Travel now not tomorrow

 When it comes to travelling solo, location matters. I have spent time in two very different locations, Hawaii and Hong Kong. Hawaii sounds like it would be the easiest place to blend in - sun, beaches, English the dominant language - but it wasn't so simple. My solo status marked me out as a peculiar loner among the honeymoon, anniversary and once in a lifetime trippers. I felt like Miss Haversham from Great Expectations , who wandered around in her cobweb-laced wedding gown decades after being jilted at the alter. The wide circle of hotel guests kept their distance from me. And it wasn't just that they didn't speak to me, but they kept their eyes averted as though one look and they too would be struck solo. Hong Kong however allowed me to blend in. Whether it was at the bird market, the flea stalls or the homeopathic markets with dried up creature anatomies on display, no one gave me a glance. Among the locals, tourists and expats I was just a fly on the wall. And for a p...

 Why do we do the things we do? For me, there is often a book to blame. In the eighties I read The Source by James Michener, a novel that used an archaeological dig to tell the story of Israel from origins to present day. A light was lit; I wanted to go on an archaeological dig. Who wouldn't?  An agency in London specialised in sending volunteers overseas - salt mines in Poland, apple farms in Romania and archaeological sites in Israel. I had never been outside of Europe and I have to say the land of Israel looked like those picture cards we were given in Sunday School - golden hills, palm trees and nomadic traders in arabic dress. The other volunteers were mostly American, mostly devoutly Christian and overwhelmed by the ancient alleys, markets, churches, mosques and synagogues around us. "Wow!" was the continuous utterance from one young man.  The site we were to excavate was on a high mound from where the original settlers would have been able to view any marauders be...

 How does travel change us? It's a terrific question with so many answers. Personally, travel made me realise that the world I grew up in doesn't always get things right. Many of us assume that our way of living is the correct one. Everyone else, all those foreigners, well they don't live like us so they must be doing something wrong. The result makes us terribly arrogant. My first experience of working overseas was as a volunteer midwife in Zambia. I was 23 and believed that I could use my Scottish education and save Zambian women and children from death and disease. All I had to do was work hard. Then reality hit. I was given a ward with 24 beds and 36 patients - some patients shared beds while others lay on mattresses on the floor. Many of the 36 patients had brought their children to the hospital with them. Given the overcrowding, my instinct was to tell the women to send them home. I had so much to learn, and thankfully I listened when someone said, "Don't try...

 Why do some of us yearn to get away Why do we travel? What makes one person want to set off into the unknown, while the next is perfectly content at home? I knew nothing of the outside world when I was young. However, I remember a cousin saying her family might move to America. I was immediately jealous. Not because I would miss her, but because I wanted to go in her place. I knew nothing of America, only that it was somewhere else, somewhere new, and I was ready to go there. A few years later, I was about eleven, and I told my granny that when I grew up, I wanted to travel. “Oh no,” she told me, with a scowl. “The men in the family travel, the women stay at home.” I still remember the stillness in the air when she said those words. I thought I had stopped breathing. But I didn’t argue with her. No one argued with granny. I simply knew that I had to find a way to bypass the women who stayed at home. Thankfully, when I was 15, a speaker visited an after-school club and she gave m...

 Travel solo - common scams Street sellers - never let anyone give you a bracelet, heather, lavender, etc. or drape anything over your shoulder. You will be charged for the 'gift'. Simply refuse to take it or put it straight back into their hands and keep walking. Do not stop. A more extreme example is when someone thrusts a baby in your arms and they riffle through your pockets. Yell for help, loudly. Fake police - if you are asked in the street for your passport, do not hand over any documents. If they say they are the police then tell them your passport is in the hotel safe. If they say you have done something wrong, do not pay a fine in the street. Ask for identification and tell them you will call the police to check their identification. Do not offer to accompany them anywhere, stay in a public spot and find a real police officer. An accidental distraction - if you feel something hit your shoulder or back and a kind stranger tells you it's bird poo or sauce, do not ac...

 Travel solo - while you're there I once went shopping in Delhi with a woman who thought everyone was staring at her. They weren't, but she was hyper-aware of all that went on. As a result, she looked uneasy, staring suspiciously at everyone. Trying to blend in is not easy, I know, but it is best to be look around you, and walk with confidence rather than cower. Obviously, don't wear a headset on the street. You need to be hear as well as see your surroundings, plus it is a good idea to enjoy your foreign setting. In cafes, enjoy people watching. You're in a new environment, watch how people interact. If you are in a tourist area, observe the other tourists, try and guess where they are from. But stay vigilant. Keep your bag on your lap or hook it over your knee. Never drape it across the back of your chair. When it comes to taxis, use only official cabs. They often come in a uniform colour such as yellow, black, silver. They may be more expensive but they are generally...

 Travel solo - While you're there Watch the locals to find out how they interact. Watch how they greet each other - whether they make eye contact, bow, smile. Look at how they're dressed. If the women don't wear shorts in the street, then you probably shouldn't.  A smile can take you a long way. I don't mean a dippy smile that makes you look like you're on happy pills, or a desperate smile that will make you look, well, desperately lonely. I mean a strong smile that says I am happy to be here, I am confident. This is the smile you use when you enter a restaurant alone and you refuse to look apologetic because you want a table for one. If it helps, use the old-fashioned African greeting, "Hello, and how are you?" It carries warmth, shows confidence and requires an answer, for who can avoid replying, "I am well, thank you." Other lone travellers may be cold. They may genuinely not want to make friends with anyone. Don't take it personally i...

  Solo travel - plan before you go If you're not used to travelling alone, it may help to try a weekend break - short enough to keep busy but not so long that the days stretch ahead of you.  Research ahead of time so that you can imagine yourself there and you can envision how you will spend your time. It doesn't need to be a tight schedule, simply having a sense of what's next can give you purpose. In addition to the attractions, it's also a good idea to know something about the area's history, politics, social customs and be aware of any dangers of civil strife that might flare up.  Travelling alone is probably easier in the shoulder season - between the peak and the low tourist season. The peak season means that the lone traveller can blend in easier but the crowds mean that it is harder to find seats in cafes and restaurants. The low season often means 'closed' signs at attractions, plus with fewer tourists the lone traveller stands out. If you are flyin...

 Going it alone Why travel alone? Well, why not? Sometimes our friends or family don't want to go where we want to go. Often they have an excuse like they need a new car, a new garden fence or they don't like foreign food. Sometimes, you have only two choices - you stay home with them or you go off and do it alone. I will not pretend that this is an easy option. It will be lonely at times, you might get lost, approached by suspicious strangers, robbed. But let's face it, these things could all happen at home. Suspicious strangers don't just live in foreign lands, we have plenty of them around our own territories.  As for loneliness, we have to learn to deal with it. It often feels worse when we're out for dinner alone and around us are tables of people lit up with laughter. My advice is to learn to enjoy their laughter, it will make you smile despite your loneliness. Watch them to find out who is the clown, who is the serious one, who doesn't want to be there, w...

  Sometimes we read a sentence that resonates. Many years ago, in a Paul Theroux book, I came across a description of travel as being full of great inconvenience interrupted by the occasional epiphany. The words made me stop reading, although I can no longer find the quote or remember the book it came from. For me, travel is often not glamourous, or absorbing. It is made up of much waiting around for boats, trains or planes and then dragging luggage behind me while searching for a particular street while trying not to look like I'm a stranger. And during this turmoil, these moments can be interrupted by a joy that comes from something as simple as interaction with a stranger or catching sight of an ancient ruin, building or sunset. What gives us the epiphany is personal. I won’t bore you with mine. Paul Theroux, for me, is the master of description when it comes to why we travel: “The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curio...

  Where Bohemian chic never fell out of favour It’s always good when a place you know makes it into popular culture. And so it goes with my favourite Greek island, Hydra. Daisy Jones and the Six is a mini-series based on the the band Fleetwood Mac, and it seems to have made the seventies cool again. Hippy chic and bohemian flair are back. The miniseries uses music venues from the seventies, somewhat reconstructed to their past glory. However, one backdrop featured in the series needed no makeover. Hydra is much as it was in the bohemian sixties. The restaurant where Cohen, Marianne Ihlen and other artists hung out still serves good food, and the tree they all sat under remains rooted. Other bars popular at the time have changed their names but little physical on the island can change too much. Geography defines Hydra. The main town rises precipitously from the port, like an amphitheatre sweeping up from the sea. The steps are steep and donkeys carry the main burden of moving g...

Inspiration to travel   If you ever need inspiration to travel, I recommend the Victorian women travellers, those who went without a mobile phone, guide book or even a map. These women set off because they wanted to see what was over a border or across a sea. They had an urge to experience new lands and make friends outside their own home. Here are a few of my favourite: Helen Caddick, 1842-1926 Helen Caddick was a single woman of means, a respected pillar of Birmingham society. She travelled because she loved the adventure. While visiting friends in southern Africa, she decided to take a trip to the interior. Everyone around her tried to persuade her not to go, saying it was dangerous. But she took a steamboat to what is now Malawi, and from there she hired 16 men to carry her and her luggage. She knew she would need a translator and took on a young boy from a local mission station whose English was entirely Biblical. He would respond to her summons with, “Behold, I am come.” ...

If no one ever left home Think of a world where no one ever travelled. One where we knew all our neighbours, our landscapes, and we shared the same philosophy on life. In this world we would know nothing of what lay over a hillside, behind a mountain or across the sea. Some people in this world, they are perfectly happy here.   Personally, I feel smothered even writing that description. Travel is as much about considering new ideas as it is about taking a photo or buying a t-shirt. My first trip overseas was magical although perhaps not in some people's eyes. I travelled from Scotland to Greece by bus - four days of looking out of the window onto a foreign world, my very own vista. It was dawn when we reached the Greek border, the hillsides were golden and, as I looked around, I would not have been surprised to see a shepherd and his nymphs frolicking downhill toward me. No matter the long bus journey, I had arrived into a magical land. The children of The Lion, the Witch and ...