When to Worry?
Daughter travelling alone, back packing toward NZ.
She's been in contact whenever able, mostly daily. I understood she was out of contact during remote medical volunteering in Uganda but now I'm worrying.
She was in Siem Reep Cambodia on the 24th, she sent me a message on the 25th, since then nothing.
Travelling alone has disproved my concern as she has met up with travellers from all over the world. Sometimes darting off from the plan to other places. Tokyo wasn't on her route, but she is going to be there on the eighth August.
Thing is, where is she and why isn't she replying to emails? I sent a text earlier too but no reply.
I bet she'll message me and I'll play it so cool, when in fact I've spent today fretting and posting here and elsewhere to occupy myself. Kids!
She's been in contact whenever able, mostly daily. I understood she was out of contact during remote medical volunteering in Uganda but now I'm worrying.
She was in Siem Reep Cambodia on the 24th, she sent me a message on the 25th, since then nothing.
Travelling alone has disproved my concern as she has met up with travellers from all over the world. Sometimes darting off from the plan to other places. Tokyo wasn't on her route, but she is going to be there on the eighth August.
Thing is, where is she and why isn't she replying to emails? I sent a text earlier too but no reply.
I bet she'll message me and I'll play it so cool, when in fact I've spent today fretting and posting here and elsewhere to occupy myself. Kids!
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Comments
Any how fingers crossed
The obvious answer is maybe she's in an area with a lack of connectivity. She might be doing some awesome trail through jungles and hills they have there and simply isn't contactable. Given that she was contacting you on a daily basis it's a bit inconsiderate of her to not have thought about this before but maybe she didn't realize.
Next time make sure you agree a set time limit between contacts so you don't worry - it doesn't have to be every day, it could be up to a week. If she isn't willing to keep to that then at least you'll know that no contact doesn't necessary mean anything bad.
I went travelling alone myself (female, in my 20s) for 3 months. Most of the time I wasn't in contact with anyone from home and no-one had any idea where I was. Not because I was trying to be evasive; I am just not used to telling people my movements plus my family don't even use text messaging and have only recently started to understand emails. So I only ever called from a payphone - probably every 3 weeks or so. But I appreciate this is a different relationship than you have with your daughter and it is more sensible to keep in closer touch.
Does she have a Facebook account?
Edit: I didn't even have a mobile phone when travelling. It was only two years ago that I went. I'm torn between thinking it's sensible to be in touch often and make use of technology versus the whole point of travelling and getting back to what is more natural. The latter I know won't be a very popular opinion but I think it depends on the person.
I am living the world ticket with only the bad bits.
At first she was always in contact with the family, then for various reasons ( like being in remote areas without internet and mobile phone signal and just busy having a good time) her contact drifted off.
I was worried at first if she went a week without making contact with anyone here in the UK.
Then she told me to chill out and not worry about her.
Easier said than done of course.
There is a gap of a week when I have no idea where she is and she is not answering my messages.
She's probably lost her charger don't worry yet.
Anyway, I do hope she gets in contact soon as it would be worrying to anyone.
Do you know where she's staying in Siem Reap? If you are worried, you could post on the tripadvisor website in the siem reap forum, a lot of the posters are on the ground so to speak and have been known to help worried parents before.
Please update the thread once she's been in touch to let us know she's OK.
I've kept my messages to questions until now, but this morning sent a text directly asking her to get in touch to let me know she's ok.
I think she is in Vietnam six hours ahead of here.
It must be awful to be in a constant state of worry.
It's not true, though, that hardly anywhere is out of contact these days. Hell, my mobile reception is almost non-existent in some bits of my property, and I'm in south-east England! It's also perfectly plausible that she's lost either her phone or her charger - very easily done.
I feel terrible now about all the times I must have made my Mum worry because I just didn't realise how much she needed to simply know that I was ok.
Hopefully she will be in touch very soon. I'm sure you won't be able to think about anything else until you hear from her.
I thought of making a call to her mobile but if it goes straight to voice mail to save battery, I'll worry more.
If I don't get contact today, I'll get in touch with one of her friends to look.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Why not ask one of her friends to look on her FB right now, Mutter? Forget about trying to play it cool! You need to know she's OK for your own peace of mind.
This is a good idea - worth a look.