The Englishman I never knew.

April 15, 2012.

The Englishman I never knew.

Backpackers meet each other and become lifetime friends. But don't think that once you go separate ways you won't see them again on your travels. In the last 7 months, I have coincidentally bumped into old backpacking friends several times. Especially in a fairly small country like Laos that has only a small amount of backpackers, you will see familiar faces all the time.

But what happened to me with a certain Englishman simply cannot go without being mentioned. It is for sure a new record on accidentally bumping into Englishmen in Laos.

In Vang Vieng, Laos's party town, I was looking at a game of billiard between my Spanish friend and a tall wide guy with a huge beard. It was a close call, but my friends opponent was a skilled player and ended victorious.
"Nice one mate" he said to my Spanish friend.

After that, I moved on to the capital, Vientiane, together with my Japanese friend Shinji. While walking the streets, I suddenly saw the tall wide guy with the beard passing, walking together with his girlfriend.
"Hey!" I said, but he didn't seem to remember me. "I saw you in Vang Vieng" 
"Oh yeah, that's true! Good to see you again" he said. But he didn't really seemed interested.

At the end of that week, I moved to a small village located near a cave with Shinji. In the evening, while waiting for our food at the village's only eatery, I suddenly noticed that the tall wide guy with the beard entered the restaurant. There he was again.
"We meet again!" I said.
"Yeah, it seems like we're doing the same trip huh!"
He told me he was British. But this time too, there was no time for a real conversation.

The next day, me and Shinji explored the cave, and after staying one more night, we parted ways the next morning. I headed by bus for a city called Thakhek. I arrived late in the night, and headed downtown by a took-took from the bus station. I was too tired to search for a local bus. While driving through the streets of Thakhek, I suddenly saw a familiar face walking the streets. Yes, it was that same Englishman again! He didn't see me, but that didn't really matter anymore. The fact that I saw him again was more than enough.