It already feels so long ago that I was travelling from country to country… and it’s only been 10 days since I arrived home.
Looking back, it was an absolutely incredible trip and one that I imagine will be impossible to repeat. I think my trip was particularly significant as I travelled by myself. A lot of people before I left, friends and family, were anxious about me travelling ‘by myself’ or thought I was absolutely mad, but I’d really like to express to others that travelling by yourself doesn’t mean you’re travelling alone, and it definitely had its numerous plus points.
Firstly, as mentioned above, for the majority of my trip I was never alone. In SE Asia, New Zealand and Fiji I joined hop-on hop-off buses where I made some extremely good friends. By joining such buses you are guaranteed to meet new people and, with 11-50 people on each bus, you are most likely going to meet a crowd that you click with. I definitely fell into that category.
I then took a guided tour with G Adventures through Australia’s outback which similarly meant I was travelling with a group of like-minded people. Admittedly, down the east coast of Australia, I was travelling ‘alone’. But as anyone who’s travelled the East Coast knows, you are constantly meeting new people in the hostels, on day tours (Fraser Island, Whitsundays, Cairns) and just generally out and about. I definitely met some very interesting people at this point in my journey.
As well as meeting loads of new people, another huge plus point of travelling solo is that you can be entirely selfish. Traveling alone means that you can decide where you want to go, how long you want to spend in each place, which activities you want to do and who you want to spend time with, etc. Want to spend longer in Vietnam? Sure! Want to add on Fiji to the route? Why not?! Want to pack up and leave the hostel early once you realised there was a cockroach infestation? Very sensible.
It’s the one point in your life where you can do exactly what you want to your agenda – and this definitely isn’t a common occurrence back home when you’re in a job.
I suppose the other big plus point is that you learn to become far more independent and also responsible for yourself. There’s no one else there to decide what to do when you’ve missed your bus, how much you can budget for each country or making sure you’ve packed up all of your belongings from each dorm room. You definitely learn to keep your wits about you and to remain organised.
These points mentioned are only a few of the reasons why I’d recommend going travelling even if you’re ‘riding solo’. The majority of my friends were signed up to jobs or postgrads and were therefore unable to commit to 5 months of travelling and, even though I missed them a great deal whilst I was away, I certainly learnt a lot more by undertaking the travels on my own.
So go on and book your plane ticket, rock up to a hostel, meet new people and do your own thang!
Where's Winter? 