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I started traveling alone when I was 11, and I had sure met my share of interesting people through the years.
While I had forgotten most of their names, I will always remember how they made my trips memorable. As a young solo traveler, I often depended on the kindness of strangers, and looking back, I’m amazed now at how good people can be.
Here are some of them that I met in my solo travels.
The Nurturer
He takes the responsibility to take care of you, once he learns that you’re traveling by yourself. He makes sure you find your hotel, that you know exactly how to get there, and wants to know that you arrive there safely.
He may even give you his number, and before you part, there are several warnings and reminders of what to do and what not to do to keep yourself safe.
I have had so many experiences of this. The best thing I remember was arriving unexpectedly once in San Miguel, Bulacan, not knowing where to stay. It was getting dark and I decided to ask a tricycle driver, a married guy in his 40s.
He didn’t know of any hostel or inn, but he didn’t leave me hanging. He asked the other drivers in the area, and when he learned of a place (which turned out to be the local motel), he took me to a roadside restaurant in the public market. He asked the waitress to allow me to sit there and wait for him.
By 10pm, he and the other tricycle drivers arrived. They began drinking, and between joshing each other and flirting with the waitress, they talked to me, joking that they saw a resemblance to Maricel Laxa. I set aside the notebook I was reading and joked around with them as well.
By the time midnight rolled around, my self-appointed savior left his drinking buddies and took me to the place they called “Inong,” a makeshift place for clandestine lovers. He said that because I checked in at midnight, I can stay up to 6am the next day.
The Adviser
The adviser is someone who has a suggestion or a recommendation for virtually everything that you’re planning to do.
She has warnings and cautions too, and while you appreciate her suggestions and helpful tips, sometimes you can’t help wishing that she should have waited first to be asked for her advice.
The Friendly Local
The friendly local is the boatman in the Mangrove Tour, Palawan.
This is someone you can only hope to meet when you arrive at a place for the first time. The friendly local has a lot of precious tidbits of information to give, and may even offer you a place to stay or a meal to have with her family.
Meeting her is priceless, for not only do you get to experience the things you can’t usually find in guidebooks, you’d also get a deeper appreciation of the place through her eyes.
In my solo travels, I usually meet this person on the bus, or while waiting for a flight. Since 2008, though, I began using Couchsurfing to specifically find a friendly local.
The Fellow Traveler
Fellow travelers and Couchsurfers meeting up in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
You start out traveling alone, but somehow, along the way, you get to start talking with your seatmate on the bus, or perhaps the girl with a huge backpack ahead of you in the ticket office. You talk for a bit, then realize that you’re headed the same way. Presto, you have acquired an instant travel companion!
This happens to me often when I travel solo. I start out alone but end up traveling with other people. I love traveling by myself because of this; when I’m alone, I meet so many people who make my travel experiences fuller and more meaningful!
The Lover
The lover always assumes that if you’re a woman traveling by yourself, you’re out looking for some “adventure.” I’ve met some of them, and while there were a few who were definitely creepy, others were harmless and more, shall we say, romantic.
I remember most the guy in Siquijor. He was quite persistent in taking me around when he learned I was alone. He took me to a basketball game and introduced me to his friends, then he took me to his family. He proposed to me at the pier—a clean and beautiful place with blue-green waters.
Unfortunately, I was never one for short-time encounters, and he had to make do with a bottle of beer I bought for him in the town plaza.
How about you? Which of these people have you met on the road? Tell us in the comments below!
Aleah Taboclaon is a location independent writer, editor, and the travel blogger behind Solitary Wanderer. She's partial to slow travel, and prefers extreme adventures like hiking and caving over sightseeing. She likes running (completed one marathon, training for the next!), diving (PADI open water diver), and traveling with her Kindle. Follow her on Instagram and Pinterest!
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21 Comments. Leave new
@ Emma: I think men in places we go to think we are ripe for the picking because we’re traveling on our own. Yep, certainly flattering, as long as they respect it when we say No!
As a solo female traveller myself, I’ve met ALL of these kinds of people! I especially love the last one, ‘The Lover’ – glad it’s not just me who’s having proposals from odd people in other countries… flattering though. I think friendly local has to be my favourite!
@ Ayla: You got it right–it’s certainly gratifying to be alone and meet so many people! They have a lot of stories to tell, and I’m always looking forward to hear them.
@ James: Thank you. As you can see, I love solo travel 😀
very insightful. And one that could only come from those who travel solo. 🙂
i can relate to some of what your saying and there is this sense of gratification when your traveling solo. I’ve always loved figuring places out by meself most of the time but befriending locals is fun as well you’ll def have a more intimate appreciation of the place when your not following a travel guide.
@ Love, Miffalicious: Thanks 🙂 Hope to see you again here in my blog!
As always, your posts remind me why I love travelling. Thank you for this.
Love, Miffalicious.
@ Ana: Thanks to solo travel, I’ve met a lot of people on the road too! Never mind about #5. Too overhyped haha
@ Don Shimoda: Doing the Camino de Santiago is also in my bucket list. I hope to come back to Europe next year, maybe then… But I’ll probably take the English way haha #chicken
Dear Solitary Wanderer…please allow right-button mouse clicks so we can surf your wonderful website opening up different tabs for links which are in the middle of a post 🙂
THank you and keep up the nice work, it reminded me many of my own solo-travels!
ps- have you tried doing a pilgrimage? it’s a very interesting experience also combining the loneliness with the joy of finding other pilgrims in the same direction you are walking, I leave you two of these which I heartly recommend (particularly my home country’s, the spanish Way):
http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es
http://www.omotenashi88.net
I stumbled on your website and girl, I can really relate with your travel experiences. I too am a backpacker and been to several places in Asia. The best one so far was last year when I went to Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Malaysia. I’ve met the first 4 people here but unfortunately didn’t get to stumble on the lover yet. still…my hopes are high when I will travel this year to Cambodia and Vietnam…haha…I’ve have a lot of international friends now and that’s thanks to travelling solo.
@ Vikki: Hope you’ll meet a romantic #5 soon hehe
So far, I’ve met plenty of fellow solo travelers. Funny naman nung #5. 😀
@ Nomadic Pinoy: True, true. As Kafka said in Kafka on the Shore–“Chance encounters are what keep us going.”
@ Gael: I can so relate with your statement. hahaha
interesting post aleah! 🙂 pag solo ka tlga madame kang mame-meet na #5 unfortunately gusto nila madalian. LOL
This is my first time here but I have to say I feel a connection with your post – having traveled solo for the most part of my journeys. I believe it is because of this that our experiences meeting others down the road is amplified and becomes more meaningful.
@ Mitch: Lots of good boatmen out there, huh? Hehe The Lover can refer to any guy who thinks that a solo woman traveler is ripe for the picking. He can propose or just want a good time. In my case, The Lover wanted me to be his girlfriend. haha. Couchsurfing is safe if you take precautions, of course. It’s like real life, you have to practice due diligence. Not everyone you meet online is real (and CS encounters do start online, unless you meet a particular member first in CS gatherings.) You can read my post about CS here: http://solitarywanderer.com/2011/06/couchsurfing-project/.
I just noticed that everytime I read blogs the usually pertain to be “good adviser” is the boatman not to mention being a friendly local too..so be it and let’s all be thankful for alot of pleasant persons along the way.. pero ang Lover? naguluhan ako dun, did he actually propose? and last, is really couchsurfing safe to do? how would I know that the person is genuine?
@ Koen: Thanks. It’s indeed gratifying to travel by yourself, you learn so many things not only about other people, but about yourself as well.
@ Red: Fortunately, I haven’t met that kind of person yet. Can you imagine sitting beside her (or him) on a long bus ride and having to endure his endless chatter about things that he thinks you should be doing? *shudder*
The ‘know it all’ is a darker, less welcome variation of ‘the Advisor’ that I’ve met quite a lot downunder here in OZ!! More pushy than your version, the know-it-all won’t accept that you’ve had a different/better/more interesting experience than him/her – not that it matters, because they’re not listening to you anyway!!
such a great post…you learn so much about the people around you while travellng solo…life is great getting to know so many nice people….