These are some of my friends from travelling. There are also a number of pictures of people I met on the road on the relevant country pages. One of the best things about travelling is meeting people, not necessarily these people, but some of the other pictures I had were destroyed for legal and moral reasons.
When I was first in China I spent much more time than planned in Chengdu, the capital of Szechuan province. The city is okay, but it was the people there at the time that got me drunk repeatedly and made it difficult to leave. The scene of these crimes was almost invariably at Paul's Oasis (photo 1), although there was the infamous morning in the shrubbery market. The usual culprits were Geraint, whose Welsh and can only drink beer from a bowl for some bizarre druidic reason (photo 2). Kiwi Wendy whose head would sometimes come out of a beer bottle, whilst Khapre her slightly less baritone partner would poke her in the head (photo 3). Annie who made people suck beer molecules from the air (photo 4). American Ian who had tattoos of beer, Argentine Mauro who sang about beer and Chinese Paul who dreamt of doing and being done by some beer (photo 5). One time we ran out of beer so decided to go to a restaurant, where they had beer (photo 6) and we had a food and hot scented towel fight. Mauro and I went with Annie to see the world's biggest Buddha, we were drunk at the time, there may have been a boat (photo 7), there was definitely a lot of singing. Then there was the time we met two Danish girls called Zena so we decided to go to the bizarre underground bomb-shelter shopping centre digital photo place (photo 8). I don't think we were drunk at the time, it may have been better if we had been.
Annie had changed a bit by the next time I saw her, several years later. She was looking all responsible, working hard and so forth. Last I heard, she isn't working so hard anymore.
The following pictures are all from Holland, in the first photo are my friends Micha and Mandy, the second is my friend Hanna (from Arizona) and I, the third is Hanna doing an impression of a bunny rabbit (I already mentioned that she is from Arizona, think that may be the reason, or something to do with the coffee shop).
When I go to Holland, which happens quite regularly, the two places I always go share a watery theme. Firstly Die Clipper, where Tonya and Maup the friendly landlords keep me hydrated. The other place is The Wave, my friend Mart's dive shop, where Micha and I usually steal his biscuits and coffee, because we didn't get around to sorting food at Micha's place. Then work through the beer in the Coke machine because the Clipper isn't open yet.
I spent some time in Venezuela, much of it in Merida, where I made several friends, Jusnayby below was just one of them. Some other friends in the second photo are: Mark, Veronica, Alex, Sofia and I all muddied up, supposedly therapeutic, who knows?
This picture shows me at Leņos and Carbon, my favourite steak place in Cali, Colombia with my friends Lorena (Colombian), Nir (Herzliah, Israel) and Dan (Bishops Stortford).
Lorena (below) is one of my friends from Cali, Colombia. As well as a qualified physiotherapist she does quite a lot of modelling, she makes a good representative of the beauties Colombia is famous for and was Miss Cali a couple of years ago. One of her greatest assets though is the mental way in which she whistles, difficult to describe but hilarious to watch.
In Cali I could be found most nights at "The Blues Brothers", a pub run by Peter from Belfast, that had good music and good regulars. The fact that Peter would often insist on us drinking his Tequila had nothing to do with our regular attendance. From left to right are Peter himself, Dan letching, Nir grinning, me, Tatiana and finally Vanessa in front.
In Cuzco, Peru I made a number of friends, mostly amongst the locals. In the first photo from left to right are Carlos, Linda, myself, Vanessa, Tania, Patti and her friend who's name I forget. The second picture shows the same crowd. In the third Vanessa and I are dancing some Salsa.
I met my friend Esther in Peru and we travelled together in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. As you can plainly see, the medication would sometimes wear off.
