Great post Andy! Reading that made me sign up to forum!
In my own travel writing it's more about the people I meet. On the backpacking trail paths once crossed are often quickly uncrossed and it's these encounters that make the journey for me. It's certainly not uncommon for paths to cross again, even from one country to the next. Perhaps it's fate or the universe bringing people together, but backpackers often follow similar routes though, so conidences can be explained by this fact also. I like to think of it as a combination of the two.
On the trail you'll find people from the Sweden, FInland, Holland, France, UK, USA, Canada, Russia, various countries in South America... in fact pretty much every developed nation is represented somewhere along the way. You might be in Thailand, Loas, Malysia, Australisa, New Zealand or whereever, but you'll be living side by side with people from all over the world which provides a rich environment to learn about other cultures. Mostly I was a drifting around with no real aim or purpose and as a young man the pursuit of partying and girls was at the forefront of my mind.
I like uninhibited and honest wrtting. After all, what the writer isn't sure about admitting or confessing, is probally exactly what the reader wants to read and can relate to. Although I've written a travel memoir, I actually haven't read much travel writing so it will be great to how others are doing it. It's great to see all these suggestions and reccomendations. Will be checking some of them out for sure!
