Happy Birthday of Baha'u'llah!

Friends,

Happy Birthday of Baha'u'llah!

I cannot write anything because it is a holy day, but I will share this
article that I found interesting, from the Globe and Mail. One of the
advantages of being a Baha'i and an Esperantist is that you can travel
anywhere in the world, meet the locals intimately, have something in
common, and very often get free accommodation with them. Now you do not
even have to learn a language or change your religion to do that...

'Couchsurfing' travel takes off on Web

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Jim Stone, a 29-year-old from west Texas, has been traveling
non-stop since March of 2004.

Sometimes in a pickup truck and other times on a motorcycle, he's
trekked through much of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and
Europe. But he's slept in a hotel just one night over that stretch of
nearly 1,000.

That's because Stone is part of a growing network of people on-line
who've gone a step beyond hotels, hostels and even apartment swapping in
their travel planning: They sleep on each others' couches.

A number of Web sites have sprung up to help pair travelers searching
for a place to crash and hosts with a spare couch. Sites like
hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and
place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering
tips on how to find successful matches.
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The sites aren't moneymakers. They're largely the creations of
20-somethings bitten with wanderlust and the hope to help bridge
together people from different cultures. They often depend on volunteer
administrators to help manage the Web operations.

Among the biggest is hospitalityclub.org, a site founded in 2000 by Veit
Kuehne, who was then a 22-year-old business student. Kuehne wanted to
use the Internet's reach to help foster the ideas of a group called
Servas, an international peace organization that encourages cultural
exchanges through travel.

The site grew to 1,300 members by 2002, 100,000 members by January 2006
and 200,000 by September.

From his home in Dusseldorf, Germany, Kuehne said hospitalityclub.org
funds itself through on-line advertisements, which pitch
student-exchange programs, Thailand volunteer opportunities or cheap
tickets to west Africa.

"We're not really soliciting donations yet," he said.

Kuehne said he doesn't get a salary from the site and has been depending
on volunteers to help develop and operate it. Living off savings
recently, he found a cheap, $200 plane ticket to India, where he plans
to spend the winter working on the site and benefiting from lower living
costs.

The west Texan Stone uses another site, couchsurfing.com, where
membership has catapulted to above 128,700 since launching in January 2004.

Its members, like hospitalityclub.org's, stretch across the globe:
Although the United States is the country with the largest number of
members, making up about 25 per cent of couchsurfing.com's total base,
Europe overall boasts 41 per cent. The average age is 25, though 43 per
cent of members are between 18 and 24.

Couchsurfing.com got its indirect start years ago, when New Hampshire
native Casey Fenton found a cheap airplane ticket to Iceland. In the few
days he had to find a place to stay, Fenton happened upon the student
directory of the University of Iceland.

Fenton sent e-mails to about 1,500 students, asking for a place to crash
and within 24 hours received dozens of responses. Through staying with a
local, Fenton said he was able to see their Iceland rather than merely
the tourist's view.

Couchsurfing.com depends largely on member donations to pay the
operating bills. When it falls short, administrators send requests to
members asking for more assistance. Recently, the site raised $8,000 it
needed after e-mailing 6,000 members.

Aside from asking if the services are really free, one of the top
questions on most of the sites' Frequently Asked Questions is some
variation of: "Is this safe?"

Eric "Rico" Lesage, a 35-year-old from Montreal remembers hearing that
question from his mom when he told her about couchsurfing.

"She was not all into it," said Lesage, who had his first couchsurfing
experience in 1990 when a couple of guys he met on a California beach
let him sleep on their couch. "But she's not a tut-tutter; I'm responsible."

Sites do offer some safeguards to help members: Members can vouch for
each other and leave references for someone they've stayed with or
hosted, similar to eBay's rating system.

But Web sites warn that they are not liable for any possible dangers
that could arise between host and traveler.

"We are not responsible for the outcome of host/surfer negotiations,"
couchsurfing.com's Fenton said. "We can't guarantee what will happen.
We'll do as much as we can to provide data (about the person), but
beyond that, that's all we can do."

Lesage, a photographer and a volunteer administrator for
couchsurfing.com, said the best way to stay safe is to read closely the
information available on members' profiles. He also sets a general
three-day limit for how long people can crash on his couch.

Noemie Cliche, a 21-year-old geography student from Montreal, said she
has had just one problem since joining couchsurfing.com in March.

"Once, I hosted a guy who was not nice and was a little weird," she
said. "I just asked him to leave, and yes, he did leave."

Otherwise, Cliche said she finds couchsurfing much more enjoyable than
the hostels she used to stay at while traveling.

Recently, she journeyed through California with the west Texan Stone,
who has not had a permanent address since he began his walkabout in 2004.

He acknowledges he's a hard-core couchsurfer, taking on the ethos of
meeting interesting people through their couches as a lifestyle. Among
the more interesting couches, Stone says he slept on one aboard a
39-foot sailboat moored outside Jacksonville, Fla.

"I haven't found another lifestyle that I enjoy this much," he said.