Yep, if you can't mingle in your home town, you won't mingle in a foreign town.

I think traveling brings a sense of anonymity that, for some, can lift a lot of social pressures.

To throw my anecdote out there, I find that I have no trouble at all talking to people on the road and making friends but I can't do that at all when I'm at home. I have very few friends at home but when I'm out traveling I find myself opening up conversations with perfect strangers. I've made some terrific friends doing that.

Just wish I could make myself do it at home, too.

In contrast, I have learned that I am just as shy in the middle of nowhere as I am at home.

The difference is that you have to talk to people at some point when you're traveling, only if to ask for directions.

GPS.

My record is three weeks on the road with no conversation deeper than ordering a meal or checking in to a hotel. And I'm not really all that introverted.

I did then use gumtree to find some folks to travel with, but still, just saying 'travel' is not really a cure-all for introversion.

Try travelling on a budget. A really really low budget. You'll have to bum lifts, work casual labour, sleep in less than luxurious places... If you aren't making meaningful human contact after a month on a starting budget of $100, then you probably never will.

Begging for rides and sleeping in stys seem worse than total isolation to me.

I also can't imagine someone who is an extreme introvert would be able to pick up odd cash jobs really easily, and also don't seem like great ways to have extended contact with other people.

I'm an introvert and had a great time when I was younger travelling with no money. It's not just meeting other people, I would say one of the most satisfying things about travelling is the risk. Risk is scary, it wakes you up, makes you feel alive. Being comfortable is wonderful, but if you are always comfortable I feel like a part of you goes to sleep. I was biking home on my normal comfortable route the other day and starting improvising another way home and got fairly seriously lost. I was late and it rained on me, but I felt happier.

"felt happier" when you got home, right?

It's an interesting point that risk makes you feel alive, I've experienced it myself and you feel brilliant afterwards.

Once I got trapped in a wave machine as a child and was being spun around underwater, but kept down the panic and managed to work out how to get out again. I was probably underwater for a total of 90-120 seconds. People were going crazy when I came back up but once I'd got my breath back I felt incredible.

I wonder if it's possible to apply this sort of risk-reward feeling to earning money? Is this what people feel like when they put everything into a startup? Money just sort of seems so mundane when compared to physical activity.

I felt happier when I was out in it too. One of my happiest memories is sitting under a tree in a thunderstorm eating muesli. I was in a country where I didn't speak the language and I had little money and no place to stay. I sat under that tree crunching away and being incredibly happy that I was having an adventure. My new resolution is to stop being so comfortable and get out in the world some more, even if it hurts.