CURRENT MISSION

respect each day

ABOUT ME

From time to time people say to me, "you have a charmed life." I never really understood what they meant, coz my life was just my life. Now I'm starting to get it - having lived in Vietnam for 21 years, from the time when there was not a supermarket nor a taxi company, and being a contemporary artist most of that time, I guess you could say my life is a bit unconventional. It's been an adventure, not the holiday kind, the live it as it comes kind. I've never lived a 9-5, mainstream lifestyle. Perhaps that explains why I'm 47 and interested in couchsurfing. Seems not many people in my age bracket on this website. :-) That certainly doesn't bother me, and I hope it doesn't bother you. Another thing people often say is that I'm young for my age. Yeah, well, maybe that's part of the "charmed" stuff.

I've traveled lots (maybe 35 countries), as part of art projects, to visit relatives, learn a language (Japanese) or just to see things, or just to live. I'm more a traveler than a tourist. I like to take a mellow approach, hopefully with local people, go to the kinds of places they go, live on their kind of rhythm, not fuss too much about the famous spots, hear their stories. Before my first trip to Indonesia, someone advised me to travel with a suitcase and take nice clothes. I followed his advice and reaped the rewards. To mix with Indonesians, I had to dress nicely, the way that they do. The advice was a powerful metaphor. This is why I never became a backpacker.

The opportunity suddenly came up to visit O'ahu last year. I arrived knowing very little. After about 3 weeks of gazing at dark clouds scrape over the mountains each morning, I started to sense the mana of the land, and by the time I left, I knew that this was somewhere I definitely had to return to. I was pretty isolated though - I did not meet many people, nor get to too many places around the island last year. My interest is in Hawai'i is as a place and as a culture. My hope this time is to learn a lot more about traditional culture, spirituality and philosophy, to go to mana-ful sites, to spend a lot more time in the water snorkeling or swimming with sea turtles or learning to surf, and to meet many more people who live on the island and each have their own stories and perspectives, their way of being.

PHILOSOPHY

keep it light, but respect the depth
practice compassion - everyone is on a different stage of their journey, and have their different reasons
minimize my footprint
die wise

Pourquoi je suis sur Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am really blown away by the generous and open spirit of this project / concept, and love the way that it side-steps a commerical approach to visiting a place. I think that is really valuable, because being a "tourist," and staying in a hotel, even if nice, can be so isolating and one-dimensional approach.

This time I am only looking to surf, but once I set up house again, I'll be looking to host too.

I hope that when I get myself set up again in Saigon later this year, I'll be able to reciprocate.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

This trip to O'ahu is going to be my first experience couchsurfing and I'm I'm really excited about the opportunity to meet people from different walks of life, and to see life on the island through their eyes.

I first heard about couchsurfing when I was doing some organic farming in Hokkaido and Okinawa in Japan last year, and it was recommended to me warmly by folks who had done it. So here we go!

Centres d'intérêt

cooking, slow food, photography, motorbiking (I live in Vietnam, motorbike paradise), dance, awesome DJs, bodywork, meditation, yoga, organic farming, badminton, running, swimming, snorkeling, architecture and urban environments, creativity in the widest sense, good chats over Vietnamese coffee sitting in some grungy alley in Saigon!

• arts
• culture
• architecture
• contemporary art
• photography
• dancing
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• walking
• clothing
• traveling
• socializing
• cycling
• backpacking
• snorkeling
• swimming
• badminton
• teaching
• languages
• tourism
• mountains

Morceaux de musique, films et livres

Favorite filmmakers: Kurosawa & Wong Kar Wai's work.
Favorite films: Apocalypse Now & Thin Red Line.

For music, I've been listening to the Bach cello suites for 30 years. I used to play them too. John Coltraine is unsurpassable for me in terms of jazz, and I enjoy good house, dub, lounge, blues, whether just listening or dancing.

I recently read a very inspiring book about Europe's first celebrity chef in the 1700s, and am currently reading The Brain That Changes Itself, which is fascinating.

Une aventure extraordinaire que j'ai vécue

- Amazing...the privilege of seeing a newly born baby only a few hours old.
- Living in the mountains in Japan where the snow piles up 3 meters tall and the entire world becomes a giant white sculpture.

- Walking through the park designed by Isamu Noguchi in Sapporo.The moment you step in you sense the genius of the man. Ecstatic experience of space & form, that was!

- Angkor Wat at dawn, the Bayon at dusk.

- Biking around the backroads of Vietnam, the mountains, the coast, crossing the Mekong on the tiniest, most fragile of ferries that look like they've been bandaged together.

- Learning how to walk again after a traffic accident.

Enseignez, apprenez, partagez

I teach cooking classes in Vietnam and Japan (Hungarian & also some Asian) so I'd be really happy to teach you something or learn a new dish from you.

If you own one but don't really know how to use it, I can get you going with using your digital or film SLR - used to teach a photography class at university.

I taught languages for a long time in the past, so if you're up for a bit of a Japanese or Vietnamese lesson, that's ok too. Hungarian too, but that's probably not so useful in Hawai'i.

I can guide someone through Kelee Meditation or the Hawaiin practice of Ho'oponopono (Foundation of I). Guide only, I'm not a teacher.

I can also do reiki (level 2). Not teach, but do a reiki healing for you.