CURRENT MISSION

My partner Kate and I are wandering the globe and taking all kinds of wonderful detours

ABOUT ME

I am a 27 year old Canadian-born journalist and writer currently travelling the globe. Before departing from Sydney in January 2014 I was working at a university writing about research projects. I have also worked at science and finance magazines. I love good food (Indian and Japanese are favourites) and also enjoy going to the movies and reading. Also, I like playing sports such as basketball and soccer (and of course, being Canadian, ice hockey!)

My partner Kate is a 26 year old lawyer from Australia. We met while she was studying for one year in Canada in 2009. She too loves travelling, good food, films and reading (I think). We are both interested in meeting and sharing our travel experiences with friendly people.

PHILOSOPHY

Our collective philosophy, this year, was to abandon the ordinary. We both decided to quit our jobs, and for the last six months have been wandering around this vast and amazing planet, meeting incredible new people and having a blast. It has been one of the best decisions of our lives.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

We are both brand new to this, and have created a profile on the advice of several people we have met along our journey. They have told us it can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to travel, and we're keen to give it a try! Once we are re-established, either in Sydney or Toronto, we would like to host guests.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None so far... hopefully that will change.

Interests

Myles
Writing - long-form journalism, science journalism, short stories, poetry
Reading - literary fiction, historical fiction
Social justice issues and current affairs
Sports (basketball mostly!)
Fitness - running, playing sports

Kate
Travelling and experiencing new cultures
Art - visiting galleries and painting
Eating great food!
Reading
Photography
Meeting new people

• arts
• writing
• poetry
• photography
• dining
• cocktails
• fitness
• running
• boating
• news
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• painting
• spelunking
• camping
• scuba diving
• sports
• basketball
• soccer
• hockey
• journalism
• law
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Hmmm... so much choice. One of my favourite movies of all time is Pulp Fiction, simply because it is great. I also like almost anything with Tom Hanks (Joe versus the Volcano, Big, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) Hard question to answer...

Books - I'm in India right now so I couldn't look past A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. I have also read a few by Haruki Murakami recently (Wind-up Bird Chronicle and 1Q84) and they are strangely addictive and intriguing. Another personal favourite is the book Shoeless Joe (which was later turned into the movie Field of Dreams). I have also been reading a lot of short stories by Alice Munro.

Music - I like all kinds of music!

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Wow, so much! This year we have gone through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal and India (and are en route to Europe). We have scuba dived in the islands of Thailand and drank cocktails on rooftop bars in Bangkok; In Cambodia we visited the Angkor Wat temples (which were amazing!) and saw the killing fields and genocide museum in Phnom Penh. We took a boat cruise along the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and went caving (about 3.5 km underground) in the central highlands, which was definitely one of the coolest things we've done. In Laos we lazed around in blue lagoons and met an incredibly inspirational young man, who lost both his hands and his vision after a bomb leftover from the 2nd Indochina War exploded in his hands. We climbed to Everest Base Camp in Nepal and took a harrowing 17 hour jeep ride back to civilisation! In India, we have gone by rail and bus from Kolkata in the east all the way to the Thar desert in the west of Rajasthan... It has been an incredible year to date!

Teach, Learn, Share

I am a writer, and a journalist. I would be happy to talk to people about the profession and teach people the basic of reporting. For instance, what makes news, how you can find or develop an angle for a story, how you can conduct good interviews, write concisely, etc.