A common question I get:

What it is like to travel alone, and do I meet people along the way?

Well the truth is that it sometimes gets lonely.  But being alone forces me to talk to people I probably wouldn’t otherwise meet.

First off, I get to meet some of the locals.  In Bangkok, while waiting for a boat, I met an old man who lived near by.  He was trying to improve his English, and apparently he goes to movies a lot so he can learn.  We talked about The Dark Night, Milk, Valkaryie and Slumdog Millionaire.

On buses, especially, I meet other travelers.  When there is a bus full of locals, and only a couple foreigners, its easy to start a conversation.  On the way to Cambodia I chatted for a while with a guy from the Czech Republic, and ended up splitting a hotel room for one night with a girl from Holland.

Sometimes, I just meet people randomly.  In Cambodia, while scrambling up the steps of a temple, I met a nice family from San Diego.  The dad works for the Department of Defense and the whole family has lived in Singapore for the past two years.

And of course as I am sitting here typing this, I am also talking to a younger spanish couple about the temples and the good things to see in the area.  The traveling world is quite friendly.  It is very easy to meet people, and some of them are amazingly interesting as well.