My CouchSurfer Rommie :)

His name is Moses Tay. He is a Singaporean outside but Hawaiian inside J. He lived in Hawaii for about 6 years and he’s crazy about surfing. Then he decided to come back to Singapore.

It was in 2010 but I forgot exactly when I got CR from him. But apparently I had other CSers staying at my place, so I declined his request. And few weeks later he sent another one since he couldn’t make it on the fist one. I accepted his second request.

It was a lil bit funny for me since I thought I have to speak politely to this 32 years old guy. But, I was totally wrong. Maybe he is 32 but he speaks like he’s 26. He swears a lot. When I said a lot, it means really a lot. And bad thing is, it influenced me. Hehehe… but never mind la…

Well anyways, I hosted him for 2 days at the first time since I have other CSers lined up. But, we hang out a lot when he was in Bali. He bought a surfboard and left it in my place because he comes to Bali a lot since then, like once a month or every 2 weeks.  So, he always stays in my place every time he comes to Bali. No need request like at the fist time he came. He just tells me the dates and my couch booked for him.

After many times (I forgot how many) he comes, I decided to move to a bigger place when he agreed to share a house with me. J So now, he is my roommate. A roommate who is never around. Hehehe…

Anyways, I’m glad to have Moses as my roommate and my good friend. You know now how big is the power of CouchSurfing changed my life?

Me and My Sing-Hawaiian brother

Moses’s profile: he deactivated his profile

 

My First Experience of Surfing

It was a business trip to Bandung (West Java), I think it was in June 2010 if I’m not mistaken. So, my boss allowed me to go there earlier and spend weekend there. How lucky I am.  So instead of staying in a hotel alone and lonely having nothing to do, so I decided to do CouchSurfing.

So then I searched on the CS searching engine for a host, then one profile pretty much interest me. On the picture there was a guy holding a guitar surrounded by girls, hahahaha… so playboy-ish (I dunno the proper name). So, yes… Andhika Panduwinata! My first host, Ladies and Gentlements!!! I sent Couch Request (CR) to him and wuhuuuuu he accepted it J I was so happy.

I was very excited and could not wait to have my CS experience. I get him a present to say thank you in advance J and hope he likes it. So it was 9.30-ish at night when I hit Bandung airport and Pandu picked me up at the airport. How nice he was. He took me around the city and showed me around. Then we had dinner at the street.

He lives with his uncle. He has a room beside his uncle’s house where he has his cousins (2 girls) live there as well. He let me sleep in his cousin’s bedroom and the next day we had a trip to Tangkuban Perahu by motorbike. It was so… much fun. And how Pandu explained about every thing and gave me grand tour.

At night we had dinner with other CSers and planned to go for another trip where I met other cool CSers like David, Ilman who are both from Bandung, Victor from France and Basti from Germany and who are totally strangers. This experience would never happened to me if I did not join CouchSurfing.

And then finally, there were 8 of us (plus other CSers) went to another trip to Kawah Putih. During the trip, we played truth or dare and when it’s come to my turn, I chose “dare” so that they wanted me to go out the car and run around the car when it’s still moving where people staring at me and I think they said “what the fuck is this girl doing?” . But well, I didn’t really care. Hehehhee… It was fun.

Me and Couchsurfers at Kawah Putih, Bandung (Left to right: Pandu, Ilman, Anggie, Me, Alya, Basti, David, Victor)

Well anyways, my first experience of can be called “sleeping at stranger’s place” was fuckin’ awesome. Thanks to Pandu!

Pandu’s profile:http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/makananenak/

 

My First Hosting Experience!!

When i joined CS (Couchsurfing), i lived in a small boarding house with small kitchen and bathroom. But my bedroom is big enough for a boarding house. I think it was 4×4 meters, i guess?!?!. Well anyways, i thought for a quite a while if i wanted to host or not, but then there is a CSers from Jakarta (Ari Kuncoro) came to Bali. We met at a gathering and turned out that i hosted him for only 2 hours. Well, 2 hours is a big start for me since I did not really know how save it was.

My place was small, so i thought it was not convenience to let people sleep on the floor. They won’t feel comfortable. Then i bought a small mattress for CSers. But then again, do I want to host strangers??? What if they kill me? what if they bring drugs? what if they steal my things? what if this? what if that? Those questions keep bugging my head at that time.

But then i think again, people could do this. Then why can’t I??? If i host bad CSers, then it’s part of experience.

I hosted Ari for 2 hours since he needed to catch a ferry to go to Lombok. But, that 2 hours changed my life. He shared stories about CS, how amazing this website is. I was more than excited to listen to his story. Because of him i have courage to host more CSers! . Now we became good friends. Every time he comes to Bali, then my house is his home.

Ari, thanks a lot!

Ari’s profile: http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/arkilos/

Me, Ari and Germain!

 

My CS Profile

http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/renirenireni/