There is a particular freedom in solo travel — moving at your own pace, stopping when you want, following whatever calls to you without negotiation.
The mountains, the roads, the mornings in unfamiliar places. All yours.
But there is also a strange kind of loneliness that can appear: having someone physically near while feeling completely emotionally alone. That particular ache, the author notes, is somehow worse than the mountain road.
Solo travel teaches you who you are when no one is watching. And sometimes, it shows you who isn’t really with you even when they are.
— Thiện Minh