The Naked Traveller, news.com.au

I've seen some weird stuff and had some strange things happen to me during my travels. But nothing comes close to this one.

Image: Chance meetings can be one of the best parts of travelling. Picture: supplied

During my early twenties I was on an exchange in the US. On autumn break, while visiting a friend at the University of Michigan, I somehow got chatting to a random American guy.

Suddenly mid-conversation he said: “I know you. You’re Paul Hansford. We used to live opposite you in England and we used to play football in the street together.”

It turns out his family visited England 10 years before on his own exchange and he remembered me from our street kick-arounds. We never knew each other that well and didn’t stay in touch after he left, but for some reason, a decade on, our paths had crossed again.

The chances of meeting him were staggering – what were the odds on me being in Michigan and striking up enough of a conversation with a complete stranger to the point where we remembered we were long-lost pals?

I often think about meeting him – his name was Phil - and what it meant. With the odds stacked against us ever being even in the same area code – let alone meeting and recognising each other – I often think there must have been a reason for us making contact.

In hindsight, I think our encounter took place to prepare me for a life of travel. It shaped my outlook, taught me to always expect the unexpected and not be fazed when thrown a curveball. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt while travelling it’s that weird things are going to happen – and you should just roll with it.

In fact, for me these serendipitous events are the pinnacle of the travel experience.

Sure, seeing the sights of a destination and immersing yourself in a culture is what you are spending your “hard earned” on, but when you have an experience that defies belief, like I had with Phil, it’s something money can’t buy. For me, the “unexplainable” is better than anything else that happens on a trip.

For one, these events encapsulate everything we strive for when travelling. They are true, personal experiences, not ones based on a package or mass tourism. The unplanned, unexplainable nature of them feeds our need to feel like we’re doing something special, that we’re gaining some perspective or life experience which we wouldn’t have got if we had stayed home.

They also keep us grounded, telling our subconscious that the world is small and we’re safe out in the big bad world. They tell us there are always people you know nearby, whether you realise it or not. And they’re something that stays with you for a lot longer than the memory of seeing an ancient ruin or beautiful piece of scenery.

The “hows”, “whys” and “WTF just happened?” get played out in your mind again and again. “What if I hadn’t turned around at that exact point? How many other friends have I brushed past without realising? And I could really do with bumping into that guy from uni who owes me $50 right about now.”

But nothing surprises me anymore. Recently I bumped into an old pal on a crowded street in New York’s SoHo and while he was a little freaked, I just chatted away like it was a normal occurrence. While I’m still amazed these things happen, I’m not surprised. I just have a wry smile and chalk another one up to the “Phil effect”.