"If you are travelling alone, get a good book. Loneliness can drive you crazy". That was the advice of one of my friends when I told him my plans. Of course I followed his advice and got a good book, but the problem is that I hadn't have time to read it. I've been always surrounded by people. At the moment, I've been alone just 3 days out of around 30 days travelling.
I always meet friends on the way. Since I arrived to India, I promised myself I was not going to let the fear of being alone prevent me to do the things I wanted. So I started travelling alone around India if nobody wanted to join me. The interesting thing is that every time I travelled alone, I came back home with one or two new friends. For me is way easier to meet new people when I'm alone. It's like I feel pushed to go out from my comfort zone and talk to strangers. On the other hand, I assume most solo travellers feel the same and we are looking for friends to share some time.
I've met so many interesting people while travelling. People that even if I've met them just for a couple of days, I can call friends. People that had helped me in difficult times, like when I got robbed in Goa or when I was alone in Jaipur. People that had inspired me with their stories. People that had motivated me to go to new places. People with whom I've shared not just a part of my trip but also ideas and feelings. Since most of them have been travelling for long time, I've learned from them the best tricks, what are the best places to visit and which is the easiest way to do it. They've filled my mind with great travel stories and with the desire to go to more places.
It seems incredible how can you make such a connection so fast with certain people. There is people I've met during breakfast at hostels, but nothing goes beyond a 15 minutes conversation. And there is people I've met randomly on the street or waiting for a taxi or in a bus, with whom I end up travelling for weeks. These travel buddies have made my travel so fun. Sharing at least a day trip with them is enough to call them friends. And sometimes I meet them again somewhere along the way and it seems like we have been friends forever. Living these travel experiences creates a special bond. With most of them I regularly exchange messages telling each other about our most recent adventures and location, and planning our next meeting. I love to see the world through their eyes.
So even if I'm a solo traveller I'm never alone. I have now lots of new friends and thousands of stories to tell. They have taught me to trust and open my heart to new people and to be able to let go and say good bye when our plans are different; just hoping to meet again soon, somewhere. This is just like life is. You trust, you enjoy, you thank, you let go. I know we'll meet again.
