couchsurfer

"The best thing a Couchsurfer can do is spend time with his host," he says.

Now retired from teaching and secretarial work, Elegbede, 68, has become a full-time "couchsurfer" herself, living in other people's guest quarters all over the world.

My mum even sewed a hole on my friend's trousers when she saw it,' said couchsurfer Ayami Kobayashi.

"A local Couchsurfer helped get me a job as a teacher and found me an incredible six-storey house to live in which I rent with three other people.

William Blum wrote approvingly of Socialist Dreams & Beauty Queens: A Couchsurfer's Memoir of Venezuela:

Maslin's second book, Socialist Dreams and Beauty Queens: A Couchsurfer's Memoir of Venezuela, is part travel memoir, part political thesis.

As a CouchSurfer, I am used to finding golden opportunities through strangers, but the unusual thing about this connection is that it came about after I tried to resurrect a 20-year-old tourism project that was, in many ways, the precursor to modern social networking.

Coined the "Homeless in Asia Tour", Newski completed 30 shows in unconventional venues including Couchsurfer Apartments, a Vietnamese convenience store, an underground Korean record shop, and residential rooftops in Hong Kong while also playing club shows.