My first bit of surfing in Thailand

This is a bit of an old post finally added.....

Jan 07.... I had been on the road for days in N. Thailand and my bum was suffering from a lethal combination of bumpy roads, spicy curries and beaten up old buses. I was almost on my way to the next city but the thought of fighting through dozens of Tuk-Tuk drivers and spending an hour searching around numerous moldy guest houses stopped me in my tracks. With a very dull and hollow pop a thought entered my head - I remembered my brother and girlfriend mentioning an interesting sounding website called 'Couch Surfing'

http://www.couchsurfing.com/ is a website dedicated to hooking up travellers with accommodation in people's houses. This web community spans the world and you flag yourself as either a host who has a 'couch' available, or a traveller who wants somewhere to stay. If you get lucky then couch meets surfer and everyone is happy. I was initially a sceptic but I thought I would give it a go.

Before leaving to Chiang Mai i signed up and wrote a pretty lame email to some unsuspecting hosts in Thailand and beyond. A couple of days later I was surprised then that someone actually replied with an offer of a free bed in my next port of call. Due to a badly timed power cut in the internet cafe I didn't have time to reply to this kind offer and set off in the bus expecting to hook up with this person after a couple of days of being in the city. Instead this person called me up on my mobile and asked when I was arriving.... ''in about 2 hours" I replied. "Great, no problems, come and find me at the such n' such resort" was the surprising reply.

I was tired and sore when I arrived so decided to take her up on the offer and hoped into a Taxi to her place. When I arrived at this 'restaurant' the scam alarm started raising the hairs on the back of my neck. This lady was not just meeting me there... she owned the bloody place. She'd lured me to her place and would end up charging me for the pleasure of 'surfing' her couch. With my heckles up I started talking to her but slowly realised that she was actually genuine - I could stay for free at her very nice hotel. Now at this point I started relaxing and looking around. This resort was not only located on the river it was tastefully decorated and housed some very nice artwork on the walls. I estimated this place to cost at least 5 times my normal room - this was later confirmed when I overheard some other customers arriving and discussing the price. I had a 4 poster bed, en-suite and a TV... luxuries I had missed for weeks!

It was explained that because the resort was not full then it was no problem to offer a room out as they were empty anyway. "But what about the fact you were giving me food in your restaurant and my room was being cleaned each day" I thought. Well in her mind she was paying the staff a salary so why not let them look after the travellers as they pass through. The food was all bought in fresh so if I didn't eat it then it would probably go to waste.

A couple of other 'surfers' arrived a day later and the 3 of us sat there delighted about our stroke of good fortune. The hosting side of the project is great because it gives people a chance to meet people from all over the world without having to leave the house, what confused us a little though was that the host only spent about 20 minutes with us in all the time we were there! She was very busy with other bits and bobs!

So why host so many people? Well during the time we did spend with her, and from the experiences of others, this host was simply a very kind heaarted person and was offering her room as a way of extending her hospitality to people in need of a hot shower. When I eventually get a couch of my own then I will definitely host, in the mean time guys why don't you sign up yourself and meet someone new?

NB.. I have deliberately not named my host to prevent travellers who may read this from taking advantage of her hospitality. You will just have to be as surprised as I was on finding this gem.