Tag Archives: backpacking

It is an otherworldly place. The only place we went in South East Asia where English was not understood, foreigners and travellers from outside were few and far in between, people were genuine and hospitable and no matter how hard we tried, we could not explain what vegetarianism meant. People smoked all the time, everywhere: inside the air conditioned buses, in public areas and offices,  but yet they smiled so politely piercing your soul and warming your heart, that you don’t mind the smoke, the discomfort of the tight vans and minibuses, the crazy drunk drivers who are popping in tablets to keep themselves high. The torrential rains and heavy winds made you feel as though they would blow the roof of your head and sooner than later the water would come gushing in your hut which they fondly call bungalows following the command equatorial climes but minutes later the sun would shine just as bright as the smiles of the people and dry your back like there was never a drop on it anyways. We could relax all day by the lake with no pressure of things to do and activities to be accomplished. Sumatra is one of those places where you just are rather than trying to be. It is for us the ultimate place to relax, a highly recommended “cool spot” by our definition. For more information on Sumatra and what not to miss on the island…Read here

  A year long travel taught us the rules of budget travel. 10 commandments of a budget traveller Thou shall not stay in a place with air conditioners, mini bar or a hotel with any star Thou shall bargain for everything including petrol and medicines and of course water Thou shall not buy tickets from the hotel concierge (point to be noted: if your hotel has a concierge and it is called that, then you are not following the first commandment) Thou shall find the best deal on everything even if it means that deal finding left you no time to do the thing you wanted to do Thou shall eat at a ridiculously cheap place and get a diarrhea Thou shall never take taxis from anywhere to anywhere  Thou shall walk it even if it means that thou shall be in bed for two days after the walking Thou shall look for the cheapest laundrette in town only after number 9 Thou shall look for a bucket to do your own laundry  <<Are you a budget traveler? Help us figure out the tenth>>

Remember the time your mother told you never to take anything from strangers and you thought she was probably being overly suspicious but you still agreed with the advise. Better safe then sorry, right? Probably no one ever offered anything to you. Maybe you did get offered a few things and nothing wrong happened. Was mother wrong then? No, never, mothers are never wrong and you are never grown up enough for her advise to not apply. We learnt it the hard way. Well, it could have been worse. One evening, the first evening of our South East Asian odyssey, we had taken a bus to Penang from Kualalumpur and found our self in Butterworth from where we took a bus to Georgetown. As we were looking for hotels a tall, bald man approached me (Ishwinder) and said he could show us a room for 22 MYR. Now that is about INR 440! “Great!” I thought. If you are in Malaysia, you should know that there is no such thing as budget! Most rooms were upwards of 40 MYR so we were happy that this guy who though a little dubious stopped us in the street and then walked a good kilometer with us to show us this guest house which at first we thought was his but later realized was owned by a Chinese man. It was at the edge of the Love Lane and was surrounded by multiple other more upscale guest houses. Although the whole place itself was falling apart, we decided to stay just for the spirit of budget travel and the smile of the man at the reception. It must have been someone’s old bungalow built in a colonial times and obviously it received no attention in the modern day. Anyhow, we still decided to stay …