Opening a Hostel Hotel

Opening a Hostel Hotel
Natitingou Benin West Africa
Tuesday, September 26, 2006

QUOTE:
- The most precious things in speech are pauses. -
Attributed to Ralph Richardson (1902 - 1983)
British actor

I have been dwelling, musing, obsessing on the idea of opening a Hostel - Hotel since I started traveling. In fact, I left the USA to start a Hostel in Mexico, not to travel. The whole trip has been about finding a hotel, which is all I do, look for a hotel… It is my life, my home, and my country, when I am in the Hotel, in the room, living my life.

Ok, obsessions have focus on a good day; sometime there is method to the madness. I have two friends, they are travelers, different from me, but still they are out and about, I think addicted. It takes at least one year to get a good solid needle punched into a solid working vein, but after one year, the needle is planet. The opiate of travel is inserted, then the question comes… as Craig says,
- So, how will I live when I run out of money? Ah yes, the $10,000 question? -

However, this is not the problem, the problem is this, these are addicts, I am telling myself, I want to start a Hostel, but I am always the one that wants to leave. Reminds me of Yogi from Canada and his strip club full of prostitutes in Pie de La Cuesta, Mexico. They danced one time and someone gave them an offer, they left, and no dancers. Putting a bunch of travelers in to manage a Hostel is about the same, they travel, the leave, they get the wanderlust, the train whistle blows, a girl calls, and they are gone, on the road again…

ROBERT
- I am tempted but not really wanting to stop my travels just yet, but tempted indeed...

CRAIG
- I was thinking of hitting up South America first... -
- Because I know once I get over there, I'm just going to keep roaming around those continents.

ROBERT
- if the right venture comes up...on the other hand 4 months of rest sounds mighty tempting indeed...

ANDY - ON THE ROAD
On the path, on the trail, whatever the path, there is a need to energize, that little energizer Rabbit, starts to stop blinking, banging and running around. It wants to stop, and it will stop, but as Robert says, 4 months is tempting… I can see a 4 month, maybe 2 month stop in many places, however I am not sure, after two months in one place, I think the person is living. I am not sure, I must consult with many a traveler before me, what is the ruling, how many months can I live in a place before I stopped traveling? I guess, about 2 months, then time to scoot, or you are not a traveler, you are living in another country.

I WROTE ROBERT: (This started this whole post, the culmination of many small thoughts, the summing of ideas and feelings. )

ANDY WRITING ROBERT:
Robert, I do not want to stop travel, I am wanting to establish some bases around the planet, some secure zones where the hotel is secured up for long-term storage of extra junk, needed equipment, etc. A place that has all the toys, whistles and oasis in the middle of continents for a person that knows what they want. Internet, storage, rooms with proper toilets, a comfort zone, a kitchen to cook, sort of like Malaga, that hostel was nice, a family. The dorm was not nice

CRAIG
- So many bad hostels makes me want to do one properly. -

ANDY
Maybe this is my obsession, to just do one thing right in life. Or more correctly to travel to leave one thing right in life and always look around the corner of the building, down the street, to the next country, is there something more right there?

A pause, a wink, a nod of the head, a longer look than normal at the girl, she weave, wiggle, look just 90 degrees to her right, I need the pause, the time, the brief moment where, I got the look.

Like in the movie the beach, when for one moment, one second, the world was perfect. It was another day in paradise. And you think it can last forever, like the vacation, the perfect week, the perfect day, the sunset that drops into the water, and the breeze bringing in the night, and unexpected delights. Travel…

OASIS
I need the spot, the stopping, the caesura… The pause, before the eruption of music, the volcano overflows and the life tumbles out.

CAESURA DEFINED:
1. poetry pause in line of verse: a pause in a line of poetry, especially to allow its sense to be made clear or to follow the rhythms of natural speech, often near the middle of the line. Also called pause
Also called rest
Also called break

2. poetry break in line of verse: in classical poetry, especially Greek, a break between two words that are part of the same unit of rhythm (foot), usually near the middle of the line. Also called break

3. music musical interruption: a brief interruption in a musical phrase

4. pause: a pause or break in speech or conversation (formal)

- Mid-16th century. From Latin , “cut,” from caedere “to cut” (source of English concise). The underlying idea is of cutting the line in two.-

The Latin word caedere, meaning “to cut,” from which caesura is derived, is also the source of English chisel, concise, excise, incise, and scissors.

Travel is the caesura, the pause, the escape, the nod, the wink, the stumble of the pretty girl who looks back; give me one last look, before she leaves and never looks back. My one second, when the world was perfect.

I am looking for that one perfect moment, that one perfect place, that exist in every country, in every culture, in every city I enter. I want to pause, only for a brief second, in a hostel, guaranteed to have all my toys in the closet, waiting for me to open. Amazing how a kitchen in a hotel or hostel full of travelers, cooking their veggie, wanna be different meals can give me a rush. The United Nations of Travelers, all making the soup, none agree, however it is good.

I wish to start at least six hotels - hostels around the planet, with routes defined in and out, so I can escape to or way in a never-ending circle of the planet called earth.

Opening a Hostel Hotel

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I'm currently working on a hostel project in Thailand (Bangkok), and I just happen to be looking for a partner, an eco-capitalist to be exact; I feel it's time to instill some anarchy (Andy Kaufman meets Monty Python) into the monotonous (Not all) World of hostels!

If you open it in Pattaya , you just found a partner.

Actually, my name's Lawrence, not Anonymous. Anyway, just replying to Marsascala & Paceville's comment,today Bangkok,tomorrow Pattaya,next week…

I own a spot in Glacier, WA.(Mt Baker USA) Im looking to buy in Nicaragua. I want both locations to be converted into Hostels. I need some advice....Rules and regs?? I just starting to kick this idea around...its been haunting me since I traveled the world as a young girl. Thanks, Autumn

There is a site and forum for people who want to open hostels here:
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/

Hey Andy, a friend of mine is currently working on helping people open up hostels. She's looking for people like yourself who want to open up their own hostel but are unsure of everything that goes into the process of opening up a hostel. I'm currently helping her find people to talk to, kind of get a small community going to discuss everyone's needs, and was wondering if you wouldn't mind being a part of this mini-hostelling movement :-)

I travel a bit myself and have always wished that more hostelling options were available here in the states. I think you and her, and anyone else who wants to open a hostel, could do some amazing things if you got together and figured out a way to get this thing going. Feel free to shoot her an email: mollika_basu@yahoo.com ... her name is Mollika and she'd be more than happy to hear from you.

- Nate

Hello Nate, I will write this person, please also go this forum and take a look as they are on almost the same path.

http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forum/

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