One of the best decisions you can ever make if you’re a traveler is that of spending some of your travel days at a hostel, or a backpackers’ as it is referred to in some countries. If you want to check out some online gambling platforms, then just click the previous link. Sure, it’s probably the cheapest type of accommodation you can ever get, but by no means does it mean it’s the worst. There are some great hostels all around the world with beds that are comfortable enough and which offer access to all the amenities you need.

The cost-saving factor is not the best of what staying in a hostel has to offer though. The best of what staying in a hostel has to offer are some of the lessons you can learn from fellow travelers you get to meet and interact with. In this specific instance I learned some valuable lessons from a professional online gambler I met in Thailand, whose next destination was Macau.

Things are never what they seem

I’ll be honest – having checked out his mannerisms and caught a little bit of some of the words he mumbled now and then, I thought this guy was crazy! Well he is crazy, but not in the way that I thought – he’s not mentally ill.

Communication breaks down barriers

This brings into focus another lesson learned, which is that communication breaks down barriers. When we eventually sat down together around at the breakfast table I would learn that his craziness is really just a different view of what the status quo requires. I mean it appears crazy for someone to make a living as a gambler, doesn’t it, but really it’s just a matter of the application of statistical principles?

Embarrassment is a pointless emotion

On one particular day we all went out to a 7-11 to buy some food and our pro gambler friend got his meal for free, having presented a pocketful of coupons he’d collected from his own purchases and from the purchases made by other people who had no intention of using those coupons. I would have probably been embarrassed to have to use them, but the fact that I would have been less embarrassed (or not even embarrassed at all) to use a BetAmerica promo code on an online casino site kind of brought into view just how pointless of an emotion embarrassment is.

There are many different ways to kill a cat

Excuse the use of a cliché, but it’s true – there are usually several different ways of achieving a certain goal you might have. This particular lesson was delivered through our pro gambler friend’s use of physical maps in conjunction to asking around where a certain place he needs to get to is. “That way I get to interact with people, get the information I need (and more) as well as get to where I need to get to without spending money on mobile internet,” he said once as an explanation for having given his iPhone away.

I’ll stick to using my very handy Smartphone for pretty much everything to do with everything, including the organizational aspect of my travels though, but that just goes to show that there are indeed many different ways to kill a cat.