Felix Hill

Felix Hill is 24 years old and comes from the south of England, perhaps the world's least friendly place. He started to travel during university vacations and was quickly astounded by the concept, seemingly common outside of the UK, of beginning a conversation with people that you don't already know.

Infected by the idea of meeting and learning from new people, he ventured to China, landing a job teaching English swearwords to pre-pubescent boys. The following summer began in Poland with a similar assignment translating hip-hop for teenagers, before a short hop to Moscow for a week on a street corner arguing about entry papers in sign language with a corrupt policeman.

After graduation he travelled to South America for 9 months, 8 of which were wasted after he took a wrong turn during a budget tour of a Bolivian silver mine. Emerging quite thirsty and with an acute vitamin D deficiency, he spent a day in each of Peru, Colombia and Venezuela looking for a glass of water. The outside world soon became too much and he sought refuge in an Ecuadorian prison, before failing to sail to London in a 12-man yacht. When the cash ran out he returned home to work for 18 months as a Management Consultant, an experience that left his back sore and his arms permanently extended in front of him as if typing at a keyboard.

India provided a haven of anonymity in which to slowly come to terms with this disfigurement, and after three months of intense yoga he was able to swim the width of the Ganges without sinking (admittedly only a few hundred yards from the source). Days later he deleted his entire memory in a meditation accident, but has been re-learning his past word by word from his Facebook profile. Until mid 2010 he'll be based in Mexico City.