CURRENT MISSION

1,000 words a day

ABOUT ME

I'm a metalpunk musician, freelance writer and guidebook author. I often work for Lonely Planet covering Asia, southern Europe and Latin America. In a past life, I played guitar in a punk rock band for 10 years, touring Europe seven times and the USA twice.
In my travels, I have visited most of Europe, Asia, and 45 out of the 50 United States, selling merchandise for bands or touring with my own. I lived in China for one year for work (as a teacher of Italian and English) and have no desire to return to Italy. I spent 6 months traveling and working on Australia's east coast and the Red Center, and I am currently based in Malaysia, where I have been living since 2009. Kit Yeng is my Malaysian wife and life partner, whom I met on Couchsurfing many years ago.
In 2012, we overlanded from Singapore to Milano, mostly hitchhiking.
I used to play guitar in Penang's thrash-core unit WEOT SKAM and are well connected with the music and art scene on the island.

PHILOSOPHY

Travel, play music, live to the max, experience everything, love with a deep heart, and back again from the start. No bullshit, no politically correct Gen-Z crap, true lived honesty.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I offer one of the best couches in Penang (because I know it better than most locals) when I am not busy with my multifaceted personal and artistic life. Wherever I travel, I try to couchsurf to meet people, learn about their place from them, and teach them something about enjoying life king size.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

All the floors and couches of Europe and America have been mine, from Seattle to Los Angeles, from Arizona to Texas, from Kansas to Chicago, from New York to Memphis, from Amsterdam to Milano and Rome, from Berlin to Madrid, etc., playing in a band even before CS existed. I am a pioneer, ahahaha... I've been couchsurfing in East, South, Southeast, and Central Asia, as well as Australia, South America, and Central America. If you check my references, you can see how seriously and positively I take the experience. I expect my guests to do the same.

Interests

Punk/Hard Rock/Metal Music, especially from the 70s and 80s, b-movies in general with a particular taste for European Sexploitation horror and science fiction, Japanese monster movies, Italian horror and American 50s and 60s science fiction. Anthropology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, cultural studies. In general, the BIZZARRO and the MONDO CANE.

I love to relax and talk about interesting stuff, I am pretty computer literate, I know bands all over the world and I like old grindhouse cinemas where I can pretend I'm not in this wacky world for a while.

• horses
• arts
• writing
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• punk music
• guitar
• metal music
• anthropology
• cultural studies
• teaching
• freelancing
• languages
• science
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

What decade and what country? Too many to mention, mate.
But give me some "Secret Treaties"-era Blue Oyster Cult anyday and you'll put me in a good mood. I'm making a career of evil, yeah.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

crossing the USA in any angle and perspective riding a van.Same thing with Europe, yeeessssssssss...played more than 300 punk rock and metal shows in different countries, riding horses in Mongolia, lived in Malaysia with a Chinese family, lived for 3 months in Australia in a van, traveled overland from Ulan Bator to Bali, taught English to kids in the Cambodian jungle, met the orang utangs in the wilds of Northern Sumatra, studied Silambam martial art in Penang, hitchhiked from China to Europe, hitchhiked from southern Chile to the Atacama Desert, wrote over 20 travel guidebooks, wrote my first novel and had it banned in Malaysia like Anthony Burgess...as you can see, a pretty interesting life :-) Host me and I'll tell you all about it!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you languages, silambam stick martial art and how to play guitar and survive in a stinky van for a month.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Witty conversations, caustic humour, a lot of travel stories (including all genres, from exploitation to horror and giallo)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Russian Federation, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, China, Italy, Malaysia, United States

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