I went and picked up my business cards (I call them travel cards) today from the JJ Mall in Bangkok. I have to say I couldn’t be more happy with them! Maybe I’m going over board with this blogging thing but I know from personal experience that when you travel you will meet a ton of new people. Always the same 5 questions are asked:
- What’s your name?
- Where you from?
- Where you been?
- Where you going?
- What did you like best/worse so far?
If after your 10min conversation with a new traveler, if you can still stand each other, you normally make some kind of travel plans or something. It is really what traveling is all about….meeting new people and seeing new things. My last little road trip was great in part because of the hostel I stayed in while in Cambodia. Everyday there were a few people who would leave and a few people who would show up and you never drank with the exact same crew two nights in a row.
That being said you start to rack up a long list of emails, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter ID’s in no time. Trying to remember which receipt you wrote that guy’s email from Ireland on can become hard. I know I’m guilty of it a ton of times and not because I didn’t care but because I’m human and forget things.
My idea for a business size card would be to hand to new friends I meet along the way. Something that they look at and think “Wow that’s different!” or “Cool card man!” Then the burden is off of me and I can say “Check out my website and email me or leave a comment on a picture and I’ll get back with you from it so we can stay in touch.”
Making contacts while traveling is important. As big as the world is, it’s amazing how many people you will run into when backpacking. Might be that German couple you drank with in Hong Kong, that you see 4 weeks later in a market in Phuket, Thailand. Maybe a French girl you shared a taxi with in Rome that you see at your hostel in London. Even better if you know your traveling in the same direction it’s always great to make plans with new found friends to meet back up at a common location somewhere else. With email, websites and blogs, today it’s more then ever easier to meet new people from different countries, make new friends and stay in touch…you just have to remember where you put that damn email though!
I got these in Thailand but there a ton of places along the way that make a business card for you for little or nothing. These were my first so I kind of went all out on them and wanted something that looked and felt cool. I bought 500 cards for 3,250 baht ($95 USD). That comes to about $0.18 per card and think thats worth it for a new friend found, while traveling, but at those prices I won’t be handing them out at bus stops just for the heck of it. You can get cards made as cheap as $0.02 a piece that have the same info on it. I also bought a small stamp with my logo on it to punch into peoples Lonely Planet books along the way (almost everyone has something anymore while traveling). Stamp was 250 baht ($7 USD) and cheap again as it will last a few years before needing ink again.
The shop I bought these from at the JJ Mall was called “Lovely.” They are located on the 2nd floor Room S185/ cell 08-7909-3812/ Tel-Fax 02-265-9901/ email lovely_s185@hotmail.com. Both ladies there were very helpful and gave me exactly what I wanted.
Forget Obligation Go Global…it’s my odyssey
T-roy
by T-roy
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