Author in Florida, USA on her solo trip

I wouldn't consider my work trip to the US as a solo trip even though technically I travel alone but I have friends over here (so, not alone!). Just like the most of us, I have been wondering on when I'm going to be able to do a solo trip abroad. It might seem easy for guys, but for girls like me and the readers out there, solo trip might seem like a high target.

Why? Because as a female, being alone on your trip in a foreign land will bring out the first issue - safety. We fear for our safety. Being alone, helpless in the middle of a foreign land will demotivate your dream for solo travelling. This fear will encorouge you to Google stuff like "crime rate in....", "female solo traveller...". Don;t be ashamed as I have done the same.

So, what did I do to convince my dear self to venture out on my own? Let's be honest, your yearning curiosity is not enough just like many times before, we (including myself) actually gone through the recycle phase - plan, research, confidence, staring at airline website contemplating, research again, looking for logistics, second thoughts and in the end ended up not going.

It is normal. We need a push to go through something new, a leap of faith some might say. This time, for me, it's the phrase "now, or never" that keep on haunting me. I hate a wasted opportunity. In fact, I am still in doubt until the moment I board my plane to Florida.

1. If safety is your main concern - as would I; start asking around. There might be some friends that have done some solo travelling to some city around you. I did ask around, asked my colleagues (local and Malaysians) about what city is okay for solo travelling, what do they think. I was planning to go to San Francisco initially and Orlando came to a close second. So, I asked my friends about those city. One colleague actually did not encourage me to go to NY alone since yeah, you rely on Subway there and he got mugged.

2. Flight tickets is important. Like I mentioned, I was keen to go to San Francisco but the flight ticket was ridiculously expensive when I finally decided to buy it. So, I went to Orlando instead. I made a late decision and I regret it since SF is my top destination! I use Google Flights and the monthly Skyscanner search even before it got viral on Facebook. Again - ask around won't hurt.

3. If you are indeed solo travelling, please make sure you are at your hotel by night, not midnight. Plan ahead your day/night at the city. Choose a family friendly hotel or a backpackers. I stayed at a very decent hotel in Orlando.

4. Where to go? Up to you entirely! If you want to go to the usual touristy spot or you want a side local adventure like me, go ahead and do what you are comfortable with.


5. Drive or Public transport? This is up to you and also influenced by the place you actually go. I recommend you Uber rather than cab hailing. In Orlando, I choose to drive myself since it is easy, I love driving and Im going to a place outside of the city itself.

6. Make sure you have connection to the outside World. Call your service provider to ensure your line is not being barred (I'm looking at you Celcom, the incompetent Customer Service) and make sure you have your online map ready. Download the offline map for the said city before hand (this is my lesson learnt). Keep in touch with your friends or family letting them know where you are.

7. If you are unlucky to get stuck with Celcom as I did, there is always free Wifi at the airport, Starbucks, Walmart and McDonald's.

8. If you get lost, do not panic. Just went out to the nearest exit, trace yourself back to the airport (if you are going to the attraction) or exited the freeway and look for free Wifi spot. (story to be told in future post)

9. Crowd Control - Party people or no? This applicable for Spring Break season. If you are there for the parties, take precautions and be safe. If you are avoiding those crowds, like myself, research properly on the area where the Spring Break parties will be held.

10. Loosen Up and enjoy! This is the most important thing in solo travelling. The bliss is you are on your own schedule and you are on a journey for self exploration. You just chill, follow your own pace and keep on exploring. Embrace it. Be proud that you have made the journey.

Solo travelling is fun and full of adventure. For us girls, it will be a little bit challenging but it was very rewarding. I came back from my solo trip being more confident, independent and discover new things about my ownself. If you are able to plan your own vacation with family/friends, solo travelling is just the same, with lesser participant - just you.

When you say Europe, people say Pickpockets!! Yes, sure all of us have heard and read the stories. I remember one of my friends who is recently so terrified to visit Paris from London due to pickpockets. My take on this – luck, takdir, precautions. Do not let your fear of this to axe your excitement to explore new places. The REALITY is, pickpockets are everywhere in the world including in your own country, my case, Malaysia!

Based on my experience, we experience it all – near misses, fail attempt, successful detection and down to literally got scam. Luckily, this experience will help you travelers you I hope wouldn’t make the same mistakes we made.

Successful detection: We heard a lot of Gypsy Kids roaming around Eiffel Tower for “charity” petition. Their famous MO is they asked “You speak English”, if you confirms, they will ask you to sign a huge petition paper for some mute/deaf charity. It either they will asked you to pay 1 Euro or they will sneak their hand under the paper to your bag. Being Malaysian, we are keen to help blindly. It happens when we were queueing for Eiffel, Dila speaks to one of them and sign the paper and asked her for 1 Euro. I keep an eye on the girl’s hand and thankfully nothing bad happen and warn my travel buddies on the MO. 

TO AVOID: If you are a foreigner, this is good! Do NOT respond when they ask “Do you speak English”. I respond in my native language which is Malay – used different dialects just for extra points or just ignore! When I speak Malay, they got irritated and left us alone. Asians usually are the target sadly. DO NOT ENGAGE! Dila dengan Nadia keluar Bahasa Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Nogori, Sarawak, Sabah. Semua main cakap je.

Failed Attempt and Near-Miss: At Rome’s Metro. We were heading back to the airport via metro line. While going down the escalator, young kids aged 8-14 passed us by. We then got separated at the entrance because they huddled at the door. I was worried seeing CB and Dila separated and both of them quickly pass through the crowd to get close to us. While in train, I noticed Dila’s twist lock handbag was fully open! (read: CB and Dila’s passport are in there, not mentioning wallet). She give a quick check and thankfully everything is fine – perhaps the kids didn’t get the chance or they are still on training wheels. Their MO is to huddle you in group, create small commotion to distract you while ‘it’ happen.   

TO AVOID: Please stay in groups. If you are separated, get together quickly. Put your handbag at you front and close to your hands – Dila did this but they are fast. Avoid large groups in Metro or anywhere.

We Got Scam: This happens in Venice whilst we are having dinner at a local restaurant that was supposedly can serve Halal menu. We decided to order pasta, but came a charming waiter suggesting a menu that we can share – this is good since in Europe there is no sharing policy! He suggested a seafood platter and quickly take the menu away. Looking at the menu, pasta costs usual Euro 9 and the platter Euro 9 - we expected a small platter. When the food came, we were surprised to see Lobster, 3 fishes and prawns on our platter. Our pasta served with lobster also. Dalam hati dah rasa dah ni, kembang tekak nak makan sebab tahu mahal. We were so worried we cannot even chew. We had the feeling it’s going to cost a lot. Su, who didn’t eat, inspect the menu and found tiny font on the bottom of the page saying – ALL PRICESS ARE PER 100 GRAM. WTF. We just got scam by the cheapest trick in the book.

The bill comes with a whooping amount of Euro180!!MYR 600+. Devastated, we just swipe the card away and took a hard lesson on this. 

TO AVOID: This is pretty common in Venice. Sometimes, restaurants have seating fees which is common in Venice and in this case, deceiving menus. Please check the menu thoroughly. Please! Set your heart and mind on your menu and order it.

OTHER TIPS:

• Bring a small hand bag that you can wear close to your body. Wear it in front.
• Wear your handbag inside your jacket – practical for Spring/Autumn/Winter travels. Hence – small bag.
• Don’t put too much valuable in your handbag/backpack.
• Consider having a neck pouch to be worn inside your clothes – I put my passport, cash in this.
• DO NOT be too cautious a.k.a checking your bag every 5 minutes – This creates attention and whereabouts of your valuables.
• Separate your cash and hide them – see youtube videos for stash places.
• Consider leaving passport at the hotel, only bring photocopy ones.
• Photocopy your passport, credit card and bring this copy along with you.
• CREDIT CARD OVER CASH! Yes, shops with credit card instead of cash. Less cash amounts, less risk.
• Walk in groups! Held hands!

ALL YOU CAN DO IS DO THE BEST AND LEAVE THE REST TO GOD. DON’T THINK TOO MUCH. YOU ARE HERE TO HAVE AN ENJOYABLE EXPERIENCE, NOT WORRYING ABOUT YOUR VALUABLES. THINK POSITIVELY AND BE SAFE.

Plan your metro stops/routes ahead of time. Also please check every transport option available to compare time, distance and costs. Sometimes driving is more cost saving than trains, planes and vice versa. Doing research is very important for transportation. If you research well, you can calculate your fare to every place you go and perhaps save some Euros for the day metro pass.

This is the Jackpot! This is the most favourite tool I have for travelling. Dear travelers, please use this magnificent tool by Google!!! We Google Street everything! The route from subway to hotel, subway to attraction place. Gold tips is: Before you place your hotel booking, I highly recommends that you google street this hotel. To see the actual representation of where the hotel is, how far from subway and what stores are in vicinity! This is the success factor f finding our hotel in Venice. I am proud to say we did not get lost in Rome and Venice! Google Street is also great for walking tour – we did a google street map and installed a turn-by-turn picture map while we are walking in Venice and Rome.

When to go? What’s the best season? These are the common questions. We go on Spring (pretty please) which ran from April to early June. I’d say the best time is Spring or Autumn because these are low or shoulder season. Save yourself from the crowd and high season hotel price and tickets. The best time between to travel is Spring. Why? Longer day hours means you can still go out to many places because sun sets late. Magrib pukul 8 lebih kau. Jalan lah sampai nak Isyak, masih terang lagi.

For everyone else I suggest you try every local dish at every place you go. Food connects you to the place besides its people. Like they said “When in Rome, eat like Romans do” – or is that my saying? Haha. For us Muslims, we have a pretty strict dietary issues. No pork, no alcohol and no eating meat from animals that is not slaughtered the Muslim way. Tricky right?

What we eat? We brought several foods from Malaysia – no, not the whole pantry. Jangan pulak melampau lampau kalau backpackers. If you go with family, maybe you can rent a BnB and cook. For us, we brought with us instant noodles (Faiza Bihun Tomyam), Brahim’s Kurma, Brahim’s Sambal, Brahim’s Nasi Goreng. The most important part that it is not bulky and bring what you will eat. Don’t waste food and luggage space. We research on places that we might find hard to find Halal food and bring the food amount according to that.

Otherwise, we eat Kebabs, a halal Friend Chicken joint in Paris and Rome, a halal burger joint in Nice, a seafood based or vegan pasta and seafood/margheritta pizza. Bosan lah makan kebab hari2, kena ada variety. We also bought some instant white rice available in every convenient store in Europe – to settle the craving of Rice (we Asians have that).

In France mainly, when you dine in – NO SHARING BASIS. So, if you want to share the generous portion, take it away! We usually budget a 10 Euro per day basis. The kebab is big people, we ate it for lunch and dinner.

How to pack? Visit a Youtube video on skills to Army Roll your clothes. Pretty much everything can be rolled. LOL. Believe it – I packed all my clothes in my 40L backpack. Impressive right? Planned your luggage space for souvenirs, shopping etc. Bring a rain coat- saved our lives in Venice.

I packed for a week’s worth of clothes, because I am planning to do laundry. I bring cardigans so I can save space by not bringing a lot of long sleeves. Layering is the key! For my hijab, I bring the wrinkle/iron-free hijabs. I got mine from Azraa Collection by Tudung People and the Bokitta Hijab. Do not over pack, tend to plan what you want to wear on each day and its rotation. Have a good walking shoes (I wear my Clarks) and see where your excursion brings you – I went to Jungfrau wearing a shoe with no good grip. Yes, I fell a lot.

Bear in mind that EasyJet only allows one carry on and yes, they do measure your bags! Please bring a cabin-proof bag. If you have handbags, they will asked you to fit your handbag in your cabin luggage prior to measuring.

Being born with an automatic washing machine gives me nightmare on separating my clothes. Just read your label and remember that White is hot and coloured is cold wash. I was lucky that the machine in Swiss is automatic. For dryer, put it on medium setting to avoid shrinkage.

Besides using machines, you can opt to hand wash your clothes. BYO liquid detergent to save money for both machine and hand wash. We did this everyday especially for my hijab and some light clothes. Bring a hanger or two so you can hang this. If you ran out, I practically hang it everywhere.