Are we ever really lost?

One thing I’ve never really felt or personally understood is peoples fear of getting lost.

Ok I can understand how if you got lost alone in the middle of a forest or jungle or somewhere, and you know if you don’t find your way out in time and you run out of food and water you could be in trouble. Of course fear in this situation would be a very logical reaction.

But being scared of travelling on the underground alone in case you get lost. I just don’t understand where the fear comes from in this case. If you miss your stop, you get off at another stop and go back the other way. The same if you get on the wrong train. You’re going to find your way to where you want to go eventually. You may just have a bit of a detour and therefor take a little bit longer than planned.

I remember around a week into my first solo trip I was in Ayutthaya, Thailand. I was with a group of people that I’d met the night before and we were getting the train to a nearby waterfall. A couple of the girls I was with we’re getting really stressed about not knowing where we were going. Which really didn’t make sense to me. I was talking to one of the guys who shared my relaxed attitude towards the situation and I remember saying to him…

I’m alone in a country I don’t know and have never been to before I’m kind of “lost” the whole time.

And to me that was a really exciting and freeing feeling to have. I guess it’s about your attitude and way of looking at things. If your wanting control and being very exact about your plans. If your focus is on getting to your destination I see why things like getting lost can be stressful.

But if you’re less focused on where you’re trying to get to and just happy to enjoy your time and the things you see along the way. Then being “lost” is nothing to be feared.

It’s all about the journey, not the destination.

Later on that day we ended up getting off of the bus too early and wandering around the nearby town unsure of where we were going. We went in to a little shop to use the toilet and asked them how to get to the waterfall. The Thai lady who owned it was really friendly. She told us that if we waited a little while for her husband to get back he would drive us to the entrance of the waterfall. So we ended up all of us squashed in the back of his truck, wind in our hair. Enjoying our journey to the waterfall much more than we would have done if we had gotten off the bus at the right place.

In the back of a truck in Ayuthaya Thailand

Some of my best memories in my time travelling solo have come from a time when I was lost.

From going for a walk through the paddy fields in Hoi An. Getting lost with no battery on my phone, breaking my flip flop & having to walk back through town barefoot & covered in mud. To constantly getting lost while walking the crazy maze of streets in Hanoi

Sometimes I think we just need to learn to let go a little. To not always worry so much about where we are heading. If we just enjoy the journey and have fun discovering as many things as possible along the way. Then I guess the question is were we ever really lost?

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