$11 a day traveller

KICKING back in the lobby of a fairly stylish condominium in Little India, Mr Richard Ferge and his wife Stani Martinkova do not look like a couple who sold their home in London to cycle around the world on a budget of just US$8 (S$11) a day.

They quickly clarify the situation. 'We're couchsurfing at a studio apartment that belongs to a Japanese working here. We're sharing it with six other couchsurfers from Indonesia, Poland and Sweden and sleeping on futons,' he says.

Couchsurfing, an online social network for travellers, enables members to stay at one another's homes for free, all in the name of social networking. If they had stayed at a service apartment, they would run out of money very quickly and it would contradict their objective.

Their bike ride around the world is to raise awareness about global warming and climate change. They sold their house a few years ago at a profit of 70,000 pounds (S$152,000), which is roughly the amount of money they have for this round-the-world trip. Since starting their journey in Dec 2005 in France, they have spent 30,000 pounds.

Forty-eight countries and more than 80,000km later, they arrived last week in Singapore, their 49th country. Mr Ferge, a 38-year-old Frenchman, and Ms Martinkova, a 43-year-old Briton, have pedalled through Europe, parts of Russia, Mongolia, South Korea, western China, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia.

They have probably not been here long enough to experience the ire many cyclists feel on roads. He says: 'We like Singapore. The streets are wide and the drivers are nice. We're surprised that not many people commute to work on bicycles.'