Why you should leave Couchsurfing now!

“humanity against trump signage near buildings” by M. B. M. on Unsplash

Life is not a walk in the park for most people. We live in a time where Trump is in the office, Malaysia has a 92 years old Prime Minister, Najib still says he’s innocent with a cheeky grin after swindling more than 20 billion in some other currency (this is what I read in the news if you can believe them).

On a day to day business we are confronted with fake news, insta-stories, endless streams of videos on YouTube, ads on your kindle on your bed stand blasting something about a shaver if you don’t buy now the world would end at the disgust of your day old stubble.

Then you have to go to work and put up with deadlines, emails, Skype messages and endless incompetencies (people and system) and you come home, put your feet up (I don’t do this but I like the expression), sip a cold beer out of a can and you look at your couch. It’s empty.

“man sitting on sofa while holding book” by Attentie Attentie on Unsplash

You pull out a 3 year old iPhone 6s with a broken screen and launch the Couchsurfing app and start looking for a guest. If you don’t know about Couchsurfing stop reading this and Google it or ask Google Home or Ask Alexa. Don’t forget to come back to continue this article for some juicy stuff in the end.

Back to the app you browse endless public trips posted by people from all over the world coming to Singapore. You scroll through all of them and find a nice guest from Argentina, 23 years old, studying linguistic in a local university in Yogjakarta (this small town in Indonesia famous for Borobudur and Prambanan). Let’s just say his name is Juan (I know not very original).

Juan needs to renew his student visa that he must do outside of Indonesia no one really knows why. The cheapest flight is to Singapore and besides the visa Juan gets to visit the city state. Two birds in one stone. You check his profile and references (which he had none) and swiftly send an offer to host. You then get a shock as he accepts instantly followed by a nice message to which you reply with a WhatsApp no. Ping Ping, your phone beeps with new messages.

“woman laughing beside woman smiling sitting on tufted sofa inside the room” by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash (this is not me nor Juan)

Juan arrived, both of you drank lots of beer, talked a lot about everything under the star, he slept on the couch, You made him breakfast (in my house this would pancakes), he shared about his Spanish heritage and gave you a hug and went back to Indonesia with the visa. You dust the couch ready for the next guest. He made a new friend. You made a new friend from across the world. Culture translated and shared. Trump manifesto defeated. You close your eyes and think what a wonderful world.

Oh yeah, the title of this article should read: Why you should join Couchsurfing now! and sorry for the intrusive author’s voice (in brackets).

mrgoldtravels

Travel ruminations for Gen X

Gold Poovan Devasagayam

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Helping people unlearn. Just getting started…

mrgoldtravels

Travel ruminations for Gen X

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