Travel

There is something about traveling, which seems to now be reduced to flipping through an Instagram or a Shorts reel by someone else.

Initial Ideas

Once at an airport, while waiting for the flight I started chatting with another passenger. She was an aged German lady, yet quite fit enough to travel independently. She told me she usually spends half the year working and half the year traveling, and this time, she’d been spending her time in India. I wondered what profession she might be in, and was really surprised to hear her answer. 

Any guesses…? She actually turned out to be a school teacher.

While in Germany, I found that its quite a common lifestyle to do that, to travel over the weekends to some other place, and come back to work on Monday morning. I started going with colleagues, and they started inviting me on their trips over time and I went to some really amazing places. On weekends when there were no plans, Sometimes I took public transport, (as you might know, in Europe a EU visa is valid across many countries) and there were also websites where one could hitch a ride with any rider offering a ride to any other city where we share fuel expenses. There were also budget places to stay in like Youth Hostels. In England, there was a pub where any volunteer would write a destination for a weekend arranging logistics, and people would write their names & number below it. And everybody kept their word. On some weekends I also used to walk from one town to another – walking used to have an enchantment of its own.

Low Budget Backpacking

Backpacking is when you travel to any other place, putting everything you need – all of it – into one carry-able backpack. You may live in a multistoreyed house or have some shared amenities, but you can only carry what fits into this one bag, so you better get your priorities right!

In India

I found that we can do the same thing in India as well. There are Home Stays in every corner of the country, now connected and available on Google Maps / various websites. There are different kinds of bus services like redbus among others. This is much more convenient than the more expensive option of flight + hassle of commuting to the airport. Get into a bus (or train, if you plan and book well in advance) – fall asleep, and wake up in a new place. Explore the place, learn about it, and then get into a bus on Saturday or Sunday night, wake up at your home town again and resume your typical week. We’ve had some good adventures together.

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There are a lot of things we can discover in India. The more one is curious, the more one can discover.

• Ancient Places of Culture / Heritage
• Incredible places of natural beauty – where one can hike or simply walk and hang around.

Apart from that, there are things which many people may have imagined are only available abroad…

Surfing in India

https://www.google.com/search?q=surfing+in+india

Having taken my kids here, my son finally got over their fear of swimming due to the patient and caring instructors. Looks like it’s become more expensive now 🙁 …but there are many other places as well.

Scuba Diving

https://www.google.com/search?q=scuba+diving+in+india

All these are possible right here in Bangalore… and a lot more places in the rest of India as well

• Paragliding
• Parasailing
• Microlight flying