Is Expat Life a Cure to Solo Travel fears?

Me, putting my EPIK color post-its to good use!

Tick-tock… Vietnam. I leave this Friday!  I’ll be launching solo again.  I don’t know what to expect or how things will play out, but this time I’m excited. I certainly have more of a positive outlook on solo travel than I did last year and I have Thailand to thank for such amazing and serendipitous experiences! But maybe Korea has something to do with it as well…

Remember last year’s nightmare of planning my first solo-solo trip?
I think my dis-ease is getting mildly better!

Expat Life: Foreign doesn’t feel as scary when you already live in it.
Recently, my friend Veronica (whom I’ll be meeting up with for a few days), mentioned how launching from Korea to a foreign country feels a bit weird to her.  She’s right. It’s weird to me too. As an expat, Korea is our new home base. It feels strange to call Korea “home”, when life here still feels so foreign.  I’m still struggling with language barriers, finding foods which fit my diet, plotting routes for my weekend getaways to explore the rest of the country and finding items and products which help me to recreate a bit of my old western life. No, this is far from the cool  K-drama lifestyle I thought it could be…not even close. Yet, it’s these struggles and learning to cope methods, which make me think being an expat has made me a tad more confidence as a solo traveler!

Why do I think this?…

I’ve gotten into the robotic mentality of Just Do.
Each day I’m in Korea feels a bit like travel survival vs. coping with culture shock, as I’m configuring or juggling work-around tactics for my daily needs! This part isn’t easy, but I’ve learned to deal with it “matter of fact”ly.  Squat toilets? Passe. Already been broken in… Thus, traveling to a developing country, like Vietnam, feels like it’s just a case of exchanging vices with possible upgrades or the possibility that I may come back appreciating Korea more.

Also, weekend travel planning in Korea. I jump on the internet to research bus/train schedules or routes and by Friday or Saturday, I’m sitting on the bus with a friend next to me or not. My dreadful what if’s are replaced by A to B plot points. I’m not worried about packing or clothes; just, how I’ll make use of my sightseeing days.

Viet fantasies and the reality of  travel time
Working with roughly 9 days (after deducting transit time) doesn’t leave much time for wandering or meandering too far off my path.  Vietnam is a large (well, long) country with efficient bus transportation but also one railroad track (with no off-shoots)! I won’t lie to you– the bent of my trip planning went to “number crunching” transit times and routes to find the most efficient schedule for my travel. My colorful and ambitious route of 5 cities, eventually got diced down to two, from which I’ll fan out from for 2-3 day trip activities. Just to give you an example of travel times– from Hanoi, Halong Bay is 3 hours by bus, Sapa is 10 hours by train.

Where does this fit into the travel scheme of ass-warming tolerance?  Daegu to Seoul by Express bus takes about 4 hours. My ass tells me it has this position down pat.