COUCHSURFING: New experiences for travelers await

WHEN the travel bug bites it can be contagious, I’ve heard people say. The thought of traveling to a foreign country can be daunting for some. However, many would agree that once you force yourself out of your comfort zone, discover new places, meet new people and have new experiences, the feeling is often one of great achievement as well as a newly acquired zest for life. I’ve heard the same thing said by people in their 50s and 60s.

A well-traveled Canadian once said to me, “Galen, there are two things in this world that you should never pass up: learning something new and traveling experiences.” How right he was. The two seem to go hand in hand.

Websites and services such as Skype and Facebook have made traveling to faraway countries far less daunting than times past. These allow us to stay connected to family and friends wherever we may be in the world.

The cost of travel, however, is a reasonable argument for us not traversing across more of our planet. They haven’t yet invented a commercial airplane that can fly on air or cheap biofuel — at least not one that we’re allowed to use yet. There’s also the cost of accommodation to consider, which seems to be higher according to higher levels of comfort.
Enter CouchSurfing.

What is CouchSurfing?

CouchSurfing is simple. People volunteer to host a traveler from another country for an agreed-upon amount of time and travelers get free accommodation and the chance to meet and engage with local life. Couchsurfing.org has become an international, non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries worldwide. Millions have used CouchSurfing for cultural exchanges and to help them along their travels.

The response from travelers and locals alike has been hugely positive and there is a library of positive testimonials and experiences on the CouchSurfing website. It continues to show massive growth since its inception in 2004, with over three million successful couch-surfing or hosting experiences recorded to date.

“Our mission as an organisation is to create inspiring experiences: cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating. CouchSurfing’s initial focus was on hosting and ‘surfing’ [staying with a local as a guest in their home]. We have a vision of a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter. Each CouchSurfing experience shared by our members brings us closer to that vision.” — www.couchsurfing.org

How does CouchSurfing work?

Couchsurfing.org offers step-by-step instructions for getting started as a either a surfer or a CouchSurfing host. It basically uses profiles, by which each member is required to create and share as much information about themselves as possible. Many CouchSurfers tend to meet one another and offer to act as references. Reviews or comments are encouraged, which helps hosts and surfers shortlist their choices.

The service is free to use by both parties. However, upon signing up I discovered that they do ask for an initial donation of $3,24. It states that this is used to send you a postcard to verify your address. Apart from this there don’t seem to be any costs. They have even banned any commercial activity on the website and anyone who charges a CouchSurfer to stay is removed from the directory.

The benefit for those who offer to host travelers is often simply meeting and sharing experiences with interesting people. “Hosts have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world without leaving home. We also give more people the chance to become travelers, because surfing lowers the financial cost of exploration.”

If an enticing CouchSurfing profile isn’t enough to get you picked, users can also contact their local ambassadors, several of which have become CouchSurfing members. Couchsurfing.org offers an index of ambassadors worldwide. It also encourages users to become active members by meeting as many CouchSurfers as possible and building up contacts and references.

Is CouchSurfing safe?

CouchSurfing appeals to those rare human traits we all possess but so seldom exercise: self-education and trust. It’s fair to say that CouchSurfing should be used at your own discretion, and it is up to anyone who participates in CouchSurfing to help protect themselves and each other by educating themselves and sharing information about other people’s interests and perspectives. You can see who other members’ friends are and how they know them, and you have the ability to correspond with them as much as you want before you meet them. As an extra precaution, CouchSurfing.org offers a safety page for more information about the different types of information systems that help you make educated decisions while using CouchSurfing.

• Visit www.couchsurfing.org if you would like to join this global phenomenon or if you would like to host a traveler from another country.

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FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP: Open letter to our foreign media friends

by Peter Davies (09-06-2010)

Dear World Cup visitors,

Now that you are safely in our country you are no doubt happily realising you are not in a war-zone. This may be in stark contrast to what you have been bracing yourself for should you have listened to Uli Hoeness or are an avid reader of English tabloids, which as we all know are only good for wrapping fish ‘n chips and advancing the careers of large-chested teens on page three.

As you emerge blinking from your luxury hotel room into our big blue winter skies, you will surely realise you are far more likely to be killed by kindness than by a stray bullet.

Remember that most of the media reports you have read, which have informed your views on South Africa, will have been penned by your colleagues. And you know what journos are like, what with their earnest two thousand word opuses on the op-ed pages designed to fix this country’s ills in a heartbeat. Based on exhaustive research over a three-day visit.

Funnily enough, we are well aware of the challenges we face as a nation and you will find that 95% of the population is singing from the same song-sheet in order to ensure that we can live up to our own exacting expectations.

We are also here to look after you and show you a good time. Prepare to have your preconceived notions well and truly shattered.

For instance, you will find precious few rhinos loitering on street corners, we don’t know a guy in Cairo named Dave just because we live in Johannesburg, and our stadiums are magnificent - world class works of art.

Which is obviously news to the Sky TV sports anchor who this week remarked that Soccer City looked ‘a bit of a mess’. She didn’t realise the gaps in the calabash exterior are to allow in natural light and for illumination at night, and not the result of vandalism or negligence.

The fact that England, the nation which safely delivered Wembley Stadium two years past its due date, is prepared to offer us South Africans advice on stadium-readiness should not be surprising. The steadiest stream of World Cup misinformation has emanated from our mates, the Brits, over the past couple of years.

If it’s not man-eating snakes lurking in Rooney’s closet at the team’s (allegedly half-built) Royal Bafokeng training base, then it’s machete-wielding gangs roaming the suburbs in search of tattooed, overweight Dagenham dole-queuers to ransack and leave gurgling on the pavement.

In fact what you are entering is the world’s most fascinating country, in my opinion. I’m pretty sure you will find that it functions far more smoothly, is heaps more friendly and offers plenty more diversions than you could possibly have imagined.

In addition to which, the population actually acts like human beings, and not like they are being controlled by sinister forces from above which turns them into bureaucratically-manipulated robots.

Plus we have world’s most beautiful women. The best weather. Eight channels of SuperSport. Food and wine from the gods themselves. Wildlife galore. (Love the Dutch team’s bus slogan: “Don’t fear the Big 5; fear the Orange 11”).

Having said all that, Jo’burg is undoubtedly one of the world’s most dangerous cities. Just ask those Taiwanese tourists who got out of their hired car to take close-up snaps of tawny beasts at the Lion Park a few years back. Actually, ask what’s left of them. And did you know the chances of being felled by cardiac arrest from devouring a mountain of meat at one of our world class restaurants has been statistically proven to be 33.3% higher in Jozi than in any other major urban centre not built upon a significant waterway? It’s true. I swear. I read it in a British tabloid.

Having recently spent two years comfortably cocooned in small town in America, I’m only too aware of how little much of the outside world knows about this country. The American channel I used to work for has a massive battalion of employees descending on World Cup country. It has also apparently issued a recommendation to its staff to stay in their hotels when not working.

Given that said corporation is head-quartered in a small town which many say is “best viewed through the rear-view mirror”, I find the recommendation (if it’s true) to be utterly astounding. In fact I don’t believe it is true. Contrary to the global stereotype, the best Americans are some of the sharpest people in the world. The fact that they have bought most tickets in this World Cup proves the point.

Of course I have only lived in Johannesburg, city of terror and dread, virtually all my life, so I don’t have the in-depth knowledge of say, an English broadsheet journalist who has been in the country for the weekend; but nevertheless I will share some of my observations gleaned over the years.

Any foreign tourist or media representative who is worried about his safety in South Africa should have a word with the Lions rugby fans from last year, or the Barmy Army cricket supporters (lilywhite hecklers by day, slurring, lager-fuelled lobsters by night). They managed just fine, just like the hundreds of thousands of fans who have streamed into the country over the past fifteen years for various World Cups, Super 14 matches, TriNations tests and other international events. Negligible crime incidents involving said fans over said period of time.

Trivia question: which country has hosted the most global sporting events over the past decade and a half? You don’t need me to answer that, do you?

In addition. Don’t fret when you see a gaggle of freelance salesmen converge on your car at the traffic lights (or robots as we like to call them) festooned with products. You are not about to be hijacked. Here in Mzansi (nickname for SA) we do a lot of our purchasing at robots. Here you can stock up on flags, coat hangers, batteries, roses for the wife you forgot to kiss goodbye this morning and a whole host of useful merchandise.

Similarly, that guy who runs up as you park the rental car outside the pub intends no malice. He’s your car guard. Give him a buck or two and your vehicle will be safe while you refuel for hours on our cheap, splendid beer. Unless someone breaks into it, of course.

We drive on the left in this country. Exercise caution when crossing the road at a jog-trot with 15 kilograms of camera gear on your back. Exercise common sense full stop. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you want to leave wads of cash in your hotel room like our Colombian friends, don’t be surprised if it grows wings.

Bottom line: Get out there and breathe in great lusty lungfuls of this amazing nation. Tuck into our world-class food and wines. Disprove the adage that white men can’t dance at our throbbing, vibrant night-clubs. Learn to say hello in all eleven official languages. Watch at least one game in a township. You will not be robbed and shot. You will be welcomed like a lost family member and looked after as if you are royalty. Ask those Bulls rugby fans who journeyed to Soweto recently.

With a dollop of the right attitude, this country will change your life.

It’s Africa’s time. Vacate your hotel room. Join the party.

Waka waka eh eh.

Recommended Reads:

• Shine South Africa for 2010
• "Stand As One" Soccer World Cup song
• South Africa rolls out Ubuntu in abundance
  

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SHWEEBS: personal pedal-powered pods

TRAFFIC jams. Being stuck in traffic has got to be in the top five on the list of peoples’ most hated things in the world – right after Bob Mugabe, taxes, Telkom and getting toffee stuck on the roof of your mouth.

I have seen murder develop in the eyes of the calmest looking drivers when caught between throngs of cars. It’s hard not to get slightly ticked off and lose it – suddenly finding yourself bashing your way through the metallic queue, foot flat on the pedal, with a criminal reputation mounting up, and laughing hysterically.

No. We need to restrain ourselves from doing that. I find that the best self-therapy is to turn up the air-con (or heater), wind up the windows thus blocking out the sounds of hooting and swearing, and listen to Bob Marley.

However, our traffic nightmares may soon come to an end thanks to an invention known as the Shweeb. And this is not just some fancy new swearword, but the world’s first human-powered monorail.

"Shweeb" means "to float" in German, and is a self-enclosed, pedal-powered pod which is already in use at an amusement park in New Zealand. The team of designers who developed the Shweeb not only see the pod as a vehicle of amusement, but as an environmentally-friendly replacement for personal motor vehicles in traffic congested cities.

The idea was conceived by designer Geoffrey Barnett while on holiday in Tokyo – one of the world’s most heavily conjested cities. Barnett implemented the idea in his adventure park - Agroventures - in New Zealand, which is partially a proof-of-concept for an ingenious, high efficiency, no emission urban transport system.

How it works
The Shweeb uses a monorail system to guide users along a pre-determined path, with each pod being powered by the rider. According to the official Shweeb website, to travel in a Shweeb takes only half the energy required to ride a regular bicycle, and only 1/3 the energy of a mountain bike to pedal (since it is enclosed and there isn’t the rolling resistance of the tyres to compensate for). For even greater efficiency, Shweebs can be linked together for less air resistance and more pedal power.

Speeds
The pods are far more aerodynamically efficient than a bicycle too. Most riders see speeds of around 45 km/h, but on a longer circuit with a much longer straight, the Shweeb can reach up to 70 km/h.

Such speeds are rather impressive when considering that the average speed of a car in London these days is a mere 13km/h (due to traffic). This is the same speed that cars could reach 100 years ago – before the demonic birth of rush-hour.

What’s more, when taking tight corners the pods can swing out as much as 60 degrees; but unlike a bike or motorcycle, there is no danger of losing traction and crashing.

Barnett has spent six years developing how to efficiently transfer pedal power to drive wheels enclosed within a monorail track while allowing the vehicle to swing freely underneath. The hard wheels on the steel rail mean that there is very little rolling resistance, and riders have shown that you do not have to be an Olympic athlete to power the pedals.

The future
Barnett foresees the future use of his high efficiency, no emission urban transport system: "Here’s how it works. You get up in the morning; descend to the second level of your apartment building where there’s a Shweeb port and empty Shweebs waiting for you. You cruise over the top of the traffic jams. You don’t pay parking. You’ve produced no pollution. You arrive at work fit, healthy and ready to go!" says Barnett.

An exciting aspect of the Shweeb is how it could address problems of health and fitness relating to lack of exercise in certain nations. Of course you will always get lazy Shweebers who don’t pedal, hold up the traffic and simply get taken for a ride; but any ticked off, speeding Shweebers won’t be able to knock others off the rails.

"Shock absorbers between the vehicles ensure that vehicles come together smoothly. When a fit rider comes up behind a slower rider, the impact is cushioned and they act as a single unit. The rider at the rear is sitting in the slipstream of the leading rider and is able to put all their power into pushing the lead vehicle," says Barnett.

So it appears that road rage would no longer be an issue in a Shweeb world. In fact, two Shweebs acting together will always travel faster than either rider separately. Even if the lead rider were to stop pedaling, the energy required to maintain a vehicle’s momentum on a flat track is minimal.

Make way for Shweebways
The logistics of getting Shweeb systems up and running in countries around the world is not as difficult as one might think. "The urban Shweebrail network is inexpensive, has a tiny footprint, and each Shweebway requires only a square meter of airspace,” says Barnett. “It’s safe, silent and sustainable."

Not only are Shweebways inexpensive to build, but the pods come cheap too. In fact, you would never even need to buy one. “You don’t own the Shweeb,” says Barnett, "you use it like a shopping cart. Empty vehicles are restocked to wherever they are needed."

Imagine it now: climbing into a slick Shweeb after a day’s work, laying back and sailing above congested traffic during rush hour, getting a daily workout with gentle pedaling, enjoying a great view of the city, all while listening to Bob Marley… Sign me up!

• Check out the Shweeb website for videos and more info

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