I’m on a solo trip after two whole years. I needed this break to get away from everything that has been bogging me down for the past few months. It’s been so good and peaceful to just sit by myself and not think about anything. I’ve been travelling solo since 2016 and even though I enjoy it a lot, there are some things that I am still not comfortable with doing that I wish I would do. Here’s a few of them –

1. Go on treks alone – I’m at a picturesque hill station with a lot of beautiful trekking options available – view point treks, waterfall treks & overnight camping treks. I really wanted to do a 5-6 hour long trek but I couldn’t convince myself. I’m scared of getting lost or getting hurt with no one to help me. I think I need to start with going for group treks to gain the confidence but argh, my social anxiety.

2. Talking to locals – A big part of travelling solo for me is to just not talk to anyone. I like just being quiet and enjoying the quiet. But I am always tempted to talk to locals, get to know their stories, and find hidden local places that tourists don’t visit. But my anxiety stops me from interacting too much with them.

3. Travelling to far off places that aren’t well connected by public transport – there are a lot of offbeat places that are sparsely connected by public transport. Transport that you can’t always book in advance and need to find on the spot. My anxiety just doesn’t let me go on such adventures. I need to know how I’m going, how I’m coming back and what is an alternate option if something goes wrong. I’d definitely take a chance if I had company but I find it too anxiety inducing to take a chance when alone.

4. Taking local buses – I don’t know why I just don’t enjoy the idea of travelling by local buses anywhere in the world. When I was solo travelling in Spain, I did take the bus a few times and I found it very annoying since all the text and announcements were in Spanish. I ended up missing my stop once and I ran last minute to get off (I only realised because I checked Google Maps) and the bus driver got SO annoyed. Another time my sister and I were in a small beach town in Maharashtra and when we tried to get a local bus to our ferry stop, they just wouldn’t let us in. I still have no idea why. We were so perplexed after 6-7 buses wouldn’t let us board that we just started walking the 12kms distance before we found an autorickshaw. I find such things just add to my anxiety when I’m travelling alone and prefer the metro or autorickshaw or cab. (I do take intercity buses for travelling like I have on this trip.)

Since I’m still on my solo trip I’m going to try and do atleast one of these four today. Do you travel solo? Is there something that you don’t do while travelling that you wish you would do?

If you haven’t already, check out my other recent posts –

• Things I Never Got To Say To You
• Choices
• And Now I…
• Life Update – Happy Panda Is Back (Maybe?)
• I Got Inked – My Experience, Dos, Don’ts and More (Tattoo Newbie)