If you have questions on girls traveling solo, stop thinking for a while. If you do not have confidence in yourself, try and take a leap of faith. I will make every excuse possible to travel with my female counterpart, because let me tell you what, no matter if you are madly in love with someone, and you love everything you do with them or you love to travel with your parents or siblings or you love to travel with your crazy bunch of friends, no company is better than your best friends’!
I wanted to travel with my childhood friend and it was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Here’s is my story which might help you suppress all the doubts you have been carrying in your mind to travel with your girl friends.
GO WITH THE FLOW
To begin with, we had done no planning, no itineraries, no to-do-list, because we both wanted everything to be spontaneous (for the sake of adventure). And trust me, it is not compulsory that you make plans for each and every thing that you have to do. It feels absolutely amazing when things come your way as a complete surprise. One moment you are trekking the trails along the tranquil Parvati river and next day you find yourself amidst the busy Mall road of Manali. Yes, it requires a lot of confidence to travel solo with no planning but here is the Moral of the story: don’t overthink, be confident and most importantly be positive.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP
Come on, don’t be scared to use your female charm for some help. The best thing about traveling solo with females is that if you ask someone for a little bit of help, they will go a step ahead not only to give you the useful information but some saint souls might just do a little too much for your comfort! As long as you are wise enough to go to the right people for help, you will get your way right. Our decision to ask locals and even the fellow travelers turned out to be a good one. A man helped us get a really cheap homestay in Kasol, which otherwise wouldn’t have been easy for us provided we were so blank when we got down here from our bus. He guided us through our way to the treks, helped us score, and gave a good idea how we should go about the things in a totally strange place.
Moral of the story: When you go to a completely new place, no matter how much you have researched about it on the internet, you will feel clueless. For such times, take a deep breath, believe in yourself and don’t be scared to ask for some help.
NOT ALL MEN ARE MONSTERS
Okay, this is probably the riskiest ( or should I say adventurous) thing that we decided to do on our trip. When we were roaming around the Mall Road in Manali, with no idea what to do next, we spotted few cars with roofs loaded with snow. We so badly wanted to see snow that we just went straight to them to ask where have they been, to learn that we were just a few miles away from paradise. Next moment, we had decided to leave for Solang Valley at 4 in the evening. There were no buses available at that time, so the only option we had was to take an auto or taxi. On hearing the hefty amount they wanted to charge us which was way out of our budget, we weren’t really sure what to do. But our obsession to get a glimpse of snow couldn’t stop us until we both decided to take the first step towards our destination. With no idea how far Solang Valley really is, where it actually is we actually started asking people about the route only to get their strange reactions “These girls have gone crazy”. It was my friend’s idea to ask someone for a lift to which I totally disagreed ( I live in Delhi. Duh!). But, somehow she managed to get my consent by saying ” This is Himachal, this is safe, we can totally go for it” and this time she was the one who took the responsibility of the consequences. We asked a man for lift, who was more scared than I was to the idea of giving lifts to strangers. Somehow, we were in his car in few minutes. We stroke a good conversation with him which made me realize that indeed all men aren’t monsters. He dropped us half way to our destination, from where he had to take another route and that was more than enough. Luckily, we got a taxi at cheap rates from there.
Moral of the story: I am not saying it is totally safe to ask random strangers for lift, but then it isn’t that bad an idea if you play smart.
DON’T BE SHAKY
When in Rome, act like Romans. Okay, if you cannot do that everywhere at least act like travelers and not tourists. Bargain at every step possible, for the hotel rooms, while hiring the taxi and you may end up with a good deal. While hiring our taxi, we told the driver man we had really less money and asked him to quote the lowest price possible. Beginning with Rs 800 for one way, we got the deal for Rs 600 for both ways (but, only because he was a good man, and we asked him that there is no need to drive us at his loss).
Moral of the story: Be very confident when you talk to people while traveling, even if you have no idea about the things, pretend like you know it all and that, this isn’t your first time.
FINALLY, EXPLORE IN YOUR VERY OWN WAY
The best part about traveling with your best friend is that you both are on the same level of craziness. At times, when she isn’t sure about the things, you help her believe in herself and be positive and at times when you are losing hope, she will pull you out of the gloom. You get to explore the places in your own way, no fixed itineraries, and no fixed plans to ask you to alter your idea of traveling. That’s just my idea of traveling right!
Moral of the story: More than a loving life partner, you need a crazy ass bitch best friend to be happy in life!