Sole Journeys Feed The Soul

May 30

Life on the road as a Single offers freedom and flexibility that are attractions by and in themselves for those who choose it. Single serial traveler Anna Testa embarks on sole journeys that feed the soul. She has scaled mountains and navigated through rugged and paved roads in 40 countries (20 of which she revisited) since she caught the travel bug in 1987 at the age of 25.

Being single is a big plus. The globetrotter can pack her bags, lock up her flat and fly anywhere her heart desires. Her cumulative solo trips have promoted her physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social health.

Anna writes about her life-changing sole journeys, foremost being how travelling alone shaped her values and character as she focused on personal growth. In all her 30-plus years of nomadic life the former marketing and advertising executive neither felt isolated nor lonely. Rather, she took pleasure in meeting and connecting with strangers – fellow travelers – from multicultural backgrounds. Her desire for personal reflection, independence and to experience a destination without the constraints of a group are oxygen to Anna’s blessed Single life.

Anna: Going solo turned out to be the best thing I’ve done to stay in good health. It all started because I had to – for work. This was back in the late analogue-world 1980s when none of the digital apps nor handheld pocket-sized gadgets even existed.

Solo travel for work

Hong Kong back in 1987. It was my first trip outside the Philippines and my first solo (yes, almost 40 years ago!). I was dreading and wishing I didn’t have to go on my own. I remember my mom reassuring me that I need not worry and that I would come to love to travel. And Ma was right. She knew from experience. Independence emboldens. The achievement triggers a hunger for more similar growth-inducing, albeit stressful, experiences.

I have since travelled alone for work. San Francisco in 1997; Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Singapore, London from 2004 to 2007; Geneva, Monte Carlo, Moscow, Chicago, Connecticut, Istanbul, Paris, Schwalbach, Berlin, Seoul, Tokyo from 2007 to 2011.

Take note that the world then was very paper based. I had to look for and buy paper maps when I landed, and go to train stations to secure printed train schedules. Life was still quite non-digital even in the early 2000s (the iPhone was only launched in 2007 and booking.com in 2010).

I had little choice but to go analogue. I needed to get to various meeting venues, workshops and research destinations – all on time. I needed to do my job, which required me to run around and fast with my luggage, laptop, and documents.

I learnt to believe in my abilities, to celebrate my small wins (e.g. caught the right bus)… to ask questions for help when I needed it… learnt to socialise and make friends… to trust that the Universe is fundamentally friendly and conspiring to benefit me (I picked up the concept of Pronoia, opposite of Paranoia, from Rob Brezny in 2004).

I chose to believe that situations will always work out for me. I was lucky. Solo travel bolstered my confidence, and guided me down the path of positivity, of optimism.

From my experiences, I knew the world was huge and intimidating, but amazing. While new experiences and destinations lured me, it was personal growth and self-determination that drove me on, drove me further and farther. Great risks can and did translate to great returns for me.

Solo travel for overseas posting

My learnings from my travels fed into my work life and helped me move up, move around. I have worked in 11 companies. I had resigned eight times choosing to force a job change. From Manila I moved to Singapore, London, Tokyo, and back to Singapore.

I was an OFW (Overseas Foreign Worker) for 11 years. Relocating five times, as a single person, would be part of my solo travel experience too, but with just more belongings.

It was tough, again in a non-digital world, to travel and start life anew, to find apartments to rent… to furnish my temp home… to find supermarkets, banks, and shops… to carry everything on my own… to figure out transportation systems and options.

But the even greater risks produced even greater returns. Confidence in my own abilities grew, so did my capabilities to hold my own with foreigners whose accents were at times indecipherable (I was the only Filipino in the various offices I was based); my optimism, my pronoia, my skills in leading various teams of various nationalities (British, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, French, Italian, Brazilian etc).

All these strengthened me, boosted my physical, mental and emotional health. Because I was alone, I realised early on I had to make sure I was not sickly, that I could lift and carry, that I could run around and travel, that I could stay independent being far away from family and friends. I, thus, made a point to exercise, go to the gym, take up boxing. And this determination has helped me, to this day, to ensure I am physically capable.

Hunger for more growth-inducing travel

I booked many more personal trips from my London and Singapore homebase, nearly all solo. The beauty with foreign employers is that the concept of work life balance is not foreign (pun intended). Thus, I made a point to do personal explorations when on work trips, if I could swing an extra day or a weekend, I was off visiting a nearby town, a museum, etc.

My curiosity about countries, cities, cultures, treasures, untouched locations, and more, simply grew through time. My Joy overshadowed my Worry. So, I happily pushed on. My desire for new experiences overpowered, silenced any worries and fears. But it was really my desire for personal growth. The principles defined in Abraham Maslow’s book ‘Hierarchy of Needs of Self-Actualization’ made an impression on me. It fueled my desire to evolve, to expand, to learn more about myself. It pushed me to travel, to explore solo. I had an active desire to increase my skills and abilities, to realise my potential, to become more of who I could be. In the process, I learnt to connect with others and to socialise; practiced empathy; learnt to embrace unpredictability of life and being uncomfortable, learnt to ‘go with the flow’ and accept ‘what I couldn’t change’ while addressing what I could control.

Risks of solo trips

Traveling without a companion, whether a friend or family, can be an active decision you make, or you could be forced into it like I was in 1987. How the world of travel changed, thanks to technology and Steve Jobs’ iPhone.

Now… a plethora of tools accessible at your fingertips – just scroll, tap, swipe away! ChatGPT. Google maps. Waze. Agoda. Klook. Google Translate. Airbnb. Couchsurfing. YouTube. Instagram. Facebook, Telegram. Messenger. Viber. WhatsApp. Airalo. Pocket Wi-Fi. Data Roaming. Travel Agencies. Budget Airlines. All these make travel for anyone today, solo or otherwise, well-informed, easy, and safe. Yes, it is a wonderful time to be alive, to travel… more so solo!

Can Millennials or Gen Zs imagine such a world without techy gadgets?

Analogue travelling decades ago (especially solo travel) carried more risks such as the possibilities to get lost, to become prey to muggers and such. But with “great risk comes great returns” a professor planted that thought into my brain when I was completing my degree in BSC Economics. So early on, I accepted that risks abound though with these can come significant benefits; and risks can be mitigated. Even water dripping for eons on a rock is a stressor; but beautiful stalactites and stalagmites could be produced. I realised I had to welcome, even instigate risks, for me to evolve and grow.

Inspired solo flight

I found inspiration for my next travel destination from just anywhere. This also meant I worked hard to stay curious and receptive to fresh ideas.

There was a time I fell in love with many locations in The Fall movie directed by Tarseem Singh. One really called out to me – Pangong Tso in high-altitude Ladakh, along with the Himalayas.

Lodging options in the Himalayas were limited because it was off season when I arrived, and winter was coming. Still, I flew there, booked a boutique hotel, booked a hike with an all-women trekking group, and sorted out my ride that would take me to the stunning lake (a four-hour ride each way). I landed in Leh that’s located at an altitude of 3,500m, which can cause altitude sickness at arrival. So even if I knew so little about Ladakh, was alone in Northern India, nothing stopped me from going.

Once, I saw a YouTube vid about great hotels and fell in love with The Fogo Island Inn and Fogo Island. So same thing happened, I simply figured out how to get there (from Manila, fly to Toronto, then to Gander, rent and drive a car / use ferry to get Fogo Island), booked two nights at the Inn, and rented a home, the Old Salt Box, and off I went.

I did quite a lot of solo hikes as well while on Fogo Island. It was autumn, thus so beautiful, but there were also no other hikers or people around the trails because it was turning quite cold.

My Ladakh and Fogo solo trips both stood out as truly memorable, because these were remote places and I had to work hard to figure out how to move around, get around.

Again, great risks, great returns. I also made self-arranged trips to Siem Reap, Ha Long Bay, Kuching, Ho Chi Minh, Helsinki, Provence, Batanes, Lake Sebu, Vigan to Pagudpud.

Whenever I had the opportunity to go after new experiences whether on my own or trips with family or friends, I pursued these solo experiences.

When I was in Las Vegas, I just booked a skydive experience, despite being afraid of heights, because I was eager to face my fears ( I had/have two big ones: heights and sea). I had myself picked up along The Strip and off I went. I wondered if I would faint, whether I would vomit, and whether my vomit would hit the ground before I did. Happy to report, I did not faint, I did not vomit, I loved the free fall (the jumping out of the plane not too much because my stomach felt queasy for half a sec), I loved the views and experience and would have booked a second sky dive if I had more time in Las Vegas. I was 46 years old then.

So even when traveling with company, in case my friends or family didn’t want to do certain things (e.g., kayak in Khuvsgul Lake in Mongolia), I didn’t hesitate to chase personal and solo adventures.

Solo travel as a Single Joiner

Trafalgar was a fave tour operator, and I’ve done 7 trips with them: Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Czechia, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, Germany. Often, I was the only Asian, only Filipino, only black-haired person in the bus of 40+ blond strangers.

I have booked solo tours too, like to Bhutan. I thought it was funny that many young foreign couples, who were travel mates but strangers to me, preferred to just hang together versus mingle with others in the tour and were always clinging together as if to ward off single, youngish (I was then) women. I guess people assumed single women traveling the world were on the hunt for a partner or relationship. This was never on my list of travel goals.

What struck me as a positive thing was that I could reinvent myself with every group tour. My bus mates didn’t know me or anyone from my circle, and it was likely we wouldn’t meet again, so I could be myself or even try out new ‘characters’. So, I continued to explore various facets of my personality with every trip.

Back to homebase

I continued to live alone when I moved back to Manila in 2015 for more new work opportunities. By 2024, after 30-plus years of corporate life, I decided to retire so I can pursue other things and further indulge in travel wherever and whenever. Yes, I keep my gym and physical training routines to stay mentally and physically fit.

Looking back to my first solo trip, I have gained much more than I expected. I hope more people will go for solo trips. Digital tools are at your fingertips, although you need to learn to use the tools. Just do it (to borrow the Nike slogan). The returns will grow exponentially as you push yourself.

Anna Testa | ws guest contributor

(Images courtesy of Anna Testa)

Anna Testa is a serial traveler and a serial expat whose nomadic life for most parts of her professional life paved the road to achieve regional leadership roles in various industries including FMCG and Health Technology. With an early passion for how brands change lives, she spent more than 25 years helping leading names across 20 countries in Western Europe and Asia Pacific deliver results. A Communications career with that breadth inevitably included the whole gamut of marketing and advertising function: from insights and planning to flawless execution in working with all types of partners. Now back to her home base in Manila Anna stays on course with her sole journeys.

Anna Testa

Sole Journeys Feed The Soul

Remembering Pope Francis’ Simple Palate