While travelling in Switzerland I had sought my daughter Vidisha's advice on how to design my own travel website. In her own inimitable way and without letting me down directly she asked "Dad, what is the objective of starting the website? Is it going to be a travel guide? Who is your target audience - youngsters who backpack, or family with young children or retired people like you who want travel in comfort? What genre do you want to write about - Food, culture, places, people, infrastructure or something else?" My answer was "FORGET THE WEBSITE" :-) She smiled and said "No, that's not what I meant. There are enough travel guides and websites which give all this but to make your writings unique all you need is to write your personal experiences. No one else can ever write that and all those who read it will be able to pick whatever they like to know about." I could not agree with it more so here it is. My personal experiences as a traveller.
Why write it now?
I had been dreaming about doing a road trip around India in my car, on my own. Sometimes things just happen for a reason. While talking to my wife Vijaya, she said "Why don't you take off on that road trip that you have always been talking about?" Well that's all that was needed. I started planning feverishly on the routes, what to carry, whom to meet, what to see, what to wear etc etc.
Preparation for the trip itself took time. I booked an appointment for a full maintenance of my car and got it thoroughly checked up. For the next 10000+ kms there should be no hiccups there. In addition I purchased a Jump Starter Cable Set, a Selfie Stick, a torch etc. I already had a Pneumatic Jack, Air Compressor, Car Cover etc so basics needed for the car were done. Thereafter I created a list of other things like medical kit, clothes to suit different weather conditions as well occasions since I would be attending two weddings during my trip to the North. I also created templates for keeping track of fuel consumption, budgeted for food and accommodation. I contacted many friends to see if they would be around when I pass by the cities in which they were staying. It was indeed a wonderful response.
Initially I planned a ride along the borders of India including the coast. The time taken and various other constraints forced me to change the plans. I decided to do the trip in two phases. The first one with Vijaya covering South to include places that we had always wanted to travel to. Thereafter in the second phase I plan to take off Solo to the West, North and Central parts of India and then part of the Eastern coast. Big Dreams!!
This travelogue by no means is a guide for other travellers. It is just my personal experiences along my way to understand India's culture, places, food, people, languages, infrastructure and progress. I had done many such road trips earlier but this is the first one where I decided to pen down and share my experiences. You can pick and choose what you would like to read about. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it down.
No comments:
Post a Comment