A Whole New Experience

I was eagerly waiting for this trip to end not because I wasn’t savoring every moment of it but because I had so many things to write which I could only start once the trip concluded. I did not want to postpone this blog, as that usually means I never get to writing it – like it happened for my Vietnam trip. And that’s perhaps why I’m writing this piece even before I reach back home – while I wait for my flight from Guwahati to Mumbai to resume my fast-paced train-travelling, 5AM waking, crazy-multitasking life from Monday onwards.

Every trip is planned exactly the same way at our home when we set out with our holiday ideas. I would suggest a couple of places which are exotic and hence out of budget. My husband will come up with a few destinations which are great for lazying but the climate wouldn’t be suitable because we predominantly take our long leaves in the peak May-June summer season. After roaming around half the world on a map starting from Turkey to Egypt to South Africa to Tanzania to Mauritius, we finally settled on Bhutan because of three main reasons: mountain location hence favorable temperatures, short flight hence easy to travel with a toddler and not too expensive a country so we could splurge a bit more on comfort and luxurious stays with splendid mountain views. Little did we expect the holiday to turn out into such a surreal experience which we will carry with us for a long long time.

At the outset if you ask me, Bhutan is a place for travel only if you are looking either for a Buddhist pilgrimage or for a secluded retreat in the mountains. For us it was obviously the latter. After years of travelling together, most of which have been to countries involving a lot of places to visit and hence enough and more of running around, I believe we are today at a place where we need the holidays to be real breaks – break from 18 hour days, break from trying to do too many things in too little a time and break from following schedules. The fact that we have a 2 year old whom we have to half-carry most of the time is an added argument in favor of slow-paced holidays. If you read my travelogues from pre-Covid times (yes that’s the way we now define time periods like BC and AD) I had so many things to say about the places I visited. That is no more the framework for any of my recent travel stories. Now my travelogues are impressions that the landscape, the culture and the people of the country left on me.

Bhutan is a place that is literally miles outside the modern world that you and I know. They still live in an era which is at least two decades behind the commercialization even when compared to a developing country like mine. The country still follows conventional monarchy where the king is worshipped in parallel with Lord Buddha – you can see pictures of the king and his family in all the temples and monasteries, which was a shocker for me. I mean, we do see a section of populace in a lot of countries idolizing living leaders as God which I personally disapprove of. Hence it is quite hard to fathom how ingrained it is in the Bhutanese society of today. Probably this is one of the reasons for the introduction of the Gross National Happiness Index in Bhutan which focuses on things which are neither modern nor material. For once the development of the Western world starts creeping in, history has proven that it doesn’t take a long time to undermine the power of monarchy to fulfil a society’s aspirations.

There are very few flights and limited road access to the country, and those too are a bit more tedious than a standard tourist destination. They have a few added travel restrictions like daily fees for tourists and mandatory local guides which have reduced the number of outside visitors to the country. For a traveller like me, that is a blessing in disguise. Even in the more touristy venues like Paro, Thimpu and Punakha, we hardly found crowd anywhere, and in places more offbeat like Gangtey, Haa and Bumthang, there was no outsider other than the three of us. But it was overwhelming to see the empty hotels and the out-of-work tourism support staff which is so dependent on tourists for their livelihood.

You can see how the country is built around tourism. The basic traits of hospitality and amiability have seeped into the people over the years. The simple and pure landscape of the towering Himalayas and the natural ecosystem that has grown around it is reflected in the people and their lifestyle. The native residents are so welcoming with open arms much like the mighty mountains themselves. The luxury is in the form of plenty of time to roam around freely and wide open natural spaces which give you a sense of liberation like no other. For me, it almost felt like slowing down of time, so that I could sit and internalize every bit of nature around me. The fact that the rooms we stayed in had beautiful french windows opening right into the valley or mountain view obviously helped the process. These are some additional spending on luxury which my husband is insistent on doing and I am definitely not complaining.

Of the 10 days spent in Bhutan, we spent a good amount of time on the roads since our route was a long one. In hindsight, I am surprised at how we managed that with minimal hiccups despite the winding mountain roads and a hyperactive toddler for company. We started in Thimpu (an hour’s drive from the only international airport at Paro), and then did a circuit through Gangtey, Bumthang, Punakha and back to Paro, spending 2 nights at each place. Every town had the quintessential temples, monasteries, fortresses and museums which we covered to the extent time and energy permitted. But that wasn’t the high point of the trip for me. My fascination was with the terrain and the generous views that the routes offered. The time spent on roads looking at the snow capped peaks and the halts along the way for valley views is what will stay in my heart for a lifetime.

As I return from the trip, I cannot help being overwhelmed by a sense of completeness and fulfillment which I experience every time I come back from the mountains. A lot of the contentment in this trip can also be attributed to a beautifully curated trip by our local guide and driver. They made the entire trip flexible making changes to the itinerary as the tour progressed to accommodate experiences which were more to our taste. They took care of us almost like a family, and if this level of hospitality is a benchmark for the country (I have no comparisons to make this statement in absolute), it is something to experience at least once in your lifetime!

As we left Paro today, I could feel a sense of grief at having to leave this exquisite country and the magnanimous mountains behind. But this sense of dejection is what keeps me motivated to come back to nature whenever time permits. I have been sincere in giving into the craving of being in the mountains fairly regularly despite the constraints imposed by my city life. And this time too, I know I will be back soon – to a different place of course, but as close to the comforting arms of Mother Nature as I can!

Forever A Wanderer

It feels so good to be writing a travelogue again, especially because once Covid hit us, I was pretty much sure that the world as I knew – one where anyone could go anywhere anytime – was over. But, things finally came back to near normalcy and the only thing that Covid has done to my travel plans is to make me more conscious of how I protect myself in a crowded place, which I believe a lot of us should be doing anyway!

The thing about my travel blogs is that I never write to help others plan their visit to those locations – I only write to remind myself, maybe years down the line, what I felt when I was there! And did I feel like a whole new person when I was in the North-East! This was not my first trip to the region – I have been to Sikkim about 2 years ago and that was an equally humbling experience as the current one that I want to write about. Somehow, I never got around to documenting the Sikkim one but I didn’t want to miss capturing my memories from Meghalaya and Assam.

I have always been a mountain girl and the farther and harder I travel to reach the mountains, the more surreal the experience is. I was a bit anxious when I left for this trip and that is because this was my first real holiday plan with my baby boy and not a lot of people would have recommended a trip with so much of road travel if you have a one-year old companion. But the thing that a decade of corporate life teaches you is that if you do a meticulous planning with some contingency buffer, the probability of things going out of control reduces dramatically!

My husband and I are good travel planners and that’s one of the reasons we are together. Because we both know what we like and we both prefer structure in everything! May not be ideal for everyone but it works for us. We kept a simple route with 3 to 4 hours on the road each day – a little bit of sightseeing, a whole lot of being in the nature and enough time at the end of the evening to recover from the exhaustion of the day and be fully prepped for the next morning. The thing to marvel is not that we managed cover the whole itinerary but that my boy totally stuck to the schedule every single day. A bit of a showing-off but what can I say, I am a lucky mother!

I can describe in detail the route I took from Guwahati to Shillong to Mawlynnong to Cherrapunji and then back to Guwahati but such details would serve very little purpose. Hence I am going to talk more about the kind of places I saw and what I took back home with me.

Meghalaya is full of waterfalls – every one of them beautiful and breathtaking! I could probably spend days standing in front of them – there is a sense of thrill I get from that view. By the time I finished my trip, I had lost count of how many falls I had stopped at. Between the rains and the clouds, every turn in the mountain had a pretty little fall view to offer. I had to wait for hours for the clouds to pass to get even a glimpse of those majestic falls but non even a minute of that felt like a waste of time. Surprising how time becomes a privilege as soon as you step out of the city life!

It is when you travel that you realise how far away you are from nature in your day-to-day life. For me, travel has been an eye opener in so many ways. I am forever in search of newer experiences to take back with me. This trip offered me a lot of it – I went deep into the caves, wandered through forests, walked on living root bridges and went rhino exploring in the grasslands of Assam. And the farther I went from human habitats, the more peaceful and comforted I felt. It may sound profound but if you really want to get a sense of humility and mental stability, leave your comforts of daily life and go as close to the roots of nature as you can. You will come back a more wholesome person.

Travel has taught me a lot of things – humility, diversity, acceptance and so many more qualities which make me what I am today. And I want my son to experience all of that. I still remember the curiosity and excitement I used to feel as a child every time my parents took me to a new place. If my travel aspirations can ignite that spark in my boy, I would have done him a world of good! And truth be told, Meghalaya was a good place to start our shared travel stories!

The other side of Europe

There are some things of which you can never have enough – like a mountain view, filter coffee, Agatha Christie novels and holidays in Europe. You know how you sit with a map when thinking of a holiday and explore Africa, Australia, South East Asia and then just end up in Europe every time? No? It somehow happens to me every year! And I will still not say that I have had enough of European holidays!

Every time I have been to Europe, I have found something new, something that the previous trip conveniently managed to hide! In this trip, it was the fascinating landscape. Somehow, so far, Europe to me was medieval towns, small lanes, cute cafes, riverside walks and a little bit of mountains. But now, after Germany and Slovenia, Europe feels far less man-made and much more of nature’s creation. I planned this trip carefully to circumvent the big cities to the extent feasible and go to places not too famous among tourists. Advantage – the experiences were exhilarating and you feel so connected to the nature that it humbles you. Disadvantage – planning is not the easiest and it takes massive amounts of research and commitment to be able to cover all that you want with minimum hiccups.

I have chosen to write a detailed account this time (so be prepared for a 10-15 mins read) about each of the countries I visited, mainly because I did not visit the conventional places, and if there are any travelers out there, looking to plan an offbeat vacation like mine, they may benefit out of this!

Germany

Germany was the reason we planned the trip – not in the least because I thought it was a beautiful place and hence a must visit, but more so because my sister lives here (in a University town called Regensburg). There was only one thing that I had always wanted to visit in Germany – Black Forest, and hence my entire stay in Germany was planned in and around Black Forest and Regensburg!

We started from Munich (in a car hired from Sixt) and drove southwards tracking the route of Füssen (the town closest to Neuschwanstein castle), touching the German / Swiss border to visit Rheinfall, then to Friedenweiler at the southern tip of Black Forest (Baden-Württemberg), along the Bundesstraße 500 (Federal highway than runs through the forest), to Baden-Baden at the Northern end of the Black Forest, onward to Bingen in Middle Rhine valley before finishing with some city touring in Nuremberg, Regensburg and Munich. This whole drive took us about a week’s time with 4 hours of drive per day on an average, and an overnight stay at most of the stops. The drive was smooth as silk and the roads were best-in-class as one would expect when one thinks of Autobahn!

Do you know that feeling when you look at some pictures and think that nothing can look as beautiful without some camera filters? Well Neushwanstein castle does! In fact no amount of pictures can prepare you for this pretty sight! We stayed overnight at Füssen in a small hotel overlooking Hopfensee (Lake) in a peaceful neighborhood. The drive to the castle was hardly 5 minutes, and we took a bus to the Marienbrücke – the bridge which offers an unhindered view of the castle and the lakes beyond with the Bavarian Alps backdrop. From here we hiked a small way to the top for a less crowded view, you could choose to hike the whole way (completely skip the bus), which we avoided for it was a scorching hot day! The walk back downhill was a breeze though. You can skip entering the castle but do walk around for views from all directions. Trust me, you would not regret it even on a hot day.

Next up, we had the Black Forest to look forward to. After getting a hang of how smooth and tireless the driving was, we decided to take a detour for the Rhine Falls. What we missed reading on the map was how and when we crossed the border to Switzerland! Mind you, there are signs and a small check post, which you would easily overlook, especially if you are from India and you are used to endlessly long tolls even for crossing from Mumbai to Thane! Thankfully, our car was compliant with the toll requirement (otherwise you would have to buy the same from a fuel station before entering Swiss). Rheinfall (as the falls are referred to in German) springs up on you out of nowhere, you are in a city neighborhood and suddenly the roar of the falls hits you and after a few minutes of walking, you see this gigantic water body with unimaginable volume of water!

We ended the day at a small town called Friedenweiler at the southern tip of Black Forest, in a homestay where we had the Black Forest view from the patio. The drive from here along the B-500 highway, entirely through the forest, is the best drive I have ever experienced, with super tall trees and breathtaking curves along the road. It is as magnificent as the Youtube videos claim! Travel tip – Do take a pit stop in any one of those small Bavarian towns on the way (we selected Triberg) to have the authentic Black Forest cake from the region. You could stop overnight at one of these towns inside the forest if you prefer, we skipped that as we had too much ground to cover, plus the forest was best experienced along the drive.

We drove straight to Bingen in the Middle Rhine valley and booked the cruise for the next day. The cruise provides you flexibility to get on and off at any of their stops. There are 40 castles and fortresses along the cruise and on a bright and sunny day, any one of them would be a good hike opportunity. You can plan the hike based on the cruise timetable. A word of caution though – the cruise ships are a bit crowded and getting a good seat that provides a view of the castles could turn out to be quite a task!

I am not going to dwell too much on the remaining three cities because… well they are cities and not even remotely as interesting as the other smaller places I visited. But I want to share here some of the things that left a lasting impression on me – the beautiful English Biergarten in the middle of Munich City (which is a mini version of Central Park, and you can spend a good half day walking around the winding lanes), the cobbled streets lined with shops and cafes and the Danube riverside walk in Regensburg town and lastly the Nazi Party Rally grounds in Nuremberg where you can walk through the history and the atrocities of the World War. Warning: this experience may leave you depressed and resigned towards the brutalities that humanity can impose!

Lake Hopfensee (Füssen), Bavaria, South Germany

Austria

I promised to myself the last time I left Salzburg that I would come back here (probably to re-scout this city as an option for my retirement home!) and true to my word, 2 years later I landed in the city. This time though, I spent a total of 3 days in Austria, spending most of it in the Bavarian Alps of Salzburg and nearby Berchtesgaden and a day in Vienna before catching my return flight back.

Austria was much hotter than I remember from my last trip! Granted this was June and the previous one was April but the temperature levels are alarming and the locals confirmed it too. European homes are not made for such temperatures – most of them do not have the cross ventilation that we in India are familiar with or even ceiling fans for that matter. Lesson learnt – Need to be more careful while booking stays in Europe in case of another summer holiday.

What made me fall in love with Austria the last time I visited was the Bavarian Alps – miles and miles of it with pretty, hidden lakes. So this time, I spent more time in the Alps. A day is enough to cover the small city of Salzburg – the usual town square, Mirabell gardens, Mozart’s birthplace and a late sunset near the Salzach river. We spent a whole day in the Alps in Berchtesgaden near Austria / German border. We took the Jennerbahn (cable car) to reach the summit. From here you get a breathtaking view of the Alps, which you just cannot get enough of. Plus, you can walk to the nearby Königssee – a lake as green as emerald with a calm and peaceful backdrop. There were some tourists (not a lot) and you could easily spend a lazy afternoon here sipping beer or enjoying Gelato (try their berry flavours – they are out of the world!).

Vienna was as culturally rich as I remembered from the previous visit. We did all the usual things – visit to Stephensplatz (cathedral and town square), Wien Prater (Ferris wheel), Schonbrunn Palace gardens and finally the Royal Orchestra (which was an invigorating experience even though it wasn’t the first time I was attending this, so I guess novelty had very little to do with the experience). The new thing which I previously missed was the Vienna Zoo which is inside the Schonbrunn Palace gardens – the oldest zoo of Europe and home to a polar bear, a giant panda, an Australian koala and some of the large cats like leopard and tiger. Though watching caged animals is not something I usually fancy, this zoo has tried to mock the natural surroundings for the animals and done a pretty decent job out of it. So for the time being, I can tick pandas from my bucket list – till I plan my China trip!

Sunset at 9PM over the Salzach River (view from Lovelock Bridge)

Slovenia

I have saved the best for the last!

Slovenia is not a part of the bucket list of a conventional tourist, and honestly it neither fits into the historical marvel of the Western European countries nor into the upcoming party destination profile of the Eastern European neighbors. It is a small haven in itself and had it not been for the border that it shares with Austria, I would not have ended up here. But how thankful I am that I did!

I spent a couple of days in Slovenia – mainly in and around Bled but those two days were the highlight of my trip. The town is a preferred escape for cyclists and trekkers. We were told that a car hired in Germany cannot be taken to Slovenia, so we took the train from Salzburg to this small town and then a bus from the train station to reach the lake. Bled is one of the many lakes in the Julian Alps, and is surrounded by mountains and meadows. We stayed in a small local house, whose backyard opened into the meadow. You could sit here in the sun, close your eyes and let the sounds of birds, horses and streams completely take you to a Zen mode.

Once you have done a lot of trips, you figure out that running around throughout the day is not your thing. At the same time, I am a sucker for hikes and walks and I am always on the lookout for hidden trails and dirt roads. So with that in mind, I spent a day just walking around Lake Bled, viewing the Bled Island from every corner possible, stopped in between for refueling with a Gelato and the gorgeous Bled cream cake, watched the sunset over the Bled castle with a beer in hand and took the Pletna boat ride to the island. Even if you are not someone who fancies walking around a lot, just do not miss the view from the western end of the lake – the shot is breathtaking!

I spent the next day visiting Soteska Vintgar (also known as the Bled Gorge). This place is about 15 mins drive from the Lake Bled. There are cabs which take you back and forth from the town centre and drop you at the entrance of the gorge. The trail is 1.6km long, hugging the gorge (comfortable walkway is built along the gorge). The landscape is untouched, refreshing and picture perfect! This place is not to be missed, especially if you are a nature enthusiast like me. The Radovna river which has carved out the gorge flows in full force and the trail ends at Sum Waterfall, with numerous spots on the way to stop and marvel at the landscape around you!

This trip to the gorge is a half day thing, and you can either spend the rest of the day visiting Lake Bohinj and other nearby sites or lazying around Lake Bled and shopping at the town centre. I preferred the latter as I just could not get my eyes off the magnificence of Lake Bled. If not for Slovenia, my trip would have been nowhere close to as satisfying as it turned out to be.

Blejski Otok (Bled Island) and Pilgrimage Church

I want to close this piece with a small note – the temperature levels in Europe are alarming and having visited Europe 5 times in the last 8 years, I have witnessed this increase and can vouch for it. While there are a lot of things that are causing the environmental damage, tourism could easily be one of the main reasons. Travelling is a great hobby and vacations are an integral part of our lifestyles – but let’s resolve to travel responsibly and to not disturb the sanctity of the ecosystem and do all we can to maintain the pristine beauty of nature. Only then can we ensure that the marvels of nature which bring heaven on earth remain a reality, and not just a folklore!

Adventures of the Wild West

Isn’t it weird that I always end up writing about holidays when I have started craving for another one, and the last one kinda feels like it was years ago!? So this one is about the last trip which was almost 4 months ago, to a place that was never really a huge part of my travel plans but then who can skip going to the US!?? The country seems to be an integral part of your daily life even if only coz of DJT jokes! Plus that’s one country where as Indians, we get maximum return on the investment we make in terms of going through the whole Visa process… secured for 10 years!

So why was this never a part of my plan? Because I travel for solitude and silence, and New York was the first place that came to my mind when I thought of US! And honestly, “The Big Apple” could offer me neither! Too many crowded streets and an even larger number of people I knew in the city! So while I was never too kicked about it, I finally had to give in to the peer pressure of listening to travel stories from random strangers, constant bickering of a couple of old friends who left for the States half a decade ago and this unfettered enthusiasm of my travel partners!

Look how that turned out for me by the way! I FOUND MYSELF!! And not at all in that wanderlusty way that all compelled instagrammers-turned-travellers get moon-eyed about. But in the strict sense of realising that I have zero tolerance and have become even more choosy and snobby than I used to be when it comes to my travel plans! So ya, in my own petty way, this trip was a self introspection in itself. But let’s not get carried away. This is a travelogue to talk about US and not about my own idiosyncratic tantrums!

Planning was pretty much easy because I knew most of what I wanted to see – Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Niagara – and then other people added their names of Vegas and Miami to the list and we finally topped it off New York and San Francisco because that’s where we could chill out with some old familiar faces! The last bit of meeting old friends was definitely my highlight of the trip – because very few things in life can match up to the satisfaction of some long lost reminiscing at midnight hours, with a drink in hand, in an apartment in NY or SF and realizing that the most meaningful things in life haven’t changed!

I have nothing much otherwise to write about the two cities, except that given on a given day, I would pick the quaint neighborhoods of SF over the bustling streets of NY, the golden gate bridge over the Lady Liberty, Bay Area over the Big Apple, in most of the scenarios, except when I was looking at the Manhattan skyline from the top of Empire State Building! That view stays with me for the rest of my life.

Miami was a misfit in the whole trip, both in terms of being out of the way from all other destinations and also in terms of the theme of the holiday! But that in no way means that I didn’t enjoy the Mustang ride to Key West, just that a beach destination somehow did not gel in with everything else.

I literally have no takeaway from Vegas! I can add this place to the list of the otherwise overrated places in the world including Paris and Milan, and conclude meaningfully that I am officially no more a party person! All these flashy, blingy, over-the-top party places are definitely not my scene anymore. But the roadtrip that led to and from this oasis in the desert is one hell of an experience and for that one reason this place still deserved every bit to be on my itinerary.

Ok, so writing about the things that I didn’t really like much took that much space! Now to describe the “my kinda experiences”… let’s start with Yosemite. It’s a world in itself – there are so many things to do that even a couple of days are probably not enough but just driving around and stopping at random quiet places for small hikes and brilliant views was a surreal experience! Of course the more ambitious ones were climbing the half dome or El Capitan, but me? I was just content sitting at one of those hundreds of lakes watching the mountains and sky cast a spotless shadow in the mirror of the lake!

With that, we come to the countdown of my top three places in the US and that’s how I want to end this piece. At number three is Lake Tahoe. This beautiful picnic village in the middle of California was my perfect definition of a holiday! It’s a weekend getaway for a lot of SFites and thankfully we spent a Monday there, not much of noise around, just us, the cold blue waters, the slightly chilly wind and an entire afternoon to lazy around! Almost like heaven!!

The runner up is the mighty Niagara! I was just not prepared for the marvel and grandeur of this one. It was too early in the trip and I was too fresh from the Mumbai and New York hangover! But this place did it for me – immediately brought the vacation mode on! And I could spend hours just looking at the falls if only you didn’t have to get so drenched and shivering from the mist that the falls throw on you. Despite all the anti-water person that you might be, there is one thing you should not miss. And that’s the weight of the falls on your head when you go for the Cave of the Winds, it’s an experience you will not regret! Actually maybe you will if you have to roam around in wet clothes in single digit temperatures after that but then who cares! You are on a holiday!!

And the winner and definitely the most fascinating place in the US is *drum rolls please* THE GREAT GRAND CANYON! And this place is just beyond description! The magnificence takes your breath away, leaves your speechless and engulfs you in your entirety in its wide arms and there you stand, like a kid wondering if this place is actually real! The history of how it came into existence is even more mindblowing (but only if you are a geek like me!). And when the sun sets over this enormous landscape, you are transported to somewhere else, the silence of the enormity echoes in your ears and makes a mark in your memories for life!

So that’s all that I saw in US – I have no suggestions on the perfect itinerary and you could probably find magic in a dozen other places because there is so much more, something for almost every kind of traveller! You may pick your own route and drive around, do the country in parts or do it as a whole, but the one thing that you just cannot miss… is that Grand Canyon sunset! I have seen nothing comparable and probably never will!!

What a Wonderful World

I have been itching to write this piece since the day I got my VISA in my hand. This particular travelogue almost failed to exist because this trip almost did not happen! Having travelled to a decent number of countries as a tourist, you do not really expect issues with VISA processes and such, because beyond a point they just become procedural in your mind. So, this one was a good wake up call.

Without giving much thought to the whole affair, we went ahead with bookings (and that too non-refundable, because confidence right?) for flights, stays and transfers about 3 to 4 months before the planned date of travel. And we kept the most important thing for the last… the VISA application process, which started a month before the scheduled travel date. In two weeks we received the totally unanticipated rejection from the Norwegian Embassy. It was supposed to be a group trip and we decided to fight it back, though with very low hopes, because an appeal could take 2-12 weeks to get resolved as per multiple travelogues. (PS: It still hasn’t been resolved for one of us!)

Finally, 72 hours before the departure time, at least a few of us received our Passports with the pricey “hard-to-get”stamp! The travel group got cut down from 5 to 3 so the morale fell as well but that’s the thing about new places and new experiences… You cannot remain sullen for long. After a somewhat sleepless night in the flight, and a day long walk of more than 10 kms across Brussels, I was tired in a content way that only travel can make you feel and looking forward to the highlight of my trip – NORWAY and a long planned break with my sister!
I have been to a handful of countries to know which ones I would want to visit again if at all I exhaust my entire wishlist and Norway tops it all. The whole experience was surreal, in a dreamy way. The first view of the Aurora Borealis took my breath away. I do not have photos to preserve the memory and I am sure I don’t need any either. That view of me standing in freezing sub-zero temperatures in a heavy parka outside our cottage next to Tromsø coast, staring wide-eyed at the green and pink dancing lights is etched in my mind for life. But, Norway in not just about the Northern lights.

The fjord cruise that took us through some amazing landscapes, the Flåm railway (which is aptly referred to as the world’s most scenic rail route), the colourful and lively old town of Bergen, the visit to the world’s northernmost brewery… these were just a handful of highlights I managed to cover as a part of the trip. Everything in this country looks so pristine and unharmed, with miles and miles without a human soul (other than the nosy tourists) that you automatically feel close to the nature, as if you are a part of it. Even their most populated capital city of Oslo is so warmly cocooned in scenic beauty that you feel like wrapping yourself in the warmth and just sleeping in its arms.

The rest of the trip was pretty much like every European trip. And the exhilaration of Norway made everything else seem pale in comparison. Copenhagen seemed like a city perfect to settle in, given the climate and the convenience the city offers. Unlike Oslo, it’s livelier with a lot more of buzz but as a tourist, there were just these never-ending line of castles and churches and spires, which beyond a point became difficult to differentiate.

Amsterdam left me with mixed feelings. Everyone knows what the city is famous for and if you live in central part of Amsterdam, the overwhelming aroma of freedom and loss of control is almost nauseating. It is like the entire city is on a high! The noise and crowd became repulsive beyond a certain point and left me with this heady feeling of claustrophobia. But having said that, if you can just see beyond that veil of sins and indifference, it is a beautiful city of canals which you can almost romanticize. You know how there is always something mysteriously attractive about a broken person… some glimpses of compassion which you fall in love with despite yourself? That’s what Amsterdam seemed like to me. There were some such glimpses which made my heart skip a beat – the history of Anne Frank, the Disney-like castles surrounding the city and the windmill village.

After all this, when I was down and out that the trip was coming to an end and brimming with all the European-ness that I had consumed in the last 2 weeks, I got a little surprise in Belgium. While Brussels was nothing more than a mundane city with unbelievable amount of chocolate and waffles, Bruges was like a dream straight out of my childhood fairy tale books. The cobbled streets, the canals, the fall and the medieval buildings kind of ensured an ideal end to the most awaited holiday for me.

For a change, a trip with minimal negative surprises and maximum breath-taking experiences… but I guess fate decided to give me a breather after the whole nail-biting VISA fiasco!

Sounds of Music

Monday morning thought as I sit in office browsing through travel websites, bank accounts and my leave calendar figuring out my next holiday destination – I have become extremely lazy with writing (I blame the Mumbai weather for that, the same way I blame it for every other thing these days!!) and more so lousy in keeping up with my travelogues. The reason – writing about your travel stories only makes you realise the captivity of your day-to-day life.

Holiday is a must now and then – at least all the millennial travel sites seem to suggest that! It helps you escape the routine rush and spend some time lazying and relaxing. But not if you are me! My holidays are more tiring that my usual days. Consequently, I spend lesser time in bed and burn more calories (as suggested by my fitness tracker) than I would on any day as a part of my “Business As Usual” lifestyle. So, I belong to the category of people who travel seeking new experiences, to see more, to absorb more and to live more. And what better place to “live more” than Europe.

While I have seen quite a bit of Western Europe, this was my first glimpse of the Eastern half, and what a marvel! I never imagined Austria to be one of the “touristy” countries. Obviously, no Bollywood movie is shot there! Our world begins and ends in Swiss Alps I guess. But what started as an office offsite plan to Vienna ended up being a beautiful chapter in my travel story collection. I strictly stick to my personal rendition in my write-ups and stay away from describing the places. What new can I add that Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor haven’t covered already!

So here goes my list of takeaways from the trip. It should more or less capture all my experiences but may or may not be useful as guidelines for future travellers:

1. Never travel in a big group! People differ and tastes differ. And if you are an obsessively punctual soul, you obviously have a lot of disappointment in store. This is a learning which gets reiterated with every trip (here I did not really have a choice)! Best ways to travel are either (A) in small groups of 3-7 like-minded people (No, acquaintances are not good enough!) I would suggest based on past experience, 2 is too small a group especially for a long trip or (B) Alone if you can handle the uncertainty, talk to random strangers and do not care for a pre-planned itinerary!

2. Most of the European capital cities can and should be covered in a day on foot, walking around aimlessly – soaking in the architecture, the history, the weather, the local food and ale and the people. You don’t have to step into every church or palace or castle, that’s not travelling that’s just sightseeing. This worked absolutely well in Vienna, Budapest and Prague for me!

3. Travel in public transports – the trams, metros and buses. The city administration knew that the local citizens don’t want to be disturbed by travellers. So, every form of transport is super convenient and self-explanatory. There are maps everywhere! Plus it’s light on pocket as almost all cities have a day pass.

4. Never use the phrase “I do not want to do X. I am not an X-kinda person!” I never knew I was an opera / orchestra kinda person till I watched the Royal Vienna Orchestra perform Mozart and Strauss. You cannot go to the City of Music and come back without experiencing music. Be ready for trying out anything new that the city offers.

5. You don’t have to be either a mountain or a beach person. You can be both! I thought I was the latter but clearly I was wrong. No beach person should miss the Eastern Alps in Innsbruck. The sprawling snow for miles is a sight not to be missed!

6. There are multiple heavens on earth. Kashmir is just one of them. I just visited one more in the form of Salzburg. If I ever have to be a small-town person, let me do it here – living in the mountains in adorable wooden homes, off cattle breeding, looking at clouds and peaks!

7. Travel as light as possible always! When you have to run across platforms to catch connecting trains and buses, luggage is a serious mood killer! Try changing 4 modes of transport to reach from Austria to Prague and you will understand why I say this!

8. Not all European cities are organized and planned. And the contrast you see as you move from Austria to Hungary to Czech is blatant! The cities become poorer and crowd less upscale. In fact, Austria is probably the perfect mix of nature, history and comfort that I have come across so far.

9. Do not fall for the “I don’t have enough savings, I will travel next year” syndrome. It’s a lie – similar to “I will start dieting from tomorrow” syndrome.

10. Never underestimate the capacity of a new city or country to overwhelm you. Even the most mundane of places have the best of memories to offer. So go everywhere and see as much as you can for there are too many countries and too less a time!

Mauritius: From itchy feet to tranquil souls!

I find writing about holidays somewhat depressing because it always brings back memories of better times and is a stark reminder of how mundane life otherwise is. But then without these words, I will probably have nothing to go back to years down the line to relive my happy days. So here goes…

This holiday was different, and I am still figuring out why! The companions were same and location more or less predictable but the experience was surreal! The vacation left me with a sense of compelte belonging which is generally a rare phenomenon for me!

The facts of the trip were simple… find some calm location to stay – we picked the northwestern coast of Grand Bay for the first half and the southern area of Tamarin for the remaining, no crazy parties, enjoy the simpler aspects of life like getting up late, lazying by the pool all day long, watching sunsets by the beach, cooking occasionally (I find it calming!!), drive around aimlessly – which we did relentlessly over the entire week, music, conversations and some wine to accompany!

Mauritius is all about oceans and beaches (it’s an island after all) and if you are there for the simplistic beauty of nature, the place has so much to offer! The catamaran sail to the Gabriel Island was the highlight of the trip for me. Sitting in the sun (not caring for the sun burns beyond a point!), watching the deep dark blue ocean – denim blue as someone referred to it and listening to the quiet of the turbulent waves! Oh the peace – I must really be growing up!

The adventure-minded have a lot to do on the island as well – there is every form of land and sea activity. We ended up just doing the quad biking which was a novelty and some safari and animal watching at Casela which is always a refreshing experience. We went with a plan to do a lot of other things but got so comfortable in the inertia of our apartment that we decided to laze out and while away our time. That’s a luxury we seldom have access to!

I have always been a beach person from my youngers days (though ironically I don’t know how to swim!) and an ideal holiday for me is sitting on the shore looking at the setting sun, a book in hand, with blurry sounds of friends chattering about in the vicinity.. be it in Goa or Mauritius or Thailand… when the expanse of the ocean engulfs you, you seldom remember the location! And that is one sight I will never get tired of. And that is the kind of holiday I can keep having again and again and again….

Of beaches: Blue, Green and Purple!

You know how people say that for a lot of things in life, you need a push or a nudge? I never knew that it would apply for me in terms of writing a blog! Somehow, my travelogues seem to fall way behind schedule. The last one I wrote was a year overdue and this one is almost (just a month short!). I read a few interesting travelogues recently (can be accessed here and here) and realised that I have almost forgotten the last real holiday I have had and when I want to relive the memories of that vacation, I can’t think of ways other than some pics here and there (I am not a very good photographer so the pics don’t really help much!). So let me just write a few words before my memory gets completely erased by the next trip that I am planning in the near future.

So where do I start on Thailand… I suppose the country is a favoured destination for a select set of people (I was definitely not in the category!). A bunch of friends, sat one day, with the agenda of planning a vacation, made multiple iteneraries over the next few weeks (we have at our disposal fully planned trips for US and South Africa FYI that can be sold out to a trip planner, at a nominal price!) and when leaves and budget refused to let us actually put those itineraries into reality, we settled for a nearer Asian destination voila! Thailand!! Mind you, we did not even have time to wait for the Visa, and thus thanked the “Visa on Arrival” countries.

So all set, four of us, leaves figured out, and multiple objectives in mind for the vacation – a couple of us with real itchy feet who want to travel every few months, one more of an animal lover whom we convinced saying “Well, Thailand is all about Eleplants!” and me? Well, I just wanted to get away from the boredom of catching the same 7:36AM local train everyday, going to the same Fort area office and meeting the same set of faces…. Ok, so I have the ultimate boring reason of wanting some time away from the predictability of my life.

I am not going to write everything I saw in the country, a lot of Travel sites are available for that. But I wanna capture the essence of how each destination made me feel. We first headed to Krabi and in hindsight, that should have been the last leg rather than the first. That place is ideal of what a holiday should look like in photographs… beaches, pretty resorts, long walks in nights to bars with live music… and comparatively lesser people! Kind of made me realise that when you are out travelling, the more the number of people around you, the lesser the fun! And this I am saying despite being above average on the “Social Barometer”. But Krabi acted as the perfect detox from the routine, and in the two days there, we had forgotten all about our now-distant seeming excels and powerpoints.

Now all rejuvenated to party and go crazy (such options were far and few in my life… considering the 6-day week I was enduring for the last year or so)… next stop was Phuket! I loved everything about Phuket, it was an amazing confluence of totally hip-hop night life and scenic grandeur. The 4-island trip was just breathtaking and there is a small problem in falling in love with a foreign country, you have to come back leaving behind a part of you! Years later, when I think of Thailand, the most vivid memory I will have is of the four of us sitting on a shack in Khai Island, just looking at the overcast sky and the unbelievably blue (almost indigo) waters of the ocean. There is a sense of calmness that even a chaotic mind (read mine) can get out of that sight!

Done with all the peace, next stop had to be Bangkok and here we decided to act all touristy! Temples, shopping malls, zoo (some elephant finally for one of our friends!), some Thai cuisine… and even a city tour. OK honestly, I don’t have many takeaways from Bangkok (definitely not worth remembering after a year!) for Bangkok is like a Thai speaking Mumbai! The traffic, the crowd, the number of restaurants and bars, and for gods’ sake, the number of Indians! With that as the last leg, we boarded our flight back to India, all satisfied and relaxed (the way you feel after a long hot bath!). There was enough of lazying around at the beaches and pools, with a book in hand and sipping a drink, to last for a month at least (or so we underestimated the monotony of our jobs!). In my wanderlusting history, this by far, was the most uneventful (in an optimistic way) holiday I had managed… oh wait.. did I forget to mention the storm that almost toppled our speedboat on way to Phi-Phi island! Well what do you know.. some things never change!!!

Ladakh: Where Thoughts Flow As Tunes

This post is at least 8 months behind target but somehow, I just never got the opportunity and the empty mind to pen this one down (in the digital format of course!). In what could probably be described as the most breathtaking landscape in India, I spent two weeks last year in Ladakh, absorbing each and every detail around me, taking in the best that nature could offer, letting myself flow with the music that can only be produced by silent hills, sprawling deserts and peaceful lakes! I basked in the glory of the silence and was left astounded by how small nature makes you feel in front of its enormity. I am sure it’s going to be a failed attempt to express those feelings into words but I am going to give it a shot nevertheless.

We were a bunch of 12, and I would say that’s quite a big party, bigger than what is needed for a place like this, because more the people, more the coordination! And this is not a trip where you want to be planning your itinerary every minute, this is one place where you want to go without time schedules, as a wanderer, a nomad, free from the daily constraints. But nevertheless, we made a good deal out of it. Given the boundaries of cost and time, we probably planned the best possible.

There is an unmistakable transition of lifestyle, as we moved from the more Urban towns/cities of Srinagar, Kargil and Leh to the much less trodden landscapes of Hunder, Hanle, Zanskar, Panikar and Padum. With every smaller town we passed, we were surprised by the lack of amenities which we would probably take as granted being from Mumbai or Delhi. The simplicity of life first baffles you and then engulfs you completely to bring a kind of peace that you have probably not experienced since you were a child and used to sleep in your mother’s lap. All of a sudden, the “smaller pleasures” as they are called (though I wonder why, to me they seem larger than life) become so evident and real that you just want to lose yourself in the calmness. When you wake up and walk outside of your humble cottage to see the twin peaks of Nun-Kun or sit outside on the porch gazing at the spectacularly clear night skies in Hanle, you get transported to a different zone altogether. And this without the aid of any form of intoxication!

And then there are those colours! What can I say about them! Is it really true that the waters of Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri change colours depending on the time of the day? I was almost convinced that my mind was playing tricks on me, it just seemed so unnatural! What an irony!!! I never actually saw such blue waters, other than in my primary school paint books. You just want to sit there 24 hours, counting the number of shades that the water takes. The view makes you want to be quiet, makes you forget your phones/cameras, makes you feel light-headed (probably also because of lack of oxygen!!) and makes you marvel at the clout that nature can have on you!

We spent hell a lot of time on the roads, but without an ounce of regret, for every road was a journey and nobody was in a hurry to get to the destination. The Srinagar-Leh highway is termed as the prettiest road in India, and why not! Every dangerous curve, every crevice and every narrow road makes you so vulnerable and takes your breath away. As you go higher and higher on the mountains, crossing the Khardung La and Zoji La, your mind becomes as light as the air around you and the world, as you know it, seems far far away! It would be unfair to end the post without saying a few words about the people in this part of the world. I suppose the beauty and purity around just seeps into their thoughts, for these people think in the simplest of ways and are probably not used to the kind of deceit and hypocrisy that we see everyday. From the driver to the homestays to the hotel owners, everybody is a pal here.

I could keep writing forever, and would still not be able to cover every detail, so let me end it here in the interest of my readers with a small ending note. Eight months later, the images of those terrains and landscapes remain etched in the memory and bring a broad smile when I think of how flawless and real that entire experience was. If at all, I don’t get a chance to go there again, all I ask for is that those recollections remain untouched forever!

Nothing else matters…

She stepped out of the train tentatively, not sure if this was a good idea. She hadn’t met or even spoken to any of them in the last 12 years. Her life had drifted away from her family, her friends and even her country. To her, everything around seemed alien. There was a time when this city used to be her break-free abode whenever she wanted to escape her stressed work life. Not any more.

She had stepped foot in her homeland just 12 hours ago and here she was, on a desolate railway platform, figuring out her next steps. She wandered out to the taxi stand and was pleasantly surprised to feel the familiarity slowly seeping in. She remembered her last visit, probably the last time she had let herself loose, before she drowned herself in her business. Those days seemed like a faraway dream now but there was something about this city that always got the better of her. Was it the freedom that it represented or just the memories… those beautiful memories with the people who mattered!

She was overcome by guilt at how reckless and self-centered she had been. Not once had she thought of getting in touch with any of them, not when they got married one after the other, not when they became parents. She had taken one heartbreak too seriously and distanced herself away from the only people, who she could call as her friends. And it had taken her a decade to get over it! Damn her ego and pride! Had it not been for a single friend, who had somehow managed to fish her email address, she would never have gotten a second chance.

Memories flooded her as she travelled through the winding roads, the roads she had driven a hundred times… the mansions with the creepers… the riverside jetty that had been witness to some of the most absurd as well as life changing conversations… the corner shop which delivered beer irrespective of the time of day… the familiar smell of the sea in the distance… and finally those doors… the place that had been a second home for the six of them!

She stood there for what seemed like an eternity, figuring out her opening words, but couldn’t come up with anything. She had almost made up her mind to leave when she heard the laughter and banter from inside. She entered the living room and it was predictably empty. She knew very well where the noise was coming from. She walked down to the basement and crossed the room to the backyard which opened to the same old breathtaking river view. She stood there grounded looking at the known yet different faces.

A big smile spread across her face – the same teasings, their usual beer and a half opened pack of her favorite cigarettes. Someone turned around and shrieked her name and all of a sudden there were ten hands hugging her… She was home again!!!