2016年2月18日 星期四

What happened with CS host F3rnando Rivero in September 2014

My friend and I travelled to Peru in September 2014 (forgot the exact date now). I posted a public request on CS and Jhon (CS name F3rnando Rivero) invited us to stay with him for 2 days.

We arrived early in the morning on an overnight bus. Jhon wanted to take us to a hotspring after breakfast. But we were cold and tired, also having problems with the altitude in Huaraz, so we preferred to rest a bit before going out. Jhon insisted, so we went. Instead of going to the public pool, he took us to a private bath without asking. There the two of us gotta share a small tub with him. We told him we felt uncomfortable but he said it's Peruvian culture and made jokes about Asians being too conservative. Then he made us pay for his entrance fee, the private bath session, tips and all other spending he made during our stay (meals, entertainment, transport, tips etc). Other than meals we had together, when showing us around and we weren't hungry, he would order food for himself and asked us to pay. I considered it as a way to thank his hospitality, and it wasn't much money so we simply paid.

The other day, we wanted to take a day tour to the nearby sights. Jhon took us to a travel agent, claiming that he knew the owner so he can give us good discount. But we soon found that agency charged twice the price of the others on the same street. After the tour, Jhon waited for us at the busstop drunk (or pretending to be drunk). All the way back to the house, he kept trying to hug us. Since the guest room we were sleeping in was actually a small partition inside his bedroom without door, we were quite worried that night. I was so glad that nothing bad happened.

On the last day, when we were about to leave, he stood at the partition door with arms crossed, and demanded further payment (30S) for our stay. I asked why didn't he told us before. Still blocking the door, he said that the room is free but the water supply and electricity isn't. We've got a bus to catch so we paid to avoid trouble. I told him he should have mentioned it before, advised him to update his profile or be honest to future guest, but he ignored. So I wrote a neutral reference mentioning the cost of staying with Jhon.

He then sent me many Facebook messages demanding me to remove it. He even try to bribe by pretending that he want to sent the money back to us. I refused to remove the reference and he said "Ok, hope you enjoy my reference". Then he wrote me a negative reference accusing me to be a money lover.

We later know his home is actually a hostel. He use CS as a way to find customers so he can get 10-15S per night from the CS guest, as well as free food and entertainment during the guests' stay. I don't know why he didn't list his place on other Hostel/B&B websites instead. Anyway, since this was actually a "hostel", I'd be glad to share the facilities offered. The room was a partition inside his bedroom without proper door or lock. In the room there was one single bed for the 2 of us to share, no electricity other than a dim bulb. No hot water or internet, the toilet couldn't flush. If it is real CS, I'm totally fine with it. I've seen hosts with similar living conditions and I really appreciate their hospitality. But from Jhon's demeanor and the way he hide all the charges till the end, I do not consider it as CS hospitality.

So I updated his reference mentioning him trying to bribe or threaten me to remove the reference and ignored his further messages in Facebook.

More than a year later, he left me another negative reference:

this person speaks false things, I now live in Chile and says I have a crazy hotel in Peru, I think Asians are very concerned about their money, she feels that this site functions as public charities, usually do not need to talk bad people for money, but it was the worst experience and I think the people receiving believe that this person thinks well, because then you claimed if they spend a dollar and leave them a negative recommendation, for wanting to help

From his profile, he has now moved to Chile and trying to deny having ever charged CS guests in Peru. I am surprised about how dishonest a person can be. Have a look in his references and you'd know he used to charge CS-ers for their stay in Huaraz, Peru before. I'm not the only one.

Think twice before you decide to stay with Jhon.

2014年4月8日 星期二

What actually happened with CS Host OSCAR VERGARA on 5 April, 2014

Basically it's a simple story with a nice CS experience ruined by drunkeness of the host. It is not so bad so I put a Neutral reference.

The 'Neutral' is balance between the +ve & -ve. Space is limited so here is the gist:

We had a great time surfing with Oscar & his friends. It was a very pleasant experience. They had been nice & welcoming most of the time. But the second night they got drunk. Oscar grab my head & kissed me three times forcibly despite I tried to push him away each time. He said that I can leave him bad reference but he's gonna kiss me anyway. His friend forcibly kissed my friend & even tried drag her into the bedroom to have sex despite her rejection. I believe they're drunk but that has crossed the line too much. I'd recommend girls who surf with Oscar not to go drinking with him.

To Oscar:
Thanks for hosting & sharing with us the local life. Hope you liked the Hong Kong dish we cooked. But please don't drink too much next time.



 And he replied with a negative reference with false information to rebut and attack our personality. It made us really angry.


"Lamento dejarte una mala referencia, pero te la has ganado a pulso al inventarte una historia china de vaqueros, pues es verdad que te bese DOS veces, mas las dos veces me respondiste el beso.. y hasta ahí todo bien con tu referencia "NEUTRAL", pero inventar que mi amigo besó a la fuerza a tu amiga y la jaló para tener sexo con ella en el cuarto, eso es un total invento tuyo, pues cuando tu y yo llegamos al departamento ellos se estaban besando sin forcejeos y de hecho ya habían terminado de tener sexo.. No cambies la historia para hacerte ver como la victima.. Lo que pasa es que siempre quieres controlar a tu amiga y te sientes su mamá, pero no lo eres.. Déjala ser libre, ya tiene 25 años y ya no es una niña.. y tampoco quieras lavarte las manos diciendo que todo fue culpa del alcohol, pues nadie se emborracha con dos cervezas y tampoco nadie hace lo que no quiere hacer.. Lamento haber aceptado tu solicitud de sofá y ojalá tus viajes te sirvan para abrir un poquito mas la mente.."

It is not good but still forgivable for a man who became aggressive due to drunkeness, but not when he make up lies to attack others who tell the truth. It is so sad that I've met the second type.  So I changed the reference to 'Negative'.

For the concerned references, please refer to my CS Profile: https://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=3X13MAK

Below is the original CS reference I wanted to put, but that's way too long to fit in the 1000 characters box:

I have been thinking for a whole day on how to leave a reference for Oscar, or simply don't leave one. Finally I chose to leave a Neutral reference, which Oscar himself asked me to do so. I believe every reference warrant explanation, especially for neutral and negative ones. This 'Neutral' reference is the balance of our positive and negative experience. So here is the story:

Oscar host me and my friend for two nights. He is living with three male friends. They're all very nice and welcoming. We went with his friend Fili to Chamula and it was a nice day. They invited us for dinner and we promised to cook a local Hong Kong dish for the next night. The next night was the birthday of another friend Joel, so they had another traditional Mexican dinner, which is really great and delicious. They suggested us to cook later in the night but eventually decided to go out to celebrate Joel's birthday. We went out together to a place for Mescal, then a bar with Karaoke, then a dance club with live music. All of these place are great, but since we don't drink much (as we are not good at drinking), the guys finished most of the alcohols.

In the dance club, Joel took my friend to the dance floor and due to the crowd, I soon lost sight of them. I was talking with Oscar at the table and the conversation was nice. But then my friend send me an SMS "Joel took me back to the apartment, I don't feel quite right." I thought she was feeling sick and went home. So I say I needa go back to see if my friend is fine.   Oscar said we'll go when we finish all the drinks on table, which is out of my ability. He kept talking and asking me lots of things but was not drinking much as before. Though I'm worried about my friend, I tried to be polite and continue with the conversation, drinking a bit more. That goes on for some 30 minutes and I am really worried.  I start to realise my friend may not be sick but there is something else. I became alert and recalled seeing a negative reference on Oscar's profile. But it was too late. He suddenly said: "You can leave me neutral reference but I'm gonna kiss you." And he immediately kissed me. I was shocked and then pushed him away and said no. He said because I was too attractive and that I'm the first Hong Kong girl he kissed. (I immediately think that he might have kissed lots of female surfers from all over the world.) I said no to him and stood up to go. I think he's drunk but he denied and insisted to finished the drink before leaving.  I then went to the bathroom to calm myself down from the shock.  That's when I received my friend's second SMS: "HELP".  I know I had to go so I came out, and insisted to go.  During which he still tried to forcibly kiss me twice, repeating each time that I can leave him neutral reference. I managed to push him away once only as he was strong.   He still refuse to go unless we finish all the drinks.  I was so worried about my friend so I grup down the drink and dashed out of the club. He said he's drunk and don't remember how to go home.  Luckily I did so I just go to the apartment while he follows.  When I reach the house my friend was terrified and told me that Joel did similar things to her despite her rejection and even tried to drag her into the bedroom to have sex. If I came back 5 minutes later, everything will be too late.

I was completely shocked about what had happened.  This is the first time ever I come across such things.  Alone at the apartment with two drunk men in the middle of the night, having no where to go and having to take a 6am bus the next day.  We dare not enter any bedroom so we stay in the kitchen to cook the promised dish (at 1am). Joel still tried to drag my friend to the bedroom but he didn't insist upon her rejection and my intervention.  Later everyone came back and they ate together as if nothing has happened. No more aggressive acts nor words since then. I believe they are regaining their sense of consciousness but we're too scared to join them, worrying that any signs of 'friendliness' will be mistaken as acceptance. So we cooked and packed in silence, slept alertedly for 2 hours and left the place for our next stop.

To be fair, surfing in Oscar's place and interacting with his friends have been a very pleasant experience until they got drunk. And I do appreciate that there were no escalation of aggression. But the forcible kisses and attempts to have sex with my friend against her will has crossed the line way too much. I would choose to believe it's because they're drunk. But it's not the first time (given the previous reference) So I'd recommend girls who surf with Oscar not to go drinking with him.

====

Words is limited in the reference box so I tried my best to reassure that he's a great host most of the time. But then he wrote me a negative reference with false accusations. It is all in Spanish and I barely understand it with the help of Google Translate. And it make us really angry! He said my friend agreed to have sex and when we're back at the apartment they had finished having sex! The truth is, they NEVER had sex and luckily not. My friend was so scared that she almost got raped.  She would never agreed.  See the screen capture for our conversation:



And I think I'm sooooo stupid that I didn't realise that 'don't feel quite right' means 'something is wrong'.   I thought she was sick or what and even showed the SMS to Oscar and tell him that I wanna go back to see her.  I think that's when he started to drink slowly and kept me busy with asking questions.  That means he KNOWS that my friend don't feel right about his friend taking my friend home.

And about the kisses, the atmosphere in the club was super noisy and we basically have to yell to each other to talk. And the conversation is nothing related to romance. But he suddenly says that he's gonna kiss me. I was completely shocked. I tried to push him away but it's not easy given the strength of a man. But that doesn't mean 'acceptance'. He said I answered his kiss and that's not true, unless struggling to push him away is considered a 'response'. He said he just had two beers, but the truth is they each had one shot of Mescal, shared 3 liters of beer at the Karaoke, then each have a glass of beer plus a drink called Mayan Sacrifice (I don't know what that exactly is but tastes like it had strong alcohol).

I understand that alcohol can undermine the self control of a person. So as long as no actual physical harm had been done, we didn't make so much complain about it.  I really thought of not leaving a reference at all. If we didn't went out with them to drink, nothing would have happened and it would have been a normal pleasant CS experience. So I guess it's totally avoidable. So I think it's good to let the girls know about it to ensure that they can have pleasant CS experience with Oscar without the influence of alcohol.

But his response shocked me yet another time. I wouldn't have expected him to say good things about me as people on CS really care about references. But I never expected him to make up lies to blame us for the incident. He even send me a message starting with 'WTF' and accused me of putting a neutral reference.  Actually, he said three time in the club (or may be more) that 'You can leave me neutral reference... but bla bla bla'.   It make me feel that he don't care.  Yes Oscar has so many positive reference and one or two neutral reference or negative reference may not harm his reputation.  But his attitude sounds like 'with so many positive reference I can do whatever I want to you and people will still believe me'.   I'm so disappointed with this person and I believe telling the whole truth to other CS members is the best way.

After all, Oscar is still a great host for male travellers or female travellers when not drinking.  But after all that happened and the lies he told in my reference, I finally decided that this is a NEGATIVE CS experience I had.

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Update on 10 April:

Oscar updated his reference and this time even Google translate can't help me understand. Here's the quote:

"Lamento que después de recibirlas, darles un tour por los pueblos cercanos, cocinar para ustedes, dormir en el sofá para darles mi cama y tratarlas siempre super bien.. Se despidan sonrientemente, cocinen un plato en "agradecimiento" a nuestra hospitalidad y después escribas que mi amigo trato de abusar de tu amiga?

No entiendo porque te expresas así de mi y mis amigos queriendo parecer una victima y luego te laves las manos diciendo que todo fue culpa del alcohol.. En 1era, nadie se emborrachó y en 2da, nadie las obligo a hacer nada.. Es verdad que te besé DOS veces, mas las dos me respondiste el beso.. Pero decir que mi amigo besó y forzó a tu amiga tratar de tener sexo con ella, eso es un total invento tuyo, pues cuando tu y yo llegamos al depa ellos se estaban abrazando y riendo..

Pudiste hablar en vez de inventar una historia china de vaqueros y lamento mucho "aclararlo" de esta manera.. Ojalá con el tiempo madures un poco, te deseo suerte y no le daré mas importancia a esto.."

But I guess it's something different from the above quoted version. May be he read this and know that his lies can't stand and removed some of the obvious ones? But I'm not gonna try to understand it. I've said what I have to say. And I had to let bad memories fade out and move on.

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Further update on 1 May:

I had no idea why Mr. Oscar updated his reference once again.  May be he's drunk again.  But I'll anyway quote it here in case he wanna change it sometime later:

"Oh my lovely korean girlfriend!
She wants to look like an angry girl, but actually I know she fell in love with me & its going to write a book about me when returns to Seul bigger than her posts.. But believe me that eventhough you're tiny and rude I love you too baby! :*"

No idea since when I've became his 'Korean girlfriend'.... My nationality and birthplace and couch location had been clearly mentioned in the CS site.  And I guess after 2 nights of us staying at his place we should have know about each other's nationality.  So may be he mistakenly wrote reference on my profile for another poor Korean girl being harassed? (I hope not.)

It's too bad that he had made my CS experience with him get worse and worse each time.  First is attack by false facts, then something I don't understand, and now lie to the world about my Nationality and the disgusting girlfriend thing.

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Update 26 May:

Yawn... I'm getting tired of doing this copy and paste thing actually. Just that the reference is updated again so here it is:

"Una experiencia de las mas raras que he tenido en CS, Mimi: Una chica interesante y que ha viajado mucho, pero que en muchos otros aspectos es bastante cerrada y tontita.. Te gusta complicarte las cosas y hacer una tormenta en un vaso de agua y quieres dar una imagen de mi que no tiene nada que ver con la realidad, pero en fin.. Suerte en tu viaje, sigue viajando y ojala eso te ayude a abrir mas tu mentecita.."

So, he think that I'm complicating things, I guess I've just laid out the simple facts on what happened. And he's the one who make things complicated by saying contradictory things and making irresponsible comments with frequent updates? Never mind. I just want to keep things open and clear so everybody can see. It has been almost two months and we have much more meaningful things to do on trip (such as volunteering). I guess it shall stop here. Apologies in advance in case I am not updating this anymore.

I wish everyone happy CS-ing! =)