Backpackers in the backyard (Vila) – Stories from the New Hebrides

By Gordon Barlow.

(An extract from an essay about backpacking posted 3 June 2011.)

As soon as we got back from Kuta to our home on an island near Fiji, Linda & I turned our backyard maids’ quarters into a simple, informal (and slightly illegal) hostel. We charged a buck a night (about $10 in today’s money) for a bed, toilet, coldwater shower & basin, and no cooking facilities. The word spread gradually on the travellers’ grapevine. Hey, it was worth flying into Vila after all; there was a place that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Before, Vila was not on the backpackers’ list of places to go.

Embarrassingly, the situation was getting out of hand by the time we left. One night we had two in the tiny room, six in tents, and three in our house. That’s when we got rumbled for doing business without a licence. I fought the case, before it got to court. “Come on! A buck a night is a hobby, not a business!” Oh well, okayyy. So ruled. Case dismissed!