ANECDOTE: SIT                                          (solo independent travel):

After 35 years AND my 1^st tremulous solo, independent RV van trip into Baja, Mexico, I finally had enough courage to enter Mexico again for a month-long trip throughout Mexico.  Entering at Agua Prieta and down the west coast, then inland to Mexico City, and then deeper into southern Mexico & back to USA. [ytlk: Mex-Guat-Belize] 

But, alas, parked on tiny San Francisco village’s ocean-side beach 30mi north of Puerto Vallarta luxuriating in the balmy solitude of my little RV Van far from MY America, I heard a deep American voice from behind my van say, "What part of Wyoming are you from?”      … and I thought I had escaped …. 😀

Brad, an American & a most accomplished SIT traveler, spent weeks each year in a San Francisco village with friends. That night’s dinner with his friends, just before I would turn east to Mexico City, he challenged me to “just keep driving south thru Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, & back into Mexico's, Yucatán,.”    

Early next morning I arrived at ‘the’ intersection, ... thought of his challenge, ...  looked briefly east toward Mexico City… then kept driving south for 3 months along Mexico’s Coast, through Guatemala & Belize into southern Mexico’s Yucatan back to USA’s Texas. 

3 month's sites & experiences

I camped on Mexico’s ocean beaches, ate in seaside village restaurants, walked the open markets of larger towns, solo kayaked huge coastal bays alongside fisherman’s flying nets, danced on beaches by campfire with women & their children, and spent days exploring Mayan’s magnificent ruins. My Youtube video URL

In Guatemala, I parked near a family’s oceanside home, where they welcomed me in like a long-lost relative. I almost fell in love with a daughter, played music with the sons, and had two vicious dogs tied to my van to protect me at night. My Youtube video

Then, to Antigua, Guatemala’s former colonial capital draped in rich Spanish architecture, then, on a long drive thru Guatemala’s vast forested jungles to its legendary Mayan site, Tikal.          My Youtube video URL

Entering Belize I was shocked at the overwhelmingly, dominant black-looking population, and my own prejudice, which fortunately quickly eroded away. (Note: actually a mix of Mayan, European, African & many others) A quick drive past the old capitol, Belize City, to more Mayan temple ruins, & a croc-infested river kayak paddle. …and ….        My Youtube video URL

On to Yucatán’s ‘Tulum’ Mayan site … purposely by-passing American ‘tourist’ infested Cancun for Chichen Itza’s famous Mayan site & its Kukulkan Serpent. Then, driving long, near-vacant jungled roads to Palenque, a Mayan site deep in southern Mexico. My Youtube video URL

Police roadblocks warned drivers to “never to stop for anyone,  even in uniform” until each next town because of potential women-baited bandito traps. Got my attention, but no issue.           Finally, from Palenque up Mexico’s east coast to Texas.

A true SIT (solo) adventure.

Quote:  "We were a different breed-of-cat, they walked on the ground. We flew the air.”
General Chenault, WWII-Burma’s  “Flying Tigers”

SIT (solo independent travel)

I. A sit (solo independent) traveler is NOT a tourist. The traveler seeks immersion, while the tourist seeks diversion. 

The solo traveler seeks the ‘down-in-the-dirt’ reality of a culture: sees Cairo’s 1900s beauty under its grime, feels New Zealand’s jungle mud beneath, deeply inhales an Italian’s hearty luncheon aroma wafting from a kitchen window & shakes firmly the offered calloused hand of an Ecuadorian laborer. 

Compelled to ”walk around corners” searching for new experiences.

The ‘tourist’ pretends ‘ to ‘experience the culture’ protected by the capsule of a bus or taxi … shepherded by an all-knowing guide & … nestled securely each night in a cruise ship’s cabin or a tour company’s efficiency hotel … constantly wiping away the dirty culture’s imagined debris from their clothes.

The SIT traveler is today’s “Renaissance Man’: a 14th-century notion that women & men should aspire to embrace all knowledge & develop all skills within their capacity. driven by the passionate pursuit of ALL knowledge & experience, the uplifting & distasteful that tickles her curiosity. Always seeking 'what's around the next corner.

    Anecdote 2: General: 

Anecdote 1:  Agra’s (Taj Mahal): children playing near streets draining raw sewage.

      3rd Level Link Content:                  
                       Jarom, this is series of letters I sent to an old friend now passed ranging across my many India reflections that readers might enjoy. In SUM, a summary of my authentic reflections. 

 IND 1, 2, 3, 4 (Allegra) emails text: It is in pdf form now so should convert & place in Resources &/or Journery> Asia>India

      Anecdote 2:  Bundi's gorgeously dressed low-caste Dalit women sweeping gutters of filth.

Exiting my Bundi, India's authentic, but primitive home-converted hostel into India's hazy morning sun  .... 2 women dressed in India's traditionally brilliant gorgeous finery were sweeping out the 8" wide open gutters that off-times carries gray & black (sewage) water from adjacent properties.

This foul effluent carries enough solids that periodically it must be swept clean by these lowest-class Dalit Indian women. Their beautiful attire & the self-respect it implied SLAMMED into their 3rd world's gutter-sweeping denigration.Out of respect, I did NOT video them. 

Shame on a society that can send rockets to space.
    My Youtube video URL https://studio.youtube.com/video/P_RB09ysPnA/edit

CAUTION: While my comments drip with disdain, I SEEK  to experience everything I can as part of my Renaissance Man (person) ideal. India was one of my life's richest experiences, perhaps because of its rich history, exotic culture, AND its 180° contrast with USA.

      3rd level link content:

Jarom, this is series of letters I sent to an old friend now passed ranging across my many India reflections that readers might enjoy. In SUM, a summary of my authentic reflections. 

 IND 1, 2, 3, 4 (Allegra) emails text: It is in pdf form now so should convert & place in Resources> 

       

      Anecdote 3:  Cairo’s dead cat on a gutter’s trash pile & Khajuraho, India's small dying dog...

Cairo: During my short Arab Spring Revolution Cairo trip I often walked by the same curbside pile of rubbish with a dead cat lying still on top. The image poignantly has reminded me ever since of fragile & transient ‘life.’ My Youtube video URL

Khajuraho: On my 1st walkabout, I passed a small dog lying listless on the sidewalk. A few hours later I passed again -- the little dog was dead. .... I felt great sadness for that 'little' life, .... and I still do. No telling how long it had lain there before and after its passing ....alone & ignored.  My Youtube video URL

        Anecdote 4: Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions’ ‘hostel’: my lowest quality hostel.

        After 2+ months traveling inexpensive mainline China’s hostels etc, this cheapskate was appalled at Hong Kong prices and naively scraped the bottom of the barrel and reserved a room in a "hostel" inside Chunking Mansions. Hey, it sounded good.😌.  In fact, ‘hostel’ was simply their 'clickbait' for attracting the destitute & trusting (Ha!). 

3rd level link content:

Chungking Mansion is a huge building divided vertically into 4 Lego-like stacks each with its own bank of elevators. The main floor is a chaotic cacophony of every nationality in that part of the world, each ricocheting off each other in frantic bargaining for the infinite variety of goods offered in its endless shops. 

Once again I realized I was the only white person in a huge gaggle of cultures, races, languages & dialects, and clothing, hair & beard styles. At 1^st the coward in me was frightened, but each time I passed in & out I realized no one consciously noticed me and I became less anxious, … even enjoying being part of this exotic throng.

My single room had 2 small beds lined along left side wall, a shower, toilet & sink. I laid my Cocoon sleeping bag liner I always carried just for these rare moments to protect me from dicey-looking sheets & blankets.

A small single window looked out across a shaft PIK K10 supposedly giving light & air to everything in the building, a lá 19th-century NYC tenement houses. I actually got used to the jangling pots & pans & kinda enjoyed the pungent garlic smell wafting from the restaurant directly across the air shaft.

When I turned on my early morning light the cockroaches scurried for cover, but that didn't bother me too much. Shower was a nice touch to start & end a day roaming Hong Kong environs.

My Youtube video URL:   YT Playlist video: 130 CHI: Hong Kong: Mansion room 

    Anecdote: the unique

          Anecdote 1: China’s Great Wall: hiking tourist-blocked & abandoned sections.

 China's Great Wall is a vast, discontinuous system of sections & spurs crossing different terrains built in different eras. Several are popular, well-restored tourist sections while occasionally one is an ignored unrestored section.

Often, the restored section block-off spurs that have not been restored and maybe a bit precarious to hike. Often I jumped down a few feet from a tower window to hike those blocked spurs. I wasn't the 1st, but I saw no others. I enjoyed the thrill of going where others did not.

Returning from Jiumenkou Great Wall section by tuk tuk I spotted an unrestored Great Wall section immediately north of the Disney-fied Jioshan Great Wall section at Qinhuangdao city. I tapped my driver on shoulder, pointed to the unfinished section, paid him his full fare & tip, and started walking across the fields and up on top of the unnamed unrestored section.   50 Shanhaiguan 5:  “unrestored” Great Wall walk

     The top was mostly a simple dirt path on the top of the wall used now only by locals. It was a mix of unrestored towers & stone-faced walls much of wall’s original stone having been cannibalized for local construction. 

     Somehow, I felt a warm affinity to the original wall, its early soldiers, and construction workers perhaps because I could see the Wall’s innards as well as some finished portions. These insights are the true traveler’s delight.

       3rd level link content:    
   Shanhaiguan Great Wall: "First Pass Under Heaven" located in Qinhuangdao, it has been a major pass since 583 AD because of its strategic importance to China's east. It commands the narrowest choke point in the strategic Liaoxi Corridor, a crucial coastal landway between North & Northeast China.    [ytlk] 51 Shanhaiguan 6: Shanhaiguan Great Wall Museum

This GW section has been redeveloped now to accommodate tourist masses. Compared to other GW sites it seemed very Disney-like. However, its very wide width may reflect space for troops, horses & supplies at this critical point.

    Shanhai Pass/Laolongtou GW (“Old Dragon's Head”): where the wall meets "Pacific Ocean" at Bohai Gulf. [ytlk]. 48 Shanhaiguan 3: Old Dragon's Head,

    Jiaoshan Great Wall: into mountains on a cable car, then hike higher to Qixian Sì Temple ('House of the Virtuous Temple') wood & brick, 100 meters above cable car top with great views of the surrounding countryside: [ytlk: 49 Shanhaiguan 4: Jiaoshan Great Wall, Qixian Sì Temple

    Jiumenkou Great Wall: important pass allowing access inland AND  only part of the Great Wall that crosses a river  [ytlk], 52 CHI Shanhaiguan 7: Jiumenkou Great Wall 1, Great Wall ‘spur' hike

    Anecdote 2: Australia’s Nullabor: bush sleeping on ground under stars in a ‘swag’

An Aussie ranch’s convenient, authentic overnight stop along this road of sparse services AND a ‘taste’ of the life of a jackaroo’s/jillaroos (cowboy/cowgirl)  ... sleeping on the ground under stars in a ‘swag’ (a portable canvas bedroll. Also a base for an evening’s drive to a cliffside view of the Great Australian Bight overlooking Pacific Ocean. PIK     [ytlk ranch], [ytlk: Bight]

 Anecdote 3: Teotihuacan, Mexico’s huge pre-Aztec ruins:  before all tourists ... to sit alone on Temple of the Sun.

Arriving late afternoon in the small town of San Juan Teotihuacán, next morning, I was at Teotihuacán’s gate an hour before Entry time because I had learned when early & 1^st, can create opportunities. 

I chatted with entry ticket folks a bit when they suddenly they asked if I wanted to enter early. I was all smiles to enter almost an hour before all but maintenance crew. I roamed around this massive site by myself as though I were Elvis. 

First, wandering through the vast complex down to Quetzalcoatl Temple & Citadel (Temple of the Feathered Serpent), then walking casually back up Avenue of the Dead’s 2.5 miles…. soaking in the magnitude & grandeur of this historically mysterious complex …. to the Temple of the Moon.

I climbed The Temple of the Moon as high as allowed, sat down, and pulled out a book to read, NOT because my book thrilled me, but rather because I was thrilled that I was the only tourist …. with the luxury to indulge my reading in the midst of that colossal historical site of generations human of culture.

Truly one of my most memorable travel moments.  [ytlk],

        Anecdote 4: Cusco, Peru: 1-day walking streets videoing Cusco's original Inca intricate stone wall designs. 

Boring to all but the aficionados, I relished videoing this deep dive, intimate look at Inca skills. I laboriously video-tracked thru Cusco the various Inca styles of wall construction patterns based on a book by 2 French(?)  women archeologists who described all the styles & locations in Cusco.     [ytlk]

Anecdote 5: Edinburgh’s Icelandic Phallological (penis) Museum: (Oh yeah, they're serious.) LOL

I stumbled across this museum by chance during my last day’s self-guided walking tour. It was a startling, fascinating, esoteric (to say the least), & sometimes humbling (think whales) experience.    

Anecdote 6:  Michelangelo’s  “David”: ... our quiet moments together before any tourist hordes.

Arriving early & 1st to enter Florence’s Academia Gallery (museum) well before tourist hordes, I spent an undisturbed ¾ hr slowly walking around & studying “David” trying to intellectually soak in the beauty & supreme skill of Michelangelo’s “David” statue. Not an artist or sculptor, I could only hope that what little I had read AND my innate intuition would let me empathize with his ‘nuances.’

I tried to chat, ---  only stony silence, … but we had our moments … before tourists arrived. PIK     [ytlk: Italy: ]

~~~~~~~~~~~   

Anecdote: history, archaeology, arts.

Anecdote 1: One Italian month in Florence, Venice & Rome: searching for Leonardo, Michelangelo & Renaissance art & architecture: [jlk: above Michelangelo’s  “David”]

Several factors motivated this trip:    
    1) My early spring back surgery recovery was mildly uncomfortable SO,
                ... I figured I could be 'mildly uncomfortable' in Italy.
   2) I had recently finished reading Rick Steves’ “Rick Steves' Europe 101:
                History and Art for the Traveler”  which rekindled my earlier
                fascination with the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
                et al AND Italy’s culture & history. [pplk: Rick Steve’s History book],

So ......I had 2 primary goals, 
           a) immerse myself in Florence, Venice & Rome’s rich historical & artistic past, plus legendary Pisa’s Leaning tower AND post-Roman era hill town San Gimignano.    [ytlk: Italy: San Gimiiano hill town]
           b) ferret out my own ‘appreciation’ of Italian Renaissance art, its features & artists. I wanted to feel the ‘charisma of place’ where Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and so many others had trod.

Anecdote 2: Athen’s Greek Nat’l Archaeological Museum’s visit —twice!

My 1st visit was so overwhelming, I took very little video simply opting for a casual walkl thru the museum, returning days later to do an in-depth videoing walk-thru.

This was a specious strategy during my earlier Cairo, Egypt trip I had done the same with their National Museum during the Arab Spring Revolution and never was able to return to see it fully before I was whisked out of the country.

On my 2^nd visit I was prepared to focus video its entrancing collections. 

So fullfilling to re-visit the ‘things’ I had learned about in school, National Geographic, etc.                   [ytlk: Athens: Nat’l Museum]

 

        Anecdote 3: Vietnam’s Viet Cong guerrilla tunnels:  a scramble through.

I crawled through a Vietnam War-era Viet Cong guerrilla’s Chi Chi tunnels, fired an AK47 & skirted US B-52 bomber's bomb-craters on a jungle walk.

Only touristy experiential historical gimmicks just to say to myself, "You did it”. Again, a tiny taste of prior-reality that I can try to make come alive in my mind. Perhaps irreverent to ‘pretend’ to experience such a horrible context: the Vietnam War.                                                             [ytlk: ?]

        Anecdote 4: France's Grotte Font-de-Gaume’s pre-history cave paintings

I have always been fascinated by the many rock walls of pre-historic symbols & drawings I have encountered around the world (Ayer’s Rock, AUS; Cuevas des Manos, Chile; and numerous USA Native American sites. 

France’s prehistoric dwelling & cave drawings sites have always held an evolutionary allure arching back maybe 40,000 yrs. Lascaux Cave has been closed for many years for its protection, but Grotte Font-de-Gaume was still open to me on a restricted basis. I wanted that experience.

Imagine trodding the same pathways as a fur-dressed primitive man. Deeper & deeper into caves carrying his tallow-torch warily watching the shifting shadows on the rocks believing he was amongst HIS great spirits.

3d level link content: 

“The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the World's First Artists”,2007 by Gregory Curtis @ Amazon

 

Anecdote 4: France: a treasure trove of art, architecture, history & culture.

For decades I had:
    a) despised DeGaulle’s American-aimed insults after USA ‘saved’ France
               with our American WWII blood & arms AND 
   b) resented the alleged ‘arrogance’ of the French people towards
        Americans, if not all foreigners.

   c) even avoided France at 28 years old on my extended Dating Game’s
               trip for that very reason. 

Eventually, as I learned more about France: Paris, Normandy, Loire Valley’s chateaux, Pont de Gaume cave paintings, Arles’ & Nimes’ Roman ruins and Paris Louvre Museum.   Ultimately, l realized that I was foolishly “Cutting off my nose to spite my face.” I was ONLY hurting myself, not France.    Ironically, I found little ‘French arrogance.   [ytlk: ]

 

   

2. accepts full responsibility & risk as the price for complete control & spontaneous flexibility and their ultimate success.

IMO, all human action is, consciously or unconsciously, risk/reward-driven. The risk/reward referee is ‘fear’. Daily fear halts us to look left at a crosswalk, grab a pot holder, & brush our teeth. Fortunately, our experience moves us confidently onward. Still,  the more unknown, the greater the fear. 

                Dune Quote: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
―Frank Herbert,

The greater your knowledge of independent solo travel, the less you have to fear.     FACT!!!

Solo travel without research & planning is unnecessarily foolish.   Know what sites you want to visit & why!   Know the simple logistics of getting there, sleeping & eating— vital.

Staying healthy & avoiding crime is vital! 

Fear should NOT be ignored. It is both your bodyguard & the key to unlocking your dreams & achievements. Some ignore risk & take specious actions, then presume blind confidence in their ‘lucky’ survival, while many of us simply hide beneath our fear in character-destroying cowardice.

               Quote: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

Quote:   “Do feared 1^st”    (me) 

    1) Please link to my research, planning & itinerary info)
        1) SIT page & sub-pages:                                            [LINK.        ].    
        2) Resource: Safety, Docs, Equip. & ITIN                    [LINK.       ]:
        3) China’s Itinerary (or ???) 3-month 3 part Itinerary.  [LINK.       ]:

    2) Anecdote: Responsibility & flexibility        
        1) Mexico, Guatemala & Belize: 1 mo shift to 3 mo, mostly solo, unplanned, independent small van trip, 
        2) Laos: several OVN (overnight) interior countryside motorcycle wanderings at 75 years. 
        3) Myanmar: ominous dictatorship's ratty old capitol, legendary Mandalay’s temples, & Inle Lake
        4) Tangiers, Morroco’s inherently, baleful dusky, tight & intricate dead-end walkways. 
        5) France’s iconic Mont-Saint-Michel: impromptu 4 dorm-mates in a hired cab. PIK

    3) Anecdote: Risk
        1) Morocco: My dark fear of Muslim countries; more so now.
        2) China’s Great Wall: hiking non-tourist & abandoned sections,
        3) Laos’s Phonsavan: Plain of Jars’ surrounding minefields
        4) Canada’s NW Territories: solo wilderness Chilkoot Trail trek/Yukon River paddle   PIK

3. seeks out a culture’s distasteful without undue qualm.
    Anecdote: India’s lowest caste women cleaning sewage gutters; omnipresent polluted air & filth, Cairo's: dead dog on street rubbish pile for days; Europe's German Nazi heritage  PIKs

4. recognizes that ‘life’ is a personal test of character.

Our ‘character’, especially moral qualities, ethical standards, & principles hover in our psyche constantly. Jarom Why different text sizes? My apparent confidence seemed to me a facade disguising my lack of confidence, my ‘moral failures’ sometimes ignored from myself, yet my skills were hard won,

    Anecdote: A Vietnam Navy carrier fighter pilot --my friend,  exuded raw, bold confidence, competency, & skill. My idol.   Yet, years later he applauded my “ability to survive”. I was flabbergasted & flattered.

I constantly struggled & fought my fears of character inadequacy with bolder & bolder challenges hoping I might someday be satisfied. SIT travel was the ULTIMATE challenge.

    Anecdote:   
        1) Chilkoot Trail/Yukon River’s 2 panic attacks,             PIK
        2) 1st Mexico trip riddled with paranoia
        3) Mexico City Zocalo's paranoid walkabout                 PIK; 
        4) China:  “Russia’s ‘evil’ brother
        5) Slovakia: lost en route to a Disney-like castle            PIK
        6) Argentina's lost ‘main’ luggage bag                            PIK

5. Prizes solitude, yet open to others.
     Anecdote:         
        1) Teotihuacan’ Moon Temple: solitude’s reverie, alone in a vast complex.
        2) Chilkoot Yukon River: 3 weeks of solo hiking & kayaking & reflection
        3) ??? Camino de Santiago's early dark morning ‘starts’ under bright stars, PIK 
        4) Hanoi, Saigon, Beijing walkabouts: ‘solo’ amongst thousands. PIK
        5) Beijing: spontaneous massage of masseuse's shoulders while she massaged tourist's shoulders.

6. seeks no recognition or applause for travels.      
    Anecdote:  my closest friends: would ask, after each trip, “How was your trip?”, to which I would answer. “Great!” … and that was it —- no further discussion. 

I soon realized my travels were my experience, my memories, my passion, not theirs.

Tourists:

1. seek diversion from their live’s normal predictability & pressures

        Anecdote: Tourist chain: Often I have seen a line of tourists strung out behind their briskly marching guide, most of them unable to hear their guide’s commentary, so simply chatted amongst themselves or plodded along resolutely. 

        Anecdote: Panama Canal’s train ride: a-tourist kept trying to chat with me, preventing me from experiencing the train ride until I tactfully asked him to please stop.  Why was he even there?         Bragging rights?

2. abdicates their responsibility for their safety to travel companies; presuming they guarantee maximum safety.

3. accepts or is unaware of specious intellectual value of company’s sparse itinerary & commentary.

4. unaware of their superficial disconnect with the underlying culture they pass through.

5. self-deluded by cruise ship’s make-believe catered luxury & expensive, lazy “sea days.” 

6. relish their return home ‘bragging rights.’

 

I. What is SIT?  (solo independent travel)?

SIT is the total freedom & responsibility to choose & visit all your desired sites & activities and the logistics (transportation, directions, lodging, food etc) to achieve them. That freedom includes the flexibility to alter your choices whenever & however you wish, … even while traveling. 

    A. freedom & flexibility:

This freedom & flexibility combo epitomizes the benefit of SIT (solo independent travel), because you can tailor & maximize value of your travel time, including spending more or less on-site time than originally planned. You choose the degree of cultural or site immersion you want at any time, even on the fly.         

It’s your call. 

    Anecdote: Tangiers, Morocco unplanned side trip: after 36 days,
 trekking Camino de Santiago’s 600 mi in northern Spain, I began 1½ months solo independent travel thru Portugal & southern Spain. In Madrid, I realized I was too far ahead of my personal itinerary, so I booked a train to southwest Spain, & took a boat to Tangiers, Morocco for 3 days, then, returned to Madrid & continued my journey.               [Youtube Link:: Spain]

 

    B. Quality of Travel:

Equally, SIT quality of travel is your choice: 1^st class flight vs ‘tied to a wing’, expensive hotel vs hostel dorm bed, street food vs Michelin 5 star restaurant, private personal guide or ‘self-guiding’ it with pre-trip research & on-site Google Search, …. or a mix. 

 

II. What are SIT’s Characteristics?
    a. Usually travels alone, but maybe, with a very compatible partner,
    b. prizes freedom without compromise,
    c. solitude to reflect and contemplate,
    d. flexibility to change direction or plans on a whim,
    e. luxury to travel ‘poor’, IOWs, ‘in-the dirt’ close to a host culture’s roots.
    f. constantly seeking the unique, unexpected, remote, and authentic,
    g. expects to be ‘lost’ …  occasionally anxiously challenged, 
    h. in ready pursuit of the curious
    i . high-quality essential stuff: hiking boots/socks, rainproof jacket, etc

 

III. What is this website’s purpose & goal?
My sole purpose & goal for this SIT (solo independent travel) website is to:
    1) inspire your solo travel ambitions,
    2) anticipate & answer your myriad SIT traveler questions
    3) increase your SIT travel info & skills,
    4) help you successfully pursue the domestic & world SIT (solo independent travel) I have for 30 years.
    5) safely maximize the confidence, pleasure, memories, ease & benefits of your life’s travels.

My advice is “experience-accurate” based on MY SIT travel insights & experiences stated as clearly and completely as I can to maximize your ease of understanding. The credibility of my advice is inherent (1) in my frequently embedded personal, authentic SIT travel Anecdotes acquired over 30+ years and the Safe Practices those Anecdotes have taught me, AND, (2)  my well over 1250 Youtube SIT travel videos.

This website is the non-profit, labor-of-love, work-in-progress of this 84-year-old’ man’s ‘well-lived’ life; 35 years domestic & 20 years foreign  SIT (solo independent travel.)

No click-bait’, cluttering advertisements or phony enthusiasm.

To be clear --- I seek no income, no financial support, & no sponsor's endorsements (free hotels, flights, or excursions) in return for their advertising on my website; NO advertising!, …NO profit!

Jim Cramer, TV stock guru says, 
“You only need to get wealthy once.”
I did.

NOTE: You do NOT need to ‘memorize it all’ like a silly college professor presumes. Simply scan thru it, focusing on what is important to you, BUT try to become familiar with my website’s structure so you can navigate it easily anytime, anywhere in the world when you need it most.

SO,  I have been creating this website for a 2 years, and it is still in the creation stage, IOW,   
“…the tip of the tail is wagging this dog.’ 😀. 

If my SIT travel does not intrigue you, you really don't need or want to read this website, EXCEPT perhaps for, my 2 fully developed Big Bus Tours & Cruising posts fully describing the PROs & CONs of their ‘Travel Factors.’

           Big Bus Touring: [plk: Big Bus touring].  Cruising: [plk: Cruisng]

SPECIAL NOTE: Maybe you are unable to travel (me:… cancer) or simply do not want to foreign travel, yet, you are fascinated with foreign cultures: their history, iconic monuments, food, architecture, customs, etc. 

This website, & more importantly,  my YouTube channel's videos (Scott’s Travels) may allow you to vicariously pursue those interests. No ads, no phony hype, just day-to-day solo travel.  

In Google Search: @scottsolotravels for access to my website & Youtube videso