My name is Troy and I'm originally from a small rural town in Southern Missouri. My first time traveling by myself wasn't until I had turned 25 and I went to Italy for 2 weeks. Was a BIG learning experience and from that small trip my views of the world, politics and life in general has been shaped by my travels.

I have been to 30+ countries around the world and set foot on every continent, except for Antarctica (spending $12k just to see a penguin isn't my thing). Some of my personal most memorable experiences traveling:

1) Sailing on a traditional Egyptian felucca boat for 3 days on the Nile River with a captain named "Ziggy".
2) Spending 6 months backingpacking around India, to include a 2 week trip where me and a friend circumvented the whole country in 2 weeks by train. Got to see everything from the beaches of Goa, to the mountains of Kashmir, to drinking tea in Darjeeling to seeing the sun rise at the tip of India. I could talk story-after-story about India and Nepal :)
3) Roading tripping for 16 days in the coffee region of Colombia with another like minded photographer. Whoever said Colombia isn't safe, well I have a ton of photos that say different. Met some of the best people in my life while in Colombia.
4) taking my first and second taxi in Italy, both were WAY different and both had life long moral lessons learned from them. Asks me about it if we met and I promise you will laugh :)

Anyways, I'm a pretty simple, direct and laid back guy. I don't get easily shocked and like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've only used CS so far to meet new people in different cities and it's been great each time I have. I haven't hosted or stayed at anyone's place yet through CS but I have hosted people before at places I lived overseas but those weren't organized through CS. (UPDATE: I've done both now and it's been great so far)

Interests

I'm into photography!!! I love nothing more then to photograph a new place and check out the street scene there. Also I'm into scuba diving and cooking as I enjoy doing it as much as possible.

• photography
• cooking
• traveling
• blogging
• scuba diving
• baseball

Music, Movies, and Books

Love me some Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump! I like just about all music except for anything new country... I like the older stuff but this new stuff just makes me eyes rage. And I like to read anything non-fiction, mostly travel adventure books or autobiographies.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once saved a baby drowning dolphin that didn't know how to swim... ok ok, you got me but I like to think Im amazing in my own right ;)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook and by cook I mean more than just make spaghetti. I enjoy it and love trying new dishes. I'm good at cleaning, so have no problems helping in that regard. If you have any photography questions, I'm more then willing to help. Basically if you need help with something I'm willing to help :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Belize, Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States