It was easy… is the one thing that keeps coming back
to my mind, thinking of my first solo trip. It was like a breeze, with days flowing one
after the other. And just like that, it was over! I did prepare myself for a
lot of ‘me-time’, but through
the trip I ended up meeting people who found their way to me.
The highlight of course was the island exploration trip in
Palawan - when I was reporting in for the trip, the lady at the
counter asked if I was alone and gave me a curious look. I asked if there
were other solo travelers, and she scrambled through all her papers for the
longest time and said, ‘don’t worry,
there is M also’. 2 out of 22 - you do the math! But from the moment I
walked into the pre-briefing room and squeezed in between R and W, and one person took a dig at my vegetarianism, I knew it was going to be ok. And it
turned out to be fabulous – over the next 5 days, I’d like to think we all
discovered a little bit about each other, swapping travel and life stories, had
some in-depth discussions on love, life and such matters with a few, and sang
karaoke like no one was listening (well, no one was listening in fact. We were
in a remote island with a handful of houses and using an age old TV-karaoke
set up at one of the villager’s homes). It was the best and has made me have a
re-think that ‘group’ trips, which I am usually not a fan of, may not be bad
after all.
On the other hand, there weren’t major earth-shattering
revelations or self-discovery moments.
But as always, I love hearing other people’s stories and their views on life and what they want out of it. And of course, fellow travelers want to know more about
India, and there were good many debates on the country and for myself, if I was
/ should be doing more. All this
leading to a many introspective moments.
I probably packed in a lot less in the itinerary than I
would have if I traveled with someone I think. I gave myself more time so I
could figure things out as I cruised along, and sometimes that means delays and
change of plans too. (All of which, could
be entirely avoided if the trip was fully pre-planned, but where is the fun in
that?). And sometimes, I did get a bit lazy too… But hey, the feeling that
there is nothing that is a ‘must-do’ is liberating.
All in all, I do realize, it may not always be this easy,
but I couldn’t have asked for a better start.
PS: I did post from time to time on FB some of my
reflections, so some speak-easy style posts on their way!
PS2: And yes, Palawan definitely has some crazy beautiful beaches!!! some photo highlights here...
The many islands we passed over the course of 5 days, Palawan
One of the beaches we stopped at...
Divers caught in action
Bohol's Chocolate hills...
The church at Loboc, which was my base in the island of Bohol
