Going Solo.

I often have trouble getting friends to commit to a destination, price, or time off for a trip! If I waited to find friends for trips, I'd be staying home way too much! I decided years ago not to stay home if I had no one to travel with, and have gone on numerous trips alone ever since.

Actually, my two week trip to Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong & Macau started with four friends. Three days into the trip, three friends had to get back to India for some urgent work (which never really was that alarmingly urgent, as they found later) and I decided to go solo! All my friends thought I was crazy to continue alone, that too abroad!

In the words of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart --- “They can take our cheap double rooms, but they can never take our freedom!” –-- Well, it went something like that, anyway. The liberty that one ultimately achieves from solo travel cannot be underestimated. Unfettered and free to go where you want, when you want. You don’t have to deal with someone else's mood swings, nor they with yours! No debates, no compromises. Amen to that!

By its very nature, traveling solo will also play a key role in your own personal development. Not only does the solo traveler have greater time to reflect and learn more about themselves, but this obligatory self reliance will engender a great personal confidence as you learn just how much you are capable of achieving. The element of risk and exploration on your own leaves you with a sense of achievement and tests your street-smart quotient or the lack of it. The best part is that the experience is all yours.

To some, the thought of setting off into the unknown with little more than the pack on your back and a good book for company may sound like purgatory, but not for me. Traveling alone can get addictive. It takes guts and open-mindedness to explore the world in a way that is uniquely you!