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Travelling - what's so wrong with rocking up and seeing what happens?

Reply 20

Haft_Hasht_Shish

12

That's the best way to travel IMO. I hate itineraries except perhaps for the first 2-3 days.

Reply 21

lesbionic

OP

novaprospect

I dont know anything about you, but travelling on your own for long stints can be a very lonely experience. Whether or not you care or whether lonliness effects you at all I have no idea :smile:

By travelling buddy I mean, you have no plans, so you turn up at a hostel, and lets say you wanna go somewhere nearby, a 30 min walk away, someone else or a group in the hostel wants to go as well ---> you go together. Similarly, you're boredof where you are staying and want to go somewhere else, you ask around for recommendations or you have somewhere in mind already, you're talking to the hostel staff about transport to get there and someone you met the evening before says he/she was thinking of going there too. So you go together, how long you hang around eachother is entirely up to you.

Just stuff like that is what I mean :smile:

Besides having a partner is always safer (not to create an enlarged sense of danger or anything)

:smile:

[Edit] You've been to India and Afghanistan? I've done a two month stint in Europe, why am I giving you advice? lol

Well India and Afghanistan were in the summer after my A Levels and were more organised. i.e. I went with a company, and for Afghanistan it was dangerous, but was with my church.

I appreciate the advice. I don't find loneliness bothers me that much, but it would be great to make some new friends and meet people along the way. I sure hope this happens, as I've only got two months, so time is of the essence really!

Reply 22

MaxMaxMax

15

lesbionic

I haven't only just left school. I left a year ago and spent most of this year working to fund it...

Oh right OK. I just wondered, because I hear of so many 'gap yah' students going off travelling for a year, and wonder how on Earth they can afford this, without having worked for a few years. Living abroad must costs thousands & thousands of pounds in accomodation, food and flights, and seems ridiculously expensive for what it is, especially for supposedly penniless students.

Reply 23

lesbionic

OP

MaxMaxMax

Oh right OK. I just wondered, because I hear of so many 'gap yah' students going off travelling for a year, and wonder how on Earth they can afford this, without having worked for a few years. Living abroad must costs thousands & thousands of pounds in accomodation, food and flights, and seems ridiculously expensive for what it is, especially for supposedly penniless students.

I'm not travelling for a year. I'm going for two months off money I've earnt entirely myself, and I'm not 'living' abroad because I'm staying in hostels etc and moving around.

Reply 24

sazzz

6

when i go on holiday,i usually go so far off the map its unreal. there have been times when i wished i booked before hand, or at least googled the place, as i once ended up on an island that turned out to be a private USAF base (although it was very pretty) and was slightly in the ****.

But whatever. i think its more fun to holiday like that. Its not common, though, so dont expect others to see things from your side.

Reply 25

MagicNMedicine

20

Yes I just had general loose plans when I went travelling. Basically I knew the places I was going to and had worked out in what order I would be doing them but I didn't set out a tight itinerary, and it helped because I was free to spend a bit longer than I expected in good places and others which I found boring quickly, I moved on from quickly. You can't plan what you want to do from a guidebook, when you're in a hostel you meet people and hear about whats going on so you need the flexibility.

Reply 26

Guinny

8

Planning is for boring people (: China's fun, enjoy it.

Don't eat food from street vendors.

Reply 27

lesbionic

OP

Guinny

Planning is for boring people (: China's fun, enjoy it.

Don't eat food from street vendors.

Oh you've been? What was your route if you don't mind me asking and for how long did you stay?

I know not to eat street food in Asia, but Lonely Planet recommends eating in restaurants? Is that safer? It says to eat in popular crowded places hehe. But all the menus are in Chinese? I don't want to go hungry :tongue:

Reply 28

Guinny

8

lesbionic

Oh you've been? What was your route if you don't mind me asking and for how long did you stay?

I know not to eat street food in Asia, but Lonely Planet recommends eating in restaurants? Is that safer? It says to eat in popular crowded places hehe. But all the menus are in Chinese? I don't want to go hungry :tongue:

I lived there for just under half of my life (: Your route sounds good.

You can find some restaurants with badly translated English menus (sometimes), just use your own judgement, do go to at least a reputable looking restaurant. If you're really stuck, there's always Carrefour and MaccyD's D:

Reply 29

Jez RR

14

LOL - I live on street food in Asia. Long as other people are eating from there it should be fine.

I've never had a problem. Well, apart from giardia in Laos :wink:

Reply 30

Guinny

8

Jez RR

LOL - I live on street food in Asia. Long as other people are eating from there it should be fine.

I've never had a problem. Well, apart from giardia in Laos :wink:

You are a brave, brave man... x)

Reply 31

Jez RR

14

Well, possibly. But I'm not averse to turning round and walking away if something looks dodgy. The buffalo penis in Penang being a case in point.

Of course there's no clear delineation for what actually is street food and what is a restaurant sometimes. A few plastic picnic chairs on the pavement and a rough menu and it's a proper place. But if there's no-one else about, go somewhere else. I once spent a hungry morning walking round Hanoi with a couple of Canadian women, past countless noodle shops and food stalls, and they wouldn't go in any of them because they were scared of getting sick. I left them to it after a while, found a pho stall that was bustling and just pointed at things. It was excellent :smile:

They got a burger somewhere in the end and spent the next 3 days in the bathroom :biggrin:

Reply 32

TurkeyProphet

4

I'm doing a similar sort of thing and it really tells you a lot about your friend's personality.

A few of them are just like "That's totally awesome". Others are like "You can't go on your own!" and then the particularly cynical and boring ones are like "you don't speak the language" "You're not even religious, why do you want to go to Israel?".

Ultimately you just have to think, how many times have I been in hospital in my life? Why would this be different abroad?

The worst thing that is likely to happen is some kind of food poisoning or illness. But so what? You could get some bad shellfish in the British resorts on the coast of Spain.

Also a lot of people have never travelled on their own. They don't realise just how much your awareness of your surrounding changes. I sometimes feel safer on my own because I have prepared everything - I know where all my documents are, how much money I have, I have looked at the maps, I don't have to say to someone "This place looks a bit shifty" I just go and I'm not distracted by other people and so I'm pretty solid on where my stuff is. You also see a lot more of where you are going. I don't really know why this is, but if you are actually on your own you just end up stopping and looking at stuff - probably because you don't spend 2 hours having lunch or something.

There are some issues when you're on your own. For instance - what do I do with my stuff whilst I take a piss? Is this the right bus? No one else speaks English on this bus OH GOD I'M GOING TO GET RAPED.

Ultimately just don't be a moron. Be prepared. Meet up with other travellers and realise you are more likely to get hit by a car in sunny ole England than you are to be taken away by head hunters in Borneo. Enjoy yourself.

Travelling - what's so wrong with rocking up and seeing what happens?

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