I decided to finally start writing about my travel experiences (just the memorable ones). Today is the exact one-year mark since I arrived home from a two month trip to Southeast Asia and Europe - it's almost scary how a year just flew by while each day and hour and minute at work these days feels like an infinity. I kept a small notepad to use as a journal all throughout my trip last year, which I also typed up to keep online shortly after, but I believe a reminiscing blog post can actually be more detailed than events and thoughts I hastily jotted down along the way. It gives me more space to reflect.
I like to think my travel experiences start from Couchsurfing in Seoul, before I even left home. I came across the website while looking for accommodation and created an account months before my trip to get acquainted with the system. Essentially, Couchsurfing (CS for short) is a community for travelers - "hosts" can open up their homes to "surfers" for free, or just meet up for a meal or chat or attend events or whatever. This isn't to be used just for free accommodation, though. Couchsurfing is a chance for travelers to meet locals, exchange cultures, and bond with people from all over the world. The experiences you can get from this are actually priceless, if done the right away. Sadly, Couchsurfing is slowly losing its positive reputation after going for-profit and a lot of its members don't seem to have that original CS spirit. Plus, you also need to keep in mind that there are some perverted freaks out there as well, but usually you'll be fine if you carefully read each person's profile and references left by other CSers.
Since my home is not in any condition to host anyone, I reached out to people visiting Seoul and offered just to hang out and show them around. I was able to meet up with 4 different people before leaving for my first destination abroad:
The first person I met was a German guy around my age, who was a university student. We had coffee and explored the flea market together, then met up again a few days later to revisit the market at night. We enjoyed talking so much that he missed the last train home and had to take a taxi. He was a unique character with cool taste in music (he made music himself too), a bit on the hipster side. Very different from me in a lot of ways, which I found intriguing. I decided since I was planning on visiting Germany anyway, I'd make a stop in his city, and did eventually surf at his place for 3 nights. However, the more time we spent together in Germany, I think we both realized that our differences might have sparked interest in the beginning but later was something that made us totally incompatible, and I was glad to leave when the time came.
I met up with a Singaporean girl as well, Margy, whom I found to be a complete delight. She could speak a bit of Korean already and had visited before. We met at Samcheongdong, the street with cute little cafes, and had coffee and lunch. I found her personality very gentle and friendly, and she had brought me guava from Singapore, which really was a pleasant surprise since I wasn't expecting anything at all. Even better, I got to meet up with her again when I went to Singapore and it was her turn to take me around. She was a much better host, I have to say; she drove me around, took me to a hawker center and introduced me to a gazillion different foods, and I got a lot of good sightseeing done with her. And that's not all! Last autumn she came to Korea again, and I invited her to my place twice for some homemade Korean dinner, and introduced her to my friends and my family. I am pretty sure that our paths will cross again, and I certainly don't think of her as just a passerby in my life.
Next I met a guy named Ed, from Canada. We met for an early lunch of dakkalbi, had ice cream for dessert, went to karaoke, then brought some Korean snacks to a DVD room to watch a movie where he sort of fell asleep halfway, then had kimbap for dinner. I spent a whole day with him but it didn't feel awkward at all, since he was so easygoing and felt like an old friend despite the fact that we'd met for the first time that day. I was really sad when he left, since I felt we could have had a lot of fun together. Luckily, we remained in touch through Facebook and now I get to meet him in Korea again this September. :)
Last was an Australian girl who was technically my first hosting experience. She desperately needed a place to store her luggage before her flight in the early morning, so I decided to host her for one night despite the awful conditions I had to offer. We met late at night for a drink at a bar, and went to karaoke for 3 whole hours. She's a sensational singer and I didn't even notice the hours going by. We walked back to my place and snoozed for an hour before she had to leave at 5 in the morning to catch her flight. By this point I decided I should stop meeting Couchsurfers for a while, because it was heartbreaking to meet all these great people for a few hours and then say goodbye, never knowing when we'd ever meet again. Mikala visited Seoul again last year though, and we were able to meet up one more time for a brief chat over dessert.
And this is only the beginning, before I even started traveling myself! The experiences had all been positive, and I was excited for what new people I would be able to meet through CS during my travels. Indeed, I did run into some more incredible, and some not-so-good encounters, all of which I can't wait to write about soon. :)
I like to think my travel experiences start from Couchsurfing in Seoul, before I even left home. I came across the website while looking for accommodation and created an account months before my trip to get acquainted with the system. Essentially, Couchsurfing (CS for short) is a community for travelers - "hosts" can open up their homes to "surfers" for free, or just meet up for a meal or chat or attend events or whatever. This isn't to be used just for free accommodation, though. Couchsurfing is a chance for travelers to meet locals, exchange cultures, and bond with people from all over the world. The experiences you can get from this are actually priceless, if done the right away. Sadly, Couchsurfing is slowly losing its positive reputation after going for-profit and a lot of its members don't seem to have that original CS spirit. Plus, you also need to keep in mind that there are some perverted freaks out there as well, but usually you'll be fine if you carefully read each person's profile and references left by other CSers.
Since my home is not in any condition to host anyone, I reached out to people visiting Seoul and offered just to hang out and show them around. I was able to meet up with 4 different people before leaving for my first destination abroad:
The first person I met was a German guy around my age, who was a university student. We had coffee and explored the flea market together, then met up again a few days later to revisit the market at night. We enjoyed talking so much that he missed the last train home and had to take a taxi. He was a unique character with cool taste in music (he made music himself too), a bit on the hipster side. Very different from me in a lot of ways, which I found intriguing. I decided since I was planning on visiting Germany anyway, I'd make a stop in his city, and did eventually surf at his place for 3 nights. However, the more time we spent together in Germany, I think we both realized that our differences might have sparked interest in the beginning but later was something that made us totally incompatible, and I was glad to leave when the time came.
I met up with a Singaporean girl as well, Margy, whom I found to be a complete delight. She could speak a bit of Korean already and had visited before. We met at Samcheongdong, the street with cute little cafes, and had coffee and lunch. I found her personality very gentle and friendly, and she had brought me guava from Singapore, which really was a pleasant surprise since I wasn't expecting anything at all. Even better, I got to meet up with her again when I went to Singapore and it was her turn to take me around. She was a much better host, I have to say; she drove me around, took me to a hawker center and introduced me to a gazillion different foods, and I got a lot of good sightseeing done with her. And that's not all! Last autumn she came to Korea again, and I invited her to my place twice for some homemade Korean dinner, and introduced her to my friends and my family. I am pretty sure that our paths will cross again, and I certainly don't think of her as just a passerby in my life.
Next I met a guy named Ed, from Canada. We met for an early lunch of dakkalbi, had ice cream for dessert, went to karaoke, then brought some Korean snacks to a DVD room to watch a movie where he sort of fell asleep halfway, then had kimbap for dinner. I spent a whole day with him but it didn't feel awkward at all, since he was so easygoing and felt like an old friend despite the fact that we'd met for the first time that day. I was really sad when he left, since I felt we could have had a lot of fun together. Luckily, we remained in touch through Facebook and now I get to meet him in Korea again this September. :)
Last was an Australian girl who was technically my first hosting experience. She desperately needed a place to store her luggage before her flight in the early morning, so I decided to host her for one night despite the awful conditions I had to offer. We met late at night for a drink at a bar, and went to karaoke for 3 whole hours. She's a sensational singer and I didn't even notice the hours going by. We walked back to my place and snoozed for an hour before she had to leave at 5 in the morning to catch her flight. By this point I decided I should stop meeting Couchsurfers for a while, because it was heartbreaking to meet all these great people for a few hours and then say goodbye, never knowing when we'd ever meet again. Mikala visited Seoul again last year though, and we were able to meet up one more time for a brief chat over dessert.
And this is only the beginning, before I even started traveling myself! The experiences had all been positive, and I was excited for what new people I would be able to meet through CS during my travels. Indeed, I did run into some more incredible, and some not-so-good encounters, all of which I can't wait to write about soon. :)
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