Daniel

I met Daniel at a house party in Quebec City. He’s originally from Brisbane, but is in one of Canada’s most beautiful cities to learn French, in sort of an ad hoc manner. It’s tied in some way to a girl, although he resented me calling that ‘cute’, which was, of course, a total over-simplification for his raison d’être on my part. He once went to China and randomly decided to bike from Shanghai to Nepal (or India, I can’t remember which) though all of Tibet. Because monks were protesting at the time, he got stopped at the Tibetan border and had to turn back. This guy wasn’t some pro biker at the start of this (“I had to quit smoking a week into the trip”) – he just randomly decided to ride through China, using road maps that some people he met in Shanghai helped him track down. Anyone who’s travelled in the Middle Kingdom knows that it’s not the easiest place in the world to get around, so I’m impressed that he even tried. Also, this was in February. China isn’t exactly a Carribean paradise that time of year. Daniel also mentioned that he would like to “go into the wild” and travel all throughout Canada, the US, Latin America, and South America with only a $1000 in his pocket. And the thing about Daniel is that I have no doubt that he’ll do it. His kind of insanity is inspiring.