The curse of self suffiency...

One of my strengths, I think, has always my ability to cope with most situations on my own...

This is partly historical... when I was a young lad and my parents moved around a lot my main tactic to make friends was to keep myself to myself, and when someone came to talk to me, to befriend them... This tactic was mostly successful, and as a by-product of it I am quite happy on my own, left to my own devices 90% of the time.

There are 2 main problems with this tactic. The first is the 10% of the time when I really need someone to chat with, or just to be social... I can talk to people if there is some excuse to do so... a shared activity, close proximity for extended periods of time, or an introduction by a mutual friend... And occasionally someone will come and talk to me... which I can cope with just fine...

The second problem is when it comes to meeting women... Because on those occasions when someone comes to speak to me, it is always, without fail, a guy that comes to talk to me.... This left me in the position of having lots of guy friends, and very few female ones.... Now when I started doing Salsa this evened out a bit, but now I'm all alone on the wrong side of the planet, and suddenly both of these problems are thrown into sharp relief...

Sometimes I think it would be simpler if I was the kind of person that feared being alone more then I fear the prospect of trying to start a conversation with a stranger.... Or maybe the kind of person that can't help but say whatever random thoughts pass through their mind...

Who knows...

On a sandbank on the Mekhong...

Picture the scene...

Myself and Icecream in a boat on the Mekong river, looking out for freshwater dolphins....

The peace and solitude is only broken by the presence of one other boat, contaning 2 people... but the scene is pretty quiet, very special...

Then suddenly the peace is broken by a shout from the other boat "Hey... Is your name Trevor Howland?"...

I was slightly puzzled, kinda shocked... Who was this guy? How did he know my name? Was it someone from university or school that had changed loads? Am I being followed by the FBI for some imaginary crime?

Then he explained, he had seen my name on the register that we signed when we got on the boats, and he was John Howland from Australia... This was pretty crazy... I have NEVER met someone that shares my surname before, and yet here we were,the only 4 people in sight (apart from the local drivers of the boats), and one of them was a Howland! I suddenly got an insight into how Dave Gorman felt when he met another Dave Gorman...

So we pulled up onto a sandbank, shook hands, he took a picture. I would have, but my camera ran out of batteries just before... And that was that.. Another Howland. He seemed pretty cool, so the family name was in good hands. Then we went back to the guest house...

Oh yea, the fresh water dolphins were pretty cool as well!

High speed travel...

Travelling with Icecream is kind of opening my eyes to how most people travel...

You know, you go to some place, see all of the things that there is to see, and then you go to another place...

I personally like to spend time in a place doing nothing... the surface reason is that it gives me a better feel for a place, for the people, gives me time to explore a city at my leisure... I suspect that the real reason is that I'm too lazy to immediately go on any tours that a place has to offer, and then pack up all of my stuff and move onto the next place.

Not that I'm complaining. The last week has been lots of fun, I've probably done much more stuff then I ever would have if left to my own devices, and having someone to do it with makes things all the more fun!

I think I'm going to need a couple of weeks holiday after this traveling...