The people you meet .....

Travelling is an amazing way to meet new people. During all of my 'big' travels (UK 1999, NZ 2000, Thailand 2005 and now China 2008-?), I've met some fascinating people from all over the place. Some, you just hang out with and then move on, others you stay in random contact with and a small number become life long friends.

Chloe, my oldest travel friend.

There are, of course, my GAP year friends, a huge group of people from Australia, NZ, South Africa and the UK, who were my 'family' for the 6 months I worked at PGL and many who I am still in contact with, albeit infrequent contact. I can't mention this group, without mentioning my dear friend, Chloe, who I was lucky enough to see in February during her stay in China.

New friends in Tibet.

Then there are the other random people you meet along the way. In New Zealand in 2000, I shared a backpackers dorm with 5 guys (looking back, probably not the wisest move for a 20 year old single girl). One of them, Jody, was heading to Australian and I said, 'Hey, come and stay', not really thinking it would happen. But, sure enough a month later, Jody was camping out on my living room floor. Ben, my Aussie friend from Japan, also fits into this category - we met travelling then were able to meet up again down the track. I'm hoping to make a trip down to Hong Kong in September to see him (and Amy of course!) again.

Rainer, who I met in beautiful Yangshuo.

There is a point to this story and it all comes back to an experience I had today (and yesterday). Yesterday, the receptionist here at school told me that 'Mick from Chengdu' had called. I immediately thought, 'Oh, Mick must be the PYP co-ordinator at EtonHouse Chengdu. How nice of him to make contact.' Then Lishan said, 'No! He said that he travelled with your little brother!'. 'Hmmmm,' was my response. I thought that Rob may have met someone, passed on my details and said they could stay at my place. So, I called Rob, who informed me that he hadn't done that, but after some more talking, we thought it might have been a guy (whose name we couldn't remember) who we had met who had been on his way to a Tibetan Buddhist convention in Lhasa. I didn't think anything more of it and left it there. But, today, as I finished teaching in the morning, I walked back to my office, where I was accousted by two Chinese men. 'Hi, I'm Nick. I met you and your brother in Chengdu!'. So, it was the guy Rob and I thought. I was a little freaked out that they had both turned up at my workplace and were casually sitting in the staff room waiting for me! It turns out that Nick wants me to teach a group of his friends English every day for one hour! I said that I would consider it and get back to him. I will definitely consider this but definitely not every day. Nick is involved with a Tibetan Buddhist group here in Wuxi, so if I take up his offer, I could become involved in this, something that I had wanted to do during my time in China.

New Aussie friend, Ben, in Japan.

While it was lovely that Nick had thought of me, surely that's taking the 'I met you travelling' friendship a little too quickly by turning up unexpected at the workplace?! But, I really do love meeting people travelling - I love the travel stories, the stories of people's lives and the carefree attitude that we all possess while travelling and having fun. On that note, bring on the Phillippines!