ABOUT ME

I LOVE to travel. That is my sole objective in life - to travel, to mingle, to meet people and be lost in wilderness. Where and when I can not make it to a place in real, I spend days reading about it and planning trips and imagining about it.

PHILOSOPHY

Independence & Curiosity. Break the world down into friends - one stranger at a time.
Live life like there is no tomorrow, but don't forget there probably will be one. And it maybe a rainy day then. :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have had my fair share of guests and I love it more and more every time. This by definition maybe the most welcoming, friendly, progressive fun filled group of people on the planet and I am proud to be a part of it.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Couchsurfing is a way of life for me. I have hosted really wonderful people who gave me back much more than a mere couch that I gave them. I feel meeting people is the best part of travel, and couchsurfing is the best way to meet some of the best people in a place.

Interests

Read about places, watch lots of movies and read books, follow a wide range of music, not too much into sports. Love hiking, cycling, bouldering, and am also an inexperienced scuba diver lol.

Always interested in new cocktails.

I love to try new food and can go to any distance to try something new.

• books
• dining
• cocktails
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• skiing
• sports
• mountains
• scubadiving

Music, Movies, and Books

Wide range of movies: The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Snatch, Amelie, Its a Wonderful Life, Double Indemnity, 12 Angry Men, Casablanca, Ten Commandments, Titanic, Shutter Island, Its a Beautiful Mind..the list goes wide & deep. I love almost everything of the Coen brothers & Guy Ritchie, as I love to watch, understand, dream, forget and rediscover David Lynch.

Music is strictly as per the mood. But can listen to Big Band songs, smooth Jazz and classic Rock & Hans Zimmer's soundtracks anytime. Other times, I might and do enjoy a bit of electronic like Moby or even some dubstep.

I used to read books as if I was born in the 1800s. Seriously. I started to read Chaucer, Elizabethan poets, Pope etc all the way down to Tennyson and stopped. Dickens and Hardy for novels. And Twain - Huck Finn,Jim & Tom taught old school American values to a 4th grader living on the other side of the planet. I do read more contemporary literature from time to time, I like reading memoirs and books on abstract thought.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I think life should be filled with small amazing things, wrong turns instead of a big crazy act.

But once I hiked without any direction, through dense forest and hills for 4 hours in search of an elusive waterfall but in the end all that I found was a very big stream. It was a harsh summer and the waterfall had dried up.
On my way back, a dog started stalking me which initially had me scared but then I realized both me & the dog were lost in the forest and the dog hoped I knew the route. I was in that deep!!
Finally after many detours, I find some brook and followed it and ended up back near humanity (felt like a pioneer) and there I could see the dog finally happily reunited with his "family". And as they leaped around with joy, I felt the day was far from being wasted. Then the dogs & pups walked me back to my car. It was pretty amazing. Adventure & melodrama rolled into one!!

Another incident is about the amazing help you get from strangers. I had a flat tire in Puerto Rico in an absolute backroad and out of nowhere this non-English speaking farmer pulls over, takes a look at the situation, fetches a heavy duty screwjack, helps me with the spare and drives off before I have a chance to thank him. That silent guy alone kicked out whatever cynicism I had in me.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, Japan, United States