Q&A Part 1: Travel journalist Vicky Baker

As promised, here is Part 1 of my e-mail interview with Vicky Baker, a Buenos Aires-based freelancer who blogs at Going local travel (a blog inspired by the “Going Local” series she wrote for The Guardian). Note that Vicky answered these questions way back in October 2009; the delay in posting them is all mine, and I’m very grateful that she took the time to respond in such detail!

Vicky and I “met” via Twitter. I was immediately intrigued by the fact that she lived in Buenos Aires, a city I fell in love with at first sight when I visited in 2006. I’ve often dreamed of going back; it’s fun to live vicariously through a British ex-pat who has put down roots there.

How long have you been writing about travel?

Six years.

Have you always been a journalist? (Well, not as a child, of course!) Or did you come to the job via another career?

I've always been a journalist, although I took various random jobs while I was studying and in university holidays, including working as a cast member at Disneyland Paris, running a karaoke studio in Ohio and trying to sell people paper rolls for cash registers in a hideous telesales job in Canada. I really got into the idea of journalism when I worked for my university newspaper. After that, I knew it was something I wanted to pursue.

What gave you the idea for the "Going Local" series for The Guardian that inspired your blog?

I'd been backpacking on and off for almost ten years and I was feeling disillusioned. Backpacking had created such a developed infrastructure that you could spend months in a country enveloped in a cocoon and spending all your time hanging out with other travellers. Or you can fall into the expat trap. For example, I spent months living in Sydney before I realised I only had one Australian friend there. I decided on my next trip I wanted to make more of a connection with the places I visited and the people that lived there, rather than just ticking off sites. I was also really fascinated by how the Internet was, and is,

helping travellers do this. Backpacking needed a shake up and travel networking provided it.

Had you tried Couchsurfing.org and other "meet the locals" sites before starting the series?

Yes, I had limited experience. I tried a few sites to meet locals on trips to Berlin and Taiwan. The meetings really enhanced my trip. I always felt I was a little late to jump on the Couchsurfing wagon, but it's amazing how many people are still hearing about it for the first time, every single day.

I can see lots of advantages to travelling this way. But what are the drawbacks?

I don't see many drawbacks other than that you can become a little too reliant on the Internet. You need to be open to encounters the old-fashioned way too. It's amazing the affect of simply telling people that you are into learning more about their culture: many people are delighted to hear this and bend over backwards to help.

Did you have trouble selling editors, readers and/or nervous family members on the idea of planning a whole trip around meeting strangers? If so, what were their reservations?

A lot of other people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to the word 'stranger' where they automatically expect the worst. Those that read more about hospitality tourism--or give it a try--realise it's not nearly so intimidating in reality. People do worry about the danger element (and they're right to be careful), yet they don't bat an eyelid when a backpacker goes out for a drink with someone they just met at a hostel. In fact, with extensive profiles and references, you often know more in advance about 'the strangers' you meet online than those you meet randomly when travelling.

Couchsurfing, Malta-style

The couchsurfing craze continues to spread, as this recent article from the Times of Malta shows: Want to become a couch-surfer?

The Maltese traveller profiled in the piece fits the usual couchsurfing stereotype--20-something, single and footloose--but he claims even families are jumping on the bandwagon.

Couch surfing, cruising and safety

Couch surfing is getting a lot of attention these days--even here on this blog. The latest entry is a short report about the phenomenon by the CBS affiliate in Dallas.

KOLN-TV in Lincoln, Nebraska, also posted a news report on couch surfing, which included an interview with local police chief Tom Casady. Casady pointed out that couch surfers should take precautions while couch surfing--checking references, for instance. He noted that he did a quick check on some locals offering up their couches and uncovered a sex offender. Casady later went into more detail about the safety aspects of couch surfing in a post on his blog. (Wow, police chiefs have blogs. Who knew?)

Casady provided thoughtful, excellent safety tips that any couch surfer should follow. For instance, he suggested doing a free background check on your host with the local police department, bringing your own sleeping bag (who knows what's living in that couch?) and never travelling alone.

Interestingly for a police chief who is well aware of the dangers of meeting strangers online, he also had this to say:

No need to be paranoid, though. You can't live in a cocoon, and somehow the concept of people hosting travellers in their home is appealing to a guy who was on his own at an early age, and depended on the kindness of others to make his way for several years.

Contrast that with the comments about couch surfing back on the KOLN-TV site. One anonymous poster wrote:

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of!!! Seriously??? These people are just asking for trouble! YIKES!! Rent a motel room - your safety is worth it!!!!!!!!

I found this aspect of the discussion fascinating. Yes, there are undoubtedly risks in couch surfing. And yes, they're a bit different than those that arise if you stay in a hotel. But as the police chief noted, risks can be managed, although never totally eliminated. And trouble can happen anywhere--my husband and I once had $300 stolen from our room in a posh hotel. (We foolishly didn't put the money in the safe.) 

The viewer's reaction--that couch surfing was a stupid idea because it's ripe for abuse by crazies--reminds me of a cruise my husband and I took years ago. One night, when the ship was in port in Puerto Rico until 11pm, we took advantage of the chance to have dinner on shore. We stumbled on a fabulous, well-priced restaurant and had one of the best meals of our lives.

When we reconnected with our assigned table mates at dinner onboard the next night, they were all appalled. How had we known what restaurant to go to? How did we know it was safe? Weren't we afraid to drink the water? Why didn't we just come back to the ship?

The conversation depressed me beyond measure. Everyone should take logical precautions when travelling. We didn't do anything remotely rash: there were two of us, we stayed in a tourist district with lots of people on the streets, we were back on the ship by 10pm. 

But cruise ships--and ours was no exception--are notorious for stoking a culture of fear among passengers. From the moment you step aboard, you're told everything on shore is expensive, dangerous and dirty--unless, of course, you take the cruise ship's organized shore excursions (on which they make much of their profit) and shop at the cruise ship's approved stores (from which they usually receive a healthy kickback). 

As a result, passengers truly believe that the ports they're visiting are scary places. And I hear something of that in the the viewer's response to the Nebraska story. 

People should travel safely, by all means. They should listen to their gut in any situation. If couch surfing is a bit too "out there" for someone, that's totally OK and understandable. But I hope most travellers aren't afraid to reach out and meet people outside that "safe" motel room--even if that reaching out is as simple as striking up a conversation on a bus or in a coffee shop, or eating in a restaurant outside the hotel. Otherwise, why leave home?

Crash on a couch

Looking for a way to meet folks abroad? One option for adventurous types: couch surfing. It is, as the Christian Science Monitor put it recently, "the universe of social networking itself, simply pushed into the real world."

In a nutshell, travellers hit the CouchSurfing website and make connections with people willing to offer people a free place to stay for a night or two, along with a glimpse into local culture. It's not a technique for the faint of heart, as there's no way to guarantee that your host--or your guest--isn't someone you'd rather not share a roof with (the CSM article includes several horror stories). But the CouchSurfing Project claims that complaints are few, perhaps because many (though certainly not all) members are 20-somethings with an easygoing outlook on life.

For safety tips for travellers using services like CouchSurfing, see my article on hospitality clubs on my travelling-like-a-local website, LaVidaLocal.com.