Labelled WISE (Women who Insist on Single Experiences) by British travel agents, solo women travellers have come a long way since Mary Kingsley set out from England to live with indigenousl tribes in Angola in the late 1800s. Here’s how to explore and travel safely at the same time.
Once an unthinkable, and often taboo, way of broadening horizons, solo travel has become an increasingly popular pastime for intrepid women who have full and busy careers. Though most don’t go in search of their souls to the same degree as Elizabeth Gilbert, who describes her post-divorce travel stint of Europe and south-east Asia in Eat, Pray, Love (Bloomsbury, 2006), mid-life crisis is a common trigger for women to throw caution to the wind, make like Shirley Valentine and unleash their repressed gypsy souls.
However, while the motivation for travel is not always a major life change, many women find that annual vacations of a week or longer are just that, simply because they are on their own out of choice.
Luce Ritter, a 27-year-old Swiss teacher who gave up her job for a year to travel India, puts it in a nutshell: “As a solo traveller, you’re in charge. You need never have a definite plan, you don’t have to worry about co-ordinating agendas, or seeing things that you don’t like. You can sleep late, get up before the other tourists rise, meet people you wouldn’t meet if you were travelling with someone else. When I serendipitously bumped into a Buddhist woman in a post office in Nagpur, I had no idea that I would land up spending a life-changing month with her family in their humble home.”
While exercising a healthy amount of caution is essential, the last thing you want is for your holiday to turn into a chore. Says UK-based Susan Griffith, who has made solo travel substantially easier by writing travel guides including Work your Way around the World (Vacation Work Publications, 2008) and Gap Years for Grown-ups (Crimson, 2008), “Behave confidently even if you do not feel it or are a little lost. Anna’s advice from The King and I really works: ‘Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect; And whistle a happy tune, So no-one will suspect, I’m afraid’.”
For Ritter, being afraid of doing new things often prompted her to treat it as a challenge which forced her to rise above the conservative social norms of Switzerland. “When I got to Syria, I was snubbed by a friend who thought watching football was more fun than exploring, so I ventured off on my own and landed up staying with a Bedouin family who treated me fantastically.”
Adds award-winning travel writer Sarah Woods, “I’ve camped in Indian villages in remote jungle settlements in the Amazon rainforest, stayed in wonderful 5-star hotels in the Middle East, stayed in rustic posadas right on a Panamanian beach and slept on boats in the Caribbean without any hassles. Nowhere should be off limits as a female traveller – but as in every situation, you need to apply common sense.”
Affirms Griffith: “Ever since some well-meaning professional people in Islamabad tried (unsuccessfully) to persuade me not to travel up the Karakoram Highway for fear of being attached by bandits and rebels, I have tried to avoid believing any lazy scaremongering clichés. However, there comes a point when local advice should be heeded. I once ignored advice in the hotel in the Swat Valley not to walk along the river by myself, met two youths who showed me a long-handled knife which I pretended I thought they had produced for me to admire, offered to take a photo of them posing with it, which they enjoyed, and then I meekly waved them good-bye and headed back in the direction I’d come.”
Whether or not you entertain the possibility of such risks, one of the joys of solo travelling is accumulation of inner strength.
“The rewards are worth the stress,” says Ritter. “Once you’ve survived a harrowing experience, like Delhi belly in the middle of nowhere or the eyes of a tiger 50 metres away from you in the dead of night, you’ll realize you can do just about anything. It’s very liberating.”
TIPS TO KEEP YOU ON YOUR TOES
Do your research. Says journalist Lakshmi Sharath (http://backpakker.blogspot.com/), who spends a lot of time travelling around rural India to escape urban chaos: “Because infrastructure is so bad, you need to read up on towns in the area and suss out the best accommodation beforehand. Knowing a bit about the local customs and language also goes a long way to establishing a connection with locals who are often wary of outsiders.” Adds Ritter, “When I get to a new place, I always take a few hours to observe how things are done, and plan my movements from there.”
Follow your gut. When you follow your intuition, things that previously seemed impossible you will suddenly just know, says Rima Morrell, author of Travelling Magically (Piatkus, 2008). “You will know whether a book is good for you to read or not, and your reading will become very quick. You will know if you need to go on holiday at a particular time or travel to a certain country. When you do go, you will find that your intuition not only leads you to the right places and people in the culture, your experiences will be far more intense. Like a butterfly you will always know where to fly. Your trip will be transformed.” Adds Ritter, “You’re more tuned into your sixth sense when you’re on your own, and trusting it is critical to having a safe journey. In Sri Lanka, where I went to ‘be alone’, I ignored the approaches of several strangers, but, after a spontaneous chat with a local restaurant owner, landed up staying a month, travelling over 1000 kilometres in his tuk tuk and making a good friend.”
Be assertive. When the airline with whom she had booked her flight from India to Thailand told her she needed a special visa or proof of a return ticket to Switzerland, Ritter dug her heels in. “It seemed unbelievable as I had recently travelled to Sri Lanka without either. After an unsuccessful argument with the agent, I phoned the consulate, who confirmed my doubts. A few hours later after consulting a travel agent who could not help, I headed back to the airline offices and demanded to see the manager. It took a fair amount of waiting, but once I had diplomatically stated my case, he phoned the consulate and I was on the flight the next day.”
Find creative ways to hide your possessions. For example, you can put some money in an elastic bandage around your knee or a hidden pocket in your trousers. When your bag is on a bus or a train, put a padlock with a long chain around them and attach them to an immovable object. If you spend time in the water, get a waterproof pouch on a string for your valuables so you can keep them with you.
Carry basic toiletries. If you’re travelling in the third world, make sure you stock up on tampons when you’re in a city, and always carry sachets of shampoo, toilet paper and soap.
Don’t put your address on your luggage tag. Name, initial and country is all you need, and will not encourage burglars to seek out your house.
Don’t drink alcohol. Or in any quantity that could cause loss of control or in an environment where you don’t feel secure.
Book accommodation in a central well-lit area. Ask for a room on the upper floors, to deter intruders, says Woods, who has travelled over 50 countries in the US, Caribbean and Latin America solo. “Check if they have designated floors for solo female guests, and be wary of a hotel check-in desk who announce your room number loudly at a full reception as your key is handed over. Ask for another room, and for the check-in desk to be discreet.”
Align mental attitude and dress. Be humble and inconspicuous in an unfamiliar environment, says travel blogger and writer Anja Mutic (www.everthenomad.com), who has travelled alone through Europe, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and the Cayman Islands. “Have eyes in the back of your head without looking scared, befriend locals and travellers to create a mini social network, but be wary of letting your guard down in an unfamiliar environment. Act like you know what you are doing even when you don’t and read the unspoken signals.”
Don’t make eye contact with men. “In rural India, I was very careful not to be too friendly with taxi drivers and male strangers as it can lead to misconceptions, as social norms are more conservative than the west, and a smile can be conveyed as being a ‘come on’,” says Ritter.
Align yourself with other women. If you’re on a bus or train, sit next to women, or, if you sense danger in the street, walk with another woman or a group of people, advises Sharath. If you’re not keen to go it alone in the beginning, link up with a like-minded group through reputable tour operators like The Thelma and Louise Club (www.thelmandlouise.com) or Venus Adventures (http://www.venusadventures.travel/solotravelindia.php) who specialize in trips tailormade for women.
(Published in Aquarius, Dubai, June 2009. Copyright held by the author.)
