Most travel blogs tend to paint a very rosy picture about long-term travel. While I will agree that long-term travel is one of the most amazing things anyone can do in their lives, there are a few downsides. As writers, we tend to ignore these downsides mostly because a poor experience on the road is often significantly more enjoyable than the routine of living at home. Even with the ups and downs of long-term travel, there are a few worth mentioning, one of which is what we consider to be the absolute worst part about long-term travel: the friends.The friends we are referring to are not the ones that you have had for the last ten years who opted to remain at home rather than joining you on the amazing trip. No, your good friends are often some of the most supportive people on your long-term travel goal that you'll ever find. Instead, the worst part about long-term travel are the friends you make while exploring the world. To save ourselves from a deluge of bad comments for this statement, we must preface this post with the fact that we love the friends we make while traveling; however, there are three major downsides about travel friends that just drives us crazy.
The Awkward Getting To Know You Phase
Every new friend on the road begins with two simple questions. "What is your name and where are you from?" It is the universal getting to know you conversation that all long-term travelers have had hundreds of times over. As the discussion grows, the likely followups will include "What brings you to [destination]?" and "Where all have you been?" In it's own right, the getting to know you phase is not as awkward for the questions that are asked but due to its repetition. You'll end up with so many similar responses over the course of several months that you'll remember less names and more the destinations that people have been to and where they come from. As enjoyable as this conversation is, after the 1,000th time you will end up being quite bored of it and it may ultimately come back to bite you later on.
Your Limited Time Together
As everyone's itinerary is different, your new friend could be on the same route as you; but it is quite likely that the current city is the only time you'll ever spend together. Even worse, you may only meet some of these friends in a day trip or single attraction, thus cutting your time down even further. You may hang out, take pictures of each other, and then split up even before any contact information is exchanged. All that is left is the memories and photos of the great time you had and no other information. Exactly who is that up there riding on that elephant? I can't remember their names, but we had a great time that day and I'd love to reminisce. At one point I remembered, but a year and a half later and the information is gone just like that.
They Fade Into Oblivion
Perhaps the worst part about making friends on the road is what happens after you split up: they disappear. In many cases even though you may have given your new friend your contact information or social media profile, they could quite simply just lose it throughout their own always moving long-term journey. Cut to several months down the road when you finally have the time to look through old photos, and the memories of these friends who have not emailed you come up, leaving you only with the feeling of wondering where they are and what they are doing.
In a few instances these friends will reappear while traveling along similar routes. There are several reported instances that we have also experienced where someone traveling along your route pops up a few countries later walking down the same road as you. Sure you may hang out for an afternoon, catch up on what has been going on and where you've been, but unless you get their contact information right away they are likely to disappear into the large world yet again without a trace. After the awkward introduction period, you may barely even remember the first names of these friends and have no way to find them without any more information that was lost during all of the amazing travel memories that were made.
The friends you make on the road is not a major deterrent for long-term travel. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Some of our favorite travel memories come from hanging out with new friends that we met, enjoyed a city with for a couple days, and have never seen again due to this very phenomena. We were lucky to meet a few later down the road, but still never got their contact information to follow up later on even though they have our cards.
If there were any moral of this story, it would be this: Get your friend's contact information and find them on Facebook as soon as you meet. Otherwise you may never hear from them again. This is the worst part about long-term travel.
Do you know any of the people in the photos in this post? We are looking for them! The photos included in this post are of friends we made while traveling and have since lost contact with. Do you have a similar experience? Comment below to keep the conversation going and let us know about it!
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Today's post was brought to you in part by our friends at Aqua Waikiki Pearl, the newly renovated hotel located right on the beautiful shores of Hawaii's Waikiki Beach.
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