Paying It Forward: Portland from a Locals Perspective
 

Greetings and Happy Holidays!

I am an avid traveller who has lived in Portland almost all of my life. I have met wonderful people during my travels, especially during my last trip, which was 5 weeks solo through Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.

I had a family in a remote village in NW Laos host me for 4 nights, I met a young student through www.hellohanoi.org who showed me around hanoi and hosted me at her house for lunch and I stayed with a couple of host families, one in Bangkok and one in Chiang Mai.

In keeping with the spirit and "paying it forward" I would like to propose an offer similar to one I found on the forum for Argentina.

If I have time, I would be happy to show you around the city for a couple of hours and help you get your bearings within the city.

Let me know what you are interested in and I will figure out what we can work in within a couple of hours time. I may be able to spend more time with you depending on my schedule.

What is the catch? Well, I am doing this because I enjoy traveling. If I end up in your city I would appreciate reciprocity in the same form; show me around YOUR city for a couple of hours!

Portland has numerous parks, ethnic restaurants, great microbreweries, quaint wine bars and many beautiful sites within an hour or two of downtown.

I travel a fair amount so I can't help you if I am out of town. Sorry.

If your are interested, leave me your email but replace the "." with "dot" and the "@" with and so spammers don't capture your email and fill your box with junk.

I am a frequent poster on this forum so if you want to check my validity, click on my name and you will learn a bit about me and my travel history.

I hope to see more postings of this sort in the future! Pay it forward!

Cheers!

Tamara

I was thinking of coming to Maine this summer. That's great.

What a sweet offer! I should probably do the same for Seattle, except I'm really not as savvy about the city as I should be. Maybe this will give me the incentive to learn more!

Yikes, Patrick! Thanks for pointing out that I need to clarify. I did post this under Oregon but many won't search that way.

Portland, Oregon.

What a wonderful idea, Tamara. I know many people have taken advantage of AVRooster's Real Buenos Aires tour.

LOL, Neo...

eurotraveller, I live in Portland and I am sure you could show me SO much about the city :)
I like the idea..
And maybe we will meet up in Argentina soon :)

Yeah, Scarlett. I breezed over your post on the Argentina forum. We will spend a week in BA, for sure!

Cheers!

glad you got my "hint" eurotraveller. I think "microbreweries" may have been the giveaway, but otherwise and maybe even with that it COULD be Maine.

Well, Patrick, I haven't found your posts to be exactly subtle! :-)

Thanks for the reminder, though. I do tend to forget about the other Portland from time to time.

There is <i>another Portland</i> ??? :O lol

Hi Tamara,

I'm visiting Portland at the moment and it would be great to meet you. I'm here in Portland for the next couple of weeks. I live in Tokyo and write on the Asia board. It would be great to have someone to go out with to all of the interesting Portland restaurants. Hope you're still checking this thread. If you are, please let me know how to reach you. Thanks!

Hi Mealea! I am glad you found this thread and welcome to Portland!

You can reach me via email at tkoedoot at prunw dot com. Take out the words &quot;at&quot; and &quot;dot&quot; and replace them with the symbols and take out the spaces.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers!

... but you say you're in BA, not P.

No, I don't say I am in BA. Please reread so you understand that I was referring to someone else's post on the BA forum.

I am in Portland, OR.

Hey eurotraveller,
Plenty of microbreweries in Portland Maine!

No plans on heading to the pacific nw, but give me a shoutout if you're coming to Boston.

Nice idea - pay it forward fodorites! I like it.
'lani

Thanks kealalani!

But does Portland, Maine have a microbrewery on almost every corner? ((B))

:-))

eurotraveller - we're going to be in Portland Aug 31 &amp; Sept 1. I've been following your posts on BA and would love to chat with you about that if you're around then. And of course, pick up any hints about Portland from a local.

yestravel, if I don't go away for that 3 day weekend (Labor Day) I would be happy to meet with you. Go ahead and send me an email to my email address that is posted in this thread and I will contact you.

Portland is such a great city and I love to show it off to visitors!

sent u email

Just wanted to let everyone know I had the chance to met Tamara when I was visiting Portland in July. She's so nice and we had a great time having a delicious Thai lunch and talking about travel. I really enjoyed meeting her. Portland is a great city!

Thanks Tamara!