Wandering Solo

A lot of people say they enjoy the freedom of traveling on their own. There are no compromises, no waiting for someone else to be ready, and no being rushed or pushed into doing something while you would rather just lie around and watch movies. There is often also no one to talk to when you are waiting for your food to come in a restaurant, no one to share the burden of decision making in stressful situations, and no one to really share those amazing moments that we travel for. Sure we meet people along the way and may trade a few stories or drink a few beers with them, but it never seems to be quite the same as traveling with a loved one.

A flew back to Vancouver three days ago and I have to say that it hit me pretty hard. I have never really traveled on my own and was looking forward to the experience, but it was still difficult to go from spending every minute with someone to being alone in a suddenly strange city. For most of the first day I wandered around the area near my guesthouse and wondered what exactly I was going to do next.

Every day I adjust a little bit more though, and I am beginning to get into the swing of things. I have had a lot more time to write and have polished off a couple of books since A left. By staying in a dorm room (at the illustrious Suk 11) it has been easy to meet up with other travelers when I get tired of being melancholy. It has also been nice to take advantage of the guesthouse lounge with a rather extensive movie collection. The last two weeks of temples and shopping has quite worn me out and I am enjoying a much needed vacation from my travels. What is the point of quiting your job and taking off for two months if you don’t spend some quality time doing nothing?

I have already had a couple of interesting adventures since A left and I’ll be posting them up soon. With any luck I will be able to do blog updates a little more frequently and keep them interesting with strange experiences like eating bugs and drinking snake’s blood.

I also promise to not be so melancholic in future posts.