The Lone Traveler

A couple weeks ago I met a guy from California who was traveling through Chiang Mai on a tour of Thailand. He had just come from India where he had spent the last eleven months! We met at the Sunday night market and ended up chatting for about two hours. I found him really interesting and we ended up hanging out the whole next week. The more I talked to him, the more inspired I felt to go off and travel on my own. All the stories I had heard of lone travelers before I came to Thailand never sounded very appealing to me, even though the people who were telling them sounded so strong and independent. I could never image traveling off someplace completely unknown by myself. The longer I talked to him, the more convinced I became that I could actually do a trip like that. The thought of traveling alone no longer sounded so, well, lonely. I’m sure it has it’s moments and it isn’t as easy as it sounds, but the more I think about it, the more I think I would like to give it a shot when I finish up here in March. I’ll have about a month’s time with nothing planned and no particular place that I’ll need to be. Why not go?