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Company on the road can be a wonderful thing - but what do you do if it all turns sour?
Fear not. Travmonkey has an array of tricks up his sleeve to shake off an undesireable travel buddy.
Guest post by Paul Dow
OK, so you meet someone when travelling and your both heading in the
same direction so you decided that you’ll go together. For a few days
everything is going great, but soon you discover that your new travel
partner is limiting your adventure or even worse has bad habits that
begin to annoy you.
There is only one thing to do, ditch them. It sounds horrible but
for the sake of both of you and for the sake of your trip it’s probably
best for you both to go your separate ways.
If you find yourself with a travel partner that you can’t get on with, how do you handle it?
What is the best way to deal with such an awkward situation?
1. The Sneaky Ninja
This was a method that someone once told me on the road and it made me laugh, but it does indeed work. It requires you (The Sneaky Ninja),
to wake up extra early in the morning. It’s best practice to pack your
bag the night before, but never ever make it too obvious (that could
lead to a disastrous confrontation, no one wants that). Scatter a few
pairs of dirty underwear around for good measure making it look like
you’re there for the long haul.
Then as you wake early with your travel mate soundly asleep
(probably snoring loudly like a bear in hibernation) you climb down
from your bunk taking extra care not to make it squeak, tip toe across
the room, grab your rucksack and head for the nearest exit. From here
you’ll be catching the early morning express out of there and away from
the travel mate from hell to freedom.
2. The Honest Angel
This approach is for the more honest traveller, but can become quite awkward if not executed properly. You (The Honest Angel)
approach your travel mate, usually over a quiet drink or dinner and
suggest that it would be better for both of you to go your separate
ways. Give your reasons and hope they don’t explode with anger.
3. The Arranger
This tactic can be executed in one of two ways; the honest way or
the dishonest way. At the point when you become fed up with your travel
partner, suggest that you think it would be a great idea if you both
spent some time apart and perhaps met up again in so many days, weeks
or months time to travel together again. Now if you take the honest
approach you’ll probably respond to all their emails and actually meet
up with them at the specified time.
If you are one of the more dishonest ones amongst us you’ll probably
ignore the emails and hope you don’t bump into them again somewhere
down the line, but for now, freedom is yours.
4. The U-Turn Traveller
This has been a particular favourite of mine in the past but does
require you to have time to make detours when you’re in a country. When
you think it’s time to say ”goodbye” to your travel mate find out
where they want to go next (do make sure they are quite certain) then
choose somewhere else preferably in a different direction. You can back
up your decision by researching the new place that you intend visiting
and then state why you find it so fascinating.
Hopefully they won’t turn around and suggest going with you, in that
case try reverting to either The Sneaky Ninja, The Honest Angel or The
Arranger.
In this situation if you try using ”The Eager Traveller” it’s
likely they’ll do anything to tag along with you for the day. On the
other hand if your ”U-Turn” policy goes according to plan you’re in
the clear, bingo!
5. The Eager Traveller
Although it may not seem like it on the surface but this is even
more sneaky than most other techniques because of the way it is
executed in such a subtle way. Make sure before you meet up with your
travel mate in the morning that you have arranged everything you’re
(yes, just you) going to do for the day and then tell them where you’ll
meet up for dinner in the evening. Usually by doing this they are left
with nothing to argue against and will end up doing some planning of
their own for the day.
If you continuously take this approach you could be lucky enough to
find they’ll be sick of spending their time on there own and latch onto
some other unsuspecting traveller.
You can meet so many different people whilst travelling and not
everyone you meet will be a perfect travel partner for you. When you
find yourself in this situation it is usually a case of honesty is the
best policy. By being truthful you can both get on with the rest of
your journey’s instead of wasting your time being fed up and frustrated.
Paul Dow is a english, jobless, optimistic, traveler, dreaming,
monkey fan, late sleeper, green tea drinker, disorganised thinker…
travel blogger, writer, web developer and soccer fan. Currently
blogging from Australia at www.travmonkey.com and recovering after traveling solo for six months through China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
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