I used to travel alone, getting great thrill doing things on my own. All that changed when I turned 65. Citing instances of people falling sick or even kicking the bucket in foreign lands, an uncle who attended my birthday bash advised me that from then on I should stop being a lone wolf. Joining him, the others warned of lurking criminals and terrorists. Catching the virus quickly, my children declared that henceforth I would travel with their mother, only in a group tour. Softening the blow, they announced a trip to China as my birthday gift.

Within hours of landing in Shanghai on a special tour for seniors, I realised that all the histrionics I had learnt in school would not help me to communicate. Pointing out that we were lucky to be accompanied by an English-speaking Chinese guide, my wife wondered what would have happened had I travelled there alone. She was proved right when I was refused boarding passes in airports because of a mismatch between my name as spelt in my passport and in my air ticket. But for our Chinese guide, I would probably be in a Chinese prison now.

I would always be the first in our group to finish sightseeing. But being part of a group forever complaining of aches and pains, the wait for others to finish was usually long. In Xian, I decided to utilise the waiting period by sleeping in our bus. When I went in search of our bus in the parking lot, all buses and drivers looked alike and I was lost. Looking for something familiar, I located our bus, purely by being nosey — it was the only one emanating the strong smell of pain-killing sprays.

Waiting in the bus without air-conditioning had made me angry and I took it out on my wife for forcing me to join the group tour. She politely said I should be thanking my stars for learning to be patient, a virtue I had lacked since birth. She also wondered how despite being a top officer, I had not yet imbibed the management lesson of being a team member. I shut my eyes and mouth.

Sudden, ecstatic cries of the group made me open my eyes.

Our guide had sprung a surprise by taking us to a parlour to get us ‘Chinese foot massage’. When the old frayed muscles and tissues of the seniors got the Chinese touch, the feeling was divine. After learning that the massage was complimentary, the joy was double. Would I have gone for a massage had I travelled alone, wondered my wife. I smirked.

Soon the tour was over. Waiting to board our aircraft on our return journey, I realised I had packed my medicine kit in my checked-in luggage. Missing drugs for my gastric problem made me panic. Realising my predicament, several group members rushed out to help popping their hands with a variety of drugs to choose from. After all, being of the same age, almost everyone had similar ailments.

As I thanked them, my wife recited an old African proverb, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together’.

drdvg@yahoo.com