CURRENT MISSION

Decide where to live in Canada six months per year

ABOUT ME

When I stay at someone's place I do the dishes and clean up after myself! Unless I cook, which I love to do. Then my host does the dishes! My idea of a good time is cooking vegetarian dishes for my hosts.

PHILOSOPHY

The sun rises every day. Fundamentally a secular Buddhist and Stoic.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Decades before CS I was couch surfing. I just didn't call it that. Neither did my new friends. Like the time in the middle of winter in Regina, Canada when I was working as a travelling salesman at a college and I thought 'I know my boss pays me a per diem, but staying in motels is so boring' So somehow, I got invited by a kind Chinese couple. I learned what it is like to be an academic from another country, living in a very unfamiliar climate.

When living in Vancouver I took in two Americans who couldn't afford a hotel. Then after three days it was a major effort to evict them!

Or in Singapore when I was videoing the zoo, a zookeeper invited me to his place. I look him up whenever I return and take him out for Hainan chicken rice.

The list goes on and on. With courtesy, generosity and human feelings, there is no need to stay in hotels. And of course, one must be conscious that because one is not staying in a paid room one must be especially sensitive to household rules and expectations. It is 'accommodation' in the truest sense. My only regret is that I still don't have my own home to reciprocate, and will not for several years.

Interests

- riverine life: ferries and floating houses
- food: vegetarian, spices
- herbal medicine (I make my own tinctures)
- business: whatever is a portable and harmless
- bicycling: short touring, not across Africa on a 3-speed
- swimming: especially ocean and river
- hotsprings: everywhere I go, even hot places
- festivals: I am fascinated by religion though no longer a believer

• festivals
• dining
• vegetarian
• traveling
• swimming
• business
• medicine
• religion

Music, Movies, and Books

- blues music
- Polish and Spanish cinema
- satire such as National Lampoon magazine from the 1970s
- Sam Harris

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Learned: Recently a friend showed me that it is not necessary to boil water for tea. Just leave it overnight.

Done: Hand-sew a shirt according to techniques and pattern style from mid-seventeenth century. Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds, and after doing so I felt like a demi-god.

Teach, Learn, Share

to share

- living in Canada and Cambodia

to learn

- local smells
- local food

What I Can Share with Hosts

my travels and advice on living and working in Cambodia for many years

Countries I’ve Visited

Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Cambodia, Canada, Thailand, Viet Nam

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