Ayubowan! My name is Ayesh, and I'm a solo traveler from the wonderful country Sri Lanka. I'm a freelance software architect, and I'm traveling the world with a laptop, DSLR, hiking shoes, swimming trunk, and a few cloths packed in a backpack weighing less than 9kg.

I currently live in Amsterdam (Haarlem), but I am currently traveling in Europe and Asia for long term. I worked as a software engineer for a couple Dutch companies, but I work online nowadays.

Whenever I'm not traveling, I host CS guests at my place. It's not spacious or luxurious, but quiet and close to transportation options. If you are a fan of hiking, swimming, movies and TV series, I suggest you extend your Sri Lanka visa :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet new people. A trip means nothing if I couldn't meet someone who actually lives there. I don't judge anyone, and pretty much open to anything the city throws at me. The "live like a local" spirit is my motto.

Interests

I'm a travel blogger with a goal to work on videography too. In the meantime, I work on awesome web development projects have a few ventures of my own.

Almost every trip I take, I start them solo, but meet the most amazing people all around the world in hostels, CS hosts, public transport and street corners.

Love to take the off-beaten path, and hardly skips any hiking opportunity. I'm of those suspicious-looking guys you encounter in your travels hiking mountains at 2AM to see the sunrise.

I was grown up in rural parts of Sri Lanka where we had plenty of rivers and lakes and I used swim there almost every single day. I no longer live there but the spirit swims from tiny tanks to infinity pools to Ganges in India. I swam across Ganges river back and forth once just for the heck of it!

• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• skiing
• paragliding
• swimming
• freelancing
• sightseeing

Music, Movies, and Books

- Inception
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
- DC comics (Batman, Wonder woman but nothing else)
- Sherlock Holmes (RDJ)
- Better Call Saul
- Futurama
- Friends
- South Park

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Climbed the most active volcano in Indonesia, Merapi.
- Climbed the tallest volcano in Bali, Mt Agung, while it was erruoting and nobody was allowed in.
- Swim across the Ganges river in Varanasi, India all by myself.
- Traveled Indian trains totally over 20,000km.
- Drank all with Vietnamese friends I've just met in street, with only little Vietnamese.
- Slept on the street in a cold night in Rome (my bank card was blocked and had to wait until office time)
- Lost passport in a bus in Antwerp. Caught the same bus in Paris, and collected the passport.
- Traveled on top of a bus and train in India.
- Visited an unknown cave in Vietnam, and found my way out after a 500m stretch in the dark.
- Cycled 1800km from Strasbourg to Montpelier.
- Cycled all the way up to My Ventoux.
- Hiked in Tatras mountains from both Poland and Slovakia.
- Chugged in Oktoberfest in 2017.
- Camped under Pont Du Gard.
- Hiked the full 180km stretch of GR20 in Corsica with the restricted mountain of solitude.

Teach, Learn, Share

- I'm a freelance software engineer. I have worked for Sony Music among a few other companies. If you are into programming, I can teach you to get started.
- I born Buddhist and into meditation. There are a few types of mediation practices and I can teach you some.
- I'm not native English, but if you learn English as a second language, we can try out our English.
- I'm fascinated at Dutch, French, Batak, English (and many other) cultures and specially their architecture. I'd love to learn more about them.
- I'm a terrible cook at the moment, but I'm hoping to learn to cook a few dishes from all around the world some day.

What I Can Share with Hosts

- A couch/bed
- Lots of tips for Sri Lanka.
- Lots of tips for Amsterdam/Haarlem.
- Short car/bus rides.
- Home grown fruits.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Monaco, Montenegro, Nepal, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam