When you’re backpacking, a lot of time the photos you that you share are missing a vital part of the picture – your travelling companions. By looking through my images from the last five years, you’d be forgiven for thinking I am a lone traveller exploring by myself. But of course although I am very independent, I still enjoy having travelmates and meet loads of people during the course of my travels, many of whom become great friends.

To show a different side of the story, here’s a collection of the better pictures of some of the fellow travellers I met in South East Asia. I don’t normally like to take photos of travelmates – mainly because they aren’t there to be my model! But occasionally I would force them in front of my lens for a quick snap!

It’s great to have like-minded people to share your experiences with and I met so many great people along the way, the backpacker circuit in SE Asia is a good way to meet travelmates, as limited hostels and popular transport routes naturally bring backpackers together.

I ended up travelling with some of them for months and now have a network of people dotted around the world who I met on my travels. Travelling solo is a liberating experience but sometimes sharing it is even better. Here’s to travelmates – miss you all! Check out the gallery below, click to enlarge.