The unexpected joys of travelling solo on a group tour

The writer learnt to embrace the yin and yang of a yoga retreat in China’s Zhangjjiajie in the company of strangers.

- Ho Ai Li

Four of the writer's tour mates doing a headstand on the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge. Travelling alone on group tours has given the writer practice on how not to feel the discomfort of being among strangers, or how other people may see her. The writer and her retreat roommate Pey Chii having their photo taken at the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge.

(ST PHOTO: HO AI LI PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZARINA M. Y.)

With its forest of quartz sandstone pillars wrapped in clouds and mist, China’s Zhangiiajie, in central Hunan province, is famously the inspiration for the floating “Hallelujah” mountains in Hollywood blockbuster Avatar.

I am taking in the views along the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, overlooking a canyon, when several of my tour mates start to gather at one spot, putting down their bags.

At the drop of a hat, four of them lay their hands and heads on the transparent floor of the bridge looking down to cliff faces and tree tops. They start flipping their bodies up into the air, agile as Avatar characters.

In seconds, all four are on headstands; heads turn and mouths open.

“This is the best photo I have seen here,” declares our young Chinese tour guide.

The sun is out after a wretched rain-soaked day the day earlier and I bask in the warm rays — and reflected glory of my tour mates. When you go on a tour with yoga teachers, you can be sure of graceful surprises.

If it were just a few years ago, I might not have gone on this trip.

What has changed, perhaps, is that I have learnt to embrace stretch goals, and to sit with the discomfort and anxieties of being alone on a group tour.

I am not a yoga teacher or even good at yoga by any stretch, but I signed up on my own for this five-day retreat in Zhangjiajie organised by the yoga school in Singapore that I visit too infrequently.