In a country made up of around 15 million Theravada Buddhists, I was trying my hardest to slip into a meditative Buddhist state of compassion as the swish air-conditioned bus I was travelling through Sri Lanka on filled with inane chatter and a touch of travel bragging. As someone who loves to explore off-the-beaten-track destinations, mostly solo, and almost always on local buses and trains — where daily life unfolds at a slower pace — I was feeling slightly nervous that I’d signed up to spend 12 days trapped inside a minibus with nine strangers.
Throughout the tour, I had to bite my tongue numerous times and found out later that others in the group did too. That’s the thing about throwing a group of strangers of varying ages together (my group ranged from 31 to 49 years old), from a handful of different countries — you’re not always going to have the same outlook on life, values or interests. So just what is the appeal of group travel in your 30s and 40s?
