Travel Guide for Ms.Sexy
Dear. young lady who decided to travel the world alone
Did you just decide to travel alone? Are you getting nervous?
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| Travel when you are young. Go and Feel. |
Well, I want to give you a big applaud for your decision. It will bring you one of the most amazing experience in your life. Of course, I can expect what others might have told you.
Your parents could have become suspicious about your decision, asking you, "Did you break up with your boyfriend or Is there some problem recent days?" Some of your friends might have posed you a question such as, "Why do you travel alone? Don't you get bored?"
I know these responses so well and that is what i have heard exactly when I first told them that I would travel alone and go all the way of Russia from Paris to Vladivostok by taking a train.
For the past 90 days, I traveled alone;
France, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Russia to get back to Korea.
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| My Balkan countries, Baltic countries and Eastern European Journey |
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| In Russia followed Blue Line From St.Petersbourg to Vladivostok Line. |
Whatever they told you, I also agree on the fact that they have a reason. Yes it is. It is dangerous, you can get bored sometimes. However, also at the same time, because you are alone, you would meet numerous interesting and charming people on the way, you can get a big favor since you are a young lady who travel alone. You will meet numerous people who are willing to help you, want to give you a good story and good advice. It will bring you something what you could not have expected.
Therefore, it is important to pay attention to some of their advice, but not let them stop your own way. You made such a nice decision and you would never regret. Here I summed up some of the questions what I got most frequently from my friends and I hope it can be a great help for your future journey.
Wish you good luck, Ms.SEXY!
<Travel tips for Beautiful Lady>
1. Isn't it dangerous?
Yes. It is. Can it be very dangerous? Yes it can be. People on the street can stare you (especially if your skin color is totally different from the majority residents of the city and i felt it everyday when i was traveling), you can meet so many crazy drunk guys who talk to you randomly or touch you. I experienced this quite a lot and it does not always feel good. I know what you worry exactly.
However, drunk crazy guys are everywhere in the world even in the one of the most safe city in the world such as Northern European countries( just from my personal experience) therefore, in this case I recommend you not to walk alone if it is too late and not to go to remote places during night if you are alone. If you meet drunk guys? Don't get nervous but just ignore them and walk fast as much as you can. Prevention is the best in this case.
I also had one of the most awful experience in Slovenia. Even though Slovenia itself is very safe country as i felt, i think i was unlucky on that day. It was the first week of January,2014 and I was waiting for the train from Ljubijana, Slovenia to Viennes, Austria. Unfortunately, I got arrived at the station almost 40 minutes earlier and there was basically no one at the station. And then there was this strange drunk guy, who put a spell on the world, society with his broken glass bottle. Unfortunately, I and him, we were the only one in the station and there was no shops open such as McDonalds whatever. And then, he suddenly followed me by putting a spell on me. I did not know what I needed to do since I was almost at the corner. When I got to the corner of the train station, I did not look at his eye and I just turned away and I ran as far as I can. Fortunately, at that time, I met a group of Mexican young travelers and since then I could be safe being with them.
As you can see, if you travel alone especially during the night, it is very dangerous and you do not know what would happen. Therefore, I recommend you to find some other fellow travelers if you can or find some safe place to stay such as 24 hour cafe, restaurant or McDonalds.
2. Wait, So It is not safe at all?
However, at the same time, please remember. Still in the world, there are a lot of people who have a good will and who are eager to help you.
I still remember this moment whom I call as a "Russian Prince." I was at Moscow, trying to take my train to go east. It was subway station and since I cannot read Cyrlics at all I asked some random people. Then again, this drunk old guy told me that he would show me the way which did not make me feel willing to do. And then, I just randomly met eye to eye of this young Russian guy, who spoke perfect English. He pointed the subway station that I need to get off and he took off the subway before me. And then, before the subway door get closed, he took the subway again saying to me that he is worried of me since during night it is not that much dangerous. Later I found out that he is a Russian journalist who work for Russian AP. He kindly brought me to the station platform, we said goodbye to each other and then he left me like a prince.He told me, Russia cannot be sometimes safe if you cannot speak their local language. I think it is everywhere in the world, you sometimes feel nervous and unsafe if you cannot speak their local language. In this case, do not hesitate to ask for help.
Also there were several times that I took a car for free to get to my hostel and my friend's house. When I was in Irktusk. once was three professors whom I got to know in my train, and another time was one father with her daughter whom I asked the way to get to my hostel. They just told me to take on their car and they kindly brought me to the place where i want to go. Some people ask me how I know whether they are out of good will or not, but you need to feel it from your gut feeling. Especially, if one of them is a women, you do not have to worry that much since it is very unlikely that women cheat another women.
So Please remember, take care of yourself and always open to them and approach to them with smile. Good will always comes back as another good will.
3. How did you plan your travel?
A lot of people asked me about the cost of travel, and how I traveled in Europe and Russia. In Europe, for this time to travel Eastern Europe, I bought Inter-rail which allows you to take train/bus/ferry as much as you want within set days.
At the same time, I was lucky to stay most of my nights in my friend's house whom I used to know since long time ago or through other conferences etc. To travel just for one country, I usually bought a ticket through low-cost comparing site or bus to save money. Here is the link of the site.
Low-Cost Airplane Compare Site
http://www.skyscanner.fr/
I strongly recommend this sit to buy a cheap airplane ticket since they do not charge you a service fee and they compare all the low-cost airplane companies including Ryanair, easyjet etc. I think, so far, this website is the best of all to compare airplane fee. Especially, It is useful to use function such as "comparing the price in a month" or "changing the destination" which allows you to wisely use stop-over system.
Low Cost Train Package
Through this website, you can buy a cheap train ticket which includes Global Pass, One country Pass etc. You should be a European citizen or you should have a valid visa to use Interrail pass. Therefore, I recommend you to visit a site www.eurail.com. to check whether you can use Interrail or you should use Eurail.
Low-Cost Bus Package
Cities available for travel from 1 April 2013 is like this. Please refer to what I captured. You can tell from this, that they allow you to travel quite lots of cities in European countries.
This Euroline Package allows you to travel as much as possible with in certain day with just one pass. For example, if you want to travel 15 Days and if you are Youth(under 26), you can buy your ticket, minimum for 185 Euro to maximum 300 Euro. It depends on which season you travel.
Low-Cost Car Pooling
4. How Do you Plan place to sleep?
Finding a proper place to sleep in is always a big dilemma. Here I provide you two sites that you can find a good place to sleep in and also Couchsurfing site which allows you to share your culture(I really love this since it is a chance to meet locals and talk to them) and also you can sleep for free.
HostelWorld
Hostel Bookers
Couchsurfing
I personally prefer HostelWorld to HostelBookers since HostelWorld has more diverse categories of places to stay than HostelBookers. Moreover, if you use iphone and if you book through iphone app, you can save service-charge.
It is very important to combine different types of places to stay during your traveling. Of course it depends on your budget, and how much you are planning to spend during your traveling. However, keeping in mind that this is a writing for young lady who are planning to hit the road with her small budget, I recommend hostels, B&B, guesthouses etc. However, I think you can also find some affordable hotels as well!
5. Couchsurfing, How is it?
You might ask me first, "What is couchsurfing?"
Some of you might have heard about this through some websites, through your friends but you might not have a concrete idea. Well here I give you.
Couch surfing is basically this concept. You upload your profile, you fill it in, including what you like, what kind of person you are, where you have been so far, what kind of story you would like to share. After filling it, you would find numerous other couch surfers in the world who have their own profile.
Let's say, You decided to go traveling Busan, South Korea. (This is my hometown!) You type Busan in your destination part, and you will find numerous other people on the list. Among them, you might find my profile with big smiling face. You read my profile and you can think I am quite interested person and let's say that you want to meet me personally. In this case, you can either ask me to "hang out" which basically means since you do not know anyone asking me "to show your city and just have a cup of coffee whatever :)" or you can ask me to host you. Hosting means I would offer you a place to sleep in my house, and you can just stay in my house.
In my point of view, I would do this maybe because I want to personally meet you and share our different culture, or out of personal background reason since I got so much help and good experience other couch surfers when I did travelling.
I am definitely sure you would get amazing experience through this. They would show you local pub, bars, secret historical places that they only know. In case of me, we cooked local food together, went to fantastic music festival, ski-resort, or get a lesson how Belgium, Swiss, French chocolates are different in quite professional ways. (Aren't you curious lol) I also quite often played music together such as flute, piano, drum, guitar etc. So I bet you, you will be amazed and thrilled by these people who are so charming.
Some of the people whom I met on my journey told me that they had a negative experience during their couch-surfing stay or they are afraid to do so since they did not hear that much good story about it.
If that is the case, you can choose a female host.
However, what I want to tell you is, during my traveling, I did couch-surfing several times, twice in Russia(In this case my hosts were female) and I had the most amazing experience in my life. Regardless of whether my host were male or female even before, those experience always brought me fresh idea, new story, new inspiration etc. and I think it is really important to follow these rules especially if you are young girl, who travel alone, looking for hosts.
1) Check your profile.
I once couch-surfed in Toledo, Spain and I met this amazing girl who had done couch-surfing since three years ago. She told me that we girls we need to check our profile picture first. What is your picture? Are you wearing your bikini and showing your glamours body? What about host guy's profile picture? If your profile picture is a bikini girl with a great body shape and smiling, whether you intentionally uploaded your picture in that way or not, some people might misunderstand your intention. Therefore, please, please, check your photo first. Does it can invoke others different intention other than just sharing culture or stories?
2) Read the review of your host thoroughly
This is what we call as a verification process. What is a review of the person that you want to ask for couch-hosting? In some cases, just by reading several lines of the review, you can easily get notice of the person's type, personality etc. Please read thoroughly the review.
3) Couch-surfing is not just a way to spend less your money.
I met quite a lot of host, who felt disappointment from their surfers since they just came and they regarded the host's place as a cheap-free place to stay in. If that is the case, please not to do so. In some cases, you feel great when you do couch-surfing since you can talk to them (who usually tend to have an amazing experience and life story) but sometimes you can get tired.
For example, let's say that you took a very long airplane/train/bus whatever, and then you got one's house late. It is not only inconvenient for them, but also it is for you since you do not have any power to talk to anyone what you just want is sleeping for long time. In this case, however, your host can regard you of as a person who just want to use her house as a free place to stay in or so. For that reason, I think it is important to mix hostel/hotel/guesthouse/B&B/couch-surfing system WISELY as much as you can do.
6. Need Details for your journey?The best option is following local's advice. Yes it is.
I met quite a lot of people, who plan their journey even before they get arrived in their destination. However, it is better to ask local's the best place to eat (especially if you stay in hostel they usually provide you very nice advice to where to go and what to eat. Especially if you are looking for restaurant advice and club/bar etc.) Also it is not a bad idea to enjoy the moment of "not knowing where to go."
It depends on one's personality but I really enjoy the moment when I go to place while not knowing where I am going.
However, please refer to these web-sites which are called as "Bible" of travelers.
Tripadvisor
Without doubt, this is truly a holy bible of travelers.
Most of them give you a good tip, advice, where to stay, what to eat.
However, finding your own secret restaurant is not a bad idea as well!
Lonely Planet
If you are looking for quite decent guidebook, i recommend you to buy Lonely Planet guide book since they are very well organized.
7. Any special tip for packing?Be Light as much as possible.
My key-point during my traveling is eventhough i cannot find a place to put my bag, i should handle it at least 2 to 3 hours. When I weighed my bag, It costed 9.7kilogram. So Remember, pack light as much as possible.
Throw away everything what you do not need.
Are you sure that you need that much make-up kits? Are you sure that you need your heavy personal computer? Are you sure that you need that much a lot of T-shirts, pants, etc.? Think over again and pack wisely. That is the best way.
Share if you can.
Do you have too much food? Too much toothpaste? Too much Shampoo? Whatever it is, sharing is always the best. If you give one, they would give you another one back.
Please, Please, Please pack your souvenir and
send it back to your home as a post.
I know what you worry. You might have bought somethings for your parents or family and found out that it is so heavy. That is exactly, what I have felt. In that case, though it is so expensive, you should send it back to your home country as a post. Unless, your bag will be heavier as the time goes by. Please, remember Ms.Sexy. Unless, you will be crushed by your baggage!
8. Don't you get bored?
Exactly. Sometimes you get bored, Sometimes you need to meet people to talk to. The great thing about traveling alone is you become more open, active. My friend one day told me that she got totally changed during her 6 month stay in Paris, since she found herself keep talking and asking people though she was not when she was living in her hometown.
Exactly, it is true that you sometimes get bored or lonely. Yes I was. However, thanks to that you make new friends, meet new people. First, you meet tons of people who travel alone which allows you to start to talk to them whether you are in Train,Hostel on the street whatever. In most of the cases they are so open. For example, when I was traveling alone in Northern Europe (Norway/Sweden/Finland) and when I was traveling Greece alone, I met one of the greates people who ended up travel together almost for one week.
However, since that is decided on your luck, sometimes it is hard to find your companion.
If that is the case, I recommend this two web-sites which are quite useful to meet people :)
Meet-up
Basically, it is truly to meet people. If you need someone to talk, share your experience, want to get some travel tip, or whatever since you stay long in that place you want to just experience cultural things such as going to Opera, movie, or eating delicious food? Check out this site then!
http://www.meetup.com/
Couchsurfing Event
You do not have to do couchsurfing but actually it is one of the wise idea to use couchsurfing website since you can meet various people who have interesting story to tell and share. Go and check out this site and find interesting people!
https://www.couchsurfing.org/
9. What is good for souvenir?
I know what you worry. Souvenirs always comes as a big problem and dilemma. You already told your friends and others that you would go traveling, and especially if they are close with you you sort of feel that you should give them souvenir. First, set your priority to whom you want to give souvenirs. It depends on the people whom you want to give. For example, I rarely buy a magnet or key-chain since personally i do not use them quite that much often. However, I also met quite a lot of people who collect it, you should definitely go for it.
However, One of the greatest souvenir is sending them a card from the region. It does not cost you that much but it can be very touching and memorable at the same time. Just believe your gut feeling, something memorable and showing gratitude is the most important thing for your lovers.
10. I cannot speak local language!
Yes, even though in most countries you expect them to speak a great language since they are at least using alphabet, you meet a lot of people who cannot explain what you want to hear.
In case of me, I usually learned a basic word in every single country such as "Hello', "Thank you", "Please", "Where". If you can say this, you do not have big problem to ask a road or showing gratitude. The problem starts when you need a big help.
In this case, you should shout to people asking "Is there anyone who can speak English?" I truly need yoour help. In this case, there are several people who are willing to help you. From my experience, German, Belgium, Netherlands, Northern Europe especially Sweden people are great in English. Except those countries, it depends on your luck.
Therefore, why not try a local language which is a great opportunity? They always show a big smile when you speak a few words in their language.
My Last Tip, Why do we need to travel?
Well, I would definitely say, to find different new and to be open.
Courage to talk to people, Courage not to get loss even though your passport is get lost, you got robbed something, you meet crazy people whatever. At the same time, your openness to always talk to them, ask people how to get somewhere.
I expect you to have a great journey, Dear. Ms.Sexy
For me, you are one of the most sexy girl in the world as far as I define, who have a great inner courage and you would find yourself greatly changed after your traveling :) Sometimes you would get lonely, meet so many people, and experience a lot of things what you did not expect. However, Those experience would make you more mature and charming girl.
Last but not least, A lot of people say they cannot travel thanks to lack of a time, money, etc. Yes I also agree on the fact that those realistic reasons always hamper us to travel. It is not "we do not like traveling" but some people say "we can not traveling." I know what you mean.
If that is the case, I recommend you to travel first from little steps. Go and look around your town(I found out that in most cases local residents do not go to their local touristic places) and then beautiful other cities in your home country. Traveling does not have to be something big, fancy or big stuffs. I hope that it can give you a fresh idea.
Traveling does not always mean going somewhere, but looking the ordinary stuffs from different point of you. That is all Ms.Sexy.
That is all what we need. Fresh Idea, Fresh Mind, New People, and different I.
Wish you all the best luck.
2014. 02. 25. Hyojeong Kim
