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  • 93% response rate
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Overview

  • 178 references 74 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English, Russian, Sinhala, Sinhalese, Tamil; learning Arabic, Spanish
  • 36, Male
  • Member since 2012
  • Head of CX (www.tuktukrental.com)
  • MBA (UK) | P.G.Dip Marketing (SL) | CERTIFIED TRAINER
  • From Kandy, Kandy, Sri Lanka
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

AYUBOWAN 🙏

On the last night of 2011, I made a resolution that quietly changed everything — to meet new people and explore new places. "Oh boy. I had no idea what I was signing up for " 🎶✨🤯

I'm a Social Entrepreneur, Corporate Trainer & Consultant, and co-founder of a rapidly growing tuk tuk travel scale-up (www.tuktukrental.com) because why build ordinary things when you can build something that makes people smile the moment they see it?

I specialise in small businesses and startups, and I thrive at the intersection of people, ideas, and movement. Always have.

Back in school, I was the kid skipping class to play football or cricket. 🏏 Never quite fit the mould, and honestly, I stopped trying. The outdoors shaped me long before any classroom did.

That restlessness led me into advertising and brand strategy, where understanding why people do what they do became both my toolkit and my obsession. I worked on brands like KFC, Procter & Gamble, AkzoNobel, Samsung, Nestlé and many large local brands; not by thinking like a marketer, but by thinking like a human.

Then in 2015, I co-founded a National Award-Winning Travel Startup. The misfit had found his lane. 🚀
Travel hasn't just been something I do — it's something that's undone and rebuilt me.

The trip that still lives rent-free in my head? Vietnam by motorbike. 🏍️ No fixed itinerary. No corporate schedule. Just open roads, mountain passes, street food at 7am, and the kind of freedom that makes you question everything you thought was important. That journey taught me more about people, resilience, and joy than any boardroom ever could.

I love wandering into the woods, climbing mountains, or disappearing on a wild road trip — but only with the right people. The ones who talk too much, laugh too loud, and don't check their phones every five minutes. 🚥

I'm a dreamer, thinker, and mover. A certified chatterbox. Lately also a badminton enthusiast who takes it way too seriously. 🏸💪🏽

I love talking about ideas, challenging them, flipping them upside down with a twist of humour, always.

If you're passing through Colombo or Negombo, let's find a good spot, grab something cold or spicy, and swap stories.

I'm usually free after 7PM on weekdays and pretty much anytime on weekends — just drop me a message at least 24 hours ahead and we'll make it happen. I am open to host but my current space is a shared room. If this works. for you let me know.

Philosophy 💭

Philosophy isn't something I study. It's something I live - messily, curiously, and with a lot of questions.
My thoughts can get a little mad, but I'll share them with those who truly get it. 😉

"Stay humble because as people, we sometimes stumble"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I participate in CS because human connection is the only currency that actually compounds and continuously grows.

I love meeting people — not in a surface-level, how's-the-weather kind of way, but the real kind. The late-night conversations kind. The kind where someone tells you something they've never told a stranger before, and somehow it feels completely natural.

I've hosted over 200+ travellers from all corners of the world, and every single one arrived with a story I hadn't heard yet. That never gets old. Have you got a story to tell? Because that's what life really is, isn't it? Your story. To tell. To share. To leave behind with someone who'll carry it forward. 🌍

Interests

🧠 People & Psychology: Everyone's a story I haven't read yet — I'm endlessly fascinated by what drives, breaks, and rebuilds us.

✈️ Travel — Road Trips, City Escapes, Hikes & Treks from buzzing city alleys to mountain silences - I chase experiences, not destinations.

🏍️ Adventure & The Open Road: Vietnam by motorbike taught me that freedom isn't a place, but it's a pace.

💡 Ideas & Innovation : I don't just like ideas, I obsess over them, argue with them, and occasionally build them into something real.

🎨 Creativity: Not just art, alsothe way a mind connects dots that others walk past every day.

🏕️ Camping, Hikes & Exploring: Give me a trail, a backpack, and the right company. I'll handle the conversation.

🍜 Food as a Cultural Gateway: I don't eat to fill a plate. I eat to understand a people, a place, a history. And to treat my taste buds.

🌍 Cultures & Life Philosophy: The more I travel, the more I realise how beautifully complex and similar we all are.

🧘 Meditation & Mindfulness: The loudest insights come in the quietest moments. Still learning to sit with both.

🚀 Entrepreneurship - Purpose-Driven: Building things that matter, with people who care. Business as a force for good full stop and all businesses should have social goodness at the core of their policies.

⚽ Sports: Football, Cricket, Badminton & Beyond - The outdoors shaped me before any classroom did.

  • education
  • dining
  • traveling
  • blogging
  • outdoor activities
  • hiking
  • camping
  • sports
  • cricket
  • soccer
  • business
  • teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

BREAKING THE TABOO,ILLUSIONIST,TED,LIMITLESS, VOW, THE LUCKY ONE

HipHop, Commercial music - actually anything that goes with the mood
(Friends say this song defines me!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2ISBhc4YU)
The road less travelled, Screw it lets do it, Buy-Ology, Confessions of an Advertising man, The Moral Molecule, 7 Habits of highly effective people

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Tried a Slavic and Orthodox christian ritual of Baptism dipping in the river VOLGA when the temperature was -15
Попробовали кришеню в реке Волга при минус 15

A night out camping in the Wilderness of Yala!

Watching Sunrise from the Adams peak

Teach, Learn, Share

All people :-)
We all have a story to tell & each one is gonna be different!
OPEN YOUR HEART, MIND AND HANDS to embrace!

What I Can Share with Hosts

My ideas, My Philosophies, Spiritual training, Business opportunities and Life in general ;)

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahrain, England, Georgia, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, Maldives, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka

Old School Badges

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