Sam is Australian and Orna is Irish. They are traveling the world together and are heading to Koh Tao and then to Vietnam where they plan to teach English for 6 month.

Tik and I were both busy working this week but got the opportunity to take them for dinner at Fah Sai restaurant and, today to Crepes and Co for brunch.

I’d seen videos of this park online and looked forward to how close we could get to the giraffes. The park itself was great value; 300 baht for westerners, 130 for Thais.

Outside the park we had the opportunity to play with an excitable lion cub and have a group photo with a pretty lethargic tiger.

The park itself was as I’d imagined it, animals so used to tourists that they stuck their heads right into the car.

I found the zebras a little aggressive. They constantly snarled and jumped at the giraffes in a bid to get into our windows.

Tik didn’t appreciate me shoving a carrot down her pants as the giraffes tongue invaded the car but I think the giraffe probably enjoyed himself.

A few seconds after this photo was taken mr camel decided he’d take a bite at my entire arm. Thankfully Tik had a medi-kit in the car to clean me up.

We have many more photos of the weekend here.

We chose a bank holiday weekend so a few guesthouses were booked up but we were lucky enough to find Sams Rafthouse which is along the river Kwai and not far from the infamous (and infamously dull) railway.

Although we were planning on only modest accommodation Tik was excited to be offered the VIP rafthouse with fully fitted bathroom. At 800 baht for the night this was very reasonable and the room was clean and well-maintained. We were looking forward to sitting outside on the floating patio and getting to know our new friends.

We sat outside on the porch, discussing life until late.

Stefan and Aileen are a similar age to us and we had a lot in common. Sadly, although they have been living in Bangkok for many years, we met them just a week before they relocated to the Philippines.

We were also jonied by their friends Arare and her partner (forgotten his name already, sorry). We began the night at the stylish ‘Face Bar’ in Sukumvit which is styled very much like a spa resort. They offer Japanese, Indian and Thai food.

After that we next went to Gazebo on Sukumvit Soi 1. Gazebo is a spacious rooftop bar with excellent live music.

Both places are reasonably expensive but come highly recommended.

The most memorable guests are usually those who cook for us and Elisa, Hector and Sameer came at a time when we weren’t too busy with work and could all relax together.

Elisa and Hector are Spanish although they’ve been all over the world for the last 7 years. They have just completed a round-the-world journey and are heading to Koh Phangnan to study to become yoga instructors and, when they complete their course will head to Brazil to teach at a school there.

Sameer is from El Salvador and is probably the biggest Couchsurfing fanatic we’ve yet met. Current he has about 145 positive references and is one of the ambassadors from El Salvador. Sameer’s had a very interesting life and is in Thailand to complete some advanced diving courses in Koh Tao.

What made this hosting experience so fun was just how comfortable everybody was with each other. Elisa and Hector prepared a delicious Spanish Omelette for us and served me fresh juices in the morning when I began work.

Aikiko is a fellow Couchsurfer and both her and her friend Yuka spoke perfect English, have a very sharp sense of humor and we couldn’t have hoped for better hosts to spend our time with.

After an enjoyable dinner together we went to a bar in Omoide
yokocho (translates at ‘memory side-street’).

The area used to be a popular haunt for Yakuza but nowadays it’s safe, friendly and very fun.

We enjoyed refreshing beers here and also an assortment of grilled nibbles such as the mushrooms below.

The bar was only small and after about 90 minutes we were asked to vacate our seats for waiting customers but got a lot through some great food, drink and conversation during that time.

We left Aikiko and Yuka about 10pm and headed for a Pachinko parlor to finish off the evening.

We’d planned to meet up with Simon and Delfin – two Couchsurfers who couldn’t make it to yesterday’s picnic and we also called up Anri, one of the girls we met the day before who joined up with two other Couchsurfing members.

There was a friendly mix of Couchsurfers here, both foreign and Japanese, every person having something of value to contribute.

Between us all there was a lot of food, and slightly more drink.

Not only did we enjoy spending time chatting with everybody but also we learnt of some paces of interest to keep us busy for the next two days around Kyoto.

As you’ll see, the picnic went on until dark and after that, one of our new Couchsurfing friend Anri took us to a Manga cafe so we could spend some time online to research places to stay in Tokyo.

We met some really great people who we’ll certainly keep in touch with and although Kyoto is a big city we actually bumped into two couchsurfers by chance a few days later. This really made us feel at home in Kyoto.

Having hosted now about 50 people in Bangkok we were excited to actually stay with Couchsurfers in Japan.

We were actually a little disappointed that finding places to stay in Japan was not especially easy. There are a lot of Couchsurfers living around Kyoto but:

- All but a few Couchsurfers wanted to actually host. Instead they preferred to meet for a coffee.

- Many Japanese people were still living with parents who were not comfortable with opening their home to strangers.

- Many people lived in shared accommodation and wouldn’t allow Couchsurfers to stay home between 8am and 10pm whilst they went to work.

- Many people (both Japanese and western) chose to travel around Japan during the time we were there.

- Those that could host had been booked up months ahead in anticipation of the Sagura period. We were in the most popular part of Japan, at the most popular time of the year.

- Many hosts could not accommodate two people as their apartments were too small.

- Many hosts wanted either males or females but not one of each.

- Many rental properties prohibited guests so a lot of people were just not allowed to host.

- Many Couchsurfers took weeks to even reply to us, even when we wrote quite sincere emails.

- We encountered a few Japanese-Western couples where the westerner really wanted to host, but his wife was reluctant.

Luckily Michael was our knight in shining pajamas. In total we stayed with him for 6 nights of our trip.

We tend not to host guests ourselves when we don’t expect to have much time to spend with them but Michael hosted very differently. Knowing that he’d be at work from lunchtime to as late as midnight he provided us with his apartment key and trusted us to treat it respectfully.

Michael’s apartment was (I believe) typical of most westerners in Japan. It’s a very small studio apartment with its own bathroom. There was literally just enough space to accommodate Michael’s bed and, on the floor next to him we placed a futon that Tik and I slept on.

On the far side was a desk for the computer. At the end of the computer desk, next to the bathroom entrance was a kitchen area that took up only slightly more space that a telephone kiosk.

Despite the small space, we were surprisingly comfortable there. After days of constant walking (or cycling) we slept perfectly every night. The futon was so comfortable that I’d certainly consider sacrificing my bed in Bangkok for one.

In all, we used Michael’s apartment more than he did and we got about an hour together each day either before bed or in the morning. Michael is making the most of his time in Japan and got married recently.

Despite working hard he gets to see his wife regularly and seems very happy living here. His location makes it very easy for him to travel around Kansai and he has a good job that he seems to enjoy.

Michael is not an English teacher here which is quite unusual. I expect that this is one reason why he enjoys life more than a lot of teachers we spoke with.

Posing here with their netbooks, downloading movie torrents and uploading photos to facebook, both travelers prepare themselves for their next leg of adventures in India.

There were about 50 people there and although we met some great people it wasn’t as friendly as our new years eve party.

I was really delighted to have reunited with May – an old colleague of mine from my teaching days.

We decided to take a lot of food with us and, you’ll see from the photos, as I spread the word about the virtues of Marmite on bread, Tik was ready with her camera to snap the consequent faces-of-discomfort.

View the rest of the photos here

She’s been known to confiscate our Couchsurfer’s cameras as soon as they get settled here and; using a combination of feminine wiles, mental and physical torture and heat-exposure wearing down their resistance.

Here is shocking evidence of the outcome of such session. She is making our couchsurfing friend Greg perform arial aerobics until she’s satisfied with the results.

After a battle of minds, drawn out over days Tik finally defeats Couchsurfer Greg into submission and strips him of all masculinity.

- Philippe and Amelia, a really lovely couple from Switzerland who’re traveling the world and are on their way to India.

- Alex, the guy we met in Kanchenaburi last week who’s on his way to the Philippines.

- Toon, Tik’s sister who came to Bangkok for a meeting.

We had a few other friends in Bangkok as well so took the opportunity to invite everybody over for dinner and drinks.

We ate at a great restaurant down the road called Fah Sai which serves Thai food.

Phillipe and Amelia has spent time with an American called Steve who joined us along with Jen and Matt, a couple who’ve stayed with us twice already but unfortunately third time around we didn’t have room to accommodate them.

Coincidentally it was also our friend Stella’s birthday. Stella is the mum of David – the friend I play tennis with every morning. David and his family live upstairs from us. They were unable to join us for dinner but came to our room afterwards with all the family – including Jessica, their 2-year old daughter, who – after a lot of coaxing finally managed to play my harmonica.

In all there were about 12 of us who sat talking and relaxing until just after midnight. It was a great start to another fun-packed weekend.

All photos are here.

We decided to host another party last night. Most of us came for dinner at the large Issarn Restaurant round the corner, then it was back to our place for drinks and Wii games.

• Nolan, Tim and Josh – three American couchsurfers who were staying with us for three nights.
   
• Hailey and her Thai friend Roz. Hailey stayed with us a few weeks back and came to see us again beore flying home to Korea.
   
• Ying, Masaya and Sophie who we’d not seen since before New Year.
   
• Chris and Gai who are about to move out of Bangkok to travel the world together.
   
• Our Friend P’A
   
• Eric & Yasmin, a couchsurfing couple who’ve just arrived in Bangkok who hopefully we’ll get to spend more time with soon.
   
• Quinn, another couchsurfer who we unfortunately couldn’t host this week but we hope might return soon to stay with us.
   

It was also Tik’s birthday today so it was great being around such fun people.

Although many people were couchsurfers, we’d invited them privately so this wasn’t an official couchsurfing event.

In the future though we’ll issue a few more open invites to other couchsurfers who live or have arrived in Bangkok.

Click Here For Photos

We made the most of CouchSurfing this new year and joined up for our first group event.

We were to meet in Charley Brown’s Mexican restaurant on Sukumvit 11. They had a great promotion where, for 1,000 baht we were served a refillable variety of Mexican snacks and could order any drink on the menu except for Corona.

We invited P’A to join us and also one of Tik’s new colleagues Vivek. As we’d not actually eaten all day Tik and I were first to make use of the offer and we arrived about 30 minutes before anybody else.

Between 6 and 10:30 more people rolled in, to make a total of about 15 people. I thoroughly enjoyed the Sangria, even more-so when I learnt it was included in our 1,000 baht package.

We spent most of the time talking to new friends and learning about their life and travels.

The group divided at 11pm. Most went to Central World Plaza for the new year countdown. Tik, P’A, Vivek, Nicky, Marcello and I headed to Tapas Bar in Silom soi 4.

We danced there from 11:30 until about 1:30 and, pretty much missing any dramatic countdown during the dancing. It was busy but we did manage to find some space to dance.

Tik and I left about 1:30 and took refuge at Coffee World round the corner. By a stroke of luck as we sat down, pretty much all the other Couchsurfers arrived there too. P’A came to join us there and we spent the last hour of our night out talking and recovering from the exertion.

We were looking forward to our first CouchSurfing event. I was looking forward to mixing with new people and Tik was excited about the unlimited food buffet. We’ve made some great new friends and, although we’re both heading to Khao Yai tomorrow for a few days, once we’re back in Bangkok hopefully some of them will come stay with us.

Based on our first few hours of 2009, this year is certain to be the best year ever.

Click here to see our photos

Hailey, our CouchSurfing friend from Korea stayed two nights with us and taught us how to make the Korean version of Sushi. She is now in Hanoi teaching children English for a month. One thing We’ll always remember about Hailey is that she brought with her a big pack of balloons to twist into cool shapes for the kids. Whilst here, she made an umbrella and flower for us. Click Here for Photos

We decided to treat our first ever CouchSurfers and P’A to a weekend in Koh Samet.

We arrived Saturday lunchtime and left the following day but managed to have time to swim, read and to get pretty drunk in the evening.

Click Here to view the rest of our photos

Tik and I joined up with Couchsurfing as a way of making contacts when we travel to Japan in April 09.

The concept behind the site is to connect traveler with hosts. As a host you make your couch (or bed) available to interesting people and, as a traveler you get the benefit of arriving in a town worldwide and immediately having a friend, a room and perhaps a tour guide to help you out.

f you’re not that way inclined then Couchsurfing is also great to ask questions to residents of places you’ll be traveling to, and there’s a large social community worldwide where you can meet up without the obligation of sparing a room.

A few friends of ours find the idea of inviting strangers to stay quite worrying, but Tik and I are positive people who assume the best in everybody.  Networks like this can only work when every participant reciprocates a level of trust and respect. We’re confident we’ll attract the right kind of guests.

Even before we’d added our profile we started getting inundated with requests to stay with us and we are averaging about 3 requests per day.

Click this link for our Couchsurfing profile page.

If you love to meet people and / or to travel then visit their website here. Remember it’s free – and great fun.