Molote, Anthony and Vitalii

The year 2009 is about to say good bye.....A melancholic feeling comes up, preparing cookies and presents for Christmas, the tension we know all too well when we open up the next door on our Advent Calender.

My last surfers have been such good guests and I felt they were rather like friends or relatives than ordinary couchsurfers.

Vitalii
My mum just went home and I decided to host the next surfer. Vitalii from Canada with Russian roots was a new member but his profile was so impressive that I decided to host him on a fairly short term. He was interested in sports and martial arts like me, so it would be interesting to meet him. His messages sounded nice and warm and he definitely had read my profile in detail. A knock on the door and I saw a smiling, exuberant and warmhearted young man. He brought me my favourite Lindt chocolates...yummy....

Vitalii was different from most couchsurfers who came to Mainz. He didn't come for a short transit just inbetween 2 flights but to spend time in this area and meet the local people. We had a great and funny time Vitalii, chasing through Mainz and driving through the German wine country to Straßbourg France. I miss you and hope to see you one day whereever in the world....Toronto?

Anthony
Mainz is an unknown destination for international travelers and when they decide to stay, it is usually because they are on a stopover. Anthony Schmitt from the U.S. was not less interesting. I was the first Couchsurfing host that he found through Couchsearch. He had some hosting and surfing experience with other volunteers who were also on Couchsurfing. I have always been very intrigued by Peace Corps Volunteers, especially when they live in a rural area in Africa or Asia. What an interesting life, it reminded me of my time in Tanzania. He needed to travel a long way from rural Morocco to the next airport Fes and arrived shortly after midnight.

A nice and gentle guy who looked a bit older than his 25 years. We had a glass of wine, exchanged some information and went to bed. The next day we went on a long hike in the Rhine Valley, explored castles and made some photos. The day was nice and still long, so we went to Bacharach to look at the ancient half-timbered houses before we left for Mainz to have onion tart and new wine.

It was a strenuous day and I locked out his passport and the housedoor key in my trunk. Anthony remained calm and helped me a lot not to lose my nerves. Angela lived near my parking and fortunately she was at home and lent me her key. I could go home, fetch the spare keys and problem solved. Anthony was helpful and mature, had a lot to share about his life in Morocco and passion for travelling, he even offered a lot of assistance in the household. After he left I found a postcard from the place where he lived....Thank you Anthony, I will try to visit you.

In memoriam Molote Massilo
Probably my last guest this year was Molote from Johannesburg, South Africa. He was an outstanding and unique guest, a linguistic acrobat with versatile interests. Once you get used to constant business calls and mails, having him as a guest is highly recommendable. As I wasn't well because I was stressed out with work and the change of the weather didn't do any good to me, he proved to be an excellent companion. I was kind of fatigued and suffered a headache. Molote cooked a wonderful Spaghetti Bolognaise, did the dishes and we had interesting conversations about CS, South Africa and differences between cultures within and out of South Africa.

We got to know each other quite well given the very short space of time. Molote came back for the second time to stay with me and I nearly forgot him. Otherwise I would have organised something like a party with other CSers or friends. Nevertheless, the conversations with Molote were really eye-opening. Where should we start? Lifestyle, outlook on the world, international politics, economy, people inside and outside CS, the new South Africa after Apartheid, women, men........

Like with most of my surfers, we cooked together a lot because he was a homey person exactly like me. This time we had roast duck with potato dumplings(Knödel) and red cabbage or Rotkraut because Molote initially wanted to try out Sauerkraut. Like most South Africans Molote prefers a rich breakfast like steak but we agreed on a rich German breakfast with fresh rolls, cold meat balls and fresh bacon.

After that we went out to see Mainz, had a second good breakfast before heading to see Frankfurt and enjoy a sumptuous Mongolian Buffet. This Mongolian buffet at Shangrila actually deserved an article on its own. Thomas Hervouet from France, my surfer who came earlier this year, also had the pleasure to enjoy this marvelous restaurant. Name it, they have Chinese dumplings, duck, curries, vegetables, fruits, sushi etc along with ice cream, cakes and Asian pudding. But the best of all is a large selection of fish, giant green prawns, kangaroo, beef, pork, mutton cooked in front of you with fresh vegetables.

UPDATE May 2011:
This summer(South African winter) in 2011, Molote sadly passed away due to bacterial meningitis. He was attending a CS meet on Saturday, suddenly developed high fevers which the doctors didn't take seriously in the beginning and as it was diagnosed it was too late......He passed away on Thursday.

I have shut down my couch due to health and work reasons before hitting the road again
Unfortunately I have caught a horrible cold bug and had pseudo-asthma attacks for 2 weeks. Bad enough to irritate but not threatening enough to fear for my life. Sylwia from Warsaw would have been the next guest but I was so sick that I couldn't host her and needed to cancel on a short term. She was already the second guest this year that I needed to cancel due to unforeseen health challenges. Those things happen and it again reminded me that we always need a back-up host or hostel

My last minute guest in Sydney

My only real last minute guest in Sydney was Pierre Jean. He wrote to me about 5 hours prior to his arrival at my place. I told him not to write copy paste messages and to mention my name instead of just a hey. He apologised for this and we started a 2-hour mail contact which I found quite extensive. I could find out quite much about him and his journey. He has been travelling to the icy northern part of Mongolia, not a particular tourist destination, as well as the dangerous Timor Leste and East Indonesia. All his stories about a ferry ride in East Indonesia as well as staying with locals in Timor Leste caught my attention immediately. His photo at the ice lake in North Mongolia ignited my interest. He was French and could not speak English very well, so this was a great chance for me to practice my French language. I told him that CS or Couchsurfing was not a dating site and he assured me that we were both not cannibals......good analogy.

I was still at work as my mobile phone rang. An Australian girl was on the phone and told me that my "friend" was lost. Jeezz....I gave him such a detailed description and I could already expect some sort of messy catastrophic person. Anyway, as I arrived home he was already waiting for me. He looked like a playboy on his profile photo but in real life he looked older than his 26 years. A bit bald already, thin, shy and rather underfed. He looked sick and tired thus I did believe him as he told me that he didn't sleep for 2 days. Sydney was cold at that time of the year and he used to sleep outside in the park because he was too proud to ask for a couch..

Pierre Jean was extremely well-mannered and polite as a guest. He was clearly a disorganised person in his head; creative but catastrophic. He never liked working on a career, left school at the age of 16 despite his parents being well-off and educated. Pierre Jean was good at language learning and picked up foreign languages in quite a short time. He told me that he could play the piano, offered to play for me many times although he never studied it and never learnt to read music. His stories about Mongolia, Indonesia and Timor Leste were amazing, he met a lot of local people on ferries and surfed their couches without this website. I could believe this because that was what I did before the era of Couchsurfing and the internet. He was considerate and talked to his mother on the phone a few times a day. I also experienced that his mother sent him money immediately on the same day. The first thing what he did was to invite me to an Italian restaurant, something that I wouldn't expect from a backpacker.

The ways on Couchsurfing are strange because Pierre Jean was not the type of person I would make friends with under normal circumstances. It was the French language, his travels and his considerate attitude towards hosts where I was sure that he learnt it during his travels in poor countries. Pierre Jean stayed with me for 6 days and I helped him to contact Alain Funel in New Caledonia. He wanted to look for a job to finance his travels and did not have a working visa for Australia. As a Frenchman he could reside in New Caledonia without any problem and take up a job. Alain's wife was given training because her school background was not strong enough to find any type of work. I suggested these opportunities for Pierre Jean and he seemed interested.

Pierrre Jean was an immature and quite crazy guy but I thought he could succeed in New Caledonia. He has always been very polite, clean and tidy in my house, helped washing the dishes and showed a lot of respect. I just had some difficulties to get him under the shower and brush his teeth. He was grateful, gave me a wonderful reference in French and went off to New Caledonia......

Jeffrey, my host from Singapore

Jeffrey!!!! He has become one of my closest friends on CS and we are still in contact until today. I was posting to the Singapore group and saw his subgroup: The Singapore EAT EAT EAT group. He answered positively to my post on his group and offered to meet up and share food together. Singaporean food is famous and I thought this would be the chance to experience food in the company of a local friend. We have been mailing a few times and I got to know his need for clean surfers very well. I'm a clean person but I don't shower 3 times per day and don't wash my hair every day. My hair and skin is rather dry and it would become brittle if I wash it everyday. It is a matter of fact that even in a tropical country, fresh sweat doesn't smell and is by no means dirty. What we normally smell is old sweat starting to decay after a few days exactly like rotten food. Indeed a few backpackers smell horribly because some of them find it cool not to shower and change their clothing for a whole year. Would Jeffrey find me clean enough to surf his couch?

I arrived in Singapore with a sore stomach and diarrhoea. Jeffrey and his family already waited for me at the airport. He looked exactly like on the photo, so does his lovely family. We went to some place in Singapore that I didn't remember and ate congee(rice porridge with condiments). It was so delicious and my diarrhoea stopped immediately. The next days were unforgettable as I joined the family shopping in Johor Bahru Malaysia, buying gold paper money for the rituals in Singapore and helped them preparing for the feast. The family was so hospitable and never let their guest contribute to anything.

Jeffrey prepared for the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts, something I had heard of as I lived in Malaysia and Indonesia for some time. However, I never experienced it from a close-corner viewpoint. I enjoyed the private preparation much more than the real function with CS because I felt like being a good friend or member of the family. Everyday we went out eating while preparing for the big feast. After the food offering ceremony we could eat all the delicious food Jeffrey cooked himself.

Apart from being a generous and kind person, Jeffrey was a skilled driver and perfect organiser. We travelled together to Penang and Hat Yai and I met his friends Anthony and Joe who joined us in the car. They remained great friends on CS and I hoped I could meet them again soon. The weather in Penang was horrible and we had to wade through shit water to get to the gourmet restaurant. But nevertheless, the experience was so special, the food excellent and Georgetown a beautiful old city with a background of durian plantation and the sea.

We drove the whole night where I discovered that Jeffrey was a good driver too. At the border between Thailand and Malaysia we stopped at a small restaurant next to fruit plantations. The fruit was very cheap but the cempilak was finished and so was the durian. I saw real Malays eating grilled chicken and melinjo vegetables with their hands. Not a single tourist and backpacker, exactly the kind of rural life I would expect in SE Asia. After this we crossed the Thai border and Jeffrey started to teach me a bit of Thai. It was just later that I found out that it was crucial.

"Couchsurfing" in a Thai nunnery, a special experience
We stopped at a nunnery and I always wanted to experience the spirituality in a Thai temple. I decided to "couchsurf" in the temple. The nunnery was located in the middle of the forest and has impressive traditional architecture. Their meditation was very simple but deep, similar to Taijiquan without the martial arts component. Instead, they related the meditation to daily tasks such as household, sewing, cleaning etc. I had the best durian I could imagine with thick flesh and small stone, dry and sweat taste with a colour as yellow as butter. We could have this for breakfast and lunch because lunch at noon would be the last meal before the next morning. The nuns realised that I was not accustomed to this kind of lifestyle and gave me a chance to adjust slowly and allowed me to have a light dinner. Jeffrey, I spent most time surfing and travelling with you and I still would like your family to stay with me whereever I am, in Sydney or in Germany.