my taste, then in the future, of course, I will subscribe. We'll see)

Below I will attach the photos that I take for the project. Enjoy watching!

Location: Laos, Vang Vieng