How can you travel alone? Doesn't it get borring?

Before I left, I would often get this question asked by my friends. Well the truth is I am traveling alone, but so far this entire trip, about 24 days, I have not spent an entire day on my own; everyday I've been hanging out with some people I've met. After 24 days, I can say that this trip has not seen a dull moment yet ... hope it stays that way. Many of the people I've met so far have been interesting and have often had much in common with me or a connection through an interest that I was looking to potentially explore. They have all helped me in some way on my way and with my understanding of things. A

Here is a quick summary of the people I've met so far; I only include a few of those I've spent long enough time together to get to know them, but there are a few others I will include later in an update to this post (An and Alexandra) as it is too much work to include them all.

Max
A Canadian guy from Quebec, graduated in micro-biology, looking to avoid going to the industry and wants to go to grad school. Like me he is traveling around the same route with the only exception being Japan, which I've visited in the past. We talked a lot about Korean life and some characteristics of Korean people. Among many recommendations he made, he told me about Temple stay, one of my best experiences on the trip so far.

Petru
A Romanian Canadian friend from university of Waterloo, currently teaching English in Seoul. We had a lot of good outings together in Seoul and traveled to Daigu together. Through him I met many local Koreans and learned about their way of life, their troubles and what makes them happy. He also showed me how one can live on a decent salary and enjoy a relaxing lifestyle.

June
A Korean guy operating a hostel in Busan. We had a very strong connection, and it was weird for me how it all happened. I arrived and was the only guy staying at the hostel the first night. We talked a lot about many things. Just like me he used to work for a big company, Nike, and quit to travel; he realized corporate life was not for him, so after his travels he opened up a hostel in Busan. The connection is he graduated in Environmental Eng and I am considering doing this for grad school, but I know nothing of this field, so I had questions - we talked quite a bit about this. He is studying Traditional Medicine and acupuncture and I have interest in this area for reasons that shall remain unnamed. I have interest in getting answers to some questions that relate to Buddhism, etc ... so he has also explored this in the past and present and really admires Osho, whom he told me about. At the time of my arrival, I was thinking of fortune telling for a couple of days, cause it's everywhere in Korea and I've talked about it with some locals ... so I felt a bit afraid of doing a reading, it turned out that June was learning advanced fortune telling, so we talked about that and he helped me get a better idea of how it works according to the ancient Korean tradition, which comes from China.

Popil
The Israeli monk that I spent a lot of time talking to on my temple stay experience. We talked about a lot of things and he helped me get a deeper understanding of the philosophy involved, the advantages of practice and much more about the world of Buddhism and gave me some guidance for the future and a glimpse into peaceful living with nature. He answered many of the questions that I had when I arrived in Asia, but also many more have now appeared.

Alana
She was one of my couch surfing experiences, I stayed 3 days with her. It was also weird how I ended up staying with her, but I will make this story a separate post. Alana is an English teacher, teaching in Seoul ... it's her first trip out of North America and she jumping right in to the culture. Our connection was both through writing, she is an editor and I started enjoying writing and maybe thinking of pursuing it further: encourages by another voice, you know who you are :) but also our Canadian experiences, desire to travel, photography, electronic music and others. We hanged out a lot during my stay, went out drinking, dancing, eating and lots of chatting ... it was all very easy and very fun experience.

Sergio
He is a traveler from Sicily, traveling through Asia, approximately the same route as me but he is doing it on his BICYCLE! Our connection, was our trip, the desire to live in Spain later and in particular Barcelona. We were both traveling on a ferry to Beijing, where we met and ended up going to a hostel together with a few others ( a funny story for later). We traveled together the entire time in Beijing, it was lots of fun ... perhaps we'll meet again down the road. He taught me how far you can get traveling on a very frugal budget and more importantly, how possible the impossible can be if you believe it can be done!

Ms. Lee
She is a Korean traveler in her 40s, she quit her job as a Phd (she has been a student for a very long time), sold her house and is now traveling. She is a free spirit and likes to talk a lot ... it's amazing how easily she can meet people. She can show anyone that with the right attitude one can easily make friends and have a great time, no matter where you are or who you are. She has taught me a bit more about Korean people and how one can pursue studies for a long time if they wished so and just how one can live the life they choose to.