Tired of warding off over-curious locals or over anxious associate tourists? I sympathize. When on the road, a single traveler can be a target for unwanted company.
When you are on your own, you are less frightening compared to others traveling in a crowd. Also, your lack of company can be misread as a desire for one. Others, which include me, welcome serendipitous contacts with strangers. However, there are those who just want to be left apart. If you are one of the latter, you can exercise the following means to avoid not wanted company.
Most often, not wanted company happens when someone shares a seat with you in a bus, a train or a bar. You can prevent dealing with not wanted strangers by placing a book, a bag or anything you have with you on the empty seat. It sends a very clear message that you don't want anyone sitting beside you and you want to be left on your own.
However, there are times when you have to share a seat especially when travelling a public transportation. If this happens and you don't want to be disrupted by constant chatting, you can always play dead to the world by pretending to sleep. I do this when I am tired and needs some sleep before I arrive to my next place to go. Your seatmate usually respects sleep and will leave you alone.
How about if you can't keep still or the circumstances does not allow you to pretend sleeping? You can always bury yourself in a book or pretend not to understand the language. Wearing ear phones or ear buds from your music player also seems to work!
Some other ways to make you look pre-occupied and busy whilst sitting down in a cafe or a park include working on your laptop like you are pursuing a deadline. Writing on a note pad also does the trick.
What if you are already drawn into a discussion and you want to get out of it? You can always politely excuse yourself. Inform the person that you are talking to that you have an appointment or that you need to head off on to your next destination to stay on time.
However, if you want to be more cunning about it, then pretend to answer a phone (in silent mode of course to explain the absence of a ring tone). You can say you need to meet a friend who just called.
I am not saying that you have to lie your way out of an unwanted company but, on occasion, when the situation calls for it, you just have to do it. However, you want to keep in mind that when you handle situations like these, you need to stay polite but unmoving. It helps to avoid offending a person who really has nothing but companionable intentions.
It's a different matter if you already feel annoyed and invaded by the not wanted company. If you need to call for other people's help, do so. It will frighten off your problem person and will doubtlessly leave you alone.
This travel tip is brought to you by ExtendedStays.biz which provides helpful information on Extended Stays accommodation as well as long stay and long term stay accommodation.
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