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WEB-SIGHT -- SRIYA NARAYANAN
The world’s a couch!
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Want to connect with people from different continents and cultures? Log on to couchsurfing.com
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Surf and set out The couch surfers
If you’re passionate about travelling to exotic places and making lasting friendships while you’re at it, start your trip at couchsurfing.com. This international network of people is a haven for wanderers who aren’t satisfied with being regular tourists but want that personal touch when exploring different cultures. Based on a simple but powerful idea, the site has a database of nearly 5,00,000 people (representing 224 countries) who offer free lodging in their homes to perfect strangers with whom they have only one thing in common: a desire to ‘create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures’.
To access this information, register as a member and fill out a detailed profile. With a rough itinerary in mind, look for members who live in the areas you’re visiting. After sending requests to these people and deciding which offers to accept, finalise your travel plans. In the interest of members’ safety, the network has created a ‘Trust Circle’ where a person can be vouched for only by another member who has also been vouched for. What sustains the community is the feedback, both positive and negative, about the couch surfing experience. The ‘Interesting Statistics’ section says the last one hour has seen 77 real-life introductions.
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
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Hyderabad
Kochi
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