CURRENT MISSION

Making a self sustainable journey in a camper throughout Central Asia with my girlfriend Fanny Vigo
https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/fannyvigo

ABOUT ME

I'm a 49 year old male who of course loves to travel. I like to combine it with photography (you can check my photos at http://kurtvanaert.com or at my youtubechannel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsmTnBXG7BCfV7iPRFxNlg) and writing about my experiences on my blog: http://kurtvanaert.blogspot.com/ I tend not to take myself to serious (except on some fields) and like people who do the same. Last 10 years I was working as a bicycle taxi driver in Amsterdam on and off. I like all the usual things: music, going out, movies, meeting people.

PHILOSOPHY

everything is relative, people are to much concerned with career, work, they put to much of a weight on that. Better go out and see the world or as a friend of my wrote in a song: "get out of your electronic cave and live life again"

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

surfing, hosting and everything in between

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I had most people over actually through hospitalityclub. Most experiences where really nice, but I had also a few freaks over, but I guess you can expect that from living in Amsterdam. But in general it were great experiences. I enjoyed great hospitality in Israel, Jordan, Peru and Argentina from people from different kinds of life and age. Got so many insight from them how they live, very inspiring.

Interests

photography, photography, photography, documentary photography, street photography, African music, permaculture, sustainability, alternative music, world music, movies (no hollywood crap), documentaries, women, travel, relaxing, frisbee, swimming, nature, biking, trekking, music festivals, eating, reading the newspaper, comics

• writing
• photography
• documentaries
• music festivals
• festivals
• boating
• news
• comics
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• blogging
• origami
• music
• alternative music
• world music
• cycling
• surfing
• atheism
• swimming
• emergency services

Music, Movies, and Books

movies: Dead man, Down by Law, American Splendor, American Beauty, American Psycho, 24 hour party people, Taxi Driver, Blade runner, Turtles can fly, Offside, The Big Lebowski, Purple rose of Cairo, Hapiness, movies by Caspar Noe, Lost in translation, Hable con ella, Old boy, Simpsons
music: Fela Kuti, African music in general, Arcade Fire, the Beatles, Bjork, JJ Cale, Sun Ra, Four Tet, Nick Drake, Plaid, Diplo, FSOL, Joy Division, dEUS, Aphex Twin, Jackson and his computer band, Moondog, Sonic Youth, Astor Piazolla, Pixies, Sufjan Stevens, Goran Bregovic, Blond Redhead, Ojos de brujo, Manu Chao, Coco Rosie, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Squarepusher, PJ Harvey, all good music in general
books: Bonfire of the Vanities, I´m Charlotte Simmons, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, Charles Bukowski, Blankets (graphic novel), Persepolis, The Satanic verses

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Actually a few:
* My cycling trip in the Middle East and Asia was quite amazing, real freedom.
* Getting drunk on cemeteries in Peru while doing a photo documentary was also great fun.
* More recently standing 5 hours in line to see the grave of Gauchito Gill during the annual pilgrimage to his shrine while being a atheist is also considered pretty amazing (or stupid?): 2 days later you could just walk in.
* I also met Gary Brooks Faulkner 5 years ago on one of his missions to kill Osama Bin Laden. That was pretty amazing :) He recently made it to the news when he got captured by the Pakistani police.
* 2 (apparently) amazing things I could see but didn't: Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal (although I did see the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai)

Teach, Learn, Share

teach: nose picking, origami and photography
learn: I like to learn anything that is fun or usefull

What I Can Share with Hosts

Good time!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Laos, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Viet Nam, Yemen

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Netherlands, Peru

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