CURRENT MISSION

East Asia

ABOUT ME

I love travelling and getting to know people from other cultures and immersing myself into local life. I am addicted to travelling, and love everything about it. I have been very fortunate to be in a situation where I have been able to travel to a variety of places, and hopefully I can continue to have adventures around the world, meeting cool people along the way.

PHILOSOPHY

'Live your dream, don't dream your life.'

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

The CS concept is brilliant. I have made some good friends through the process, and as soon as I am back from my next trip I hope I can host some surfers and give back to the community.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I started couchsurfing on my last trip, and it was a great experience. I have made genuine friends through couchsurfing, and my whole trip was made much better because of this.

Interests

Travelling, photography, cooking, reading, film, going out, cricket, football....

• dogs
• fish
• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• photography
• concerts
• festivals
• dancing
• dining
• seafood
• cooking
• breakfast
• chocolate
• wine
• cheese
• beer
• coffee
• running
• walking
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• house parties
• shopping
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• cars
• blogging
• jazz
• karaoke
• cycling
• fishing
• kayaking
• camping
• bungee jumping
• hinduism
• cricket
• rock climbing
• soccer
• paragliding
• swimming
• business
• economics
• teaching
• emergency services
• entrepreneurship
• history
• religion
• tours
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Kerouac, Welch, Niven, Moran, Chodron, Monbiot, Fisk, Chomsky, funky house music, motown, disco. Love film, too many to name.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My travels
- Swimming with whale sharks in Donsol
- Tubing in Vang Vieng
- Getting robbed in San Francisco
- Feeling in a dream world in the Primavera Sound concrete jungle
- Dancing to Sugarhill gang with 3 generations of camel men in the Rajastan desert
- Dancing Salsa in Cali
- Climbing an active volcano that erupted just a month or so earlier in Legaspi
- Getting in Tuk-Tuk crashes in Luang Prabang
- Trying to find the weirdest combination of Zappikanka toppings in Poland
- Wondering where all the anaesthetic went in Laos hospitals
- Watching Lionel Messi in the flesh at the Camp Nou
- Suiting it up in Hoi An
- Getting destroyed by tomatoes at La Tomatina in Spain
- Going for a run on the bridge over the River Kwai
- Losing all my money racing in Melbourne
- Winning some of it back hustling pool in Vietnam
- Drinking Clara (I'm not gay) in one of BCN’s sun-soaked piazzas.
- Swimming with Hector Dolphins in Acaroah
- Running away from Dingo’s in Frasier Island
- Finding a bit of paradise in secluded beaches and lagoons in Palawan
- Being mistaken for undercover police in the Baltimore ghetto’s
- Spending time with gangsters in a New York jail cell
- Having close shaves with trams in the Czech Republic
- Being mistaken for a lamppost in Las Ramblas with people trying to wee on me
- Climbing the Great Wall of China in Beijing
- Gambling with Filipino lads on the street
- Snorkelling in Phosphorescence at night in Thailand
- Accidently walking into an Earth, Wind and Fire concerts in gritty Southern France
- Getting hustled by crooked businessmen in Ko Tao
- Eating food that was impossible to identify in Singapore
- Spending 7p a beer in Vietnam
- Getting trampled by Chinese people on the subway
- Looking over the beautiful mess that is Barcelona from Montjuic.
- The best worst jazz in Placa Reial.
- Running along the Barcelona cityscape in Montjuic
- Kayaking limestone cliffs in Krabi
- Eating Fabadas in Asturias
- Watching 100’s of Chinese locals fall over each other, fight, scream and go mental to get close to a beardy Canadian with a silly hat
- Looking for non-existent tigers in Ranthambore
- Getting hit by taxi drivers in Las Vegas
- Trying to comprehend Auschwitz and Birkenau
- Visiting markets the size of towns in Bangkok
- Doing a bit of work at orphanages in Cambodia and Bali
- Drinking too many buckets in the Thai jungle
- Walking to La Ciudad Perdida, and realising in a few years it is going to be like Machu Pichu
- Being in Edinburgh in August
- Getting altitude sickness in the middle of the Himalaya’s
- Completing the trek in the Himalaya’s (Annapurna Circuit)
- Touching the Taj Mahal
- Blagging our way into house parties in Krakow
- Dancing embarrassingly on Gijon town square on NYE
- Feeling insignificant at the Grand Canyon
- Walking, and walking and walking but loving it on the Camino
- Loving the summer of festivals in Barcelona
- Trying to speak the local language with the locals laughing in my face at my attempts – always
- Observing Italian-American men run along greasy poles in search of local fame
- Off road horse riding in Salento
- Cava and Morcilla at the bar in real Barcelona.
- Watching the sun rise over landscapes I didn’t know existed in New Zealand
- Driving the Rocky Mountains in a semi-written off car
- Losing bets to Irish waitresses in Toronto
- Going to Kathmandu strip clubs where the girls wear jumpers
- Trying to break into the Coliseum in Rome
- Seeing futuristic skyscrapers rip through traditional Chinese neighbourhoods in Shanghai
- Putting on a stone eating: burgers, chilli-cheese fries, hot dogs, burrito’s, Philly cheesesteaks, chicken and waffles, taco’s, nacho’s and anything else you can think of in the USA
- Being blown away by the wax palm trees in Zona Cafetera
- Listening to every American I meet try and do an impression of me after 15 seconds
- Talking philosophy with drug dealers in the US
- Spending time with amazing friends in a country cottage in isolated France. Realising what was important in life.
- Maracuya juice in Colombia :)
- Getting on it at Dimensions Festival in Istria
- Eating fresh Pulpo in Galician Pulperias.
- Nearly drowning in Bangkok monsoons
- Feeling in France and in North Africa simultaneously in Perpignan.
- Munching on a Fiorentina steak
- Being mesmerised by Gaudi: whether La Pedrera, Park Guell, or the Sagrada Familia
- Realising how beautiful how beautiful my own country is: the Cotswolds, the Peak District, North Norfolk, Devon, Cornwell, the Yorkshire Dales etc.etc.etc.etc.etc.
- Attempting (not very well) to negotiate my way through Bogota
- Running away from angry Thai men trying to hit me with big metal bars (not my fault)
- Becoming emotionally attached (not in that way) to stray Indian dogs
- Being inspired on the Camino de Santiago by stroke victims, blind people and old French cyclists.
- Giving questionable but well-intentioned gifts to Indian street kids
- Appreciating the Atlantic coastline in Asturian fishing villages.
- Eating our own bodyweight in Uruguayan (Barceloneta) Steak at my favourite restaurant in the world.
- Visiting the Catalan Parliament during a plenary session and realising a cause that really drives peoples lives.
- Feeling bad about stroking stoned tigers
- Watching Flight of the Conchords in Hollywood
- Cycling the mad streets of Phnom Penh
- Being in the middle of undercover Police and football hooligans during the Krakow Derby
-Too much Ron Medellin
- Sleeping on every conceivable surface imaginable
- Getting soaked, then drying off in a soulful Oporto cafes eating Francesinhas
- Getting drunk on Port tours in Oporto
-Getting drunk on wine tours in Queenstown
- Tracing the Palio in Siena
- Eating pizza in Naples
- Breathing in the French countryside
- Mixing it up with 1 million Catalans who are screaming for independence
- Finding san Fracesco in Assisi
- Seeing one of the greatest buildings of my life: The Aya Sofia in Istanbul
- Avoiding eye contact with Riot Police in Istanbul
- Being overawad by the towers in San Gimignano
- Escaping the city walls in Cartagena
-Throwing up (on someone) at 100’s of feet in the air hungover on a paraglide in Hawaii (sorry)
- Watching Manny Pacquio with 100’s of Filipino’s in Manilla
- Trying famous hot chocolate in Perugia
- Taking in Aboriginal culture in Brisbane
- Getting in, then quickly getting out of the fart-like town of Roturua
- Reconnecting with my Iranian roots in Chiang Mai
- Wandering aimlessly around Topkaki Palace
- Realising I love jazz in Thailand
- Getting all emotional watching human castles in Catalonia.
- Having a look at Dali’s neck of the woods in Cadaques.
- Partying hard in Ko Phan Ngan
- Paragliding in Colombian coffee country
- Watching films all day at the Seattle film festival
- Raving at Global gathering and Creamfields
- Realising how small the ‘Mona Lisa’ actually is
- Eating Kebabs on the Istanbul streets
- Trekking through hill tribe villages in Chiang Mai
- Sampling the Amsterdam cafes
- Gliding through the Tuscan hills
- Eating far too many Pinchos (you really can’t stop)
- Throwing coins in Rome fountains, and taking silly pictures by the others
- Taking in the Algarve
- Sweating a lot in Cyprus
- Too much Club Colombia in Bucaramanga
- Cruising the Bosporus
- Getting the privilege to show my Mum and Bro around The Sagrada Familia.
- Getting involved in multiple micro-breweries in Portland
- Going to the top of the Petronas towers in KL
- Getting lost in the concrete jungle that is Jakarta
- Making love in cockroach-infested huts to secluded beaches
- Getting rinsed by Nepali kids at football with monkeys as an audience
- Feeling dizzy inside The Blue Mosque
- Doing Jag-off’s in DC
- The best Pinxtos in the world. Well, at least in Poble Sec.
- Being blown away by Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ in Milan
- Standing in the same spot Martin Luther King jr. did during his ‘I have a dream’ speech
- Being too lazy to run up the ‘Rocky’ steps
- Watching a horrific standard of football at an MLS match
- Sitting in between Neo-Nazi’s and Jews at beach bars
- Standing in Tianamen square
- Being stuck in ‘real’ Italy in non-touristy Grosseto for over a month
- Finding the male/female ratio in Nitra in Slovakia 1:10
- Getting abused by some Chinese people for being Western
- Not being able to see the end of traffic in Saigon
- Getting drunk on Kava in Fiji
- Driving across Slovakia with the only gay guy in the country dancing at the most working-class dive bar in the country with him Strictly Come dancing-style
- Standing where Oscar Schindler once stood in his enamel factory
- Running away from dragons throwing fireworks at me in Catalan villages
- Island – hopping in Thailand
- Meeting amazing travelling musicians in Granada
- Realising people from Trieste are from Trieste, not Italy.
- Being Mosquito’s lunch – everywhere
- Getting lost at the Louvre
- Pretending I was in Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik
- Staying conspicuous in small-town America
- Following the Tuscan coastline when not eating copious amounts of Tuscan food
- Although learning to cook Italian in the process
- Drinking out of red cups at US house parties
- Chilling in dive bars in Brooklyn
- Walking through the Alhambra – fantastic
- Drinking at the top of Shanghai
- Doing Thai cooking courses
- Watching seal cubs play in Golden Bay
- Avoiding cars, people, cows, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, water buffalo and everything else you can think of on the streets of Varanasi
- Eating fish that was swimming moments ago at Varkala beach
- Getting up close to some Elephants
- Drinking beer two-handed in Poland
- Drinking Jerez in Jerez with strange, old, interesting Jerezians?
- Village-hopping on the Adriatic coast
- Wetting my pants watching Rufus officially become the worst camel rider in the history of camel riding
- Dancing-off wherever we could
- Getting blown all over the shop in Tarifa.
- Eating any seafood I could get my hands on in Cadiz
- Eating any tapas I could get my hands on in Cadiz
- Going back in time to Art-Deco Napier
- Eating, drinking and well...that’s good enough for me in Seville
- Drinking wine, and eating bread and cheese by an illuminated Eiffel Tower.
- Eating the good, bad and the rest of local food everywhere
- Trying to move in Chinese sleeper-trains
- Mopeding top-gear style in Vietnam
- Standing on top on the renaissance world on Florence Duomo
- Staring at the Golden Gate bridge
- Being blown away by ruin bars in Budapest
- trying not to get beat-up by walking into the wrong tourist traps in Budapest but still losing money nevrtheless
- Realising how big the Statue of Liberty is
- Seeing the North African influence in Algeciras
- Feeling the sadness in the old Jewish ghettos in Krakow
- Learning about human spirit at Ellis Island
- Enjoying(?) strange traditional Christian processions in Andalucia
- Going to far too many Chinatowns, Little Italy’s, and Korea towns
- Keeping myself together in the Vietnam war museum
- Not managing to keep it together at S21 and the killing fields in Cambodia
- Hanging out at Surfers Paradise surf club with the locals
- Finding the best kebab shop in the world in Barcelona
- Standing in 4 US states at the same time
- Getting a sea cucumber put down your shorts
- Paying my respects to fallen heroes in Ypres
- Walking down the beautiful old alleys of Granada with orange trees above
- Trekking over the red crater on the Tongariro crossing
- Using the Washington monument as a giant penis
- Cycling around the industrial outskirts of old-school Krakow
- Trying to remember nights out on the Sunset Boulevard
- Chilling in San Diego hot tubs with a beer
- Accidentally driving on the left hand side of the road in the US
- Mocking hipsters around the globe
- Looking after Buddhist monks bags while they feed tigers
- Using Florence deli’s for lunch
- Feeling happy and slightly metrosexual at discovering Clara in Barcelona
- Dodging rats at Hindu temples
- Eating tapas and drinking sangria in Madrid
- Pretending I was Julie Andrews in Salzburg
- Eating Paella in Valencia
- Staring at immense ice glaciers in New Zealand
- Shitting my pants at the top of the highest bungee jump in Asia
- Watching in disbelief at years of young lads lives being taken away from them in the thud of a hammer
- Visiting far too many Phallus-shaped buildings – space needle, CN tower etc.
-Holding on to bus roofs in Nepal
- Thinking I was in a Disney film in Vienna
- seeing more churches than houses in small-town Slovakia
- Going on pasta hunts in the ‘colourful’ parts of Manilla
- Seeing Slovenia as a strange type of Disneyland.
- Finding the real Colombia in Sincelejo
- Checking out the biggest uni in the world in Columbus
- Being shocked by the material contrast in Budapest. Gucci shops one side and scavengers of thrown-away furniture on the other side of the street.
- Driving through the ‘middle bit’ of the US
- Colombian empanadas (every day)
- Being isolated in the beautiful Umbrian countryside
- Finding your very own river in the Catalan countryside
- Tasking Parpadelle Cinghiale for the first time in Tuscany
- Watching dead bodies cremated in front of me in Varanasi
- Getting chased (again). This time by an angry monkey and trying to palm him off on a helpless young lady (I’m a coward)
- Realising I’m especially not funny or witty in the US
- Feeling it really doesn’t matter what religion you are sitting in Jewish restaurants in Krakow
- Going over 4000m in Colombian mountains
- Seeing things I didn’t know existed in Asian oceans
- Learning about Maori’s in Wellington
- Mud-bathing in Vietnam
- Falling in love every couple of streets in Colombia
- Going to the closest thing I have seen to the "Titty Twister" bar in Pereira
- Learning how to film ‘bullet-time’ in Melbourne
- Finding the best vending machines in the world in Andalucia
- Not fitting in at LA pool parties
- Finding the secret Tuscan beach towns (I can’t tell you their names ;-))
- Finding the glam-rock scene in Ljubljana
- Freezing my bollocks off in Zagreb
- The Borek didn’t even warm me up enough
- Finding the most famous squat in Europe in Slovenia
- Getting messy at Sonar
- Arepas for breakfast in Colombia
- Scaling the isolated castles in Ljubljana
- Getting involved with the Miss Colombia show in Cartagena
- Being between the Iron curtain in Slovakia and the most beautiful castle you can see
- Munching on enormous sausages (not like that) in Austria
- Embarrassing myself karaoke-style in the Philippines
- Not understanding anything Andalucians say (and I am supposed to be able to communicate in Spanish)
- Sneaking into the Asian student games in Bangkok
- Wetting myself at the Melbourne comedy festival
- Trying to figure out how the ‘floating palace’ works in Udaipur
- Attempting to be a entrepreneur in Bangkok
- Dodging the fish in Pike Place market
- Running the prostitute gauntlet on Las Ramblas
- Chilling in 50’s diners getting served by Marilyn
- Trying to avoid eating Smazeny Syr every day in the Czech Republic.
- Meeting Samual L.Jackson and John Travolta in Hollywood for a fiver
- Trekking Abel Tasmin National Park
- Standing on the same spot where Simon Bolivar defeated the Spanish
- Being scared of the KKK in Spain, then realising they were just religious dudes.
- Squaring up to Neo-Nazis during Krakow Gay Pride
- Exploring beaches and medieval villages in Catalonia
- Becoming Czech in Olomouc
- Loving Cava and Morcilla in La Xamperia
- Picking up hitchhikers in New Zealand
- Picking up scary hitchhikers on the Spanish/French border
- Becoming a temple expert in India
- Visiting more gay bars than expected (accidentally)
- Finding the pancake rocks on the South Island of New Zealand
- (Transport) Breaking down everywhere
- Realising how soft I am whilst watching Muay Thai fights
- Watching snakes have their lunch
- Getting robbed (again) in Colombia
- Marvelling at the Charles Bridge in Prague
- Getting involved with some IPL 20/20 in Delhi
- Most importantly….realising how most of the people in the world are quality, and taking something positive out of everywhere I went.

Teach, Learn, Share

I work as a radio presenter on Barcelonacityfm.com and am also a qualified teacher. I run a couple of businesses (www.numptymonkey.com and www.photoshootbarcelona.com)and have taught business and economics at High school level.

I enjoy photography and my last exhibition was to highlight awareness for sex workers in Barcelona. An amazing experience.

I am also writing a book that will hopefully be getting published (when (if) I finish it).

I also have a blog about doing what you love at: www.findyourpassion.ninja.

I have a few good stories to share as well...

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook for you, I have a few good stories, and when I am not travelling I can repay the favour and host you (wherever I happen to be).

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Fiji, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Samoa, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Czech Republic, Spain, United Kingdom

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