Bismarck, North Dakota - News

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Last January, Andrew Rivlin took a leap of faith.

The Irvine, Calif., resident had already checked out a Web site, CouchSurfing.com, and learned about a total stranger, Mohit Anand, a then 26-year-old from Delhi. On the site, Anand told Rivlin — and the world; even any possible bad guys — that his home in India was open to visitors, free of charge.

Rivlin, using the same site, also had posted a bit about himself:

“While it is quite scary to meet new people, I am trusting and maybe can meet a new person,” Rivlin wrote.

And, like others at CouchSurfing.com, Rivlin’s note included a few basic, if somewhat tongue-in-cheek, traveling goals:

“Want to do: Get a tailored suit, wear a turban (yes, I am that cheesy) and buy some trinkets.”

Do not want to do: Get typhoid fever, get mugged, die, go shopping all the time.”

Soon after, Rivlin, then 25, found himself in a cab, in Delhi, riding through back streets and rural areas to Anand’s home. Forty minutes later he was in front of a stranger’s dwelling in a foreign town. He walked in, handed over his passport and flight information to a lady who spoke no English and made gestures that he couldn’t understand.

Soon after that, he was having the time of his traveling life.

Rivlin’s leap was complete. He was a couch surfer.

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Rivlin, as a couch surfer, joined a fast growing club.

More than half a million adventurous souls from virtually every country and territory and near-vacant island on the planet, have signed up at CouchSurfing.com, also known as “The Couch Surfing Project.”

By signing up, Rivlin and his fellow travelers are saying essentially that they’re willing to meet total strangers, hang out in their homes and have a very polite, fun, safe visit. They’ve also said they wouldn’t mind if total strangers from around the world turn up on their porch expecting something similar.

The site was created by Casey Fenton, a New Hampshire-born resident of New Zealand. According to published reports, Fenton, now 30, came up with the idea for couch surfing after he’d used his computer skills to hack into the student directory for the University of Iceland and send e-mails to the school’s female students. His goal? He was looking for company while visiting Iceland.

Whatever the original intent, CouchSurfing.com has become a fast-growing international network of like-minded travelers. Most, (but not all) are young people, like Rivlin, willing to swap comfort and security for something not typically found in organized tour groups.

Fenton founded the site in 2004. This summer, it posted its millionth “positive experience.”

For Rivlin and other couch surfers, it’s about culture and adventure. It’s also about kindness and trust, reciprocity and curiosity. It’s even about saving a few bucks.

And, mostly, it’s about fun.

“I’m an anthropology major, and I love learning about different cultures,” says Carrie Benjamin of Irvine, Calif.

This summer, Benjamin and two friends, Gloria Chung and Esther Chang, couch surfed their way through eight European countries — Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Romania and England.

They brought with them their gear, their curiosity and spiced cubes of curry to give their hosts a taste of Korean flavor.

What they got was an experience they probably wouldn’t find in a tour group or even if they’d stayed in a youth hostel. The locals they stayed with introduced them to bars with cheap beer, restaurants where English isn’t spoken and other hangouts that Benjamin described as being “away from the loud American tour groups.”

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So, back to Rivlin’s leap.

The Irvine architect simply did not want to be just another tourist. And that, he wasn’t: Rivlin lived with a local family, ate home-cooked meals and scooped cups of water from a bucket to shower.

Anand, who put him at ease within 10 minutes of their meeting, took him to a Sikh temple.

“You’re supposed to eat something like a corn meal mush that they put in your hand. What I was doing was insulting because I (offered out) the hand I wipe my butt with. Mohit corrected me.” He says the two chuckled a bit about that particular lesson.

Rivlin also realized how giving and trusting the couch surfing community can be.

Anand told Rivlin that he’d contacted a couch surfing host in France who was out of town during the week he had hoped to visit. No problem. The host left a key under the doormat and invited Anand to help himself to the fridge as well.

On his last day, Anand’s mother made Rivlin a special leafy dish that she said would be very good for traveling. The family and Rivlin shook hands and bid farewell — to Rivlin’s first couch surfing experience.

Since his trip to India, Rivlin has hosted couch surfers from Italy. He’s also gone on the road again, finding couches in Shanghai, Vancouver and London.

“I have met some people along the way that are quite similar, and others that are way outside my comfort zone,” Rivlin says. “It makes me a more well-rounded person.”