Travel

Getting Lost While Travelling.. No Sweat!

Lost

Obviously lost.

I was never a fan of History or Geography since I was young. No, I mean I hate them. I really do. Too many words and too many facts to remember. That explains why I am really bad in remembering place or even recognizing roads. I struggle to overcome this weakness, I take picture of places I pass by, but worse come to worse I am still lost. Three years driving here in Malacca, I still cannot describe how to get from place A to place B. Its either by luck or with the help of technology.

But when you travel, getting lost is actually one of the way to find yourself. It give you the thrills, letting you explore more, letting you be open to possibilities, letting you be more aware to people and your surrounding. It teach you to become independent, dare you to take chances, making you believe in your own judgement. No matter where I go, no matter where I end up to, I will always be alright. I am always lost but still I will always find my way back, that’s my dear friend was an accomplishment.

Let me tell you a bit of a story from my recent solo travel to South Korea. It wasn’t that big, just an example.

Tourist guide

My savior.. always~

Getting around in Seoul was easy, the subways, the buses, the signboards, the roads, everywhere was very tourist friendly. Here and there you can find people especially the young one who can speak English or at least understand English. Just name what kind of tourist information center you are looking for, you can basically see it all anywhere.

But you cannot really expect to have the same situation every single place you go, right? In my case, it doesn’t. Public transport in Jeju-do mainly buses (as they don’t have subway) was still very good. In fact I am impress with their bus system, they have one lcd tv placed in every stop to show the current location and estimated arrival time of each bus. They also have a signboard of almost very accurate schedule pasted in the bus station. Yet the only problem was, it was all written in Hangul. And since most of the stops are really close to each other, they only announce the bus stop name in English and other language when the bus reach the main stop. Probably because Korean wasn’t really a familiar language to me, every words sound like almost the same and it make me confused. I had several very bad nausea because of my motion sickness and I cannot even sleep because I need to listen carefully for the announcement to avoid stoping at the wrong station in that cold weather.

Getting lost is okay.. but cold windy weather soo not okay k.. urghh its 30 degree below Malaysia’s normal temperature man.

friend in need

Good friend I met while asking for direction. We had a blast short time together.

Anyway… Here’s a few tips I practice.

1. Ask beforehand to those people who know how to go where especially the hostel staff. They normally would know a lot and they speak English very well too.

2. Always have a copy of map. Its a foreign place, you should at least have something to give you a basic idea where you are or going to. If you have internet connection, thats even better.

3. Body language your way. This apply only to a place where the people didn’t speak your language. Ask.. even if you don’t understand what they say, just ask. Chances are they will point you where to go, or somebody else might overheard and give you the direction.

4. Trust your instinct and believe in your good luck. I do this often. Very important, please don’t panic. Just follow the flow, you really wouldn’t get that far. I mean, lets say you are currently in Jeju-do, you will still be in Jejudo and would never reach until Seoul even if you lost your way right? Afterall, what’s the worse you can lose when you are already lost? Chill.

Wow.. this post was long.. Hope it helps.

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