Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour of the Globe

394 Pages·2009·4.82 MB·English

by  Brian Thacker

sleeping around
SBBlhhe11e44p99in33gMMA--rPPorrueenssdss_PPTrrooitooleffss.i11n..diinnddddd1 ii 111655///911/000//80088 1 233:::244355:::055255 PPPMMM
Also by Brian Thacker
Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus
Planes, Trains and Elephants
The Naked Man Festival
I’m Not Eating Any of that Foreign Muck
Where’s Wallis?
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd iiii 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
sleeping around
(a couch surfing tour of the globe)
brian thacker
SBBlhhe11e44p99in33gMMA--rPPorrueenssdss_PPTrrooitooleffss.i11n..diinnddddd2 iiiiii 111655///911/000//80088 1 233:::244355:::055366 PPPMMM
First published in 2009
Copyright © Brian Thacker 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a
maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever
is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for
its educational purposes provided that the educational institution
(or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Thacker, Brian, 1962-
Sleeping around : a couch surfing tour of the globe / Brian Thacker.
978 1 74175 210 6 (pbk.)
Thacker, Brian, 1962- --Travel.
Australians--Travel--Foreign countries.
910.4
Set in 11/15 pt Minion Pro by Bookhouse, Sydney
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd iivv 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
Contents
introduction vii
Chile 1
brazil 57
usa 99
canada 129
iceland 155
belgium & luxembourg 193
turkey 227
kenya 255
south africa 291
india 309
philippines 341
epilogue 373
v
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd vv 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
This page intentionally left blank
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd vvii 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
introduction
introduction
I live in a small one-bedroom flat with my wife and 5
children. There is no couch, so you will have to share
a room with the kids. I live a long way from the city
and there is no public transport. I should also probably
tell you that I’ve only recently got out of prison.
Brian Thacker
Melbourne, Australia
Admittedly, I was perhaps a little sceptical when I initially
registered on GlobalFreeloaders.com a couple of years back.
According to their mission statement: ‘GlobalFreeloaders.
com is an online community bringing people together to
offer you free accommodation all o ver the world. Save
money and make new friends whilst seeing the world from
a local’s perspective.’ It sounded like a brilliant concept. First
of all there was the ‘free accommodation’ bit—I concede I’m
somewhat ‘frugal’ when I travel and will happily do things
like wallow in my own sweat because the air-conditioned
room cost a do llar more. But it wasn’t just my penchant
vii
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd vviiii 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
sleeping around
for penny-pinching that attracted me t o the idea of
GlobalFreeloading, it was als o the idea that you could
bypass the standard tourist routes and be assimilated into
local lifestyles and cultures. I j ust tweaked my profile
somewhat so no o ne would want to come stay with me.
I mean, exactly what sort of lunatics open their homes to
total strangers from the other side of the world at a time
when you can’t carry a na il file onto an aircraft? Even if
they trust me, can I trust them? You certainly couldn’t tell
if a potential host was trustworthy by looking at a lot of the
profiles on the GlobalFreeloaders site. Many gave absolutely
no indication of what type of person they were and looked
something like this:
Spare couch. No pets.
Claudio Hernandez
Bogota, Colombia
I forgot about the site until a few months later (surprisingly
enough no one had requested my ‘couch’) when, in one of
my usual a imless wanderings around the net, I s tumbled
upon CouchSurfing.com. The website had the same premise
as GlobalFreeloaders (their mission statement is: ‘Participate
in creating a better world, one couch at a time’), but they
had taken the concept to a w hole new level. The profiles
were more detailed and built on a MySpace/Facebook type
model with users including their photos, interests, what
types of people they enjoy, a list of friends, languages spoken,
places travelled and even a comprehensive couch description.
viii
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd vviiiiii 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM
introduction
Perhaps the most redeeming feature, however, was that the
hosts and guests vouched for each other much like eBay.
CouchSurfing.com began in 2004 w hen 22-year-old
Casey Fenton, a software programmer in New Hampshire
who had b een working 100-hour weeks for a w ebsite he
himself had founded, decided he wa nted a weekend away.
He found a cheap last-minute flight to Iceland, but when
he discovered how expensive accommodation was in
Reykjavík, he did what any reasonably able, ethically flexible
programmer might do: H e hacked into the University of
Iceland student directory and spammed more than a
thousand students asking them if they had a spa re couch.
In his email he said: ‘I’m coming on Friday. I want to see
the real Iceland. Will you show me y our country?’ The
overwhelming response—more than a hundred replies from
potential hosts all eager to show him ‘their Reykjavík’—not
only secured Casey a couch for the weekend, it also sparked
the CouchSurfing concept and website.
I joined immediately and even penned a more realistic
profile—minus a f ew kids a nd the prison sentence. A
stranger’s couch suddenly sounded a whole lot safer. And
a whole lot easier to find. To secure a couch all you had to
do was s earch for the city you planned to visit and you
would be presented with a list o f hosts. Contact any from
the list who interest you and the hosts would get back to
you if they have a couch available on the dates you need.
And after you decide which couch suits you best—voilà—
you’ve got a free place to stay and a new friend who most
likely knows the city better than any hotel concierge.
ix
BBhh11449933MM--PPrreessssPPrrooooffss11..iinndddd iixx 1155//1100//0088 33::4455::5566 PPMM