10 rules for independent travel
Sasha Sheveleva
Traveling alone - A great opportunity to understand yourself, take a break from all obligations and create your own adventure, independently adjusting its speed and saturation, feeling really free. Wonderzine compiled 10 solo travel rules.
1
Come to an unfamiliar place during the day, not at night
Even in a safe Europe, it becomes uncomfortable if you accidentally make a mistake on the number of the last night bus or you get entangled in the Flemish names of Brussels lanes. What can we say about the night trips to Shiva, the forgotten districts of Delhi, when your taxi driver suddenly turns around and says: "Listen, maybe her, your hotel? My friend has a great hotel!" - and sharply turns the steering wheel. At such moments, you remember about the life of the heroine Sandra Bullock from the movie “All about Steve,” which records the trucker's driver's license number on her hand with a marker so that if she dies, the killer will be found.
2
Trust intuition
In uncertain, stressful situations, which is immersion in an alien cultural and linguistic environment, our subconscious mind works much faster and more clearly than our consciousness. Intuition sharpens, visual memory works better, clinging to all unfamiliar signs and house numbers, a sixth sense appears: to go there or not to go? Give a passport to this strange Hindu, who does not even have a border guard uniform? Take a ticket with a change in Vienna lasting 40 minutes? If it seems that it is not worth it, it means it is not.
3
See local news
Understand what is happening around you, it is important both at the mountain resort and in the Kashmir village — will a landslide or salt rebellion begin? Even if you do not know the language, television pictures with men armed with wooden sticks can sometimes be quite enough.
Tatyanadirector and producer of documentary films
I survived the revolution in Nepal, but did not understand. That is, during my time the king was overthrown, the strikes went on, but I think: healthy lazy men are dragged through the streets during working hours. At first I was surprised by the Maoists in Durbar Square, in the center. I thought it was a strange kind of near-political party with communist flags. I noticed first that a huge football field is full of adult men. Some cars, people on the streets, more and more people, on the roadway too - and the people are rather sluggish, but in large quantities and mostly men. There were a lot of people with weapons, but I thought that they were protecting state objects like this. And since I adhered to the rule “never look at the news, and then the rest will be good and joyful,” I didn’t even know what kind of hustle it was. I found out about the revolution on the night before departure and panicked for a few hours if my plane would fly away.
4
Form a support group
Find local people ready to help you in advance: guides, couchsurfers, acquaintances of friends in the city where you are going. Most likely, you will not need their help, but the thought that you have someone to turn to if your bus from Vienna to Budapest was unexpectedly canceled, and you were already late for the train, gives you confidence and peace of mind.
5
Join your
Not everyone easily finds friends in unfamiliar countries and knows how to ask for water so that they can be left for the night. It is easier to get along with people who love to do the same thing as you: save turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, taste the wines of the Loire Valley, sing along with Nick Cave at Sziget. Event tourism or volunteering is the most comfortable way to travel alone without feeling lonely.
6
Know your area
If you stop somewhere for a long time, take it as a rule to drink morning coffee, buy fruit or fill up a scooter in the same place - unnoticeably you will have acquaintances who will be glad to see you. Your greengrocer, your filling truck and familiar owner of a coffee shop are people who will help you to feel comfortable and secure in a strange city.
7
Be in touch
Even if you feel safe and secure, your family and friends will probably worry during your solo journey through the Inner Mongolia or the Peruvian jungle, especially if you haven't answered the phone for weeks. An international SIM-card, a solar battery for charging a mobile phone, an adapter for charging from the cigarette lighter will add a little peace of mind to this crazy world.
Dariagraduate student of Kiev University. Shevchenko
When I traveled this year around Central Asia and Mongolia, TravelSIM helped me a lot - this is an international SIM card. Sometimes the Internet was not just weeks, buying a local card was really beneficial only in Kyrgyzstan, but the plus of the international card is that it is always the same. And you can always reach her in 200 countries of the world. Since there is no need to pay for incoming calls, even if you have zero in the account, they will get through to you. We charged the phone from all cigarette lighters at truckers, in cafes, at couchsurfers, so when you hitchhike, you need to charge for the cigarette lighter. One of my friends carries with her two solar panels: one is simple, and the second can accumulate energy and be a battery. A big plus, if you take with you the good old Nokia of the "nut" type, then the battery lasts almost 10 days.
8
Keep a diary
Solo travel is the best way to understand yourself and find out what you like, what you love, who you really are, without pretending and not wanting to seem better. Nobody knows you around, so you can reinvent yourself. Travelogue will help you to remember the impression not only of contact with another city, but also with itself.
9
Leave witnesses
If you go to some unobvious and non-touristy place, deviate from the route, let your friends or relatives know about it. At least one person should know where you are and with whom. Let it even be a concierge at the front desk hostel.
10
Do not overload your backpack
No one will carry your backpack and no one will look after him if you leave the toilet or ticket office. He will have to be carried everywhere with him, so he should be as light as possible. Give up the computer, the second pair of warm socks and, of course, those things that duplicate each other.
Daria social networking specialist
When I pack a suitcase, I put things on top of one another: a bag of shoes from the bottom, warm clothes and T-shirts from above. Bag with underwear on the side. In the middle I stuff three cosmetic bags: with medicines, small cosmetics and large, on top - a coat. I put my wallet, documents, laptop, ipad, cosmetic bag with thermals, oil for nails, manicure set (if I'm not healing), comb, hand cream and hair in a travel bag - so as not to get bored on the way and do a manicure on the way. Since I often fly, I bought myself a Zuca bag - you can push it with your little finger, there are comfortable shelves inside it, and you can sit on it waiting for a flight.
Photo: Cover Image via Shutterstock