Dear cyclists,
My name is Gesa and with this post, I am helping Malte Jäger, a professional photojournalist (www.maltejaeger.de) from Berlin, Germany with his current photographic reportage project about hospitality communities. In this project he is intending to show how couchsurfing and opther hospitality networks just like warmshowers are able to bring cultures together. His aim in this project is to document how CS creates worldwide, fascinating personal contacts, makes international understanding possible and helps people of different social classes getting closer.
For this project he is travelling with five different active couchsurfers to different regions of the world. He is covering those journeys with emphasis on the social interaction. In the end the project will be published as a book and in a German magazine (GEO Magazine). The first two journeys are available in in Blog at the magazines website:
http://www.geo.de/blog/geo/couchsurfin-the-world
Malte is travelling in India for the same project at the moment. He already visited Africa, Central Asia and Brazil for the same purpose. The last destination should be China. He is planing to go there either in the End of May, or in the beginning of June.
Unfortunaly, Malte still didn't find noone, travelling as a cyclist using exclusively web based hospitality communties in this time and region!
So, I would be more than pleased to hear that you think that you might be the right one to travel with! (Or like wise to be informed about other interesting couchsurfers you would like to recommend!)
I am particularly searching for the very special ones of you, doing unusual things, using the system in a special way!
For the project it is important that you are not from China so that cultural differences are visible.
You should be a genuine couchsurfer, or using annother web based hospitality community (no couchsurfer by chance, mixing CS trips with stays in hostels, camping in a tent, cruises, hotels, or whatever else)
You should be cycling whenever possible!
Because of Maltes experiences in the last journeys he would prefer to travel with more than one person. So if you are couchsurfing in a group, or even better as a family with kids it would be perfect!
Sorry but you are not the right one if your main intention is just ordinary tourism, following every single step the lonely planet describes.
If you feel like responding to this post please be as kind as sending me a personal message instead of replying in a thread. Otherwise I can't keep track of the answers...
Have a great day,
Gesa Steeger for
Malte Jäger
Hey Gesa and Malte
Not sure if this is any good to you.
We'll be heading out of greece or turkey March 2011 on our way to china on a 8 month trip. We'll be 1st visiting some relatives in Germany.
Our trips rarely ( if ever ) involve any public transport and we never ever ever ever use LP for sleeping or eating recommendations. Our eating and sleeping is always pot luck and go out of our way to avoid the tourist crowds.
We will try the warmshowers as much as possible and will go out of our way to find them.
Will usually use the places of interest in the books ahead of time and use the local maps and people for places of interest.
Our past 2 journals are on crazyguyonabike. India, Sri Lanka and SE Asia.
fred/wendy
hi fred and wendy,
thank you so much for your reply to the post above!
your trip and your attitude sound so great!
what a pitty that you are a year late! i will have to do the documentary in the next two months, so 2011 is not fitting my schedule at all.
anyways, i will check out crazyguyonabike.com! i hope i will find somebody going on tour now over there!
cheers,
malte