Meet our first featured solo female traveller, Sarah. She is from Bournemouth, UK and pretty kick ass in my opinion! I asked here a few questions about traveling solo and I’m so impressed by her journey and how much she’s done in just 27 years.
Where have you traveled to and for how long?
I travelled a lot as a child with my family, mainly road tripping it through europe as it’s so close and easily acccessible living in the south of england. As i have grown up, I’ve travelled more extensively, my first major trip at 18 years old (solo) to australia for three months. I then had holidays to majorca, ibiza, france, spain, thailand, india three times, australia again many times, before doing a four month trip to india, singapore, vietnam, cambodia, and thailand.
What was your experience like?
My best experience on holiday was the trip to australia at 18 years old. This opened my mind to travelling and the different experiences possible. Travelling for long periods of time, expecially on your own, is for me more exhilerating and exciting. You can be whoever you want to be. I am naturally an extroverted person who loves to party, play games, socialise, hear other people’s experiences and life stories to broaden my horizon but at the same time, if I wanted to be introverted and speak to nobody that would be okay too as the only person I have to please is myself. Travelling alone forces one to speak to other people which is the best thing ever! I’ve spoken to people that I’d never normally speak to because I had to, and the result which I have experienced more times than I can count, is that I’ll end up doing something I wouldn’t normally do, as I’m around a different sort of person. For example in australia I ended up road tripping for four hours from cairns and jumping out of a plane……..going to a haloween party in a remote island off the cost of townsville in australia………came second place in a pole dancing competition only to be beaten by a girl who had little skill but liked taking her clothes off…the list goes on!
I have seen the most beautiful sights, and learnt about the most horrowing historical experiences. One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen is when I was in australia, sailing around the whitsundays with my boyfriend at the time. We climbed up a horrifically steep hill (felt like a mountain at the time) and when we reached the top, we saw the bluest sea, with white sand, and lush green scenery as far as the eye can see. This is closely matched by an experience in india – me and a group of three other people decided to get up before sunrise and hike up a hill in a remote village called Tordi, to watch the sunrise above the village. When we were hiking, it was dark, and the rock on the floor (no idea what it was made of) was glittering and sparkling……it took us a little under two hours to hike to the top and we realised there was an abandoned fort at the top…..we explored the place in the dim light before sunrise and found underground rooms, although they had been filled with water, turrets, and sat on a beautiful stone wall together and saw the sun rise. All with people I’d never met before.
Travelling also provides me with knowledge. Most of my friends are at the stage of having children, buying houses, getting married, but what I have that they’ll never have is the memories and the knowledge. The history I have learnt by travelling the world is phenomenal. I am constatly shocked by how there as so many massive events which have happened around the world that I never knew about. I’m a fairly well educated person, having taken GCSE’s (including history), A levels, I have a first class degree in Quantity Surveying, I got chartered recently, yet I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface at the amount of knowledge there is to be learned around the world. The most shocking time I experienced this feeling was when I learnt about the Khymer Rouge in Cambodia. I visited the killing fields, which is a site where the Khymer Rouge (the ruling party of cambodia in the 70s) killed any and all individuals which were deemed to be educated. The things they did to people were unbelievable – in my opinion even worse than what happened with the jewish in WW2. It blows my mind how I did not know of these events……how can the english government not teach these things to children.
I also felt the same when I found out about the division of india to create pakistan, and the murders which occurred between hindus and muslims. I first realised that there was bad feeling about who owns what land in india, and which people should live where, when I was in a saari shop in Jaipur. I was speaking to a man and I asked where he came from. He said he was from Kashmere but he moved to Jaipur. He didn’t describe his experience much but I could tell there was something about him which was troubled by leaving Kashmere. I researched this afterwards and found out that there is ongoing dispute about who Kashmere belongs to. He could barely speak a word of english yet we communicated and understood eachother.
Do you prefer to travel alone or with friends?
I like both, as both gives different experiences, but I think if I had to choose, it would be to travel alone. My friends are great, but we like doing different things. i am very sporty and like finding gyms to explore, hiking, caving, and any other unusual things which might crop up. I also like to party late into the night, and I probably do take more risks than them too. so travelling together is great because I get to do great things with great people that I love, and they will be my friends for all my life, but travelling alone can be good too because I have nobody to answer to, I can do what I want to do when I want to do it, if I want to do slightly more out there things then I can do that and nobody I know will ever know unless I choose to tell them. It also gives me more confidence to do things which I may be embarrased to do otherwise because at the end of the day, what’s the worst that can happen? I embarrass myself but then I never have to see those people again!
I think money can be a diffult thing to manage while travelling with other people too. Obviously if one person has less money than others then they may not be able to afford to do all the things that everyone else wants to do. Also, if one person has more money than everyone else, they’ll feel as if they missed out because the others would not want to do the more expensive things.
Did you meet new friends along the way?
One hundred percent! I have made the most amazing friends while travelling! I have friends all over the world now! And we re-unite every now and then too……for example I’m going to thailand in January 2019, and I’ve messaged some of my friends to let them know my plans and now I’m meeting up with various friends on various days throughout my trip! I have even made a few friends that I know will be my friends for the rest of my life!
Did anyone or event change any perspective of your life?
Yes, i have had many life changing experiences, but the two biggest for me are as follows:
1. I met a man in a hostel in cairns in australia. He was 45 years old (which seems quite old to an 18 year old) and he was unmarried, and travelling the world. This seemed very unnatural to me because as a Westerner, I saw that the normal thing to do as you grow up is to get married, have children and settle down. This man was poor, had no family, but he was so happy! Although I would like to settle down one day, it made me realise that if I don’t find somebody and have chuildren, that’s okay too as I’ll be the rich aunt that hasn’t had to pay out for children, and I can travel the world!
2. I was on a coach travelling to my next destination, a long old 12 hour coach journey. It was bright sunshine, and we were on a dusty road. I was looking out the window at the flat, dry landscape and realised how lucky I was. Lucky that I could afford this trip, lucky that I was physically able to take this trip, lucky that I hadn’t had any encounters with nasty people, and lucky for this opportunity. It made me realise how lucky I was to have family as I missed them, and that this would be an experience I’d remember for the rest of my life.In that moment if I was a holy person I’d say I had an epiphany but I’m not so I don’t know what to call it. But I just remember it being a moment of pure happiness like nothing I have ever felt before, or since that moment.
How did your friends and family feel about you traveling alone?
When I was younger, my friends thought I was crazy to travel alone. They didn’t realise that just because I may be alone, doesn’t mean that I’m lonely. My family were worried that something bad was going to happen to me, and looking back at my younger self, some of the things that I did were stupid, and I probably was lucky that I didn’t get into any really bad situations. And the tricky situations that I did get into have moulded me into the person I am today. I have learnt from those mistakes and it has given me the outlook that if you want it hard enough, anything is possible.
How did strangers you met feel about you traveling alone?
Some strangers were surprised, for example in ibiza I got talking to a group of girls from newcastle in england, and one of the girls in particular was shocked and said that would be her worst nightmare. I believe that everyone is in control of their own happiness, and I don’t need anyone else to achieve my happiness. I found however that most people admired me travelling alone. Single travelling is also more common in certain countries I found. In my experience, travelling in europe alone is more unusual, but travelling alone in australia is quite common.
Were there times you didn’t feel safe and if so how did you handle it?
Yes, a few times. I generally just make my excuses and leave. My best trick though is having what I call a ‘safe person’. It isn’t always possible when travelling alone, but sometimes you can make a connection with somebody, and I’m open and honest and tell them that when I get scared or nervous, if I have a person I can go to and I know they’re there, because I trust them I’ll be okay. It’s like somebody that you know will look out for you. And when travelling, sometimes you can make these bonds very quickly and trust people very quickly. Which is probably a good thing and a bad thing to be honest.
What advice would you give to other women traveling solo?
DO IT!!!! Obviously one has to be careful and not do stupid things, but that’s the same for anybody, not just women. There are some countries that women get treated differently in, and that’s why I wouldn’t go to some places as I am the most independant person, and to be hindered due to my gender is not something I could handle.
I intend to see every country in the world before I die, just some of them might have to wait a few years until they realise what equality is!
Travelling is the best thing I have ever done in my life. It has changed me as a person for the better. I am wiser beyond my years and being a traveller is a type of person. Meeting with other travellers and sharing stories is one of my favourite things to do.
What did you think of Sarah’s story? Drop a comment if you can relate or if you’re like to contribute to helping other women who are unsure or afraid to travel alone.
