Oh dear oh dear, so many old acquaintances

It is just unbelievable how many fellow travellers I've met in the past few weeks. To give you an idea of how cheerful it is to travel on your own, I'll put some of the travellers who are spread all over the world in a nice little showcase for you. On the station from Mumbai: Louise. On the train to Goa: a compartment which is really meant for 6 persons, crowded with backpackers. (I've never felt this safe when spending the night on a train.) On the station from Margoa you can share a riksha with another Dutch couple, get off, wish each other a pleasant journey when you say goodbye and go your own way again. In Colva: three Dutch girls; 15 minutes of chatting and then they had to leave because they had to catch a train. Then, on the train to Hampi: Alistar (a name which goes down well with the criminals who dwell in the surroundings of Hampi...). In Hampi itself I only got to meet Deutsche Leute: Lisa, 42 years old, who had been travelling for some 20 odd years and Elli and her travel companion, who were planning to work on a coffee plantation near Mysore for 3 months, but did not take any anti-malaria tablets, for 'what will be, will be...' ('dann soll es so sein...').

On the train from Hampi to Margoa I could practise my French again with four French people (two couples) who would be travelling for 10 months (I was complimented on my French! YES! Ehr... I mean... OUI!). Also, a German couple I'd met on the beach in Kovalam assumed that I could speak their language ('You are from Holland? Then we can speak German!'). Ach so, that's what you get for being so 'good'...

One does bump into people more than once. A week after I'd met a German couple on the boat during the backwater trip I saw them again on the beach in Kovalam. I also met an Israelian girl called Liat there, who gave me directions to get to, and around in, Kovalam; I bumped into her again in Varanasi, as it turned out she had booked a room in the same little hotel as I had.

In Orcha I met Andrew ('Mister A.' from the guestbook) with whom I travelled around in Khajuraho and Varanasi. He was a very nice companion; the English do have a sense of hunour! Yet I did not mind him going to Calcutta next while I travelled on to Nepal. (Yep, again nothing happened. This is why I love travelling so much: nothing has to happen and anything could happen.

In Varanasi I met Jolette and Julia. I cannot think of Nepal as anything but the 'Land of the 'J's', for who else did I meet there? Jan and Sjaak (the latter, I am sure, is written as 'Jacques'), Jouke and Jolanda... Talk about coincidences! Finally, I have to admit that I do sometimes wonder if people still work at all, or if everyone is travelling at the moment.