Hey there,

Welcome to my Couchsurfing profile. Please make yourself at home here and have a look around. I hope you enjoy your visit here.

So my name is Koen (pronounce like a short version of “Coon”) and I’m from the Netherlands. I recently quit my job as a robotics researcher in Switzerland in order to hitchhike to Iran and through South Korea and Japan. I have recently stayed in Taipei for 3 months to study Mandarin and I am now hitchhiking around Taiwan. On the way I like to spend my nights camping in creative places and occasionally doing some couchsurfing too.

The list of things that I enjoy is a pretty long one and includes things such as: hiking, all types of games, climbing, parkour/free running, reading, cooking, building huts in the forest, silly stuff, nerdy stuff, cultural stuff, and lots of other stuff :D

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I’m choosing to do hitchhiking in combination with occasional Couchsurfing because this type of interaction has consistently been extremely fun and rewarding for me (and the people on the other end of it as well ;) ) Also, if you have a solution for how to best write a smiley before a closing parenthesis, let me know ^^

Music, Movies, and Books

Music
Kings of Convenience, Paul Desmond, Frank Ocean, Bob Dylan, Philip Glass, XX, Ghostface Killah, Breakbot, and much much more.

Movies
Black cat white cat (my all-time favorite)
Step Brothers
Spirited Away
Mad Max: Fury Road
Princess Kaguya
Lots of other movies

Books
I mostly end up reading classics. Books like, 1984, On the road, The Great Gatsby, Alice in Wonderland, Heart of Darkness, Catch-22, ... But as long as it doesn’t have light-reflecting letters on the cover, I’m happy to give it a try.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- A 2700 km hike from the Netherlands to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
- Eating spaghetti in the shower.
- Contributing to the creation of a robotic exoskeleton for a man with paraplegia.
- Licking a 3.5 billion(!) year old piece of meteorite.

You have now reached the end of my profile. I hope you have had a pleasant stay. Please feel free to visit again at any point in the future.

Enjoy your day :D

Teach, Learn, Share

Yes please.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I would say I’m a fun and easy-going person. Although isn’t everyone on here..? I’m always up for any kind of activity (active/cultural/social) or game, and love a good critical discussion. If fun, sports and intellectual stimulation isn’t enough for you, then perhaps I can teach you how robots work, how to build your own forest house, or make typical Dutch food. Spoiler alert on the last one: you mash potatoes and veggies, tadaaa! Yes, that’s why you have never found a Dutch restaurant anywhere in the world. Now you know.

Countries I’ve Lived In

Netherlands, Switzerland, United States