One of the things I love about travelling is the amount of like minded people you meet. Striking up a conversation with a complete stranger is never a problem.

We met a German couple, Dirk and Sabrina on the bus up here and then spent a pleasant evening with them at the night market. A couple of days later we met and English couple at one of the temples. On top of that we’ve met so many friendly people from all over in the guesthouse while eating, drinking and playing pool. In fact I had loads of practice playing a Slovak chap (Klement, you left a piece of paper by the computer with some notes on your last day. Leave me a comment below to get in touch).

Meeting such varied people is also great for killing misconceptions and stereotypes. Spaniards generally do not travel. They take their two to three week holiday in July or August and very few go outside of Europe. Then you go and meet someone like Jose, an amazing Madrileño who has travelled loads and has this amazing capacity to teach himself absolutely anything.

First off it was great that Espe could finally speak in her native language (something she appears to be forgetting, given the amount of Spanish words she keeps asking me.. “how do you say x in spanish?”) but even better that they share many interests.

The guy taught himself origami in free time at work, he plays the banjo, he learnt how to speak Indonesian from a book in 2 months, he is learning how to do Mongolian throat singing (a real head turner), he’s learning how to juggle and has spent a great deal of time studying Buddhism and learning about meditation.

An inspiring person to be around.