Traveling alone?

Yourself can be a great accompany too!!! (IG: Rimareyka.writes)

People always asked me how could I manage to travel alone? Alone here, did not always mean alone physically, but it was more in a sense of traveling alone without spouse, parents, friend, and so on. 

Looking back, I had done so many times in my life. Sometimes, I could not even believe myself, how did I do it, traveling alone, as far as to US, Europe, Japan, and so on. 

It was a bless that my spouse gave me the trust and permission for all my traveling trips. Not many spouse would understand that dream of yours to visit the world, to experience life outside your comfort zone, to realise your dreams, and to enjoy your own time. I was indeed blessed in that matter and I always felt grateful for him. 

Many of us, especially women, would love to travel and see the world. But due to circumstances (could not take time off together with your loved ones, did not have enough budget for two or more, partner might not be interested in traveling or the destination, just could not find anyone to travel with, and so on), we ended going alone, that too, if you had courage to do so. 

Yes, many of us had been travelling. They could sign travel package from travel agent as it was the easiest thing to go with no worry and you would find many others who were at the same boat traveling with you that way. They had their spouse, family, and friends to travel with them. 

But what if you were really alone and just wanted to be alone? I just realised, traveling alone was not just for everyone.

When my hubby had to travel alone to meet me in Penang few months ago, he was filled with anxiety. It had been long time (due to Covid-19) since the last time he went abroad. That too, mostly with my accompany.  He was worried so much about the trip, especially the procedures that he had to go through during the check-in. He could not sleep the night before, and kept messaging me how to do it. And he told me too, when he was successing with the check-in procedures and everything, when he reached Penang airport feeling proud of himself, and when he came out to the arrival area, he then realised that he forgot to collect his luggage at the conveyer belt. Lol..... :P He had to ask the security officer's permission to enter the collection luggage area to take his luggage. Hahahaha..... this might give him a good lesson for his next travelling trip and memories to laugh with in the future time. 

Anyway, I just thought about it and come out with few things to suggest when you felt like traveling and happened you gotta be alone. 

One life with many choices ahead (IG: Rimareyka.writes)

First, ask yourself, what you want to reach from this trip. The goal, the dream, the purpose. Let me get example from one of my trips - 10-day silent meditation trip in Thailand. You could read the post here. 

"Been wanting to experience living in Ashram or undergo the silence meditation retreat, being away from outer world (no phone, email, Facebook, selfie, etc.) over certain period of time, at least once in my lifetime." - that was my goal and purpose. 

Second, find someone who were interested to join you for the trip. 

In my case, not everyone wanted to go through the 10-day silent meditation trip, as I mentioned in that post, and I ended up having to go through the meditation trip alone, by myself, to somewhere I had never been to. 

However, my ex-classmate was interested with meeting me in Bangkok and later on Chiang Mai. With that, I aligned with her intention and set how many days should I arrange the whole trip. 

Third, find any friends who happened staying at the city or country. If you read the post, I arranged meeting up with my Bhutanese friend who was studying there. And he brought 2 of his friends together, which I ended up knowing more friends from this trip. I was really nervous since it had been 10 years since the last time I visited Bangkok and since I was on budget, it was my first time travelling using Bangkok's train from the airport, and to Chaiya (southern of Thailand - the nearest train station from the meditation's place). 

When meeting him, I felt it boosted my confident to be in the area, felt safer (because they too lived there comfortably - I no more had to scared of getting kidnapped and got my organ stolen - effect of watching movie the day before lol!), and adjusted with the place much faster. So, it was kind of getting moral support, even the meeting was only a brief. 

Fourth, when feeling unsure about anything, or feeling lost, do not hesitate to ask anyone surrounding you. 

In this post, you could read about my day 2 trip. I had no idea how to get to the meditation place and ended up asking a Thai woman who knew only limited English. I did not know any Thai language as well so I tried using simple English mentioning the place I wanted to reach, plus body language. I ended up getting free ride to the destination and until now, it was still feeling like a dream. I still felt that Buddha was blessing me all the way, sending me all those kind people I met all along my way to help and guide me.

Fifth, make friends along the way. Well, since it was 10-day silent meditation trip, we had to be silent, meaning no talk was allowed during the 10 day we were there. But we (girls) stayed at the same compound, we met every time especially those who slept at the room near your room. So eye contact was there and after the meditation over, we made friends to each other. Some of them were still in my Instagram or Facebook contacts. I even met one of them once when I travelled to her hometown in Russia!

Sixth, when travel alone, find a safe location to stay. If you are on budget, stay at homestay would be good as you have a chance to meet many other travellers like you, and can travel and do many things together, but most importantly, paying less on accommodation. Keep your belonging safe is a must do by putting it at safe place (safe deposit box if available, if not, inside belt or pouch and put them beneath your clothes), plus, try to be sober as much as you can (you will never know what others do when you are in drunk mode and having blackout).

When I had more budget, I would usually look for a place not far from train station. I felt that the place was generally crowded (especially at night time). It would safer when more people were still walking around than the quiet place. 

I would read the review before deciding where to stay too, because I believe good or bad experience was the best teacher in life.

Seventh, find activity even when you are alone. In Chiang Mai, when my friend had to attend her massage class, I had to roam the city alone. 

I could find so many activities available from the hotel, website, and so on. I attended cooking class (made friends there as well), signed up daily tour to nearby place, tried many different massages available - from aroma therapy oil body massage, traditional Thai massage with lots of stretching, foot reflexology to Tok Sen hammering massage, browsed the old and new city, tried many different local Thai dishes, and so on. 

When doing all that, you would forget about your loneliness, and focused more on each moments. In other words, find activities that keeps you busy. 

Eight, always inform your whereabout to your loved one. Internet is available at many places, so make good use of it. I had to inform my spouse when I had the 10- day silent meditation trip and gave the staff my emergency contact in case something happened to me during the ten days because I had to keep my mobile phone with the staff (we were not allowed to use it). Not wanted to make others worry, was my priority. So as and when, I would update my whereabout to message them feeling safe as well. 

Traits for solo traveller (IG: Rimareyka.writes)

So, who said you would be lonely when travelling alone??? As long you had good intentions, the path would be there and shown to you. And always believed, that everything happened only for good reasons. 

After reading this, hope you would kill your doubt of traveling alone, and you would benefit even more as you would find out more about yourself (in various situations), like how you would handle problems and uncertainty, and many many more!!! It would shape yourself to be even more brave and more courage to travel many new places in the world.  Hope this post will motivate you and give you strength too to follow your dreams, hopes and destiny in life!!! :)