How to realize your travel dream?

At 24, I have traveled  more than most people I know(most. That doesn't include the list of amazing people who are somehow traveling even more ). As a travel consultant, I interact with lot of people daily and I know a lot of people who are looking forward to have their own dream experiences come to life. During my discussions the excuses such as “I don’t have time” or “I can’t afford it” are very very frequent.

While this may be true for some(mostly it is not), in my opinion they are all still excuses. If you really want to go and travel (and not just like the idea of traveling), you should starting seeing solutions. If you feel that you can’t afford to realize your travel dream, here are some tips for you:

1.  Make a bucket list 

You probably know where you want to go(congratulations!!) or you are like me and everyone else and want to go everywhere and explore everything. Either way, I recommend on jotting down whenever you discover a new place you want to travel. Did you read about a village in Himachal or Sicily? Or maybe your friend had this awesome bachelors in the beaches of Koh-Samui?

Write it down, and maybe(hopefully) you’ll find yourself going to these very places someday! The purpose of this is to help you figure out where you want to go first(in the whole wide world) if you don’t have any strong preferences. 

If you are planning on exploring a place you passionately want to visit, it will be a lot easier to sacrifice things what you need to get there.

2.  Go for the shoulder season

Shoulder season is the best season to visit any destination, the weather is almost perfect, hordes of tourist have either left the place or are yet to arrive. The hotel and flight prices are extremely low, talk about a end of season sale in travel. 

Think about the reason why you are traveling, while making this decision. Looking for a tip-top definition destination or you are fine with little rains(that is how I usually travel)   

3.  Decide the destination

There comes a time when you have to make the decision. Keep in mind the hotel and flight prices and the above two points. You can even consult a travel expert or a firm to provide you with some valuable suggestions like us. 

Most of all, I recommend you to follow your heart, in all good probability if you are passionate about the trip, everything will be fine(or you think it is fun!).

4. Know your comfort level

Do you want to stay at hostels or you want your beds to be real comfortable. Travel with local transport or in private cabs? Knowing your comfort level helps you to know how much you have to save. This might really break or make your experience. Is it really okay to stay and travel in local transports and hostels to extend your stay a bit(I am fine with that)?

I travel letting my comfort zone drop as low as possible. In my opinion great experiences can never be traded for comfort, though I have suffered consequences too(read my previous blog post). 

Keep in mind that it is easier to say you are comfortable with a local home stay with roadways bus but when you get there you might feel differently.   

5.  Estimate the costs

All I ask is that you do a quick estimate of the costs and the factors, like flight tickets, transport, accommodation and food. 

When you are going to explore a difficult or offbeat destination you can always go in a group pre-booked by travel firms. 

It is always difficult to arrange the security backups for a single person than it is for a group, going with a group will cut down your costs effectively and as a side-effect you will end up with loads of beautiful travel buddies. Important points: compromise on comfort but not on safety. 

You can contact us on Facebook or on our website for our upcoming departures.

6. Book flights

This is the most important piece of advice to realize your travel dream. Dive in with your eyes closed. Just do it. If you can’t afford to buy the tickets right here and now, use a credit card or multiple sites provides options to book tickets in EMIs. Stop making excuses. If you really want to go on this journey, it is absolutely vital that you stop procrastinating and book your tickets right here and now.

Once the tickets are booked, there is no going back. Everything will be so much easier from now on. Now you just don’t want to save money, you have to save money. You’re going!.

7. Start a travel blog and tell everyone

I really recommend recording your journey in some way or the other. If blogging is not your thing, try to keep a personal journal. Or maybe start a project where you send one postcard home each day. Sharing your excitement will not only make it better, you will also feel more obligated to save up and go.

Keep in mind that all these tips are subjective and based on my own experience. If this doesn’t work for you, do something else that works! The important part is to stop dreaming and start doing. The world is at your feet.

Varanasi: City older than history!

It was frustrating,end of march and starting of summers. Like most of our plans this was long due. We aimed a long weekend, booked our train tickets from Delhi and Boom! we were headed towards Banaras. One of the holiest cities of the world.

We got down from the station and first thing we saw was the staggering amount of people moving with fierce ferocity in different general directions. The precious smell of street food was drilling down the nose but we decided to check in our hostel first.

                                                      "HosteLaVie - Our abode in Varanasi"

The hostel was amazing. It had a great roof top(unfortunately which was discovered only on the last night by us), great breakfast, smart beds. It was situated just in the front of Assi ghat, giving us a rather amazing Banarasi View. 

Our first hot-spot aim was "Kashi Vishwanath". The line was long. Kilometer long. But we were in a new place, the traveler stubbornness kept us from backing down. The temple felt like a large living creature. It was a enormous experience something which is hard to define in words. 

After temple we moved down to food. Amazingly good food is luxury in Kashi, luxury available to all. Simplest of the dishes, twisted and given beautiful Benarasi flavor. Hard to ignore sweets. Lassi which you will like feel like gulping down in gallons. Foodie inside me was crying with happiness. One thing which I was not expecting in Varanasi was the availability of  authentic south Indian food, my expectations were challenged. Kashi has strong Tamilian roots and it reflected in there food culture too. 

 

"Blue Lassiwala"

 They focus and are famous for their flavored lassi menu, overtime this place has become a must see destination for tourists visiting Varanasi and India.

 

"Boat ride in Ganga"

 "You cross ghats sitting in the boat"

The 2 hour boat ride in Ganga was soul touching. It was peace oasis in the chaotic city. Imagine the loudest music in the area playing just in vicinity of your ear. And suddenly there's pin drop silence. With coolest breeze flowing with sun shining brighter than ever. Cool, sweaty and calm, the state in which we were left after our ride.

                                                  "The Ganga Aarti - Enchanting experience"

Varanasi is full of experiences. But when I look back my most vivid experience was Ganga Aarti. The time stopped. We were mesmerized. Awestruck! Everything looked and felt divine. We were in deep meditative phase. There was sync between the priests and the holy water. It almost felt like Ganga is answering the prayers. It took us 15 minutes to get normal after aarti trance. 

Next day, we visited Sarnath. Its hard to believe a establishment so near to the Varanasi and it seemed untouched by Kashi's charm(It had its own charm). 

                                                 "Sarnath: Home of the Ashoka chakra"

   By the time we bid good bye to Varanasi, I was already overwhelmed by emotions. It is city of polar opposites. Chaos exist there in order!

"Aur jabbhi har sawal Ka jawab
ek sawal hi hota,
yuhi ghat pe beth jaya karte the,
ghat ki jalti aag,
mano kuch sawalo ko raakh krdeti,
bakiyo ka jawab de deti

Fir kya
Ek chai, do paan aur bas
Zindagi Banaras ho jaya karti thi."  

By Anonymous" 

How to travel Sikkim on a low bugdet- Part 1!!

Sikkim is a backpacker dream. We consider ourselves top of that chain(like everyone else) thus we planned our trip to this north eastern heaven. Like most other backpackers of our age group, we are still learning how to manage our finances. We had a pretty goofy month in January and we were pumped up enough to plan out something for ourselves in February.

We were in a hurry and Sikkim was in our mind for sometime but we didn't want to repeat the Kasol experience( For ref: Humorous Kasol ) we did our research.Its been a while we are marketing and selling products in the north(Our products), we wanted our user and customers to have curated experience in the north-east with the best of the local operators.


How we reached there:

Killing two birds with an arrow, we booked our train tickets. Our journey started from Jaipur. The place where we boarded our train. The train tickets from Jaipur cost around 700/- per person(Sleeper) and the nearest train station to the state is NJP(New Jalpaiguri).

"Jaipur Railway Station"

Alternatively, you can book the flights to Bagdogra(the nearest airport to Sikkim).

 "Jaipur to NJP"

Time to reach there(from Jaipur):

By Train: 30-38 hours.
By Plan: 2-3 hours

We reached there late at night(we were supposed to reach in the noon!) our train was late. If you haven't arranged or pre-booked your pick-up you can either hire a private cab or a shared cab to Gangtok or Rangpo(depends upon where you are staying).

Price(Silliguri to Gangtok):

Time: 3-3.5 hours
Private Cab: 3000-4500/- for a cab
Shared Cab: 300-400/-   per person

Silliguri(NJP is the train station) is a safe town to stay and if you reach late like us its better to stay here for a night and start in the morning.

"NJP Railway Station"

Places to stay in Silliguri:

We reached late at night around 11.00 pm and luckily got a cab at 2 in the morning, but there are loads of guesthouses and even Indian railways restrooms offering good bed and place to rest for backpackers and otherwise, quality is good.


Cost per night: 300/- per night per person.

Places to see and how to travel:

We reached Rangpo, one of the first border town of Sikkim on the border of Sikkimese and West Bengal border. We saw the bridge joining the two states early in the morning around 4.30 am and view was perfect! Cold mountain air was flowing, there was Rangpo river flowing just below the bridge. People of the town were just waking up from sleep and taking care of there early morning chores. Lights from the homes were shimmering.

We were fascinated with the view. Crossing the bridge, we checked in into our guest house for the coming two days(we had already missed a night because of the train.). By the time we rested and got up it was already noon.

"Front of our guest house"

The first place we chose to see was Aritar Lake.

The place is near to Rangpo. You can take a private cab to the lake or take a shared one to Renok and then hire a private one from there. We hired a shared cab to Renok, the small town's food is worth eating and the market is interesting.

Price(From Rangpo):

Private cab to Aritar: 800-1000/- for one side.
Shared: 50 per person to Renok. And from Renok its 300/- for one way in a private cab.

Aritar Lake and nearby regions:

Unlike the most of Sikkim, this area is pretty isolated from the rest of the state, bounded by Mt. Kanchendzonga, the region has lush green forest and steady flowing rivers nearby. The Aritar Lake (Ghati-Tso) is a local attraction, as are traditional villages and monasteries like Lingsay.

The lake is green and If you are lucky enough you will get a chance to sit and drink the local beer with the nature(yes we were lucky!).

"Way to Aritar"

"Aritar Lake"

"Wayback from Aritar"

Back to Rangpo. I would suggest you to take a cab back to Rongli. The town is small and beautiful but like all the mountain town the market and nearby areas are worth exploring. Alternatively you can take the same route back to Rangpo.

Way to Rangpo(From Aritar):

Trek to Rongli(4 Kms)
Cab to Rangpo:
Shared: 50/- per person
Private: 300/- one way.

After 5 pm its hard to get shared cabs in the region because the area gets dark soon.

In the coming next post I will describe how we covered rest of the state on a low backpacker budget. There is no sense in making this post long and boring.

Till next post...!!
 
       

 

"Gurudwara Manikaran Sahib"

We visited Manikaran while we were in Kasol during new year. Though Manikaran is a place of pilgrimage for both Hindu's and Sikhs, backpackers come here mostly to enjoy and escape the chilling cold of the terrain.


According to the legends it is the same place Lord Manu, started and established human civilization again after the great flood. There are various Hindu temples situated here and one of the most sacred Gurudwaras in the world.

Manikaran,  situated in one of the most visited districts of Himachal, i.e. Kullu. Quite near to the hippie paradise Kasol, it gives a complete nonsensical feeling when you come here and feel the spirituality in the air.  

                                                    A view from the Gurudwara

"The Ever Flowing River - Manikarnika"

"Parvathi River"

How we tripped in Kasol and How we tripped from the ladder-2.0!

All the major decisions which disrupt life are seemingly taken during the age of 22 to 28. Decisions like who we might end up spending our life with, what should be the name of your first born child or in other cases(like mine) what brand of toothpaste you should experiment with coming week(truly disruptive).

But some of major life changers(apparently) which all Indians experience are whether going to Kasol or Goa this weekend(like every weekend). Both the destinations hold equal status in the dreams of an average Indian of the above mentioned age group. Mountains or beaches? Forests or seas? Weed or .... well both places have there own perks and both have there path to straight Nirvana.

Last December, our travel sense took a crack on these unimaginably hard choices and we started our journey: How we reached Kasol .

The "small" trek of 9 KMs started from Jari to Somaroopa. Initially we were so tired of sitting down in the bus for last 26 hours that it was probably the best decision in our minds at that time to take the walking stroll towards the

camp (later it was actually turned otherwise). Forgetting the initial hardships (please read: How we reached Kasol ) we were up for a fresh start, the way was truly beautiful and our stomachs were full. The starting trek was downhill and we were carrying a truckload of stuff with us and like the general people of our age we overestimated our walking capabilities(we like to boast our trekking skills).

By the time we reached Malana(probably half the journey), we were already out of breath. The morning cold and weight on the shoulders was taking the toll and we took our first break. The beauty of the spot made everything worthwhile. River, the air , the forest and the trees, everything was live out a poets imagination. We met some super friendly people on the way, we took some puffs from the Malana cream(a mistake!!, Straight road became a treacherous path after that. Our loyal legs gave into the Malana high and we walked towards our camps with snail speed. Skipping the gory details of our adventure(I can elaborate, but i will probably take more space than i am willing to write, you can message me if Interested) By the time we covered the distance it was high noon and our bodies crying out of pain.

Malana Chills

We comforted ourselves by seeing lively campsites and ultra-comfortable camps. We kept our bags inside, and since we were already out of the mood to walk anymore took a bus straight to Manikaran.

Gurudwara: Manikaran Sahab

It is a famed pilgrim for both Hindus and Sikhs, and backpackers come here to skip the cold and take a dip into the super hot springs(literal 100 degrees!). We took the bath and we were "Re"-fresh. It was time to explore the local Kasol and make some new friends on the way.

We had some of the most amazing and weird food experiences there, may be it was the remnant effect of the Malana Smoke or the Sulphur fumes from the hot springs our heads were still heavy with a small leg spin. Exploring Kasol was fun, even more was the fun to travel back to our camps. The buses were overflowing with a mix of local people and lousy backpackers(like us!). We made some friends who were staying near our camps and a quick late evening early night party was planned between the seven of us.

The party started at 9 and (there is a lot of embarrassment involved in between) and I woke up in our camp at 3 in the morning shivering at -9 degrees outside without blanket and beside me was my friend in even worse state sitting and shivering. The third was dreaming happily with all the blankets of our camps on him(Laugh!).

How we tripped in Kasol and How we tripped from the ladder!!

We started our trip with the shabby and quick Haryana Roadways from Jaipur to Delhi, since we were all acclaimed travel experts(laughter here and there) we thought that travel time to reach Delhi would be under 7 hours(with all the expertise of google maps and not taking into the account the usual Delhi traffic).

This experience was actually planned by us to close a rather stressful year but since the year did not end and the stars were not in our favor(obviously) the experience turned out a mirror of our year passing(Full of downs and ups).

Our per-booked bus from Delhi to Bhunter was at 7.05 pm and we reached the bus stand at 7.30 pm and missed the bus by “a slight margin”. We were backed into a corner and because of the above reasons(our assumed expertise in travel) our ego was not ready to pay extra for the tickets already booked. We called the bus driver and noted down the nearest point the bus would stop for a “loo-break” and we were pumped enough(since it was only the beginning) to go after a Roadways bus in the next roadways bus to catch it.

Ending your year in Haryana Roadways

Believe it or not, but we caught the bus by 11.30 pm and majestically shivered through rest of the journey with the occasional relief cups of tea without any further adventures for the night. We got down at Jari, a small and beautiful place near Kasol. And had a huge breakfast.

Our stomachs were full with breakfast and tea(lots of it) we wanted to stretch our legs and thus we started our 7 Kms trek towards our camping ground.