CURRENT MISSION

Travelling the world and having a taste of everything it has to offer

ABOUT ME

I live in the fantastic city of Bristol, which everyone should come and check out if you haven't already. Banksy, Brunel, cider, boats, weird and wonderful events, effortlessly cool and friendly people, we have it all.

This is all very different from Malaysia where I grew up, which is great in its own way.

My job takes me all over the world, and gives me time to see the places I'm at, so I'm making the most of it.

Things that excite me:
- Food: I love how it's a snapshot into different cultures, as well as enjoying the creativity and effort chefs put in.

- Photography: Check out my Flickr page with lots of photos from my travels
https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewseow/

- Dance: I do Latin-ballroom, as well as ballet and contemporary. Nothing frees the soul quite as much as the movement through space to a rhythm

- Meeting interesting people and discovering new things

PHILOSOPHY

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. ;)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have a couch. Am a pretty busy person so please don't take it personally if I decline your request - to me CS is about hosting someone not a cheap place to stay so I generally decline requests if I am busy as I don't think either party gets much out of it if I am.

Also, my email every so often sends my CS emails to Spam and I don't regularly check the CS website so apologies if I'm slow responding.

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Please don't send me a generic copy-and-paste request as it will almost guarantee a similarly generic 'Declined' response. I don't expect you to make witty analysis of my profile (although it helps!) or make out that we are soulmates but at the very least make it a little personal).

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Have hosted a couple of CSers so far, and the first one I regard as a friend now since he went on to live in Bristol for nearly a year. Generally positive, but I'm quite a stickler for guests being polite and considerate and I can get annoyed when guests aren't considerate.

I would really like to be a CS guest sometime soon. Am travelling to the USA in May 2011, and to Australia in Sept/Oct 2011 so please host me? At the very least would like to meet some CSers in other parts of the world.

Interests

I enjoy food (both eating it and cooking it) and always make it a point to sample lots of different things in my travels. Am also a keen cook and love cooking for/experimenting on other people.

Am a competitive latin (ballroom style) dancer and have started dabbling a bit in contemporary dance. Also love watching dance (loving all the dance on TV as of late) and theatre.

I also love the great outdoors and few things beat waking up to the sunrise on a beach or to the sounds of a waterfall in a rainforest. Don't nearly get to do as much of it as I'd like to these days.

Do some photography as well. Especially like capturing the places I've been and people's moods.

• humanities
• photography
• dancing
• ballet dancing
• dining
• cooking
• coach
• partying
• flying
• tv
• traveling
• eating out
• outdoor activities
• hiking
• camping
• paragliding
• swimming
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy.
Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon).
Girl with the Dragon Tatoo books.
Cookbooks (hardly ever follow exact recipes from the books, but I love reading them!)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Paragliding off a 2000m mountain in Turkey, was the closest I've ever felt to free flying.

Hiking and camping through the heart of the rainforest in Malaysia (off trail) and days away from civilisation.

Nevis bungy jump in Queenstown - I have a first person video of it:
http://jetsettingfoodie.co.uk/new-zealand/nevis_bungy/

Swimming in the Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik in the middle of winter, steam rising up all around me.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a pretty good cook so I'm quite good with most food, especially British classics and Asian (Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Thai).

Oh, and I'm a (former) dancesport Latin (as in ballroom style, read:not salsa) dancer and I help coach the University of Bristol's Dancesport team.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Malaysia, United Kingdom