Questions & Answers

Copyright: Angela Davies / Cheerful-Pictures.com - Click here for the website

Hey Ramon, Is this legal?

Why shouldn't it be? It's the same as asking family to come over. The only difference is that I am not your family. You just invite me.

What's the real motivation behind the launch of this idea on the web?

To be invited as a guest in the American Jay Leno's Tonight Show, haha.

No Ramon, honestly, how did you come up with this clever idea?

I just wanted to travel but always knew that everything in life is about money. No money = no travels. And while I was studying journalism in The Netherlands, I came up with the idea to just 'ask people for help' and I'll do something in return for that: writing. Just common sense... The idea only blew up a bit...

So you just want to travel around for free or do you also have some other goal?

How much life-experience can a man absorb by traveling around the world? And by meeting all kinds of people? Everybody has something to say, not only me, and others can eventually do that on this website.

I believe that mostly people in First World Countries will submit a place to stay, but I also need to go and see places where the Internet is one of the last things people worry about. Writing about life in those countries can be an eye-opener for the rest of the world. 

backpack

What do you carry with you, Ramon?

I have a wheeled duffle back (funded by a donation from fan from the USA) full of clothing (sponsored by ODLO, a German clothing company), with me. Together with a digital camera and a telephone (all sponsored by IP Tower), and a laptop (funded by donations through the Internet).

How do you update this website while traveling?

I basically depend on the internet connection the people have that invite me over to stay for a day at their place. Most of the times I can hook up my laptop to any high-speed cable or people let me use their dial-up account. If there is no Internet connection possible, I won't be able to update this website. And that's a bummer, isn't it?

Do you accept sponsoring?

Hey! How else do you think I make these overseas jumps? I've even made a whole page on that subject! Click here.

Is this your first website?

No. Like all other surfers I started a little contentless homepage with all the personal crap and favorite links. Later I got a bit better. I have created some corporate sites and do some commercial stuff. 

Any T-shirts available yet?

Yes, of course. Including mugs, boxer shorts, caps, top tanks, etcetera! You can find them in the LetMeStayForADay-shop.

You can stay at my place. Do you have MasterCard or Visa?

None of the above. What should a student do with a credit card? My bank in The Netherlands would laugh at me! At every place where I lay my head I am personally invited through this website. I chat with the housekeeper, join somebody for dinner and have a good night sleep. 
In exchange for that support I write about that entire day on this website.  But that doesn't mean that HOTELS, corporate businesses or tourist places cannot submit their places to stay. It will be free advertising for them! Oops, should I have mentioned that here? 

How will you stay safe?

There is absolutely no way in knowing things about the people who invite me. Of course I have a back-up team at home in The Netherlands, who keep track of me and my whereabouts and I will have daily contact with them by phone. So, if something [?] happens to me -and they feel they've lost contact- they could publish the place I'm visiting that day on this same website and ask people to come over and get me out of there. 
But basically I don't live with any fear. Most people are just nice people, we just don't meet or see them all. Like many people don't even know their own neighbours. And if I was a scared man, I shouldn't be travelling, should I?

Are you looking for a companion?

That wasn't really the idea. A companion makes it easier to 'survive' this adventure because of the on-going support you give to each other in bad times. Without one I only depend on the internet and the people I meet. What would be more exiting to read on the Internet, it think, how I survive on my own or how it's all an easy job with a travel partner. And then again: how many people have a place for two people at their home?

Will you write a book on your travels?

Yep! The complete experience is so overwhelming amazing that I can't explain myself in my daily reports, they are just to global. The book that I will write afterwards, will go deeper than the reports. That's what I promise. Agents and publishers are welcome to contact me, hehe.

If I let you stay with me, can I stay with you when I visit Holland?

It's a good idea, but I don't know how long I'll be traveling though. But whenever I get back to Holland (will I ever?), everybody who ever offered me a place to stay, is of course welcome at my house! Deal!

Have you traveled before on your own?

I was born in The Netherlands and a month after my birth my family moved to Indonesia, where I have lived until I was 5 years old. Since then I've lived in The Netherlands. I have been in Sri Lanka for four weeks, because of the work of my father and I've worked one summer vacation in 1997 on a very dull endless farm in the deserts of southeastern Oregon, USA - which wasn't something I'd recommend to others! Don't go there!

Did you expect your website to become such a media-hyped project?

I expected media, yes. But I was more thinking about a telephone call from the local city newspaper after two weeks about what the heck I think I am doing... and maybe I would depart and actually cross at least one border... 
I have never expected to be on the national Radio 1 after only one day and to be interviewed by Wired.com within a week. From that time on the snowball only got bigger and the ice is still not melting!

How long do you think you will be traveling?

If have absolutely no idea. I guess as long as I enjoy travelling. Within this Letmestayforaday.com-project it should be seen as a lifestyle. Or as a job. If I don't like it anymore, I should choose te do something else.

When can we expect you in certain parts on this world?

I do not have any travel itinerary, so I can go anywhere if possible. But I am in one country, just don't expect me in another one that easily the next day...

Are you bothered by all your hosts who will ask you the same questions everyday?

Honestly? Sometimes. People I stay with have invited me once through this website, so they could have read about me and this project on many pages of this wite... But I can't expect them to know me all the way. The reporting and answering questions is just the price I will have to pay for it.

zwolle

What are the most frequent questions by your hosts?

Here they are, and I have even answered them!

- From which part from The Netherlands are you?
This question is mostly asked by people who live in a BIG country themselves. There it is very usual to ask from what part you are from. I then have to explain how really small The Netherlands, or Holland, is. We don't really talk about parts. My country has 12 provinces and I live in Overijssel (which means 'on the other side of the IJssel river'). And the capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle. If you drive one hour east from Amsterdam, you'll get there. So yes, it might be called the east part of the country.

- Where have you been traveling so far?
The Letmestayforaday-project has (so far) taken me from The Netherlands/Holland, to Belgium, France, England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia and Canada.

- Do you have contact with your family and friends at home?
Yes, mostly by email and sms text messages, but if necessary I can call them anytime if I have cell/mobile phone reception.

- What was you best experience until now?
I really just can not answer this question. Just look at the number of daily reports I have written so far. I have spent so many days with so many people in so many countries, with so many differences in atmosphere, customs, weather, and etcetera... Get in my footsteps and try to answer that question yourself.
Everyday should be seen as an experience and you can read about them in the daily reports that I write for your pleasure and information.

- Ever had any bad experiences?
Nope. People aren't that bad. People who think there are enough bad people should just turn off their TV. Only a few times I couldn't get myself a place-to-stay: I once slept at the Birmingham Airport in England, slept in the back of a car at a caravan park in the Australian Kimberley, had to knock on a few doors in Western Australia... But to call that bad...

- Are you not scared as you don't know the people you'll stay with?
Scared? Yeah sure, of what? And don't give me examples of scary things that you have read about in the newspapers or seen on television, because they get magnified by 3000%. People are in fact very nice!
And I am a stranger (oooh!) for people who visit this website for the first time, but I give them a chance to get to know me a bit better (like through all these Q&A's). They can invite me over for a stayforaday at their place. Or not. And when I meet up with my hosts we introduce ourselves. That's just how things go.

When do you do laundry?

I try to do my laundry once a week, then I am out of clean clothes. And of course I depend on hosts who can help me out with that. Until now that way has been proven successful. So whenever you smell me coming...

Is your question still not answered on this page? Send me an email and I'll think hard about it.