Two parts: 1) fear & 2) knowledge & Skills

A. FEAR of foreign travel:

 

Elephant in the room — “fear of foreign travel.” 

    B. Cause of travel's fear?

 

 

 

Travel fear is usually a product of 1) lack of 'safety' knowledge & experience', AND 2) our natural intellgent prudence.

If you scuba dive without lessons or travel to NE Myanmar now (12/12/23) without military protection, you are a fool, because each is very, very dangerous.

afe?

 

INTRO: 

We modern humans have achieved a predictable level of comfort & safety far beyond even a generation ago. We presume our air conditioning, microwave, iPhones & Netflix.      Why disrupt a good thing to enter a foreign culture?

 

Travel, by definition, means “abandoning our daily life for an almost totally different routine & culture.” Watching Audrey Hepburn scoot around Europe in her 1950’s romantic travel movie, “Two for the Road” is infinitely easier than actually doing it. Yet, ironically, that new routine & culture is the main attraction for a most seasoned travelers.

 

Other excuses easily arise: too expensive, too lonely by myself, and too old. We easily imagine the many unforeseen, hidden dangers lurking in strange foreign countries the unethical mass media frightening anecdotes. 

 

 

 

I. Travel Fear: 

INTRO: 

Specific: Fear of unknown, too expensive, or disruptive of domestic life.

Anecdote: For decades I was too afraid to travel very far into Mexico even tho I spent winters within 50 mi of border & regularly visited my Mexican dentist in Agua Prieta..

 

 

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

The Zocalo, Mexico City’s main square is now what once was the Aztec’s main ceremonial center,  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 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 an hour, the fear had melted away almost unnoticed & … never returned again —  anywhere. Go figure.

 

Why was I so afraid in Mexico City? ” Three reasons I think, 

1) I had disrupted my predictable & contented USA life.

2) Cultural shock literally. 😀

3) Main Stream Media’s hyperbolic driven fear of Mexico.

 

ANECDOTE 2: Foreign Travel fears: 25 years ago an young woman employee of my Jackson, WY’s Planning Dept. had just returned from many months solo Mexican travel. Curious, I asked, “If she had been afraid.

 

She responded, “I didn’t feel afraid until I crossed the border back INTO the ”USA.”

 

 

 

II. Travel’s Knowledge & Skills

 

A. Planning & Preparation:  

1. Fear: Raw fear seems at its maximum when we are most ignorant of what we fear. Fear of loneliness, travel costs, dangers of the ‘unknown’ … drive our foreign travel fears. Each of these specific fears are discussed more below.

 

2. Knowledge & Skill’s Solution: Fear's greatest antidote is knowledge, training & experience because when we grapple with what we are afraid of by learning about it, we dilute that fear.. 

ANECDOTE:  My scuba diving fear: At 45 I had always been afraid of what seems like scuba diving's absurdity, but I had bought a large sailboat with accompanying fantasies & scuba diving seemed a necessary part of that experience.

 

I visited scuba shops, read scuba literature, & then signed up for lessons including an ocean dive which, in sum, left me confident to scuba dive with friends.   I had gained the knowledge, training & experience to reduce fear down to a rational prudent level.

 

My Takeaway Lesson:

Ignorance & imprudence.         =    paranoia's fear; .... while, 

knowledge & acquired skills     =    confident, prudent

 

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) (Note: I have used this quote for more than 50 years to overcome my fears.)

Knowledge & Skills Examples:

Example 1: Am I too old to foreign travel?

 

Absolutely NOT, please read my Benchmark Boundary comments at https://scottsolotravels.com/about-scott-fld/about-scott-bb/

 

Then, glance at age-by-decade posts for your age at

    https://scottsolotravels.com/about-scott-fld/about-scott-s-decades-1-8/

 

Example 2: How do I book a big bus tour or cruise?

Google Search: “European bus tours” or “European cruises” and you will discover all that will make you knowledgable, skilled & UNafraid.

 

Bus Tour & Cruises are extremely easy. Peruse their online offerings for sites, experiences & amenities that fulfill your desires within your time /$ budget and book it.     Pack & arrive on time.

Probably, you must also book your to/from flights AND pre-tour lodging on both ends, if necessary, and get a Passport & necessary vaccines, if any, pack what they tell you to and you are ready to go. 

Remember you're not their first customer, they can solve most pre-trip issues by email & personally once you are in their care.

 

Example 3: How do I protect my money from pickpocket & thieves when walking in a foreign country?

GO TO , https://scottsolotravels.com/blog/post/safe-5-soft-crime/  then, GO TO Table of Contents (upper left side) and click on [Pickpockets:   Hidden Money locations]

 

Whether a 1^st time big bus tourist or cruiser or an aspiring SIT (solo independent traveler), my website’s SIT section can teach you everything I can think of about foreign travel’s Planning & Preparation. Just search what interests you. 

 

PLEASE peruse the Topic Headings I discuss at:

       https://scottsolotravels.com/blog/categories/travel-wisdom/

 

Main Menu Header: > Travel Safety's dropdown menu:  7 of my accumulated safe travel ‘knowledge' posts AND my illustrating Anecdotes. They include criminal body risks (harsh & soft), transportation risks & variety of travel scams etc. https://scottsolotravels.com/blog/categories/travel-resources/travel-safety/

 

 

Main Menu Header: > Travel Health is (or soon will be) a post of my knowledge & strategies for staying healthy while traveling. https://scottsolotravels.com/blog/post/travel-health/

 

 

Main Menu Header: > Resources >  includes miscellaneous DOCs, equipment & itineraries. https://scottsolotravels.com/blog/categories/travel-resources/travel-safety/

 

 

Example 4: How to avoid unsafe travel dangers?

After 20 years SIT (solo independent travel) solo-traveling all over the world from 1^st World nations like England -- to -- 3^rd  world developing, dictatorial, poor nations like Myanmar, I have yet to suffer anything other than minor, easily resolved inconveniences or petty crimes like attempted pickpockets & taxi scams. 

 

Anecdote: Guatemala van’s radio theft attempt:

 

IN FACT, SITs youth hostels are closely monitored 24/7. Tour & cruise companies take almost full professional control of you & your experience’s safety. Pack your bag, show up on time at start point and that’s it. They take care of everything including things you haven’t thought of yet and may never notice.

Finally, modern internet, cellualar, cell phone technology and their apps (Google Maps/Apple Maps, Uber, & HostelWorld) make almost all foreign travel easy & safe. 

 

                          Remember, we are NOT their first travelers.

 

 

B. Traveler’s loneliness: 

Fear: Many fear the loneliness of foreign travel as I did until my middle 40s.

Anecdote 1: Dating Game early return: At 28, I won the Dating Game TV show 3 times including an all expense paid trip to Italy; extending my trip 2 weeks to SIT (solo independent travel) several other countries. 

 

Yet, I returned early because I felt too soulless & lonely without a romantic partner. (Nature & society conspire). Sadly, even my free  trip did not inspire foreign travel..

 

Anecdote 2: Jilted roadtrip to Vancouver’s  Expo 86’. At 46, an ex-girlfriend jilted me 1 week before our planned ‘reconciliation’ camping roadtrip to British Columbia,‘Vancouver Expo 86’.

 

After my early European return from my ‘lonely’ Dating Game trip, it simply did not occur to me to travel alone.  But, hurt & indignant, I went alone anyway.

 

The trip was fantastic: the Expo, friends along way, hiking & site seeing, but most of all, … I really enjoyed that SIT (solo independent travel) ‘in-the-dirt’ travel mode, thereafter, intentionally & happily traveling  ‘solo' independently everywhere with a freedom & flexibility that had become so precious to me. 

 

The great irony is that big bus travel & cruise ship traveling surrounds you with dozens (or 1000s) of people & opportunities to meet & make new friends.  After a few days of constant interaction you may be hard-pressed to find your feared ‘loneliness’ because human interaction is the overwhelming norm. 😀

 

Knowledge & Skill’s Solution:

Search Google for big bus tours and cruises that offer a travel experience you might enjoy. These companies are used to helping solo traveler ‘hook up’ thru shared room accommodation & multiple interacting group activities. Making new friends is one of a tour or cruise’s great benefits for all travelers, often enabling future travel trips together.

 

ANECDOTE: Sally

I have a good friend who buys a Guidebook, books her flight, starts reading the guidebook during flight, finds lodging when she arrives sometimes late at night & next morning decides what to do each day. She makes friends easily and pairs-up fast. 

Create your own style of travel!

 

You would have to be a raging introvert, probably irascible and cash-loaded to purposely avoid people when foreign traveling. 😇

 

 

C. Physical Condition: 

Fear: Some may fear they are NOT super fit, or even healthy enough or too disabled to travel? 

 

Knowledge & Skill’s Solution: Foreign travel includes all viable travel options ranging from aggressive athletic adventure tours to disabled-specific bus tours & cruise options. Remember our society & businesses are mandated to support the handicapped, but …. are you willing to at least explore the options? 

 

Searching Google will expose all these options & the companies that can address your concerns, fulfill your requirements & offer the skills necessary. You have only to make the effort.

 

Anecdote:  You may not be powerful enough to hike UP a steep Alps mountain, but like I, at 76, you might hike DOWN. Other wise, take the Jungfrau Railway to Jungfraujoch outlook, Europe’s highest, spectacular views. 

 

OTOH, If you can’t or don’t want to travel you can watch my travel videos as I do now after post-prostate cancer.  Youtube Channel:   “Scott’s Travels” ,<@scottsolotravels>

— GO TO Playlists.

 

D. Financial ability?: 

Fear: Financial insecurity is a legitimate, ever-present human fear in today's world of inflationary price increases and expanding enticements that require money, including vacation, education, cars, and food.

 

Anecdotal Experience: The US Air Force Academy, and my father paid for my college education ( dubious achievement on my part.). After college, broke and in debt, I fought mightily from menial work to corporate positions and heavily encumbered real estate investments to hopfuklk someday be free from financial fears. Even now such insecurity haunts my dreams regularly. Really!

 

Knowledge & Skill’s Solution:

In my life experience, the only possible cure for financial insecurity fears is the knowledge, skills and tenacity required to earn money & invest profitably. 

 

From 20s thru 40s I was too financially insecure for my imagined foreign travel’s costs even tho , in retrospect, I had the money & but lacked the initiative to research foreign travel ( no Google either) even tho I had been to Rome on a free Dating Game TV contest trip. 

 

The sad irony, IS that I had the freedom, & the money to SIT travel the world as did later in my 60s & 70s. Ignorant LOST opportunity.

 

Today, with little money, marginal knowledge & skills anyone can foreign travel. Innumerable economy European big bus tours & cruises afford all the opportunity to travel. 

The courageous, imaginative young can work themselves around the world endlessly teaching English, writing a blog or working in hostels.  I have seen it and envied them.

 

Many young backpackers and I stay in hostels, buy food at public open markets & cook together in hostel's common kitchen & dining area to save money and …. for conversation with usually much younger & interesting folk than I.

 

Presumably, you have some money squirreled away or something to sell or you would not have read this far. Some I have met had just enough money for air fare to get to a foreign hostel & find work.How blocked by fear, I envied them.

 

 

SIT (solo independent travel) while requiring the most courage is the least expensive, greatest bang for your dollar. 

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL KNOWLEDGE: My Anecdotes are true ... soley mine. Their purpose is two fold: 

     1) give you even more tidbits of travel knowledge, and
     2) add credibility to my advice generally.     It AIN"T made up. 🤣

I hope you read these post & gain your foreign travel confidence

   C. Are Bus Tours & Cruises s

 

 

III. How do I decide to travel?

Now, since you have read this far, for whatever the reason, you apparently have decided to investigate the possibility of travel. Don’t be alarmed if your travel thoughts seem vague and too general.

 

Some, like myself, never thought of serious foreign travel until my late 50s even though I had been abroad. Others, perhaps yourself, may have always harbored a desire to travel, but never got around to seriously considering where, how or what to see & do.

 

So let’s explore YOUR pre-foreign travel Personal Basics including the