CURRENT MISSION:
Always evolving!
To be less verbose on my profile! ‍

Current Location: Seattle

Please read this profile information to get to know us as I do read yours when/if I send a request/ respond . ️

You can find our public instagram account at @thegotpassportfamily

*****Forgive my “about me” being long! I just came back to CS in August 2024. It really needs an overhaul, I know! I’m working on it!

Had more than 7 references, stayed w more than 1 host, they must have gotten out of CS after the fees! Their profiles no longer exist. I’ve been on here since 2009. *****

We are inching our way to being empty nesters! Slowly but surely?

We are NOT typical! We have lived our lives purposefully in ways that have allowed us to be able to travel and live anywhere! We do follow our daughter around though! 🤣

Aye: Social Worker (LinkedIn profile️)
Jack: Online Psychology Professor

Sadly, we haven’t been using CS since the pandemic!

Fully vaccinated for COVID.

Reach out to me, we are flexible and open to many forms of traveling, lodging, exchanging (house-sitting, pet-sitting, taking care of gardens, harvesting, composting, decluttering, teaching English!).

We have made lifelong friends we continue to stay in contact with through not just CS but other platforms over the years.
We value friendships we made through our travels.

We are givers, humanitarians, charitable people, not freeloaders.
If I am requesting a space to rest our heads, make new friends- because this is what CS is for? AND You indicated accepting guests!
When I send a request, at least try to respond, one way or another! Don’t be rude and ignore my request. Never really understood that about surfers who do that.

We are responsible and respectful.
We want to meet you, we want to get to know like minded, open minded explorers, adventurers.
We are independent travelers.
We are flexible guests.
If you are busy but kind enough to host us, we can keep ourselves active and show ourselves around.
We are able to get around on our own.

Back in 2019 and until recently we traveled in our “home on wheels” fully equipped to be able to live out of aka a Roadtrek camper van! We recently sold it in April 2024, bought a different one (not able to live out of in hot climate).

We are in Virginia in a short term apartment until end of August 2024. We followed our daughter here while she is interning at VIMS.

In cooler weather we could use a driveway to park our van, a shower, access to potable warer and an outlet to charge our batteries!

🤨 And most importantly meeting like minded, open minded individuals who also love exploring, adventuring, making new friends and sharing stories and life experiences.

We are returning to Washington state around then end of September 2024 for a much longer stay. Always looking to find hosts who may need housesitting or petsitting or taking care of a garden and open to making new friends!

*******

I am a Mum (kiddo is 21 now ‍).
Social Worker by education and training.
I homeschooled/worldschooled our only kiddo
We are a family of three.
Avid slow travelers.
Wandering all over as long as I can remember, mostly on a budget.

Our daughter sometimes still travels with us. At other times, we’re empty nesters!

I left my full-time nonprofit Director position in late 2008. I am Burmese-American.

My husband, Jack is Canadian born-Taiwanese-American, psych professor. He loves sports and coffee.

We simplified our lives in 2010 after living a very comfortable 1st world life in TX for almost 40 years.

I am an expert at decluttering, reducing and organizing by means of garage sales, ebay sales, craig's list, recycling, free-cycling, donating. This is what I did in my 2300+sqft home and continue to only own suitcases with items we ONLY NEED.

We moved to Thailand with 5 suitcases. That was in 2010. I came back to TX and sold our townhome in 2013. We are no longer the double income family we used to be, but our lives are definitely, differently richer and simplified. I take pride in the way we lived our lives all these years.

You might find us on House Hunters International, 'Simplified Life in Chiang Mai' episode with us in it. Gasp. So long ago!

We lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand for 4 years, while Jack taught online college courses. We volunteered our time to various local NGOs and Non-profits in Chiang Mai while our daughter attended an International school there. Every visa-run was a new opportunity to jaunt to a new country.

We moved to Taiwan in 2015. We were in and out of Taiwan, which was our temporary home base from 2015 - 2018.

In Sept 2017, we left Taiwan and explored The Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma until April 2018. For 5 emotional months (for me) we taught English in central Burma.

We are a responsible, respectful, clean, and green family (as green as possibly can). Our 21 yo daughter was independently educated or worldschooled. She is well mannered and well traveled since 3-month young!

She is a graduate from Oregon State University - July 2024.

Traveling and hosting were part of our lives and I believe we've done a decent job of teaching her to be a host as well as a guest.

We enjoy museums, performing arts, theatres, movies, local shops, farmers markets, local flavors and cuisine, cooking, local parks, hiking, camping, bicycle trails, gardens, especially edible ones which we love!

Jack and Emma are movie buffs!

May 2018 we returned to the US. In August 2018 we drove up to Washington in our mini-van, by way of National Parks camping 🤨 and cramping. Don’t judge if you’ve not done it!

We were asked to housesit for a month in Seattle, in September 2018 by a couchsurfer and we had a great time there for a month+. We remain friends to this day! What I love about CS.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To meet like minded, open minded humans like us and develop friendships and hopefully remain connected. Which is what I LOVE about CS! We're open to learning, exploring and meeting new people in the CS community, the way it was intended to be.

We want to branch out to various platforms and work~exchange experiences such as WWOOFing, WorkAway, national and state parks, and housesitting etc.

Interests

Bicycling, hiking, camping, organic and sustainable farming, natural buildings and living methods, baking, cooking local cuisines, museums, performing arts, photography, discovering new places.
Budget traveling.
Simplified Living.
Tiny living.
Less is More!

My goal to find a tiny home in the next 12 months.

• organic food
• yoga
• thrifting
• volunteer work
• forests
• social justice
• national parks
• learning
• healthy food
• bicycling
• meeting new people
• simple living
• gardens
• state parks
• slow travel
• sustainable living
• slow food
• tiny living
• cooking and baking
• slow life
• tiny homes
• worldschooling
• hiking in the mountains
• decluttering

Music, Movies, and Books

Find my books on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/Bhagnow

More about professional me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhagnow/

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Raising our daughter (worldschooled) and the life we created.

I'm living it. Too many amazing things to list.

I've been blessed with a travel bug! A few days, weekends, 2 weeks were never enough to satiate my desire to explore!

We did sabbaticals, road trips, international jaunts but finally, in 2009 after a 3-month camping trip across the US and a jaunt to SE Asia, we made a decision to leave our comfortable life where we had everything we ever needed in the first world!

We sold our belongings in 2010, moved to Thailand, sold our house in 2013, so that we could live anywhere (as long as there's wifi) and travel freely and ever so slowly and deliberately as we do now.

We've had many amazing adventures as a family. Too many to list.

Happy to share stories and photos!

Ask us about traveling through the US from Texas to Washington, down the west coast then back to Texas. 13,000 miles. 9 States. 110 days. in a Honda Odyssey. National Forests, Parks, Monuments. Marine science centers and whale watching.

I'd forever jaunt from one park to the next if I had my ways, but I had a teen worldschooler so we went to places that were beneficial for her as well.

Ask us about how we bought the RoadTrek Class B camper in April 2019.

Ask us about traveling around the island of Taiwan. Twice for one month long, each!

Ask us about the nearly 9 years of living in Asia.

Ask Jack about his summer job as a park aide at a state park in Washington state.

Teach, Learn, Share

We housesat for our surfer friends, Teri and Dale, since 2018. We’ve been friends ever since and see them every summer and housesit when needed!

We've pet-sat in Malaysia! The kitty's name was Emmett. And, have also rescued abandoned dogs in Taiwan!
Ask us about these stories!
We are animal lovers and can definitely and with willingness and loving kindness, look after your pets :-).

We can housesit, and also help with gardening and composting.

Good at decluttering, re-purposing, organizing for a more simplified life and space.

The less clutter I had, the more material things I let go, the more mental and physical space we had as a family.

I did it with my own home to simplify our lives, owning less material things and more living so we could live anywhere we want.

Share stories of travel, outdoor life, simplified living. Love of being a global citizen and giving back!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Genuine friendship and hospitality!
How we choose to live simply.
Passion for humanitarian services/ projects we had completed in the past.
Language exchange.
Cooking and sharing meals.
Housesit. Pet-sit.
Help you declutter, simplify, reduce, remove, repurpose, recycle, freecycle, and organize your 'stuff'.
I’ve been at it since 2010. It’s in my blood.
I can definitely help you do the same if it seems like an overwhelming task and not sure where to start.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bahamas, Cambodia, Canada, England, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Scotland, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand, United States