Globetrotters' Gathering Place
NOBODY KNOWS the worth of a good yarn, or a hot shower, the way a
shoestring traveler does.
The low-cost traveler is one of the planet's self-styled hobos, an
adventurous wayfarer who believes each of life's steps leads to a story.
In Washington, for example, there's Cassandra, who met the real
Crocodile Dundee while trekking the Australian outback.
There's the couple who rented an elephant to travel through Indonesia.
And there's Patrick, who just walked in the door.
"Patrick!" someone cries, and about 20 people seated around a large
table at Shiney's Kabab House in downtown Washington halt their chatter
to welcome home a Travelers Circle legend. Patrick, an enigmatic
vagabond known to the group by first name only, has just shown up --
unexpectedly, of course -- carrying a flute from the Andes and wearing a
small backpack, a burnished tan and the alluring glow of road dust.
The German-born Patrick, a Washington resident until he took off for
South America 11 months ago, explained that he had just completed his
journey to D.C. from Sao Paulo, Brazil -- mostly by bus.
"Did you get robbed?" someone asks.
"Only once," Patrick answers with a good-hearted laugh.
"I still can't believe I'm here," he says. "Two days ago I was surfing
the sand dunes in Peru."
And thereby hangs a tale. Within a few sentences, Patrick has managed to
transport his listeners back to those sand dunes with him. Earlier in
the evening, this group of dinner-table vagabonds ventured to the
snowcaps of Colorado, an Asian beach in Goa and a Rwandan village cafe
-- all by way of good old-fashioned storytelling.
Washington is full of well-traveled adventurers, but it's rare to find
so many all in one place. That's the purpose of the Travelers Circle (or
TC), a weekly gathering of people from around the world who share
stories, tips and dreams about global travel. Over the course of four
hours each Wednesday night, two dozen Washingtonians -- sometimes
more, sometimes less -- drop by to spin a tale or simply listen.
Their stories of the open road stretch across continents and wend their
way over distant plains.
Forget the first-class ticket, matching luggage or reservations at the
Ritz. These travelers are far more likely to load a spare set of clothes
in a backpack, fly stand-by and seek out a cheap bed at a hostel or
sleep beneath the stars. Many TC types have been known to buy a one-way
fare to the other side of the world and, with the help of odd jobs, work
their way back home over the course of several months. On the way they
earn a wealth of experiences and outrageous tales.
"The Travelers Circle helps people share the bond of traveling," says
Cassandra Jesse, who has traveled throughout Asia, Australia and Central
America, and is plotting her next journey to Africa via Antarctica. On a
large world map hung under the fluorescent lights of the Kabab House,
she drags a finger across the southern Atlantic Ocean to illustrate her
intended route. Others gather around the map to study, envy, dream.
It's hard for people who haven't lived on the road for a few dollars a
day to understand the "freedom" of shoestring travel, Jesse explains.
"People will say, 'That's so cool that you've traveled,' but they can't
really relate," she says. "They don't understand that it's not a
vacation, it's a way of life."
And it's the stuff of great stories. Not everyone at the Travelers
Circle has the compelling delivery of a Garrison Keillor, but the
firsthand accounts enthrall nonetheless. Pat Bahn, another TC regular,
composes oral histories so colorful he gives them titles, such as "Armed
Begging on the Great Silk Road." "I found the sidewalks run out when you
leave North America . . . " began last week's narrative about Goa, a
tiny country carved into the western belly of India, where he lived on
coconut pancakes and camped on the beach.
"Once something gets started, it's almost like jamming," says Mark
Laxer, founder of the Travelers Circle. "Someone will tell a border story, and
then someone else will say, 'That reminds me of the time I was at the
Mexican border.... ' "
Laxer, who writes software for the government and nonfiction narratives
on the side, got the idea for a storytelling group from his own travels,
including a cross-country bicycle tour with Nunatak, his Siberian husky
puppy, in a trailer hitched to the back. Often he'd meet other
enlightened nomads on the road; they'd swap travel stories for an
evening, then go their separate ways. After moving to Washington, he
found himself "whining" about the lack of kindred spirits -- then
decided to go out and find them, he says.
Two and a half years later, Laxer has 224 people from around the world
on his TC e-mail newsletter list. At the Wednesday night gatherings, as
visitors drift in and out the door, or head to the Kabab House counter
to order a heaping plate of fish curry or chickpeas and eggplant, Laxer
tries to very gently create an environment where people pour out their
guts to total strangers.
At moments, things click. "All of a sudden, in downtown Washington, D.C.
--which can be a very formal and uptight city -- you're traveling
through the Alta Plana de Bolivia, or the back streets of London," Laxer
says. By the way, he adds, "We try to keep it to nonfiction, but we have
no fact-checking department."
TC has created something of a travelers' network: Laxer recruits
visitors from the International Youth Hostel across the street and
offers former Peace Corps volunteers a one-dollar scholarship toward a
cold beer if they attend the Travelers Circle and share a story.
Trekkers send back tales on e-mail from cyber-cafes around the world. A
pair of TC regulars even once bumped into one another at the
international airport in Bangkok.
But the Travelers Circle also attracts its share of armchair travelers.
Richard Lore, a TC regular, is bound to Washington by a full-time job,
but comes to feed his travel fever anyway.
"Sometimes [after an evening at the Travelers Circle] I don't even want
to go home," he says.
"I feel like driving right to Dulles and buying a ticket for the next
plane out."
THE TRAVELERS CIRCLE meets every Wednesday night from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.
at Shiney's Kabab House, 1108 K St. NW, three blocks north of Metro
Center. There is no charge and visitors may come and go as they please.
Web site: www.killyourtv.com/travelcircle.
The Washington International Hostel, 1009 11th St. NW, 202/737-2333.
Located a block from the Kabab House, also offers travel information and
programs for low-budget adventurers. Web site: www.hiayh.org.
Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
By Gayle Worland
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, July 31, 1998; Page N11