Just why am I blogging about something that happened 12+ years ago??? As if I’ve run out of content ideas, right? Wrong! Two incidents have prompted me to write this blog post –
- N & my wedding anniversary
- A friend lamented how none of his friends were hosting a bachelors’ party for him!
Both these incidents brought back memories of the most epic trip I have ever taken. It was at a time when I was about to get married. It was to Australia. And it was solo!
I’m speaking about 2012 when solo trips by unmarried women were quite unheard of.
How It Began
After beginning work in 2008, I took one international trip every year. So, when I began to plan the 2012 trip, I did not have much confusion around the destination.
The fact that my best friend G was pestering me about it, & that I had not had an opportunity to see my newborn niece A, helped me make up my mind quickly.
But, when the actual planning began, there were a number of combinations that needed to be tried out, before it became a trip-of-a-lifetime. It was to be undoubtedly expensive.
With all my girlfriends recently married or going to be married, sparing money & time for the trip was out of the question. Similarly, my guy friends had returned from trips themselves & so, money & time were a luxury for them too.
Left with little choice, but an immense amount of conviction, I decided to make this a solo travel.
It was also the time when my arranged marriage process was underway, and I was reasonably confident that I would be married in the next six months or so. It thus became a little gift that I decided to give to myself – a solo bachelorette trip!
How It (Almost) Did Not Begin
There were umpteen number of scares as well. As the visa took a while to be processed, the tickets suddenly went into a waiting list or became unavailable. And this was two weeks before the trip had to begin!
For a day, I saw my hope fading too, but everything got sorted out in a span of 24 hours. And finally, the trip was on! The flying schedule was nothing short of crazy: Mumbai à Delhi à Singapore à Melbourne à Sydney à Gold Coast à Perth à Singapore à Delhi à Mumbai.
All in a span of 15 days, taking nine flights, covering six cities, three countries, two continents, and a solo traveler. Truly the Trip of a Lifetime!
This Is Useful, I Promise!
While I will get to each of the destinations in subsequent blog posts (bear with me, I’ve to refresh my memory), I end this post with a couple of notes for solo travelers, specially solo women travelers –
- Connectivity: Activating my international roaming was a small price to pay for the relief that it brought to my loved ones. Fortunately, Vodafone had excellent service in both Singapore & Australia.
I maximized the use of Wi-Fi wherever possible and used it for WhatsApp, Facebook & emails. This ensured I did not need to use the phone at all, and yet, I was always available if my parents wanted to get in touch with me.
- Foreign Exchange: It is better to be safe than sorry. I carried 10% more than what I thought was adequate. Even though my expense in Singapore had to be zero, I carried enough to cover all expenses, if need be.
Stay tuned for more!
