12 PEOPLE YOU ALWAYS MEET WHEN BACKPACKING

Different people travel for different reasons and have different aims and ambitions. Spend a couple of weeks in any backpacker hostel and you can guarantee you will meet all of the people listed below.

THE PARTY ANIMAL Drinks all night, sleeps a lot of the day and sees little of the place they are at in between. Can be any age but most of them are first time travelers/gap year students.

THE FIRST TIME TRAVELERFollows a highly predictable route which makes every conversation with them feel like you are talking to the same person each time. Easily identified by the size of their backpack!!!! Most of them fit into the party animal outlined above.

THE LONG TERMERA person who is working or studying in that area and has been in that same hostel for months. A great source of information......

THE SIGHTSEERHas to visit every tourist attraction listed in their guidebook, often leaves the hostel early in the morning not to return until late in the evening. Easy to spot as they usually book a tour before they have even checked into their room. Often falls out with people on the opposite sleep pattern to themselves such as "the party animal" (above)

THE PASSPORT STAMP COLLECTORA person who is on a long trip but is trying to cram in as many countries as they can (30 or more in a year). Will never spend more than 48 hours in one place even if it has a weeks worth of things to see and do. Will probably get three quarters of the way through their trip and suddenly figure out that all they have seen is the insides of airports, ferries, bus terminals etc........

THE INDEPTH TRAVELEROpposite to the passport stamp collector, spends a long time exploring every aspect of one country.

THE SINGLE PURPOSE TRAVELER
Travels to pursue one single activity such as surfing, scuba diving, rock climbing etc. As a result they usually have only one topic of conversation and if you are not into that subject they quickly bore the hell out of you.

THE RICH KIDMum and dad have paid for his trip, he obviously has never done a real days work in his life but can afford to hire cars, go skydiving and a lengthy list of other non budget activities. The kind of person you would like to punch very hard!!!!!!!!!

THE ULTRA LOW BUDGET TRAVELERLives on instant noodles, haggles over the cost of everything, and if there's something going free they know about it. Not so much seeing the world as on an exercise to try and exist in a foreign land on as little money as they can.

THE HIPPYDreadlocks, bare feet, smells and had no camera, e-mail or any other kind of technology. They will often carry a guitar.

THE RUNAWAYHas just gone through some big horrible event in their lives such as death of a close relative, divorce, being in a car crash etc. Escaping to the other side of the world makes them feel a lot better.

THE OLDER TRAVELERThey woke up one morningand figured out that they had enough of the 9-5 rat race. Will often be on a long trip on a big budget.