Solo Independant Travel (SIT)
ANECDOTE: SIT (solo independent travel):
After 35 years AND my 1st 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 …. 😀
Brad, an American & a most accomplished SIT traveler, spent weeks each year in 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, thru 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.
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 drive 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. 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 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 (Chinese) 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 1900’s 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 the next ‘corner-to-walk-around.’
Anecdote: a culture’s true ‘under-belly’ — Walking India’s tourist shunned back streets:
1) Agra’s (Taj Mahal) children playing near streets draining raw sewage,
2) Gwalior’s (Man Singh PAL) superbly dressed low-caste Dalit women sweeping gutters of filth,
3) Cairo’s dead cat on a gutter’s trash pile .... for days,
4) Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions’ ‘hostel’: my never-to-be-repeated lowest hostel quality.
5) ALL big cities' tourist-shunned neighborhoods.
Anecdote: the unique —
1) China’s Great Wall: hiking tourist-blocked & abandoned sections,
2) Australia’s Nullabor ranch: bush sleeping under the stars,
3) Mexico’s huge pre-Aztec Teotihuacan ruins’s early entry perched alone on the Temple of the Sun
4) Cusco, Peru: 1 day walking streets videoing Cusco's various Inca intricate stone wall designs.
5) Edinburgh’s Penis Museum. (Oh yeah, they're serious.😉)
Anecdote: history, archaeology, arts.
1) 1 month in Florence, Venice & Rome in search of the ‘Renaissance’ artists,
2) Athen’s Nat’l Archaeological Museum’s 3>4 hr visit —twice!
3) a scramble through Vietnam’s Viet Cong guerrilla tunnels
4) Les Eyzies, France’s ‘Font-de-Gaume’ pre-historic cave paintings
5) Michelangelo’s “David” in Florence, Italy: Early & 1st in the door, I spent ¾ hr ALONE with David: I walked around him enthralled, trying to empathize with his ‘nuances.’ I tried to chat,--only stony silence, … but we had our moment … before the tourists arrived. PIK
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.
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, Dune
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 1st” (me)
I taped visibly to prompt my pro-action when procrastinating
1) Anecdote: Responsibility: Please link to my research, planning & itinerary info)
SIT page & sub-pages: [LINK. ]:
Resource: Safety, Docs, Equip. & ITIN [LINK. ]:
China’s (or ???) 3 month 3 part Itinerary. [LINK. ]:
2) Anecdote: Responsibility & flexibility
1) Mexico, Guatemala & Belize: 3 mo independent small van solo journey,
2) Laos: several OVN (overnight) interior countryside motorcycle wanderings.
3) Myanmar: ratty old capitol, legendary Mandalay’s temples, & Inle Lake
4) Tangiers, Morroco’s dusky, tight & intricate dead-end walkways
5) France’s iconic Mont-Saint-Michel: 4 dorm-mates in a hired cab. PIK
3) Anecdote: Risk
1) Morocco: My dark fear of Muslim countries
2) China’s Great Wall: hiking non-tourist & abandoned sections,
3) Laos’s Phonsavan: Plain of Jars’ surrounding minefields
4) Canada’s NW Territories: Chilkoot Trail trek/Yukon River paddle PIK
3. seeks out a culture’s distasteful without undue qualm.
Anecdote: India’s villages: dead dog; polluted air & filth, big city back neighborhoods, low caste women cleaning sewage gutter.
4. recognizes ‘life’ is a personal test of character.
Our ‘character’, especially moral qualities, ethical standards, & principles hover in our psyche constantly. My apparent confidence seemed to me a facade disguising my lack of confidence, my ‘moral failures’ sometimes hidden even 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 PIK
5. Prizes solitude, yet open to others.
Anecdote:
1) Teotihuacan’ Sun 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
6. seeks no recognition or applause for travels.
Anecdote: After each trip, my closest friends would ask, “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.
Tourist:
1. seek diversion from their life’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 fellow passenger-tourist kept trying to ch with me, preventing me from experiencing the train ride until I tactfully asked him to please stop.
2. abdicate 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 thru.
5. self-deluded by cruise ship’s make-believe catered luxury & expensive, lazy “sea days.”
6. relish their return home ‘bragging rights.’
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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 SIT 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 & continue my journey. [Youtube Link:: Spain]
B. Quality of Travel:
Equally, SIT quality of travel is your choice: 1st 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 “experienced-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 ‘learn it all’ like a silly college professor presumes. Simply scan thru it, focusing on what is important to you, BUT try to be 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 year and a half, 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.
ABOUT Scott / VISION, MISSION & CORE VALUES
My SIT Vision, Mission, and Core Values &. Your Vision
My Vision:
My dream for my website is that I might reach all SIT travelers: potentials, fledglings & AND accomplished SIT (solo independent travel) travelers .... AND:
1) inspire you & other’s solo travelers ambitions,
2) anticipate & answer your myriad SIT traveler questions
3) increase your SIT travel knowledge & skills,
4) prepare you to successfully pursue the domestic & world SIT.
5) maximize your safe & prudent confidence, pleasure, & SIT benefits.
6) fill your brain with memories that will enrich your entire lifetime.
7) inspire & fulfill vicarious armchair SIT travelers
Mission Statement: To achieve my Vision by providing:
1) authentic, field-practiced SIT advice.
2) my travel information in a broad, detailed & organized manner..
3) practical SIT travel Resources including: Travel Safety, Travel Health, Documents, Equip & Itineraries
4) frequent links within a page, to other pages, Internet sites & my Youtube 1200+ travel vidoes
5) easily accessible structure for rapid, deep pre-trip research & while traveling
6) credible proof of my advice thru my actual anecdotes & links to my relevant YouTube SIT videos.
6) useful HOw TO examples of my detailed field-tested travel work including: 1) itineraries, 2) clothing & supply lists, 3) medical records.
7) field proven SIT Resources includingYoutube Channel’s Playlists “detailed outlines” for each indivdual videos Key Moments.Like a condensed Encyclopedia of my individual playlists. my Youtube — Scott’s Travels — videos.
Core Ethical Values: i.e rules that guide my Mission.
1) To mainly rely on & offer only my actual personal travel experiences & practical advice based on my actual/authentic, field-proven experience … only & occasionally obviously augmented with relevant Internet research.
2) Disclose my knowledge & experience LIMITS so you can adjust accordingly.
3) Provide ‘armchair travelers’ an authentic, albeit ‘vicarious’, SIT (solo independent travel) experience through my websites, insights, and my extensive, non-promotional Youtube Channel travel videos.
4) Reject all advertising
5) Avoid ‘click baiting’ & phony enthusiasm.
6) If after my passing, my estate must advertise & promote, profit, if any, in excess of expenses, will be donated to charity with full disclosure.(None now anticipated)
MY Vision, Mission & Core Values and your Vision should align. align.
Your Travel Vision:
1) the concept of sit travel might excite you.
2) the SIT page & sub-page knowledge might give you the knowledge based confidence to sit foreign travel.
3) my SI page sub-topic pages: research, planning, transportation, lodging & itinerary can teach you "How to” safely and intelligently plan a sit Foreign trip.
4) that the frequent links to my 1200+ YouTube channel travel videos might further excite your confidence and passion.
5) you can research, PLan, create a night itinerary and execute a SIT Foreign trip.
6) if an armchair traveler, for whatever the reason, you may find vicarious satisfaction in both my website, and YouTube travel videos.
"Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goals."
TRAVEL WISDOM
Why & how to TRAVEL?
Recreational travel is driven by a multitude of motivations.
JOURNEYS
All continents, but NOT all countries visited.
IMO, a true traveler measures not countries touched with 1 foot or a plane's stopover, but RATHER, by the richness of each day's experience.
TRAVEL RESOURCES
Travel, like any enterprise, requires a mix of resources: legal stuff, safe strategies, equipment & a well-planned itinerary.
Solo Independant Travel (SIT) text (1590 words) w/o Tour /Cruise: (1425)
Benefits of SIT (solo independent travel):
SIT gives you 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.
Website’s Purpose:
My purpose for this SIT website is to give you the solo independent travel knowledge I have acquired over 35 years of domestic & foreign SIT travel … so you can safely maximize the confidence, pleasure, memories, ease & benefits of your life’s travels.
My advice will be “experienced-accurate”, ‘without click-bait’ ads or phony enthusiasm, stated as clearly and completely as I can to maximize your ease of understanding & its benefit to you.
This site has no advertisements.
You do not need to ‘learn it all’ like a silly college class. Simply scan thru it focusing on what is important to you, BUT try to be familiar with my website’s structure so you can navigate it easily anytime, anywhere in the world when you need it most.
If my SIT (solo independent travel) 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]
Big bus touring & cruise excursions always seemed superficial, time wasting, yet responsibility free, relatively economical & easy to do. Superb for once -in-a-lifetime ‘tourists.’ It is NOT SIT traveling.
Cruise Expectations vs. Reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u-XvBuffSI
Big Bus tours are generally packed, in a constant daily rush to one site after ano
Website’s Purpose:
My purpose for this SIT website is to give you the solo independent travel knowledge I have acquired over 35 years of domestic & foreign SIT travel … so you can safely maximize the confidence, pleasure, memories, ease & benefits of your life’s travels.
My advice will be “experienced-accurate”, ‘without click-bait’ ads or phony enthusiasm, stated as clearly and completely as I can to maximize your ease of understanding & its benefit to you.
This site has no advertisements.
You do not need to ‘learn it all’ like a silly college class. Simply scan thru it focusing on what is important to you, BUT try to be familiar with my website’s structure so you can navigate it easily anytime, anywhere in the world when you need it most.
If my SIT (solo independent travel) 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]
Big bus touring & cruise excursions always seemed superficial, time wasting, yet responsibility free, relatively economical & easy to do. Superb for once -in-a-lifetime ‘tourists.’ It is NOT SIT traveling.
Cruise Expectations vs. Reality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u-XvBuffSI
Big Bus tours are generally packed, in a constant daily rush to one site after another. A mix of chaotic Tier 1 visits & unused free afternoon & evenings often stuck in company owned, impersonal Spartan hotels with mediocre meals far from desirable tourist walking areas … until next morning’s frenetic departure. OTOH bus tours are relatively inexpensive, very time efficient, & almost totally responsibility-free.
Cruising is unique, generally more expensive/day than bus tours, yet equally a responsibility-free mix of grand luxury, food gorging self-indulgence, your private cabin’s refuge from other passengers. Innumerable ship activities for ‘do-nothing’ days … excuse me 😇, “sea days”, when you relax from your regular life & be tempted in your boredom by innumerable extra-charge activities including art shows, gambling, unique quasi-sports & of course drinking … all in a crowd of 1000’s.
NOTE: Largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas ship, carries 7600 passengers plus crew. On many cruise ships the crew totals over 1,000 people; often 1 crew member / 3-4 passengers.
Big Bus tours are generally packed, in a constant daily rush to one site after another. A mix of chaotic Tier 1 visits & unused free afternoon & evenings often stuck in company owned, impersonal Spartan hotels with mediocre meals far from desirable tourist walking areas … until next morning’s frenetic departure. OTOH bus tours are relatively inexpensive, very time efficient, & almost totally responsibility-free.
Cruising is unique, generally more expensive/day than bus tours, yet equally a responsibility-free mix of grand luxury, food gorging self-indulgence, your private cabin’s refuge from other passengers. Innumerable ship activities for ‘do-nothing’ days … excuse me 😇, “sea days”, when you relax from your regular life & be tempted in your boredom by innumerable extra-charge activities including art shows, gambling, unique quasi-sports & of course drinking … all in a crowd of 1000’s.
NOTE: Largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas ship, carries 7600 passengers plus crew. On many cruise ships the crew totals over 1,000 people; often 1 crew member / 3-4 passengers.
Benefits of SIT (solo independent travel):
SIT gives you 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.
This freedom / flexibility combo epitomizes the benefit of SIT (solo independent travel), because you can tailor & maximize the value of your travel time, including spending more or less 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 SIT 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 & continue my journey. [ytlk: Spain. ] PIK: K6 Tangiers.
Equally, quality of travel is your choice: 1st 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.
I have been a solo independent traveler (SIT) for the past 35 years because I prize the freedom to flexibly change my direction and the solitude to reflect. Regardless of my wealth, at different ages, I have always traveled as though I had very little. IMO, the higher up the quality/cost ladder you climb the farther away you get from the culture you came to visit.
A self-made cheapskate I could not justify 1st class air fare when ½ a doctor-prescribed sleeping pill knocked me out for most of a trans-Pacific or trans-Atlantic flight no matter the price of my seat, when, after a busy day, I slept soundly in a hostel’s dorm bed (absent an inconsiderate snoring boor) as any expensive hotel, when, I purposely ate Chaing Mai, Thailand street food each night because it was easy, sidewalk atmospheric, culturally interesting to watch it cooked and … damn good. It immersed me deep in the local’s culture.
In a small way I felt a part of it.
OTOH, I bought the best rugged rolling luggage & day pack, hiking boots, hiking socks, quick dry cargo shorts & pants and rain jackets etc. because my comfort & safety was dependent on them.
My SIT Goals:
My goals were always primarily to find & explore new places & experiences.
By my late 50s, I had spent 35 years confronting the demons of my self-worth pursuing scary investments, law school & a couple of dicey solo independent outdoor adventures.
During that 35 years I made frequent SIT (solo independent travel) trips in my small van, through out US & Canada including a 2 weeks 500 mi SIT backpacking & kayak trip in Canada’s NW Territories’ Yukon River and a 2 week SIT kayak in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Whether I knew it, or admitted it to myself, my motivation was a) raw curiosity and b) to prove to myself that my intelligence, character & self-worth was much more worthy than my mother’s negativity allowed.
In my late 50s I finally mustered the courage to cross the US border &roam Baja California for 2 SIT weeks in in my little van. I had always been afraid of Mexico because rumors of bad gas, bad cops, bad food, notorious highwaymen and my other paranoid monsters.
It was a fantastic eye-opening experience bolstering my confidence, erasing the silliest of my fears and fueling a LUST for more of the same.
I camped on empty Mexican beaches, solo kayaked out to wave splashed off-shore islands, mountain biked remote roadways, sucked in the culture of Baja’s east coast towns & villages, communicating without language skills, and eating street food.
I realized my fear and paranoia were self-induced mirages that blocked the pursuit of my fascination & experiences with different cultures.
My father’s death, shortly before had slammed home the realization that I was next in line to the abyss. I could either squander the next 20 to 25 years or max-out its foreign travel opportunities. Fortunately, I chose the latter.
Months later, I began a 1 month small RV van SIT journey around Mexico driving into north central Mexico, then, down the west coast down thru southern Mexico & back to USA. But, alas, just north of Puerto Vallarta the night before I would turn east to Mexico City, a more accomplished SIT traveler challenged me to “just keep driving south thru Guatemala, Belize, into Yucatán, Mexico” and THEN back to Texas.
The next morning, I paused at the intersection … and then kept driving for 3 months.
My North American travel had always been close-to-the-ground or “in-the-dirt” as I call it. Simple, kinda rough & cheap. 1st, a Chevy suburban with a sleeping bag & foam pad, an ice cooler’s food & drink & a small camp stove. Later, a beat-up ratty van, replaced better quality vans; my kayak strapped on top & my mountain bike dangling off the back.
I avoided campgrounds opting instead for quiet streets, remote mountain road pullouts or ocean side beaches, lakes and rivers I could kayak.
Above all I relished SITs freedom and privacy. ALL my travel was driven by the curiosity to see & experience new cities, tiny remote unique small villages, new hiking trails, small town cafes & museums unpaved backstreets to roam consciously avoiding the false security of crowds (pickpockets) & chaos of tourists.
In New Zealand, my 1st trip off N American continent, I duplicated my suburban experience with a ratty old station wagon I bought from a hostel staffer after I had toured for 2 weeks with Flying Kiwis (great rough, get on/get off tour option). Next 2 ½ mo, I traveled both main islands in my station wagon, backpacked Stewart Island & several National Trails.
After NZ, I focused on Europe because presumably safe & so culturally embedded in my American psyche. I also traveled South America because it seemed Mexico-familiar.
I had become addicted to the SIT (solo independent travel) thrill of arriving in a new country … paranoid, and its quick dilution as I immersed myself in my host country’s daily life. I endlessly walked the streets, avoiding the encapsulating taxi. I sought out local’s hiking trails, stayed in hostels with kitchens, ate local & rode basic transport.
Eventually, I swept away my last great paranoia —Asia, holding in reserve my fear of China, and even more so, the filth of India. Eventually my own cowardice so embarrassed me that I went to China for 3 months and then finally India.
Ironically, of all my countries, only China would I return to, if I could, because I missed so much. OTOH I would never return to India while it was spectacular, the filth was overwhelming.
In SUM, I am a solo independent traveler (SIT), jealously protective of my flexible freedom and my solitude’s on-going reflection, avoiding the tourist’s pseudo travel.
Give me “in the dirt” SIT’s hostel dorm beds, kitchens & camaraderie, tuk tuks/motorcycle taxis, and street food. Give me the remote village’s intimate temples & authentic lifestyles, steeper trails, & SIT multi night, motorcycling probes of a country’s backcountry.
SIT (solo independent travel)
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.
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