KINGSVILLE TOWNSHIP — Eight months of hard work led to two months of fun for two area men who toured Southeast Asia from Thailand to Nepal.

Todd and Kevin Wheeler, both Edgewood High School graduates, decided to travel “vagabond style” with the added dimension of the Internet site couchsurfing.com. Todd is 20, presently living in North Kingsville, and Kevin is 24 and a resident of Gunnison, Colo. when not instructing Outward Bound trips from a base camp in Oregon from April to October.

“People from all over the world offer up their couches. It is a great way to meet locals and get to know the culture,” said Todd Wheeler who is presently in North Kingsville with his parents planning his next adventure.

A book entitled “vagabonding” completely changed the boys lives, Todd said. It explains how to meet new friends, live cheaply and safely while touring abroad.

The brothers found jobs in the Fall of 2008 and went about the task of saving $8,000 for the adventure. They worked in a Max and Erma’s in Erie.

In the application for employment Todd said he would work very hard because he was trying to save enough money to tour the world. The person in charge of hiring said he had never read such a declaration and hired him.

The first CouchSurfing client was not able to meet with the Wheelers for several days so the pair had to make due after landing in Singapore around midnight.

“We ended up setting up camp under an escalator on a cold floor,” Todd said.

After several days in Singapore the pair decided to move on to Thailand. “We got a really cheap flight to Thailand,” he said.

The Wheelers left Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 4 and returned to the states Oct. 4 leaving parents Corrine and Ron to monitor from half a world away.

“We really looked at maps while they were gone,” Corrine said of monitoring new places like Phuket and Kohtao. She said Skipe messages were the only way to keep in touch and were often 12 hours off when the boys were able to find an Internet cafe.

“We kept our ear cocked to the computer,” She said of listening for messages early in the morning.

One of the couch surfing friends lived in Thailand and operated a “bar.” What the pair didn’t realize was what kind of establishment it was.

Todd said there were a variety of characters in the bar that included prostitutes and other “shady” characters. One man made friends with Kevin and kept trying to by him a drink.

When he refused their host went to Todd and suggested he take him up on his offer because he was a member of the Mafia.

“We were kind of uncomfortable in that setting. It was really surreal,” he said.

After a day of recovery the men took a bus ride across to the east side of the country and grabbed a nine hour ferry to Kohtao.

Todd said the busses are cramped and unsanitary but the main means of transportation in the country.

The trip was worth it, however, as the pair stayed in the area for three weeks learning snorkeling and scuba diving from instructors from Europe and the United States.

One of the highlights of the time in Kohtao was meeting new friends and learning of their new friends adventures. The resort was on a crescent beach with a coral reef starting five feet into the water, Todd said.

A day trip across a mountain to another resort made for a difficult adventure. The men rented motorbikes for a mile trip over a steep mountain.

“We kept stalling out and sliding back and I thought I was going to die,” Todd said with a laugh. He said he eventually sent his brother ahead and he walked the rest of the way.

Bangkok was the next stop on the adventure and the pair found a place to stay for $7 a night, Todd said. “It wasn’t the cleanest place but it had a rustic charm,” he said.

After several days in the big city it was time to move on to another adventure where they made a border crossing into Cambodia and had a meeting with the taxi Mafia.

A crowd of men waited to bid for the tourists needing a ride five hours into Cambodia where a famous set of temples are located that go by the name of Ankar Wat in the town of Siem Reap.

This group was not as scary as a real gun toting Mafia, but just as annoying. “Once you get there you are bombarded by taxi drivers,” he said of the folks fighting for a piece of the action that often quote a price and then stop halfway and ask for more money, Todd said.

He said they banded together with a German couple and started to walk about a half mile to the bus station. “These taxi drivers followed us all the way,” Todd said.

“I was really excited,” he said of the trip to the ruins. The brothers stayed in the area for an entire week renting bicycles for $1 a day.

The pair took a bus back to Bangkok and connected with some of their new found friends met during the travels and decided to make a side trip to Laos. He said the plan for the trip was to grab new experiences as they came along.

“When an idea presented itself we went with it,” Todd said.

They ended up in Vang Vieng in Thailand’s version of a water park in the wild.

He said rubber rafts are rented and merchants and restaurant owners pull people to shore with fishing lines. “The local economy is based on this,” he said.

In addition to rafting on tubes there were zip lines, swings to leap into the water and even mud wrestling pits. “It was just great,” he said.

After a wild goose chase to find “The Blue Lagoon” which was described as an idyllic area with deep blue water they ended up swimming and playing with local children in a muddy swimming area.

The next step on the adventure was a flight to Katmandu. “The view was incredible,” Todd said.

After some negotiating the brothers decided to pay $1,500 each for a 21 day guided trip to the Mount Everest base camp. The original price was $2,500 each.

Traveling cheaply made the last experience possible but the adventure became difficult.

“We got part of the way through it. It was a pretty grueling trek,” Todd said.

Todd began suffering from altitude sickness and Kevin started to have issues with an infected knee.

After discussing a variety of options and thinking about the physical and financial ramifications the pair decided it was time to stop.

“We figured this is probably a pretty good time to call it quits,” Todd said.

The pair then called home and two days later were back in the states.

Kevin said he loved interacting with others during the adventure. “We made tons of friends that we still keep in touch with,” he said.

Transportation issues were one of the more difficult sides of the experience, Kevin said.

Todd kept a blog on the Internet to detail their travels but has not completed the project.

“I haven’t put in the final addition because I don’t want the trip to end,” Todd said.