I have discovered the great joy of hosting people. When I was in Europe, I did a lot of couchsurfing to save on accommodation and made many new friends who were able to show me their city from a local’s perspective. Coming back to Singapore, I wanted to pay it forward and continue to meet new people. Hence I decided to host people with my gf in our small hostel room. We are also open to bringing travellers around Singapore, let them taste the hawker food and enjoy the attractions that Singapore has got to offer.

On Sunday, I met Sophie, Olivier and Yoan (SOY) from France. They are traveling around southeast asia for two weeks as part of their summer vacation. They flew from Bangkok and I picked them up at the airport to send them to our room in rvr. We had a fun time chatting on the train journey. Sophie is very experienced with hosting, she is number one in her city, Nimes, and I hope to be like her someday. Yoan surfed with her before in Norway, while this is the first time for Olivier. I could tell that Olivier was quite tired from the flight, but his friends made him go out to explore the city. They went to night safari and enjoyed it tremendously.

On Monday evening, I met them for dinner at pasir panjang hawker centre. They had spent the whole day at USS and their favourite ride was the revenge of the mummy. It is a pity that battlestar is still closed down. Since they wanted to try singapore’s famous chilli crab, I ordered that alongside with crispy squid, stir fried naibai, sambal stingray, satay, oyster omelette and mee goreng. So they managed to try many local dishes in one sitting.

After dinner, Olivier wanted to go to the beach to chill, but I said it is not very convenient to go there. I suggested that we go to MBS to take some photos because it is an iconic landmark that they have not yet visited. They were impressed by the architecture from afar and went oohh-ahhh when they entered the hotel lobby. The best part was, we were with a local who had connections, so she called her friend working at MBS and managed to get the access card to go up to the skypark and the swimming pool! We were so over the moon because it is not easy to go up and the pool is only reserved for hotel guests. Even for Zenzel it was his first time up in the skypark. The French guys were literally jumping for guy, especially Olivier who kept asking if this is a dream, really like a young boy haha. There were many guests using the pool at night and also busy taking photos, selfies, wefies etc. The three French people jumped into the pool while me, zenzel and Gladys stayed by the side to take photos. The last time that I was up here was two years ago, so it felt great to be back here again and spending it with new friends. After an hour plus in the infinity pool with numerous photos taken, we went down to the bayfront outside Avalon to drink some tiger beer and chat. What a wonderful night! I look forward to more exciting experiences with my upcoming surfers.