Why I traveled solo

   Most people are taken aback when they hear about my choice for a solo trip, without a fellow traveller. Of course, this choice generates some extra dangers. When someone travels alone, he is more susceptible to criminals and it is also by far more difficult to rescue himself in case of an accident or illness.

  On the other hand, such a long trip is almost impossible to finish successfully even with one more person. Think that this traveller has dedicated two years from his life for the preparation of this trip which is a big dream of him. He has sacrificed a lot of time and money for the realization of this dream. Two persons traveling together for months or years must take a series of decisions daily. Sometimes those decisions will be so critical that may threat the lives of travellers.

   As you can see, it’s impossible for the travelers to agree at every decision daily without any contradistinction. In worst case these contradistinctions may cancel the trip. In best case they will deprive the pleasure, the joy, the magic for which every traveler starts such a trip. That’s why trips like that are made often by one person only.

   As you can see, it is impossible for the travelers to agree at every decision daily without any contradistinction. In worst case these contradistinctions may cancel the trip. In best case they will deprive the pleasure, the joy, the magic for which every traveller starts such a trip. That is why trips like that are made often by one person only.

   Of course, there are some persons who might make my trip more pleasant if they would come with me. However, those persons are few and the persons who want to do such a trip are few too. At that time, I did not know any person who could make my trip more pleasant and at the same time wanted to make such a trip.

   Of course, the enjoyment of a solo trip depends on the traveller’s character. I do not feel a need for company or for sharing my experiences with other persons, as most people feel. I enjoy the freedom that I get from my loneliness. I fill my time with activities which I love, so I never get bored. My favorite activity which I do during my trips is photography. I have 15,000 shots from this trip. In addition, I was spending some time every day to write my diary. I wrote 1,900 pages during this trip. Writing is another favorite activity of me.

   Except that, imagine that I was always in new places with different societies. So, I was spending most of my time to explore those societies and to integrate with them. An important advantage of traveling alone is that the traveller is more open to the people around him. When someone travels with his friend, he is not trying so often to approach other people. When he is alone and he feels the need to speak to someone, he approaches the people around him. So, he has more chances to get to know the local people who are around him. That is very important for me.

   In addition, if I would travel with a fellow traveller, it would be more difficult for someone to host both of us and it would definitely happen less times than it happened when I was alone. It would be more difficult for two of us to enter in the life of a local man or a local family. Likewise, most men would not discuss with me some sensitive issues that are only discussed between men.

   While I was alone, I was far from the Greek culture, which would follow me more or less if I would travel with a Greek friend. In addition, I did not have any influence of foreign culture, which is something I would have if I would travel with an American, French or other guy. So, I was devoted to the local culture of every place I was visiting. That was something new for me and I gained great lessons from that. That is one of my basic goals while I travel.

   Having said that, the worst difficulty during my trip was that my girlfriend was not with me (I do not mean a specific girlfriend). Unfortunately, that was impossible. I had two choices: either to travel alone or not to travel at all and stay with my girlfriend. I always choose without second thought to travel even if I know I will be alone. That is why I do it. Although, all my efforts are always focused in finding a girl who would make my life and my trips more enjoyable and I would make the same to her. I am sure that is the most essential component for an enjoyable trip, talking about me, of course.

   It is possible to make such a solo trip with some more and better researched preparation. The dangers are decreased after careful planning and suitable training, especially on health issues which are those that threat the traveller most.

Accommodation

   I spend a lot of nights in my tent, wild-camping in the nature. I like very much the life in nature and sleeping under the stars. Except that, I have much more freedom when I camp because I am able to stop whenever and wherever I want and not only wherever there is a hotel. When I was in India, I learned about the hospitality clubs (have a look at Links). From that moment, I could find a lot of people who were glad to host me in the cities. I was staying in hostels only where there was not someone to host me and I wanted to take a shower or when I was in cities, where I could not camp.

The other places where I have slept for 4 nights were custom offices, ferry boat and on a sidewalk.

Food and water

   I was usually preparing my food on my own with materials I was buying from local shops and I was always carrying. I was using a gasoline (benzine) stove (Coleman Feather 442) and a two-liter stainless steel saucepan. I was not cooking in India because there are cheap, local restaurants everywhere, so I was eating there. In some other countries where I could find some cheap, local restaurants, I was eating there my lunch and I was cooking my dinner, if I was camping at night.

   I was drinking water from springs or streams, when I was on the mountains or from any tap when I was elsewhere. I never boiled the water to kill the viruses and strangely, I never had any health problem.

Statistics

Total days of traveling : 806

Total kilometers traveled : 72,984 (45,351 miles)