My inclination for solo wandering that led me away from the
UK made me think that generally speaking, exploration is a better way to
experience a country, to get a feel for each town or city, to get to know its
people. Looking back, I still think this holds true but there were a few
occasions where booking an organised tour paid dividends.
Booking a trip to stay in a treehouse in the pristine
rainforests of Laos was definitely one of those occasions. There was no way I
would have been able to reach the interior of that vast expanse of green
without a guide or a place to stay. Had I tried, I probably wouldn’t be here to
write this. Bear Grylls would have been fine, but not me. Having a guide to
point out all the plants and animals made it a revealing experience for sure. Plus
I didn’t have to hunt for my dinner, which was a bonus.
When I arrived in Vietnam, I was debating heading to Ha Long
city on my own and trying to find a boat captain to take me on a tour of the
bay. Instead, I caved and booked an organised tour from Hanoi. It turned out to be a
great decision: I got to stay on a first class boat for one night, with another
in a small hut on a private beach. We went caving, hiking, swimming and
kayaking, had amazing meals cooked for us and I met a bunch of brilliant people
along the way. Had I gone on my own, I wouldn’t have done half as much, met all
those people and probably would have got ripped off in the process.
On the other hand, some equally memorable experiences were
had just wandering off and seeing where I ended up. I never would have found
the Zen monastery in Da Lat without randomly turning up there. I wouldn’t have
met the super friendly students in Hanoi or Saigon without deciding to just go
for a walk in the park.
Had I taken a tour of the Angkor temples, I would have been
rushed round only the major sights, to visit each at peak time. Instead I opted
to explore it on my own over three days; I could take my time to find the best
places to shoot at the best times, I could stop wherever for some meditation or
Tai Chi. I found whole temple complexes deserted except for the incessant
screech and roar of the jungle insects, thinking “How is there no-one here? This
place is amazing!” I don’t even regret the fact that I seemed to be the only
one walking kilometres between each
site with a big bag full of cameras and a big bottle of water in 40C heat.
I loved every sweat-drenched minute.
I think it comes down to this – some people look at travel
as a list of sights to see and things to do as if to be ticked off on a list;
when you’re done with your list, you can go home satisfied. That works for a
lot of people. I’m not knocking it; I had a list too. But if you take the time
to purposefully get lost somewhere or say “I’m going where all the tourists don’t go”, or to head down that road
that looks like it might have something interesting on it you can have those
experiences that aren’t mentioned in Lonely Planet, that aren’t on ‘Top 10
things to do in…’ lists. Those are the ones that are particularly special, because
few people get to have them and you found it without anyone telling you how.
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