All By Myself

All By Myself

February 6, 2012, 9:37 PM
Filed under: Miscellanea

It so happens that I have booked myself a little holiday.  In April, I am going to Kuala Lumpur for 9 days to…I don’t know.  What does one do in Kuala Lumpur?  (Answer: whatever is highly rated on tripadvisor.com.  I love you, internet.)  The thing about this particular jaunt into the world, however, is this: I am going all by myself.  Completely alone.  I have never done this before.

 Let me clarify.  I’ve flown by myself.  I’m fine with that. In fact, it makes me feel pleasantly adventurous and world-weary, all at once.  I’ve just never holidayed by myself.  There’s always been someone at the other end.  It’s like going to the movies – it’s just never really occurred to me that it’s something you can do alone.  So why now?  Jealousy, mostly.  The young man is taking his powerful, powerful chin to Eastern Europe to teach English for three and a half months alarmingly soon, and naturally, I’ve been gripped by travel envy.  I want adventures, too, and this mini jaunt over the next set of uni holidays will hopefully provide me enough of a fix to tide me over for another six months or so.  I did attempt to recruit a travel buddy, you know.  I spoke to a few different friends, but nobody was in a position to go exactly where I wanted to go exactly when I wanted to go, what with their ‘lives’ and ‘responsibilities’.  Impatient, I threw caution to the wind and just booked for me.

 I think I’ll like it.  I’m just not quite sure how to do it.  I had a taste of it when I visited Wellington last year for an impro festival, but as I was there for a specific event (and surrounded by lovely, ever-gregarious improvisers), I didn’t quite get that sense of being completely adrift in the big world.  I went exploring on my own, but I had a show to go to at night and jolly people to have beers with afterwards.  That’s the bit I’m nervous about.  I’m going to sit alone in restaurants.  I’m going to be nervous about venturing out after dark.  I’m going to see funny things and not have anyone to tell.  (Well, except you, internet.  I love you, internet.)

 Still.  I’m going to be downright smug when I catch a train from the airport by myself in a country I’ve never visited before.  I’m going to spend hours in the supermarket examining local products (I love foreign supermarkets: different and familiar at the same time). I’m going to go to naff tourist attractions instead of temples, sometimes, because I’m the only one I’ll be trying to amuse.  I’m going to go shopping for stupid crap.  I’m going to loiter somewhere all afternoon because it’s fascinating.

 The best thing is this: afterwards, I’ll come home and I’ll tell you all how much I enjoyed it, and how it was different, but it really wasn’t such a big deal.  I’ll be able to do it again, should I so wish.

 Perhaps I’ll even go to the movies on my own.

Advertisement

2 Comments

2 Comments so far
Leave a comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI