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Discovering together
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Who makes a better travel partner — man or woman?
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PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM
TWO IS COMPANY These days you can choose your travel partner from anywhere around the world
In a choice-saturated world, the latest is being able to pick your touring partner. Websites now carry messages from travellers looking for touring allies. The message poster gives her/his name, age and country of origin, adds an itinerary, dates and purpose of the tour. Some of them include cost-sharing details. A package that could be a great deal! Sample this.
Male 67, looking and feeling about 50, easy-going, good sense of humour, is looking for a male travel companion of any age for a trip to South Africa July-August 2006.
Contact Info: xxxPM, country: ABC, age: 39. I'll be in Honolulu Hawaii from July 3-August 3, and the Big Island from July 17-20. Looking for female travel companions, preferably age 30+.
What do you look for in a travel buddy? If you'd like to join one of these (believe me, some are from India), or any trip for that matter, what would your major concern be? The cost, duration, places you can visit, purpose, or age and gender of the companion?
Those killjoys
All these are relevant of course, but the biggest hitch would surely be choosing to journey with a non-traveller you've had to drag along? Someone who's picky about food, accommodation, weather, service, sights and lack of shopping, but loves to nag. Not much of a giggle, is it? "Whom I choose to travel with depends on the occasion," says Vicky Chandok, veteran rallyist. "If it's for a rowdy weekend of motor sports or watching football, I'll call the guys. They are a) knowledgeable about sport and b) can put up with noise." He adds quickly: "For a social occasion, holiday or fun other than sports, the invitation would go to a female companion. Women bring a certain culture to travel and are conscious of surroundings. But for motor sports, sorry, a female co-driver is unthinkable. Women want creature comforts."
Still, Vicky bows to his wife's navigational skills. "I have been on driving expeditions everywhere. My wife is the best co-driver I've had. She has exceptional map-reading skills. She enjoys finding quaint little places to eat on the way."
His two sons are preferred companions on his drive to his holiday home at Kodaikanal. "We talk and laugh, we are a bunch of kids of the same age. We stop at lorry joints for food."
A person with whom you share common interests, says Selvi Rao, Senior Manager, Leisure Travel, Thomas Cook. On a conducted tour, with a fixed itinerary, it doesn't matter who you are with. People are content hopping countries with total strangers. "But while I was holidaying in the U.K., it was wonderful to have my husband and son driving and relax at the back. They grasped the driving culture quickly. Again, if you're venturing into the wilderness, vote for a male escort. You don't want surprises, do you?" If you love trekking, it won't help to be with a guy whose trekking area is the golf green or who rushes to stand in line for the cable car. She has seen married men and women join a white-water rafting group with a friend, not the spouse. Also men are totally turned off when you shop. Ideally, Selvi adivses holidaying twice. "Once with your family and the other to do what you want to do."
Swati Siddharth, a self-confessed driving addict, reports: "I read somewhere that the test to a new relationship is the ability to travel together without exchanging a word in a car for an hour, maybe a day. I have found this to be a fact. If we have not been close to murder at the end of a car ride, I know deep inside that this one is worth fighting for. The reverse is also true. Do I make a good companion? On days when I am ratty-minded, I make for lousy company, especially if I am not driving. As a driver, I am much too occupied with the road and the traffic. As for the man-woman thing, well, I have driven with women who have kept calm under extremely hazardous driving conditions and men who have increased my nervousness. I know men who worry about high speed driving on a four-lane national highway.
Also with women who clutch me on a perfectly empty straight road, driving well within speed limits. I have driven with men, women and children. I have not yet found a reason to prefer one over the other."
GEETA PADMANABHAN
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