Destinations Travel Magazine/Traveldudes, October issue: ’10 Tips for the lone traveller’
This article originally appeard in the October issue of 'Destinations Travel Magazine', a major international travel site and a Kred 'Top 50 Travel Blogger Sites'; and here on Traveldudes, a well known travel site with a huge social networking following.
10 TIPS FOR THE LONE TRAVELLER
It can be utterly bewildering taking on a new city, metro system or train station alone. You arrive aching, dizzy and drenched in sweat, the only traveller among thousands, where nobody knows you or gives a damn, unable to find your hostel, bus or train, and not even knowing how to begin to ask a passer-by for help.
But remember, there’s always a solution. Stay calm, focus, and keep these simple common sense tips in mind and you will get over the hurdles.
Hectic, Electric, Magnetic, Hanoi
If I had to do one thing for the rest of time, I would walk the streets of Hanoi. There’s magic in those streets, where every sense tingles with a vivid intensity.
The colours, sights, smells and sounds you take in with every step and the thunderstorm of motorbikes and taxis that explodes every day.
And the food, ah the food. Those delicate but powerful flavours of the noodles cooked just that little bit differently in each street restaurant, the little baguettes with a myriad of mysterious fillings or the barbecued pork that smokes as it grills on a street corner in the warm evening air.
Perhaps it’s the feisty characters you meet there, whose tough fronts drift away into heart-meltingly honest, unreserved smiles that light up their faces like a firework show.
Au revoir for now..
Dear all.. so it's official now I'm going on a big trip (or maybe a farce) starting in two weeks, travelling from the UK to Vietnam by rail, including the Trans Siberian Railway.
It's a reckless 'end of 20s meltdown', during which I will be spending a disturbing amount of time in small train carriages with questionable toilet facilities and no doubt a good cross-section of bodily odours. Can't wait. And before I go I was wondering if peeps might be able to give me some tips....

