quakerlizz

hey - i've just been to north africa - loosely attached to a group (for the visa thing) - but doing my own thing most of the time. The main thing that differed from a trip I made earlier this year is that I now know some arabic! i've been doing a class for the last few months and can now read it, say and understand some simple stuff, and generally make the effort - the response was fantastic - even though the version i've been learning was very different to the dialect on the ground. I decided on Arabic as for the next two years i am focussing on North Africa and the Middle East as travel destinations (I've brushed up my french too as so many countries in these areas were French colonies and many people still have french as one of the languages they know - and yes colonial languages can be an issue - but hey - where there are people there are politics.)

I've also learnt to read the cyrillic alphabet as i will go to central asia next summer - and thought it would be good to at least know which is the women's loo!

So - the point i'm making rather indirectly is that as a solo traveller it really helps to be able to read the signs, road names etc and if they're written in another alphabet to your own it will really help to learn it. (Apparently learning a language that uses another alphabet is also one of the best things you can do for your brain - so forget wii and brain training stuff - get along to a language class!)

hey folks - travlling alone is great - people approach you more (ok sometimes that's less good - but mostly it's great), you get talked to, offered advice, tea, directions, everything. I've travelled alone around almost 50 countries (some very conservative and some very liberal), now in my 40s I've never had serious hassle in 25 years of independent/solo travel.

I understand that you might feel nervous, so here are some ideas which pertain especially to women. Pay attention to clothing suggestions, learn some of the language (and the alphabet/numbers) develop some flash cards (your language on one side the country's language and/or a picture on the other side), don't take too much luggage (make sure you have at least one hand free - it's a practicality thing), do take a torch a lockable padlock and a door wedge, keep a copy of your passport, pay attention to what local women your age are doing (if the cafe has no women at all in it think about why that may be), read about the country you are visiting and look at the films made by locals, try and conduct interractions with security, police or army in a public place, pay attention to currency restrictions, think about how others might see you, relax it's not a competition.

If you get lonely for your own language find an internet cafe you'll find other travellers there often enough (if it's only men in there pay attention to whether the owner wants you there or not - it may just be somewhere to access online porn - though that might not bother you it might bother them). if you want to meet locals think about what it is that they do in their spare time (if any) - music, theatre, cultural evenings, libraries, lectures, dance, underground stuff. Read the local equivalent of time out. If eating alone worries you take a book - sometimes a family will be willing to have you join them - try it..

over the last x hundred years some amazing intrepid women have up sticks and gone the distance - often alone! why not join their illustrious ranks?

I'm off to Uzbekhistan next year - and I've read the posh guide books and 'The Railway' any other recommendations?

Ted's 'revisit' to his Jupiter haunts is an excellent follow through

helen norberg hodge's book 'learning from ladakh' makes good albeit intense reading

the snow leopard by Peter Matthieson - a great insight into Buddhism (of several sorts) into the dynamics of extreme ethno-biology, and into the soul