ANECDOTE: 1 Mexican month explodes into 3 months more, alone, in Guatemala & Belize.

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.

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 …. 😀.  

Matt, an American & a most accomplished 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 2 1/2 months more 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. 

Juana ran up the steep hillside to get me 5 gallon pail of freshwater that I could dip a bowl into and pour over myself as a shower. Thank you, M'Lady.

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. 

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

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 ….     

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. 

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

A true independent 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”

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Independent Solo Travel

 This 'traveler' seeks immersion, while the tourist seeks diversion. 

I. GOALs of a (FIT) free independent traveler!

The solo traveler seeks the true essence of a culture; its famous as well as  tourist-ignored historical, cultural & natural wonders AND equally compelling,   its ‘down-in-the-dirt’ gritty underbelly.

They obsessively explore the sights, smells & sounds swirling around them: Barcelona's Sagrada Familia's soaring colorful towers, an Indian street-food vendor's tantalizing aromas and an Italian village's Mediterranean shore's lapping waves.

A FIT traveler is NOT a tourist. 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.

Today’s free independent traveler is a “Renaissance Man’: a 14th-century notion that men (there were some women) should pursue all knowledge & experiences, including the uplifting & uncomfortable, and develop all skills within their capacity.     

Always seeking 'what's around the next corner."

A FIT traveler's goals are often 3-fold:
    1) deeply research & explore foreign country's most iconic Tier 1 iconic tourist sites,
    2) ferret out & deeply explore uniquely interesting, but seldom visited Tier 2 sites. 
    3) reasonably immerse themselves in a culture's authentic, often gritty back-street underbelly.  

1) Famous Tier 1 tourist sites: Travel guidebooks, the internet, and your brain are packed with Tier 1 sites. Throughout your lifetime of education, public media, reading, videos, & even the news .... you have amassed an inventory of foreign sites & experiences that intrigued you.  I now call those travel tidbits ‘Travel Buds’. 

Like tiny rose buds, these near-infinite numbered ‘Travel Buds’ are potential travel ideas lying asleep in your mind ‘under the snow’ waiting for you to thaw them out & turn them into Spring’s travel targets.

 

Anecdote:  some of my Travel Buds:
Audrey Hepburn’s “Two for the Road’: a romantic European travel fantasy movie. Premise: Audrey is vacationing in Europe with a clutch of girlfriends and falls in love with young, solo, independent traveler Albert Finney (think old guy in Bourne movies).      

Sometime later, I traveled to Europe on a free Dating Game TV show contest trip and fantasized my own "Two for the Road", but alas, "Nada, nothing zilch."  

Russel Crowe’s “Gladiator’s" Coliseum:  Irony of irony! Two weeks after returning from my Italy trip, having explored & videoed the partially restored Coliseum in detail, I FIRST saw the movie, 'Gladiator’.

 Even now, I'm unable to fully describe the magnitude of that déjà vu moment when rough, partially restored Coliseum was replaced with “Gladiator’s" spectacular drama of the original Coliseum.   

   Brad Pitt’s “Seven Years in Tibet”; triggered 3 months in China: I was awed by Heinrich Harrer (Pitt), an Austrian mountaineer's treacherous trekking adventure from India POW camp to Tibet, & the profoundly unique relationship between he & the young Dalai Lama.  

I could only fantasize about such a life experience as Harrer's fully described in his eponymous autobiographical book for myself. In some tangential way it motivated my 3 month China trip.

Research your Travel Buds to confirm & increase your curiosity & anticipation. Then, begin creating your foreign travel itinerary.         The more you research & learn about your trip, the more excited you will become to travel and explore more deeply.  

Anecdote: Athen's Parthenon: In college art class, I learned that the Athenian Parthenon has intentional optical illusions. Its 'stylobate' (platform for columns to rest) and surrounding steps are bowed upward by varying amounts on different sides while the columns are bowed outward to create the illusion of horizontal and vertical perfection

Philosophically debated over the centuries, those curves somehow aligned man & the Parthenon with the cosmos, a nod to the harmony between the material world and mind, a central Greek concept.                             Fascinating stuff that, in part drove me to Greece.

This Travel Bud ‘resurrection’ can be an exciting discovery adventure itself.
                                                                                                         [YT VId when edited].          

Anecdote potentials:   Jarom, do we need more?
Anecdote:  Peru's Machu Picchu: When you once encounter Central & South America's ancient cultures… Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs, Mochi, etc.…,  Machu Picchu stands out as perhaps the most unique because of its mountain top perch hidden for centuries from outsiders. Like Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Egypt's pyramids, – – it MUST be visited.

    China's Forbidden City:  Off limits for all practical purposes since 1420's Ming Dynasty, it is now Beijing's most prominent tourist complex. My deepest, most exciting insight was thru 2 books: 1) "Empress Dowager Cixi" by Jung Chang (Author) & 2) an equally fascinating account by Cixi's special guest, Katherine Karl, author of "With the Empress Dowager of China." 

China is a geographically & culturally huge country matched only by the breadth & depth of its history. I spent three months traveling much of China, and afterward, I longed to go back to discover what I had missed.

    Australia's Ayers Rock: Australia might almost humorously be thought of as the inverse of an eggshell. The shell is its coastal areas & cities -- Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Broom, Darwin -- with little inside of the egg, but vast flat geography with the approximate center's exception: Ayers Rock, or as the aboriginals call it: "Uluru",  some  285 miles from Alice Springs.  Having visited New Zealand before for 2 1/2 months, Australia's vastness & curious Aboriginal histpry seemed even more necessary. 

Foreign Travel ignites increased curiosity of a visited country, prompting me to read one of my favorite, "Hell West & Crooked' by Tom Cole, early 1900s Outback.
   

2) Unique, but seldom visited Tier 2 sites; Tier 2 sites are often worthwhile, but either too small to accommodate large tour groups, too far off the beaten track for most, too esoteric or too inaccessible for large tour vehicles. Yet, they may be the most unique & exciting.

ANECDOTES, PIKs or YT VID clips: Jarom, do we need more?

    Anecdote: Argentina's Cuevos de las Manos prehistoric handprint site: Traveling the eastern side of the Andes Mountains by bus with guided daytrips, ....  about 163 km (101 mi) south of Perito Moreno on Ruta 40's long dirt road & 8 mi east  (may be paved now) is Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands) It is named for hundreds of paintings of hands stenciled, in multiple collages, on the rock walls. You gotta want to be here.

  Anecdote: Chile's San Pedro de Atacama's "Termas de Puritama" hot springs:  After sweeping around the horn through the Beagle Channel and traveling to northern Chile's high elevation Andes Mountains, I visited San Pedro Atacam for express goal of visiting Chile's "Termas de Puritama" hot springs, Chilke's version of Yellowstone National Park, just north of my Jackson, WY home Not as big & dframti as YNP, bempressive in its context. Again, you have to want to be here.     YouTube clip.Tatio volcanic geothermal field

YYY

   

Antarctica: Antarctica is the very definition of remote. 2 to 2 1/2 days sailing night and day across some of the Earth's most strenuous waters to immerse and cold Stark, baron Black rock seemingly endless ice, blue tinted, icebergs, gray, and dark, misty, clouds, and the occasional seal whale and beautiful black-and-white birds and then 2 1/2 days back. Remote.   

vvv

     Romania's Painted churches & cemetery wooden tombstone the quasdi.Russian post ofo Moloddva I traveled north into Northeast Romania to blank blank to visit beautiful wooden churches in the countryside surrounding a classic Eastern European old

town blank blank.  YTLK
    Ukraine, for a couple of hours after visiting the tiny town and the cemetery of individually painted wooden tombstones, I decided to skip across the bridge in the Ukraine to wander about for a few hours, just to say I've done it… And to get back.
    * Swiss Alps: watery caves
    Spain Dolmen

Anecdote: somewhat remote Lijiashan Village: A couple of overnights in a village carved literally out of the mountain's rock AND  well-off-the-beaten track (2 bus rides, a mile road hike & a trek up a steep mountain road. 😀) I poked around this unique village with beautifully wood-carved fronts to their stone cave homes. I slept on a khan bed & ate her meals cooked over her wood-burning stove.

This 1st video peeks inside a quickly ABANDONED home with everything simply left in place (kids left for the cities, elderly died off) shows the brick 'khan' bed more often sculpted out of the bed rock.      2nd video shows how I/we used it.

 

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3) Gritty back-street underbelly: A FIT traveler's self-guided walking tour walking either aimlessly or between sites alert for any scintilla of cultural authenticity or uniqueness. While searching, they are basking in the smells, sounds & visuals of a culture ever alert for something interesting that pulls them off their route and down another path.

I am always drawn far from the tourist areas into Bangkok, Saigon & Tokyo's city blocks of strangely quiet labyrinths of intimate narrow streets & alleys and their curiously peaceful neighborhoods. Even in heavily touristed Florence, Italy a walkabout literally drips of its past culture with Roman building remnants jutting like 'art' out of new building's corners to preserve them. 

In Bangkok, I walked thru 'hideen' neighborhoods is search of an old silk factory I never found.

Yangon, Myanmar's sedate British occupation mansions aligned along a wide pleasant boulevard contrasted with downtown Yangon's 19th Street's chaotic & exciting night markets where sidewalk vendors, shops, and eateries spill onto the pavement.

I am always probing a culture's underbelly, its 'hidden' traveler's wealth: a dark Cairo street opening to a streetside livestock market, the pristine narrow old neighborhoods of Noto, Sicily contrasted with the filthy swilled streets of India; casual buying trip thru Vietnam's large open market tourists groups quickly skirt; a pre-dawn Camino de Santiago trek thru a tiny stone house village into rolling fields of vineyards.

A FIT traveler sees Cairo’s 1900s beauty under its grime, feels & enjoys New Zealand’s jungle mud oozing into their Croc shoes, deeply inhales an Italian’s hearty luncheon aroma wafting from a kitchen window & shakes firmly the offered calloused hand of an Ecuadorian laborer. 

FIT travelers achieve their goals by capitalizing on their prized freedom's autonomy to control as much as possible .... all elements of their travel including the flexibility to alter their plans whenever & however they wish, … even while traveling. FIT travelers seldom rely on pre-packaged tours, travel agencies, or group arrangements. Truly independent, yet occasionally use day tour for convenience.!

Their pre-trip  research & planning informs what their senses explore
undistracted by a guide's constant commentary.            

Anecdotes: Authentic, ‘down-in-the-dirt's' gritty reality

Anecdote 1:  Agra’s neighborhood (Taj Mahal): In Agra, there is a lovely tree-lined Boulevard between Taj Mahal and Agra Fort principally to make tourists feel comfortable by avoiding India's usual filthy environs. It was my main route back to my hostel if I chose to take it, but I chose a different route seeking the cultural reality of Agra's 'hidden' neighborhoods.               

In these back streets, children play soccer on vacant lots as raw sewage trickles endlessly down the middle of their streets. Where I, in elderly desperation, felt comfortably un-embarrassed, peeing against a vacant lot's well-stained wall.

Allegra's Letters:  Bundi, India's gorgeously dressed low-caste Dalit sewage women: (excerpt from my "Allegra Letters") "Yesterday, exiting my authentic, but primitive home-converted hostel into India's hazy morning sun and dragging my rolling bag down a street to the bus, 2 women in their traditionally brilliantly gorgeous finery had apparently been working for several hours already digging the sewage & filth out of the 8" wide open gutters along both sides of the street. Their amassed piles of sewage-soaked ‘filth’ was 1 1/2’ high; the smell — foul." 

Allegra's Letters These and similar tasks are the Dalit's lowest caste’s burdens.     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.
              (link to Resources: Writings or India for Allegra's Ltrs).  Use above title.           

Shame on a 'caste' society that can send rockets to space.

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

 

      Anecdote 2:  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 the fragility & brevity of  ‘life.’    A reminder NOT to waste!

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.

      Anecdote 4: Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions’ ‘hostel’: my lowest quality hostel: After 2+ months traveling inexpensive mainland China’s hostels etc, this (me) 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!).                                                                                                               Dig Deeper

                 

 2nd level link content:

Chungking Mansion 'hostel' LOL

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 & their critters.

                                        Chungking Mannsion hostel.  
                            Install. ChYT vid once China vid fininshed & installed in
                                            YT 130 CHI: Hong Kong: Mansion room 

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.                                                                                                                                      (close)

 Anecdotes: Exciting, dramatic sites

 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, occasionaly a 'no access' section, and rarely a totally ignored unrestored section.

Ocassionally, I dropped down a few feet from a tower window to hike those 'no access' spurs. I wasn't the 1st, but I saw no others. I was extremely cautious where the narrow bushy trail had broken away downhill.  I enjoyed the cautious thrill of going carefully where most did not.

Returning from Jiumenkou Great Wall section by tuk-tuk, across the fields 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 the shoulder, pointed to the unfinished section, paid him his full fare & with tip, sending him on his way, and started walking across the fields and up on top of the unnamed unrestored section.  

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

 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, but deteriorated portions. These insights are the true traveler’s delight.                                                                    (dig deeper)

 

    3rd level link content:    Jarom :Need this extra GW stuff. Opinion?  Seems like over-kill          

More .... China's Great Wall Sections

   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.    

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. [

    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: 

mmm

    Jiumenkou Great Wall's 'spur hike': 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

 (Close)

    Anecdote 2: Australia’s Nullabor: 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 (Aussie cowboy/cowgirl)  ... sleeping on the ground under stars in a ‘swag’ (a portable canvas bedroll)  to sleep on the ground under the stars. A small, but authentic

connection to Australia's "Man from Snowy River" epic. 

Also a base for an evening’s drive to spectacular cliffside views of the Great Australian Bight overlooking Pacific Ocean.

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

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 that when early & 1^st, I can create opportunities. 

I chatted with entry ticket folks a bit when they suddenly 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 amid that colossal historical site of generations of human life.

Truly one of my most memorable travel moments.

 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 archaeologists who described all the styles & locations in Cusco.  

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.

Anecdotes: 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. 

So ......I had 3 primary goals: ----, 
           1) immerse myself in Florence, Venice & Rome’s rich historical & artistic past,
           2) explore post-Roman era hill towns: Voltera &  San Gimignano.
           3) discover my ‘appreciation’ of Italian Renaissance art 

1) Florence’s Duomo (cathedral) & Bapistry:

2) San Gimignano hill town: these towers served two functions:
    1) defend against the marauding mobs of former Roman military soldiers rampaging anarchy's landscape, and
    2) as a "blood feud" refuge between families, seeking Hatfield & McCoy-like revenge for past insults.

3) Discover my Italian Renaissance art  ‘appreciation’: its features & artists. I wanted to feel the ‘charisma of place’ where Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and so many others had trod.

Anecdote 1:  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 the tourists arrived.                   

                                                                                                     

Anecdote 2: Athen’s Greek Nat’l Archaeological Museum’s visit —twice!  My 1st visit was so overwhelming, I simply tried to wrap my head around its breadth & depth, returning days later to do an in-depth video walk-thru.

On my 2nd Greek Museum, I focused on videoing what had intrigued me on my 1st walkthrough its entrancing collections

1. This strategy failed at Cairo's National Museum when, having visited the 1st floor,  planning to return the next day, the Arab Spring Revolution exploded and I never made it back before I was whisked out of the country.

2. So fulfilling 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 crawl 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.

Just phony touristy experiential historical gimmicks, so I could say,  "I did it”. Again, a tiny taste of prior reality that I can try to make come alive in my mind. Yet, perhaps irreverent to ‘pretend’ to experience such a horrible context: the Vietnam War.                                    

     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, Australia; Cuevas de las Manos, Argentina; and numerous USA Native American sites (Sego Canyon, Utah).
      NOTE: NOT Gaume, but close enough! ➩➩

France’s prehistoric dwelling & cave drawings sites have always held an evolutionary allure, arching back maybe 40,000 years. 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. No photos or video. I wanted that experience.

Imagine treading 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.

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

Anecdote 5: My long-held dislike of France:  For decades, I had:
    a) despised French President DeGaulle’s post-WWII insults of America & our
           allies who ‘saved’ France with our American WWII blood & arms. 
    b) resented the alleged ‘arrogance’ of the French people towards
          Americans, if not all foreigners
I therefore had avoided France on my 28 year old's on my extended free Dating Game’s trip for that very reason. 

Yet, France is a treasure trove of art, architecture, history & culture.

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

Nimes, France: Pont du Garde: most well preserved Roman aqueduct

 

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Simply, a FIT traveler exercises complete freedom & takes full responsibility for planning, design & execution of their foreign travel experiences including their choice of sites & activities and all the required logistics (transportation, itinerary, lodging, food, etc..

B. CHARACTERISTICS of a (FIT) free independent traveler?

"Accepts full responsibility & risk as the price for
freedom's complete control & instant flexibility's rewards.

  1. Curiosity-driven, alert for unique, unexpected, remote, authentic, dramatic & seamy 
  2. Distasteful, expected & spectacular: cultural experiences
  3. Full responsibility for all risks & gains: safety, health, itinerary, & Complications
  4. Freedom without compromise, so she usually travels alone, 
  5. Flexibility to change direction or plans on a whim,
  6. Solitude to focus, reflect, and contemplate everything: yet open to others  
  7. ‘Life’s a test of personal character. 
  8. Travels ‘poor, ’ regardless of net worth,  to better connect with the host culture’s roots.  
  9. ‘being lost’, expected, sometimes unnerving, but stimulating
10. Research & planning preparation:
11. Highly practical equipment: self-modified. essential boots/socks, rainproof jacket,
12. No recognition sought for travels

1. Curiosity-driven: 
An ever-alert quest for unique, unexpected, authentic, dramatic or seamy.
 IMO, 'curiosity' & its partner 'fear' have driven human evolution. It is our most powerful attribute. It protects us as we perch frightened in the tree above the hunting lion, yet teaches us survival strategies that bring us safely to the ground.

Curiosity is the inherent, unquenchable thirst to know everything that might protect us or enhance our lives & pleasure. Curiosity drives us 'around the next corner' in search of the next excitement.

2. Distasteful, as well as expected & spectacular:
FIT travelers willingly proactively confront the entire culture, the glorious & the distasteful, without undue qualm.

    Anecdote 1: India’s grimy poverty contrasted with its magnificently painted havelis: e.g. Kothari’s Patwon Ki Haveli (early Silk Road wealthy merchant homes)

Anecdote 2: Latvia's Riga Ghetto & Holocaust Museum:  Europe's German Nazi heritage: These grotesque images are burned into my brain as evidence of the potential for monumental cruelty of man to man. I try to empathize with the humiliation, and fear of these mothers separated only hours before from their husbands & sons & forced to carry their own innocent children into a Nazi's mass grave. 

3. Full responsibility for my travel's risks & gains:
My safety, health, itinerary & complications. IMO, all human activity is, consciously or unconsciously, risk/reward-driven.   'Fear' is the referee of risk/reward contest.

Daily fear makes us ....  look left at a crosswalk, grab a pot holder, & brush our teeth. Fortunately, our positive experiences move us confidently onward. Still, the greater our ignorance, the greater our fear.  Natural.

 '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,

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.             

      TR 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)
I kept this quote in printed form before me for several years to overide my nataural procrastination.  

    Anecdotes: Responsibility & Risk        
        1) Mexico, Guatemala & Belize: A moment's instant decision to extend a 1 month Mexican solo road trip to 2 months more unplanned thru Guatemala & Belize. 
        2) Myanmar's Yangon: ominous military dictatorship's ratty old capitol, off set by  allure of legendary Bagan temples, Mandalay, & Inle Lake 

3)   Morocco's Tangiers: Ahead of schedule in Madrid, so I side-tracked to Africa's Tangiers for 3 days to ts intriguing, inherently baleful, dusky, tight &  intricate dead-end walkways.

 4) France’s iconic Mont-Saint-Michel: impromptu 4 dorm-mates in a hired cab.            

   

 

Anecdotes: Risk
        1) Laos: Once I realized that at 70+ I could safely operate a scooter and then a motorcycle, I made several solo independent overnight road trips into the countryside.  Exhilerating wind in my hair & freedom.
        2) Morocco: In spite of my dark fear of Muslim countries; more so now.I found Tangier hauntingly exotic with it tight twisting streets and Arab Muslim flavor. 
        2) China’s Great Wall: hiking non-tourist & abandoned sections,
        3) Laos’s Phonsavan: hiking & scooter travel in Plain of Jars’ & surrounding minefields.
        4) Canada’s NW Territories: solo wilderness
backpacking 41 mi Chilkoot Trail trek & 350 mi Yukon River paddle.

 

 

4. Freedom without compromise: so usually travels alone because by human convention two people or more people doing anything must compromise: this direction or that direction, this restaurant or that café, that site or another. FIT travelers avoid compromise because it dilutes their options.

5. Flexibility allied with Freedom maximizes a FIT traveler's fulfillment of their goals because they can tailor & maximize the value of their travel time, including spending adjustable time-on-site depending on level of interest. The degree of cultural or site immersion is always flexible, even on the fly.                                                            It’s always your call. 

    Anecdote: Tangiers, Morocco unplanned side trip: after 36 days,
 trekking northern Spain's Camino de Santiago’s 600 mi, I segued into 1½ months of FIT travel thru Portugal & southern Spain.

In Madrid, I realized I was too far ahead of my 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.               

 

6. Solitude fosters focus, reflection & contemplation of everything: yet, always open to spontaneous interaction with others.  

     Anecdote:         
  1) Teotihuacan’ Moon Temple: solitude’s reverie, contemplation, alone in a vast complex.
        2) Chilkoot Trail & Yukon River: 3 weeks of solo hiking & kayaking & reflection encountering only briefly a hiker or my long distant wave to an oriental solo boater with a large book mounted in front of him to read as he floated down river.

        3) Hanoi, Saigon, Beijing walkabouts: ‘solo alien’ amongst thousands.

 4) Beijing, China: While on my self-guided walking tour through un-touristed Beijing neighborhoods, I arrived at a popular tourist gathering spot at the south tip of Houhai Lake. Two tourists gazed at the lake while 2 Chinese women stood behind them, giving their gentle backs & shoulders inexpensive massages. 

I couldn't resist. I walked silently up behind one of the oriental masseuse's and, without her permission or knowledge started massaging her neck and shoulders. She turned around, mildly startled, and immediately started laughing at me. We all had a great laugh.

5. Camino de Santiago's early dark morning: most mornings, I have woken my dorm bed well before others in the break of dawn. I dressed quietly in the dark, my clothes laid out carefully the night before, so I knew they were without lights. I tossed my backpack over my shoulders and struck out into the night. Often, Orion and the Big Dipper were behind me in the east I walked north.

One morning, a group of young Austrian men raced up from behind, and I quietly stepped off to the side, unnoticed in the narrow beams of their headlights. I praised my solitude those mornings.

Often, I would go for miles, occasionally passing or being passed with just a friendly "hello."  I prized my solitude and its meditative reflections. Yet, I always enjoyed evening conversations in the hostel's kitchen & common area.

7. ‘Life’s test of character. Our ‘character’, especially work ethic, moral qualities, ethical standards, & behavioral principles, hover in our psyche constantly. I often wonder if the confidence I try to exude is a dishonest facade disguising my inner fears, my ‘moral failures’ sometimes ignored even by myself, yet ...   my skills have been 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 satisfy myself. Independent solo travel was my  ULTIMATE challenge.

    Anecdote:   
        1) Chilkoot Trail/Yukon River’s 2 panic attacks: 

a) Chillkoot Trail, Alaska: 

A few years before, I had solo backpacked the multi-over night Chillkoot Trail in Alaska to the Northwest Territories Yukon River’s headwater lake, Lake Bennett, to start a 600-mile solo kayak paddle down to Dawson.

After paddling 45 minutes, I was so gripped with fear (1^st panic attack) that I paddled directly to shore & sat staring a the water, embarrassed/ashamed of myself.

I spent a ½ hour talking myself through it:   “You planned & prepared for this & frankly, you don't have much choice. You're out in the wild, so get a grip & get back out there.” 

b) Yukon & Big Salmon River Junction:

Several days later, the Big Salmon River flushed its massive flow directly into my kayak in the middle of the Yukon River just below Carmack, carrying large half-submerged logs as big as my kayak.                      
                                                                                                  [LINK] [YTclip when AK published]

This 2nd panic attack struck with no close beach to paddle to. Irrationally, I briefly contemplated jumping out of the kayak & running to shore. Absurd, of course.

Again, I talked myself through it: “ You have the best equipment, you have trained for this —there is no REAL danger unless you let yourself succumb to the panic." Minutes later I was back in control, shaken, but never again so frightened until the Zocalo & never again

        2) 1st Mexico City trip: riddled with paranoia:  within the first hour of my solo walkabout, I was riddled with intense paranoia. Fortunately, I just kept walking. It soon disappeared and never returned.

Anecdote 1: Mexico City‘s: The Zocalo’s panic attack .

The Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square, is now what once was the Aztecs’ main ceremonial center of ancient Tenochtitlan).   Immediately after I had unpacked in my hotel a block off Mexico City's historical Zocalo district, I began my usual walkabout [YT LINK]  this huge historical square.

Almost immediately, I was near-paralyzed with the raw, gut-wrenching fear of paranoia. I almost ran back & jumped in bed, seriously, but ….. instead, I just kept walking.

It was not my first visit to a foreign developing world city, BUT within a ½ hour, the fear had melted away almost unnoticed & … never returned again —  anywhere. Go figure.

Anecdote 1: China:  “Russia’s ‘evil’ brother:  In 2011, shortly before I left for China,  I invited 3 Chinese exchange students working at Albertson’s to visit nearby Yellowstone National Park for the day with a friend & I. While roaming the park one girl asked me what my opinion of China was.  I told her, as honestly as I could.....  

"US President Reagan had once described Russia as the "Evil Empire.”"
and I told her, at that  moment of her question,
I thought of China as the ‘Evil Empire's brother.’ 

But now, I had put my cowardice aside and had committed to 3 months of travel in China. My China research became my usual obsession fueled by: 
    1st, entirely reading Lonely Planet's China guidebook, literally 'slicing' out with a razor knife what either did not interest me or was not feasible for this trip — think Tibet. 

    2nd, was Professor Ken Hammond’s,. “From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese History" video series  NOW available on YouTube. I outlined every tape, finally condensing my outline to a final tight synopsis. Yes, I am probably too fastidious (anal), but ……. China is vast in size & history, a collection of geographical and historical cultures that, if you travel it widely enough, you will encounter.

Once I was traveling China, I realized that my fears, as they often are, were UNfounded. I was absolutely wrong. I recall not the slightest threat of oppression either from the culture or as a tourist traveling through it.  My China experience was devoid of even the slightest hint of communist oppression that might affect me. I wasn't looking for trouble, and I saw none. 

In sum, China was an exciting travel experience — intellectually fulfilling & expanding,  exposing the novel, crushing my stereotypes, testing my fears, and physically challenging.  Its people are as welcoming and humor-loving as Americans may be. 

8. Travels ‘poor’, regardless of net worth:
                               Just another old dufus old tourist  ➩➩➩➩
Easier to connect locals when an obvious, unpretentious traveler, rather than a self-conscious & distant tourist.

Certainly, your quality of travel is your choice: 1st class flight vs ‘tied to a wing’, expensive hotel vs hostel dorm bed, street food vs expensive restaurant, private personal guide vs. ‘self-guiding’, …. or a mix.   I usually chose to stay in-character as 'the frugal traveler.'

9. ‘being lost’ is expected, sometimes unnerving, but always stimulating:
     a) Slovakia: lost en route to a Disney-like castle  

ANECDOTE: In Slovakia, Eastern Europe I was taking trains to a Disney-like castle town -- Bojnice Castle. As usual, I had researched the train schedules enough that I thought I could flexibly alter my routing. Wrong! I selected a different train, asked the station platform officer if this was the train I needed. Once on the train the Conductor confirmed my ticket was to where I thought it was going.

BUT, she returned 5 minutes later, asked to see my TIK again & advised that she had been wrong -- not reading it closely enough -- & I was going the wrong way on the wrong train. By now we had traveled past 2-3 stations.

I had to get off & try to navigate back, but their were no trains going that way for a while. So, I got a taxi to return me to the original station, the station TIK  window lady told driver what she thought I was trying to do (did not speak much English) & off we went traveling much farther past where I knew my original station should be. The driver then dropped me at a bus stop  & directed me to the opposite side of the street. I was angry thinking he had duped me & was just getting rid of me  -- this was NOT a train station & certainly not the station I had left from.

I started walking toward a nearby University in hopes I could find someone who spoke English. I did. He gave me directions & I started walking to ‘nowhere’, until I stopped a car load of police, who finally put me in the car & drove me back to the same  ‘bus stop.” I thanked them, (“You don’t question good intentioned police). 

I then began a close examination of the blizzard of schedules pasted to the bus stop board. Eventually, I discovered my city, confirmed (???) with other folks at the bus stop, & several hours later I arrived by bus at my castle town. During the above my emotions ranged in great spikes from ‘confidence’ to “panic” to ‘resolute’ to “relief’ to ‘frustrated futility‘  to ‘hopeful confidence’ ultimately to ‘elation’ on arrival. While not normal, such serendipitous calamity is frequent enough to always be in my mind’s forward searching eye. 

          
     b) Argentina's lost ‘main’ luggage bag:                        

10. Research & planning preparation:  The greater your pre-trip research & planning, the less you'll fear, the more likely you will travel safely, & efficiently and achieve your travel goals.   Know what sites you want to visit & why!   Know the simple logistics of getting there, sleeping & eating— vital.   

 That's a fact, IMO!!!     Travel without research & planning is unnecessarily foolish & thinly fulfilling, if at all.   

  Please link to the following Main Heading for:

        1) FIT Main Heading for Research & Planning-related Topics:     
               4. SIT Research
               5. SIT travel trip dates
               6. SIT planning
               7. SIT  Free time.
               8. SIT Itinerary.
             10. SIT Transportation,
             11. SIT lodging,
             13. SIT limited luggage space  
        2) Main Heading: Resources (Safety, Health, Docs, etc.             [LINK.       ]:
        3) Main Heading: Journey > Asia > China Itinerary    [LINK.       ]:

11. Highly practical equipment, & self-modified. essential hiking boots/socks, rainproof jacket,

  Please link to following Main Heading for:
        1) FIT Main Heading for Equipment related Topics:                             [LINK.        ].
        2) Resource Main Heading: Safety, Docs, Equip. & ITIN                     [LINK.       ]:

12. No recognition sought for travels

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.

 

 

 

Postscript:   Tourists:

1. Seek diversion from their lives’ 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 safety&  responsibility to travel company & guide, presuming they guarantee.

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.’

 

   

III. What is purpose & goal of this website?
My sole purpose & goal for this independent solo traveler's website is to:
    1) inspire your solo travel ambitions,
    2) anticipate & answer your myriad independent traveler's questions
    3) increase your solo independent travel info & skills,
    4) help you successfully pursue the domestic & world 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 35 years of 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 travel Anecdotes acquired over 30+ years and the Safe Practices those Anecdotes have taught me, AND, (2)  my well over 1250 Youtube solo indpendent travel videos.

This website is the non-profit, labor-of-love, work-in-progress of this 85-year-old’ man’s ‘well-lived’ life; 35 years domestic & 20 years foreign 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 independent solo 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