CURRENT MISSION

Skipstone around the world

ABOUT ME

I'm a former conflict journalist who got really, really tired of war and killing. Looking for the better part of humanity now, and open to most things. I'm older, 42, but young at heart and just looking to find some great people, food and music on the way as I try to stitch this world together through travels.

Just updated my location, which is never fixed, so I guess that's not going to get verified anytime soon. Just as well, I guess, as I can't host.

PHILOSOPHY

The goal of all this is to stitch the modern world into a connected whole, to be able to trace A to B to Z. To see how boundaries exist, and also how they fade into zones, defined more by their fuzziness than bright lines on a map. Whether these boundaries are geographical, cultural or social, the point is to stop seeing the world as disconnected pieces and grok it whole — profoundly, truly, madly and deeply.

Why, you’d almost think I was trying to capture something about the human soul and using the world as a metaphor.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm rolling around the world by staying close to the surface. No planes. I call it “Profound Travel.” It’s travel, but not to get somewhere; the goal is to simply move, breathe, see and taste. Feel. Live. (Cue: “the journey is the destination” traveling music.) And that brings up the how of the journey as well.

I mentioned I would be circling the globe, but only using surface transport: cars, buses, donkeys, kayaks, whatever. At first, the idea came to me mainly as an adventuresome gimmick. But much as Back-to-Iraq was a bit of a journalistic gimmick — pay me to cover a war just for you! — which turned into something much more profound and important, so Truly, Nomadly, Deeply may do the same in some way.

Personally, these days I need to be grounded. Literally. Too much travel via the air has turned the world into a series of punctuated moments, with only the bland continuity of hours inside a metal tube in uncomfortable seats to link them together. It’s like traveling New York via subway. Yes, you get to where you need to go, quickly, but you miss out on the weird shit along the way that makes living in the city so worthwhile. And at least the New York subway has its own ecosystem of artists, musicians and mole people.

That means keeping my feet on the ground — or in the water. Writing about the world for other publications, for an audience that was unseen and largely uncaring, was no longer good enough and it had dulled my sense of excitement and wonder.

So this journey, once it begins and I leave Dubai for, probably, Delhi, is as much a spiritual quest as it is a rambling roll around the world trying to do good deeds. It’s a pilgrimage, and as such, there are protocols to be followed.

So, no planes.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Haven't surfed anyone's couch yet, but have been to a few CS events and enjoyed myself and the company enormously. This is a great resource that shows off the best in people.

Interests

Music, food, wine, good friends, good writing, great experiences. The usual.

• writing
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• traveling
• cars
• music
• communications
• journalism

Music, Movies, and Books

Wow. This is so not static in people's lives, as we all change as do our tastes. So RIGHT NOW: Rilo Kiley, Deluka, Passion Pit, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Avengers (but I'd *love* some art-house flick to get lost in.) Books: Lots of travel and self-realisation stuff at the moment, but cheap sci-fi, Salman Rushdi, Ahmed Rashid… Too many.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Stunning sunsets in Bali, sneaking into the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf to meet Mahdi Army militiamen, swam with Thresher Sharks in Philippines. Too many to list. I want more!

https://www.couchsurfing.org/map_surf.html?id=T6U5ODA&show=been_there

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, I can cook well, have good war stories to tell, can teach Web skillz, multi-media, media consciousness. Maybe a little photography.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States