Hellllooo people ! i m so excited to finally start my blogging journey today after thinking since so loong. Hope u all like it .
Like everyone, I am also travelling since childhood which used to be
the family tours or the religious tours but I used to love them for the sake of
travelling & visiting new places. which later on continued in the form of
school trips further converting into study or site visit tours in architecture
. Hence, it became more of an obsession for me.
From the last few trips I have been travelling in a group of 2-3 and the last one being a solo travel which offers various advantages than
travelling in a larger group. Though each plant has its own flowers and thorns,
likewise, there are perks as well as some mishaps in group travel.
Nowadays, making trips is not just a normal travelling for me but a
challenge to complete it in limited budget avoiding unnecessary luxury travel
plus to explore and capture as much as possible by engaging with locals and other travelers around to know their culture and lifestyle better.
It’s a totally alien feeling which can be only gulped
if you travel a lot into different parts having amazingly poles apart cultures.
I m always overwhelmed by the response I get When I return from a trip, on one hand where some of my friends have been forcing
me to share my thoughts and to write about my trip experiences , then, on the
other hand, few appreciate me about how well I did the solo travel and that its
not an easy job which everyone can do. People tend to keep asking me about
their queries about how I manage to travel in a budget being a student &
how can they start with the same too which motivates me for my further
escapades.
So here are some points I
would like to share to remember before and during your travel :-
When you plan to travel
first think about the place and the number of days you have to spend there
along with the the budget available.
Once you finalize the
location you are travelling to, explore
the places to visit there through net ,
blogs , various travelling sites , talking to a local , or the friends who
have visited there before you after which you can decide the number of days you
will need .
Don’t just depend on the study done online as many-a-times its not
relevant and could be half correct too. While you arrive at the venue, interact with locals & the people
around to know the interesting places and also the local events happening
around. They are always a visual treats and enrich oneself culturally.
There is probably very little that will shape
your travelling experience on the Indian Railways as the class you decide to
travel by. One could travel from Delhi to Mumbai for as little as INR 275
in the unreserved coaches of the Firozpur Janata Express, as well as pay
fifteen times that amount (INR 4,135) travelling by First AC Sleeper in the
Mumbai Rajdhani Express. So doing a little homework before making the
reservations doesn’t hurt much.
There is far more "life" in the Sleeper
Class coaches when compared with the average AC coach. I find ac class very
boring & prefer to travel in sleeper class if the weather permits as 1
could see the lifestyle of the common man and the much more happening around
stories in the sleeper class.
One
can just look out of the window and it appears as if the live movie is on from a
wide gamut of scenes of lush green
fields, a deserted station, raindrops streaming down the window pane, a hawker
scourging the crowd to find his next prospective buyer to goodbye kisses &
welcome home hugs- an atmosphere charged with human emotions.
Always try your best to take shared autos
and taxis instead of hiring private
taxi’s / cabs. Apart from that it is cheap and safe, it opens to its users the possibility
of meeting other people and it becomes a medium of inter-social encounters
across all boundaries of social, ethnic and other types of affiliation.
Instead of looking for a 3-4 star or a luxurious hotel , look for a room with basic necessities as when u are travelling you are out for a whole day and you just need a place to sleep and bath and you can save a lot of green in stay . Don’t book online rooms beforehand as you have more options when you look out for hotels personally and also can bargain for prices .
Hotels
are fun and even cheap hotels have their charm but sometimes, you have to dig
deeper. Indian hospitality is justifiably famous and to really get to know the
culture of a place- you have to stay with an Indian family.Staying
with a local family while travelling is a very culturally rich experience and
will separate you from the likes of high maintenance and normal travellers .
ØLook around:
Note your surroundings. You can even be friendly. The more you look
like you know exactly what you're doing (even if you don't), the less your
target will show. Be confident about everything. It surely helps. Makes you
less of a prone victim for any mishap.
ØTrust your instincts :
If a situation just doesn't seem right to you, it probably isn't.
ØGain knowledge about your destination :
Learn
about the local customs, including those around appropriate dress, as well as some key phrases in the local language so that you can communicate in the
most basic way. Learning about your destination will make you more aware of
risks, help you to be better prepared to deal with emergencies that may occur, and will make your
trip a lot easier in general.
Ø Proper Homework and
documentation :
Scan
your travel documents as well as photocopy them. Carry your documents when you
are out especially I-card , address of where you are staying and most important
contact numbers. A diary in which your name, phone number, your permanent
address and the contact details of your closed ones can also be a lot of help
as there are many-a-times quite generous people around too which can be of great help if you lose something important.
Its not necessary to carry big cameras while you travel. I personally prefer phone cameras are better and offer various advantages as compare to dslrs.
The obvious main advantage of using the phone as a travel camera is how convenient it is. Not only it is small and lightweight, it is discreet and always at the ready go mode. It’s easy to sneak a phone into places where you can’t take photos. Also its less of a tiresome job to carry dslrs everywhere.
It
also makes post-processing, from cropping, and correction, to filters, a matter of tapping the screen, with
apps like PowerCam, Instagram, Hipstamatic and Pixlr Express . The Phone might not take great
travel photos, but you can definitely make its crappy photos look great!
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson
So people just follow your
heart, move out of your homes and boring workplaces as this world is very
beautiful and you will never get tired of exploring.
Happy & safe travelling.
