There's no need to pull teeth to get retired dentist Rick Martin to pack his bags. Just tell him someone needs volunteers somewhere to help somehow and he's on his way.

In past years, he's been to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Romania and El Salvador. Closer to home, he's worked in Washington, D.C., and Mississippi to help clean up damage from Hurricane Katrina.

During 2007 alone, the 67-year-old Martin visited a tense region of Lebanon less than a mile from the Israeli border to help clear bomb damage from homes. U.N. tanks patroled the streets nearby.

"Lebanon. That seems scary, but to me it was exciting to be there," he said.

Martin, of Bloomington, also joined a medical/dental team to treat the poor living near Manila in the Philippines. Though most people heard about the South African nation of Malawi only when Madonna adopted a boy there, Martin and his friends earned far less notice when they went there to build an AIDS education center.

"I guess I like helping people," said Martin, whose wife, Jo, sometimes travels along.

They're part of a growing segment of volunteer travelers who combine charitable work and vacations. According to the Travel Industry Association, one-quarter of travelers say they are currently interested in taking a volunteer or service-based vacation.

"You get to know and smell and touch and taste the other culture. I don't think I can do that by reading or seeing it on television," said Martin.

He's altered his lifestyle as a result of what he's seen. After a trip to the Philippines, he decided to cut back on driving his car. Instead, he walks or rides a bike. The gasoline money he saves is sent to a missionary working in the Philippines,

The volunteer-vacation experiences also combat the image of the "ugly American," he said.

"You let the friends you make know that people from the West aren't always what they see on the TV," he said.

Many of the excursions are sponsored by area churches. But Martin thinks the most exciting volunteer vacation he made last year came when he traveled with a group to Indonesia in July on behalf of an organization reaching out to Muslims in the post-9/11 world.

The goal was to let Indonesians know that not all people from the United States are anti-Muslim. Martin's group included two New Yorkers, a woman in the U.S. Air Force from Okalahoma and an 18-year-old mountain bike racer from California, Jonathon Mayfield.

They rode mountain bikes deep into the jungle to visit people living in the rural areas of the rugged country located on the equator. They climbed 6,000 feet on the two-wheelers in one day on what passed for "paved" roads. They lugged rice for the elderly, took strawberry plants to a farmer so he could start a new crop and played basketball, Uno and charades with the children. Mayfield did tricks on his bike to attract the kids.

"We tried to communicate anyway we could. I know I said 'hello' 10,000 times," Martin said. "We would ride into a village, and all the kids would run out of the doorways. Some would jump on their bikes and ride with us a while. Some would say, 'Hello,' and giggle.

"They are such loving, carring people. Maybe we were the characters.

"One teacher said, 'You guys are different. If we see a tourist, they zoom by in a car. But you guys stop and talk.' With that, we thought we might be accomplishing what we were trying to do," he said.

Martin loves to ride his road bike at home to stay fit. But he spent most of the trip on a hard-tail mountain bike with French shocks on the front he bought there. Brand-named Polygon, the bicycle was heavier than many made elsewhere. But it had 24 gears to help with the climbs.

"I really enjoy road biking. This was the first time mountain biking. I fell in love with it," he said.

The trip was a challenge from a personal standpoint.

Indonesia has the most active volcanoes of anywhere in the world, and the group climbed Mount Kerinci, the highest active volcano in Asia, on foot to a bone-chilling altitude of 14,000 feet. Martin spent a frigid night shivering in a fetal position.

"It was terribly cold on top," he said, adding the guide told him he was the oldest climber he'd ever taken along.

The roads "weren't the best," said Martin, describing the jungle terrain. He wasn't worried about tigers, which he didn't see, or the baboons, monkeys, snakes and other animals which he did see.

Amazingly, the five riders only had one flat during the entire three-week stay.

With the exception of the night spent on the volcano, the group enjoyed "home stays" with locals, where they slept on floors and ate without utensils as their hosts did.

"If I'm going to go someplace, I want to see the people and culture and get involved rather than staying in a big hotel," he said.

Plans for 2008 include a trip to Mississippi to build a house for someone displaced by the hurricane damage. He also may trek through the former Soviet Union nation of Georgia.

You don't have to be an expert on anything to take volunteer vacations around the globe, he said.

"I never built a house. I'm a 'handyman' with quotation marks. They say, 'Hold this nail and hit it with a hammer.' I can do that," Martin said.

But you do have to have the "right attitude."

"You have to go as someone who is learning. You have to go to learn from their culture rather than going to tell them, 'This is how you do it. You are helping them do it rather than telling them how it should be done," he said.

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Tips for volunteering

Billed as "a meaningful travel provider," i-to-i at www.i-to-i.com suggests people who are considering volunteer travel ask these questions before they sign up:

• How long has the volunteer organization been around? Is the staff knowledgeable and able to help you select a suitable trip?

• Do they provide pre-departure advice about visas, inoculations and insurance? Will you have an orientation once you land at your destination? Do they have support people in country for daily questions?

• What emergency measures are in place should anything unforeseen happen?

• Does the fee include food, accommodations and airport pickup?

• Can you speak to past volunteers?

• Can a friend or partner come with you? If so, are there discounts?

Each year, i-to-i sends about 5,000 volunteers to 500 projects in more than 30 countries and helps 15,000 people gain the certification necessary to teach English overseas. i-to-i volunteers contributed about one million hours of service last year.

More information: Call (303) 991-5402.