While most of the world is still under strict travel restrictions thanks to Covid-19 and travel will take a while to revive, here are my thoughts on travelling solo.
As a woman, it’s not something I would myself try or even recommend in India. But having travelled alone on leisure overseas, I have to say that I find the experience liberating in every sense of the word. I must clarify, though, that when I say travelled alone, I mean travelled unencumbered, not entirely alone. For, thankfully, I always had good, old friends overseas to stay with and even travel around with, exploring the regions nearby. As I wrote in a previous Writings on The Wall post, travelling with friends who have lived long enough in a place to know and understand it completely, is the best sort of travel one can do.
Usually, such good old friends are also the kind who leave you alone to explore the areas that interest you most and understand that a vacation is also time to yourself.
I hope that I will also get to traipse alone to countries one day. Where I have no friends, and don’t know anyone, and see what travelling as a complete solo stranger is like. Of course, one hopes that it will be a longish stay, long enough to explore the destination and familiarise oneself with the local people and culture.
Whirlwind holidays are not my idea of a good vacation. For business travel, of course, it is de rigeur.
Peripatetic Perch 