How to travel alone; a girl's tips

Bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

I've travelled by myself a number of times. I love the independence, the ability to think freely, the flexibility and the thrill when you figure something out by yourself. For these reasons, I prefer to do my explorations on my own. But as a girl, this comes with many safety risks.
I'm not saying that guys don't have to be careful, but as a girl, you are unarguably perceived as more vulnerable especially when you're on your own.

You can manage risks 3 ways: eliminate, mitigate or isolate. But let's not make an engineering report (haha) and instead I'll tell you how I planned, what I did and how I would do things differently next time.

Exploring Santa Monica and Venice Beach on a cruiser

These are some tips from my recent 3 week lone adventure in California. I had never been to America on my own, I knew nobody and planned to spend most of the time exploring on my own. These are just general guidelines, a lot of people have done things differently and they had a successful trip, but if you're looking to travel on your own for your first time, these might be a good start...

• First things first, it might be tempting to announce your itinerary on Facebook, but the less people who know you'll be by yourself, the safer. You don't know who's viewing your posts, who's looking at your friends' News Feed or who's overhearing your conversations. It's best to only let your closest friends and family know.

• I gave my flight details and the addresses of my AirBnB to my parents, including the hosts' contact details. So they can check things up if I haven't contacted them upon my arrival.

• It's important to let someone know where you'll be each day (advice from my concerned friend, Jonathan). I did not know anyone at my destination, nor was I meeting anyone, but I stayed in an AirBnB, so I left a note on my bed with my contact number, the place I'm visiting that day and my expected time of return. Not that the hosts are likely to go into my room, but if I went off the radar, the note should be of help.

I loved LA's Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax

• One of my fears was losing my passport! I had a JP sign a photocopy of my passport and kept that in my suitcase, and I also noted the address and contact number of the NZ embassy in LA. If you're staying in a hotel, use the safety deposit box to securely store your passport. But because I stayed in an AirBnB where there were other guests coming and going and no lock on my door (or no door, for that matter), I took my passport with me. Good news, I didn't lose my passport! I kept it in my bag, separate from my purse, and my bag came with me everywhere I went.

• This is your social media guide: as I've mentioned, keep details of your lone trip on the downlow and only tell people with the intention of them to keep tabs on you. Unlike my other social media platforms, I know everyone on my Snapchat friends list so I used it to let people know where I am as I go along. I was fortunate enough to get a USA phone plan with heaps of data, so I could use the live updates to my advantage. Everything else (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook) was quiet for a while. You just don't know how people could track you down. I have been able to figure out where some YouTube vloggers lived just by watching their vlogs.

Andy Warhol at San Francisco MoMA

• This is me being overly cautious, but I didn't want people there to know that I was on my own and had no contacts in the city. Of course, I met people and to make friendly conversations they asked where I'm from (despite me putting on an American accent, sometimes the Kiwi accent would slip in). It's okay to make up a story! I'm meeting my brother later/ I'm staying with my uncle/ I'm waiting for my dad to pick me up... 

True story: I was on the bus on the way to a shopping mall and a guy asked me if I was in LA on my own. I said I was going to the mall by myself because my family didn't want to come with me. He said, "Oh okay, cos I thought you were alone, which would be fine if you were a guy but as a girl..."

Just be wise and wary of who could be listening in.

The irony that I did not have friends with me

• One of the things I didn't plan very well was night time travel. I loved how the shops stayed open til 10pm but I did not plan how I would get back after that. I took public transport most of the time but I did not feel comfortable taking the train or waiting in a quiet bus stop/ subway at night so I took Uber/ Lyft instead. Although that blew the budget, sometimes the price is worth the peace of mind. Also, did you know there are gangs in East LA?!

• Which brings me to my next point- know the unsafe places. I asked my friends who had been to the city before to point out the places that I shouldn't go to after dark on my own. And make sure you know where the places are on the map! Tenderloin does not have signs that say "Naive girls, keep out". 
• The only time I needed someone there was when I was trying to figure out how to pay at a restaurant! I did not know how to tip or how to pay the bill, thank goodness my friends on Facebook were quick to help!

Disadvantages of travelling alone: some selfies are difficult to take

You can be overly-cautious, but don't let this dampen your trip, don't view everyone as a potential threat. Enjoy the moment and the things you discover.
Plan for the worst, expect the best, don't get Taken.

Have an enjoyable time! You'll love travelling by yourself.


Signed,

Elisa

A little bit about Sydney: in pictures

I went to Sydney!!

Mum and I went on a 5 day holiday, here are (heaps of) photos of our trip...

The architecture

 The view from the Paramatta - Circular Quay ferry

Unfortunately I did not have time to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art

Harbour bridge and Opera House

What the roof of the Opera House is made of! Tiles

The design of the Opera House

On the ferry I overheard someone saying a scene from Great Gatsby was filmed here, so I took a picture. Gonna watch it next week

The houses overlooking the harbour

The shopping

On the first day, we went to Birkenhead Point, which is like Dressmart, but 3 storeys full :)

a black and gold sequin peplum cardigan and lilac blouse from Laura Ashley

Headband from Alannah Hill. i love headbands !

And high top Chuck Taylors!


The food

There are so many Indonesians in Sydney! In Auckland it's pretty rare to hear my native language but over there, I had to be careful in shops in case the shop assistant was Indonesian :p

In Kingsford, the streets are lined with Indo restaurants (there is only one in Auckland that I know of and that is in a food court). Our first meal was Indo food

Really nice wonton soup noodle in Paramatta, which my mum tried to remake tonight but did not succeed as well

Lindt Chocolate Cafe!!
My mum had promised me to take me there ever since it first opened and there was a massive line out the door. The hype has died down now thankfully.

Individual pieces of chocolate

Man it was expensive! One of those places you'll only go to once or twice in your life- and only if someone else is paying :p

I had this absolutely divine mocha macchiato, with a piece of Lindt chocolate melting on top

Lindt sharing platter 'for two'. We shared it between 6 of us and it was really really filling...
Macarons, chocolate, brownies, waffles, strawberries with cream and vanilla ice cream.

Next to the coffee machine, there are two taps of continually flowing dark and milk chocolate!

For dinner:
Pancakes on the Rocks!

In Auckland the only place with a line out the door is the Auckland City Mission :p But it's pretty common in Sydney to be waiting in line for half hour (on a good day) to be seated. But worth it.

Rib eye steak

Beef nachos

and my spinach and feta crepes. So good!!!

For dessert:

Baskin Robbins please come to New Zealand!! I used to have this all the time in Indo, so when I got to Sydney I was like, YES PLEASE! I always have mint chocolate chip- my favorite flavour

Another chocolate cafe, Guylians this time:

the waitress was feeding these colorful birds and I was like, what the?! what are those birds??

look at that dessert selection!

the iconic praline seahorse

I had a macchiato which came with a praline seahorse. Swim horsey swim.

Ice cream selection: pistachio, hazelnut, strawberries and cream, chocolate

iced mocha- it was so big! with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and topping of cream and Guylians chocolate flaskes

For lunch: pear and gorgonzola toasted sandwhich at a cafe. Delicious

Laduree

I met up with my friend Rachel, whom I met through Studentlife and she is now doing her post-grad at UNSW. We had macarons and delicious food and talked about girly things like boys, love, marriage and not getting fat.

 

After purchasing praline and strawberry marshmallow macarons, we went upstairs to the fanciest foodcourt I've ever seen

They had gelato, cakes, chocolates, drinks...

We chose a tiramisu cake and nutella coffee drink to share :)

Happy Lab! It's a candy store that sells jelly beans in test tubes!! Pomegranate, candy floss and butterscotch



The last meal we had was a Thai restaurant in Kingsford

Delicious beef fried  rice and bbq beef

Tofu salad

The most delicious crispy chicken ever.

And for dessert: MARTABAK!

I love martabak! In essence, it is an Indonesian 'pancake'. This one is chocolate peanut flavor :)

The animals

I went to KOALA PARK!! I was pretty excited to touch koalas and kangaroos!

this is a swamp wallaby!

"This is a red neck wallaby... Mum it's not jumping."

dingoes! more closely related to wolves than dogs. I would like one.

I stroked a koala!!! LIFE MADE COMPLETE

these two koalas were super cute, just cuddling each other, not moving for at least an hour.

Koalas actually just sit on trees and sleep.
They sleep for 19 hours a day and only move to eat. They feed almost solely on eucalyptus leaves.

Koala poop and pee.

CAN I TAKE YOU HOME?!

Did you know... newborn koalas are 2cm big!

Video of me touching a kangaroo for the first time:

"Hello... can I touch it? Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
actually touching it with my hand this time, not prod its tail with my foot :p

I was watching the kangaroos jump for a while. So amazingly created! Look at its long foot. However, when they leap they only use the front part of their foot to land on.

Watch the video to see how kangaroos jump.

Sheep being sheared! Before and after :p

Fairy penguins :3 so cute. Not really, they smell like fish. Unlike kangaroos and koalas <3 <3

Video of emus:

"Emus are ugly. God made peacocks pretty but emus ugly... Why is that?"

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

HIghtlight!

Just to show you some of my favorites..

Obama

Lizzy

Justin Bieber!

My uncle, Jackie Chan

Leonardo DiCaprio... <3

Angie and Brad

And to conclude,

I had so much fun at Studentlife 'Up & Go' North Island conference!! Amazing, learnt heaps. See you Aucklanders at the reunion!

Signed,

Elisa