Hospitality exchange is great for independent wanderers who travel alone to meet new people, learn from new cultures and love to take risks. But in Thailand, there are only 2,000 registered couch surfers, suggesting that we might want something less radical. If you’re not a backpacker and don’t want to sleep on a couch, but don’t want the bland experience of hotel rooms either, consider peer-to-peer vacation rentals.

Websites like AirBnB, Wimdu and Roomorama offer short-term rental apartments and homes around the world. These websites let property owners rent out their rooms without a third-party fee. (They charge travelers booking fees, though.)

Jia En Teo, a Roomorama co-founder, explains, “We serve travelers who have a bit more money to spend so they are looking for nicer places to stay. We offer places where you don’t have to share rooms, to secure your privacy.”

Higher prices also bring in better quality customers, too. And this benefits pad owners who wish to rent out their space. Kevin, one Roomorama member who rents out his apartment says , “It’s good that I can communicate with the guests beforehand, and all payments go through the website so I don’t have to worry. The guests I get are also usually pretty respectful, so it works out well for both parties.”

www.airbnb.com

America’s most popular peer to peer room rental site, with choices ranging from a few bucks to over US$5,000 a night, is now expanding its database to Asia, targeting the Chinese market.

www.wimdu.com

Featuring more than 12,000 accommodations in 50 nations, Wimdu is simply another AirBnB but it’s based in Europe.

www.roomorama.com

Unlike AirBnB and Wimdu where you might need to share a room with the pad’s owner, most of Roomorama’s listings are private spaces where owners do not stay. But it comes with higher price tags. Roomorama claims to have the most choices of rooms in Asia—22,000 properties (and 60,000 worldwide) with a 30% growth monthly.

Read more >> Couch Surfing in Bangkok

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Starbucks VIA: Italian Roast

B350 for a pack of 12 sachets. B29/cup
Surprisingly nice and complex: fruity and floral on the nose and pleasantly rich and bitter. It’s the stronger of the two Starbucks coffees, making it harder for all to appreciate.

Moccona Select

B99 for 180g. B1.1/cup
Ugh. It has that weird metallic taste that gives instant coffee a bad name: something between soap and burned popcorn. There’s not much going on here in terms of flavor beyond the bitterness.

Nescafe Red Cup

B63 for 100. B1.26/cup
We kept variables the same: one teaspoon of instant coffee per small cup. But despite all things being equal, this one tasted extremely watered down and gross, like sipping some dish water.

Khao Chong

B115 for 200g. B1.15/cup
Noticeably more complexity and richness than the other, non-Starbucks instant coffees in this test. The Khao Chong is chocolaty and doesn’t have that gross metallic acidity common with most of the others. If you’re looking at cost, Khao Chong is a winner in its category.

Moccona Espresso

B99 for 120g. B1.65/cup
Easily the most disgusting of the lot. Contrary to what you might expect of an instant coffee labelled “espresso”, this one lacks in both aroma and flavor.

Nescafe Red Cup Espresso

B31 for 40g. B1.5/cup
Same thing here: no body and a kind of acidic-metallic sourness. Clearly the “espresso” label both for Nescafe and Moccona suggests more one-dimensional bitterness. If you have to have them, stick to the regular variety.

Starbucks VIA: Colombia Roast

B350 for a pack of 12 sachets at Starbucks. B29/cup
Starbucks is 20 times more expensive than cheapo brands. Twenty! But clearly it should be compared to fresh drip coffee, not instant ones. It is rich and pleasantly bitter, full-bodied and has a nice, masculine spiciness to it. Unlike other instant coffees in this test, it offers a great deal more than just bitterness to cut your cream and sugar with, and can be drunk black.
What is Instant Coffee?