Tag Archives: Travel Lessons

The sunsets of Oia are world famous. People gather on the cliffs of the beautiful island of Santorini and watch the sky turn pink. But when we arrived in Oia to check out its beautiful sunset, we found crazy picture taking, total restlessness and complete chaos. That was the day sunsets disenchanted us. Sunsets were not for us least of all famous ones. But in Luang Prabang, out of boredom, we decided to give sunset another chance. We climbed several stairs to a temple famous for its sunset views. At the entrance we were greeted by an entrance ticket which we were not willing to buy (because we never paid an entry charge for temples back home. While the crowds continued to swell, we decided to descend back and spend the evening by the Mekong repenting the lost sunset to save 20,000 kip and a rule we often break anyways. The next morning we decided to head to Vang Vieng. The sky was clear and we wondered how beautiful the sunset from Phusi would seem this evening.   Midway journey, we halted in a tiny village on a hill with a view to a beautiful valley. That evening sky turned golden and colored everything in its hue. There were no picture clicking crowds, no fuss, no restlessness just peace and the blessing of golden sunset pervaded all but was noticed by few. We quit our jobs and traveled for months but it would be months before we realized: That sunsets are beautiful everywhere and everyday, That most beautiful sunsets are those that are not check listed That you need peace of mind to enjoy the sunsets and simply quitting your job doesn’t mean that you have it. That no matter how much money you have made in your life, you still …

We stay up night after night and prepare for our dreams – our dream college, our dream job, our dream promotion but even as we work and work hard we draw a few lines and set our own limits to how far we can go. We unknowingly decide where the comma must be placed or a full stop must appear on our everyday life adventures. There are, however, times when you are enthralled by an idea so spectacular that what you are capable of is a question that evaporates, all that remains is the idea and you and how it must come true. For us, that idea was Ladakh. Even before we realized we loved traveling or we wanted to quit our job for full time travel, we knew we loved Ladakh. How many passes can you cross? How many knee deep water puddles can you traverse? How many cold winds can you tolerate? Can you really sleep on 4500+ meters? Can you really ride for hours and hours in wilderness with no end in sight? How would you even convince your parents to let you hire a bike and go to such trying conditions?These were the answers we didn’t have, all we knew was that Ladakh must be chased. And it was Ladakh we blindly chased riding 15 hours to get straight to Manali from Delhi meeting head aches and breathlessness at Pang and basically three days in the cold of Leh-Manali highway followed by many additional days’ travel exploring the region. Nothing mattered then, but Ladakh. Ladakh taught us that when there is a passion flickering in your heart, its glow hides away all your limitations. So, if you have a passion go chase it, do not sit back or work on your limits for the best way to know your …

It was at 3,800 meters out in the open where not another sign of life could be seen that we were camping at for the night. Our companions, our guide and helper, who made our adventure possible for us were running around while we were sitting cosy in the sunlight. Even, the blades of grass in the distance were all covered in snow. We had reached at the top of Sunderdhunga at 12:30 in the afternoon while the sun was still shining. But, a few hours later, the fog and mist came down. It was in this mist that we spent the rest of the day…watching the sunset? No way! The mist wouldn’t budge and fog wouldn’t lift. But as soon as the sun set, the mist cleared and we sat down on a stone wall, put together by the past trekkers for a small kitchen area, watching the moon rise and shine. We were all huddled around the fire where our evening khichri was boiling. We knew that tomorrow morning, when the sun would rise from behind the mountains that would light up the 6000+ meter peaks that were surrounding us, it would be spectacular and all this hardship would make sense. After dinner when the fire outside was doused, we all snuggled up inside the tent. Even though, it was warm inside, we could still not get our feet to be warm enough. Vikram and I covered ourselves with all the warm clothes we had brought. All our thermals, mufflers, gloves were stuffed at the bottom of our sleeping bag but we still woke up from time to time with cold feet. When even to snuggle, be inside the tent  and sleeping was challenge, the nature called. To attend the call of the nature in this ass freezing cold …

When was the last time someone didn’t care about who you were but simply welcomed you in their home? When was the last time someone gave you your space in his own physical space? When was the last time someone said, “Tell me more” and got all excited about your new idea? When was the last time someone said everyone is invited and actually meant it? Seed Snehal If you haven’t experienced any of this in a long time, you haven’t met Snehal yet. Snehal is a man who identifies himself with dreams, his or others that’s why he calls his abode – ‘Sapney farm’. A breathing ground for dreams that the world claims it doesn’t need his farm is the oasis of freshness, an asylum to protect the ‘new’, in a world where the usual and the obvious have banished the new and unusual. But of course, I wasn’t aware of this. All I remembered about Snehal was a man who is the owner of the Kofibar in Auroville. There is something unacceptably commercial about ventures claiming to be non-commercial and for the good of all that keeps me away from them therefore, the idea of staying in a commune on a permaculture farm with people from “who knows where” for a week somehow did not appeal to me. We arrived in Auroville after 10 days of Vipassana in Chennai. We headed straight for our favourite glass of cold coffee at Kofi Bar and met with Snehal and his friends there. The evening ran into night and as we returned after a late dinner, it was already pitch dark at the farm. Unable to see a thing, we held each other’s hand and were led to our hut. The two level bamboo hut was a dream come true. It was the first …

Luang Prabang was great but journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was boring and everything in South East Asia was turning about to be lukewarm! Then God ventured in. At Vang Vieng while all the passengers on the tourist mini-bus got on the tuk-tuk at “whatever you quote” price of the tuk-tuk driver, Valerie and Andrew were the only ones who with a copy of “South East on a Shoestring” decided to walk it to the town. “Well, we don’t know where we want to go so we can’t get on the tuk-tuk”, Andrew said sounding hesitant. The truth was nobody who was on the tuk-tuk knew where they wanted to go and it was past 10 in the night. “Well, if they can walk it, so can we,” thought the budget traveler in us and we got off the tuk-tuk. Just as we got off, we saw the girl with the aviators (Valerie) and the unusually tall and awkward guy (Andrew) returning to the tuk-tuk. We thought they were returning to take us with them. That would be very friendly. (In hindsight, we think they returned because they realized to walk alone in an unknown town at night when you don’t know where you want to go was a stupid idea and that is why no one else was doing it so they decided to take the tuk-tuk. But the fact that we were off the tuk-tuk following their lead gave them some strength.) Our first question to them was, “Do you know where we need to go?” and their response “errrm…no.” Was that the life changing moment of our life or what. Neither of us knew where we were headed (but we got someplace beautiful alright.) What followed later was a tuk-tuk ride to the town at …