their own separate ideas, beliefs and customs. We've made friends we remain in contact with through the years, and each year we look forward to meeting all the new people who will cross our path, but also chatting with the old friends who return every year." - Trudi & Greg Inglis, Kip & Kaboodle Hostel "I would say that the greatest pleasure and satisfaction from running a hostel type accomodation is the opportunity to meet really interesting people from around the world." - George Patterson, Tofino Botanical Gardens "Chris and I are both travellers - we like learning about the world through tangible, first-hand experience. We met while on the road, many years ago. We met while working and living in a hostel, actually - in Edinburgh, Scotland. Once we realized that we could be together, despite the homeland distances and cultural differences, we also realized that we could harness the hostelling lifestyle and taper it to meet our own preferences and tastes. We opened our own little backpacker's hostel, The Fat Salmon, in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, in May 2005. We picked Port Alberni because of its uniqueness; we love the outdoors and we love real people. We are fortunate enough to have found a spot that has plenty of both. Since opening, we realize that one of the beautiful aspects of owning and running your own hostel is the ability to live vicariously through your guests. We love hearing the road stories, the challenging stories, the dramatic stories