This post is about surfing..no..not that one. This one is about Couchsurfing. Some of you might have heard about it...other not...but there's a community out there called Couchsurfing. Its a group of people united by their love to travel and meeting travelers from all over the world. The underlying tenet is simple - you create a profile similar to Facebook and have friends, likes/dislikes, pictures etc. You also let others know what your current status is in terms of being able to host, meet up for a drink, or currently traveling. When you visit a new city, you search for 'couches' in that city and depending on whether you like what you see or not, send out a couple of requests. If the folks you send request out to like what they see and are able and willing to host you, they reply back in the affirmative, and voila - you have a place to stay. Obviously this works the other way around too, and you are expected to host too. There's no exchange of money involved and you primarily do it for the sheer joy of meeting new people and some interesting experiences.
About a month before we headed out on our trip, Awanti and I thought it'd be something we should give a shot. The reasons were two-fold. One, it would save a lot of money as against staying in hostels and hotels. The other, and more important reason for us, is that it would allow us to meet the locals, hang out with them, and get the low down on what to see and what not. Both of us approached this with a bit of hesitancy at first. The concept of staying with complete strangers was a bit foreign - though if you think about it, the trepidation from the other side should be greater given that they are letting total strangers into their house. Anyhow, we setup our account, sent out a couple of request for Austria, received positive replies, and headed over to our hosts' places. Well I must say, we've blown away by what we've encountered so far. We've couchsurfed with 5 hosts over the past 3 weeks, and in each case have been blown away by their trust, kindness, and friendliness. Just a few instances of what we've experienced:
- in each of the cases, within 5 minutes of meeting for the first time and being introduced, we were handed over the house keys and told to come and go at our leisure.
- late-night trip to the airport to pick up our delayed baggage as against waiting for the next morning when they were to be delivered - just so that we could wear some fresh clothes and be more comfortable.
- being cooked local specialties that you can't get in restaurants.
All in all, we've had some fabulous experiences and have spent time with people who are sure to remain friends for a long time to come. We have a few more stays coming up, and I can only hope they are as good as the ones so far.
- Ashish
About a month before we headed out on our trip, Awanti and I thought it'd be something we should give a shot. The reasons were two-fold. One, it would save a lot of money as against staying in hostels and hotels. The other, and more important reason for us, is that it would allow us to meet the locals, hang out with them, and get the low down on what to see and what not. Both of us approached this with a bit of hesitancy at first. The concept of staying with complete strangers was a bit foreign - though if you think about it, the trepidation from the other side should be greater given that they are letting total strangers into their house. Anyhow, we setup our account, sent out a couple of request for Austria, received positive replies, and headed over to our hosts' places. Well I must say, we've blown away by what we've encountered so far. We've couchsurfed with 5 hosts over the past 3 weeks, and in each case have been blown away by their trust, kindness, and friendliness. Just a few instances of what we've experienced:
- in each of the cases, within 5 minutes of meeting for the first time and being introduced, we were handed over the house keys and told to come and go at our leisure.
- late-night trip to the airport to pick up our delayed baggage as against waiting for the next morning when they were to be delivered - just so that we could wear some fresh clothes and be more comfortable.
- being cooked local specialties that you can't get in restaurants.
All in all, we've had some fabulous experiences and have spent time with people who are sure to remain friends for a long time to come. We have a few more stays coming up, and I can only hope they are as good as the ones so far.
- Ashish
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