Do you prefer traveling alone or with someone else?
Alone… for much the same reasons as many others have given to this question.
Yes, alone — but always open to the offers of joining others for a day or two. Many things would have remained unseen and unexperienced otherwise. Although (when I was still wandering here and there) I was already among the older members of the backpacking tribe, age did not seem to be a barrier. If you carried a backpack, you automatically belonged to their “brotherhood” (… almost invariably a nice, relaxed, very international group). When the younger folks were heading somewhere, whether it was for a beer or to camp on a mountain meadow above some Himalayan glacier, they always urged me to come along. Often, in some hostel, someone would express their intention to go here or there… did anyone want to join? Many places were seen that I might not have ventured to alone.
Some examples:
For instance, I would hardly have celebrated my 70th birthday kayaking through the archipelago of Ha Long Bay in Northern Vietnam, had I not struck up a conversation with a few young Westerners (Kyle from Canada, Lisa from Germany, and Megan from Wales) on the streets of Cat Ba. They said they were planning to go kayaking… was I interested? Well, of course! (An unforgettable day… as the only experienced paddler, I even got to show them a bit of “style”… ha ha).
Ha Long Bay（photos mentioned above.）
When you’ve gone somewhere with a group and then, a week or two later, your paths cross again somewhere else, you’re already old friends, sharing joyful reunions, spending a few days together exchanging news… and perhaps planning another adventure together.
Joyful reunions
I wouldn’t have gone to the Hushe Valley in Baltistan alone, but when a couple of Aussie guys (with whom I had already trekked the alpine meadows of Nanga Parbat a week earlier) invited me along, I seized the opportunity.
Hushe Valley
Nanga Parbat
On Java, I was contemplating whether or not to climb Gunung Merapi (a volcano) when a young German couple, Max and Maree, arrived at my lodging… and together we ascended to the summit (a 1.5-kilometer climb in the night with flashlights, to be there for the sunrise).
Gunung Merapi
At Gunung Bromo, I missed the sunrise. I overslept. By the time I finally arrived at the mountain, the group I intended to go with was already on their way back — and as a result, I got to enjoy the ambiance of the place almost alone.
Gunung Bromo
Sometimes, longer friendships are forged. A German friend, named Alex, and I spent a few days together in the Lahaul region… in mountain villages, monasteries, and so on… and we have been in correspondence ever since. He was sketching everything he saw and, in a mountain village called Kibber (at an altitude of 4200 meters!), he had just asked the owner of the neighboring house to pose for a portrait. When it turned out that I also sketched, he equipped me with pencils and paper, and we spent a pleasant half-hour on the roof of the neighbor’s house, munching on the house’s offerings while sketching the old man’s portraits — which we, of course, gave to him (… he was very pleased).
Alex
This has become lengthy despite my efforts to limit my examples to “just a few”… I can’t seem to stop once I get going.
