Royal Travels News

Travel without a plan - One morning I woke and decided that I wanted to go to Mizoram and rushed to the local Mizoram house to get an Inner Line Permit and being perpetually broke was on a bus to Aizawl by evening. It is a 28 hour bus journey over horrendous excuses for roads so much so that apparently nobody in their sane mind ever took a bus to Mizoram. I went for it and even managed to persuade a friend to come along. A similar feat was repeated in Chennai, albeit with a hangover, to visit the postcard perfect island of Kathupalli. On both occassions, I had a just a vague idea of what I would be doing once I reached the destinations. There is a thrill in travelling without a plan or any specific goal in mind. The hunger for discovering a new place sustains you and nourishes you.

Strive for the 'postcard' experience - Most of us are too busy searching for the picture-perfect moment and we seem too keen to form our memories based on what we have read and assumed will be fun or cool to do. In the process, we settle for the humdrum and the ordinary. On the contrary, the most innocous things can be the memories that linger on long after the trip is over. I had a fifteen year old guide on a trip to one island in the middle of the Brahmaputra. He guided me thorough the wilderness on the island calmly mentioning that tigers were not uncommon in the area. The memory of that walk in the forest in the evening has stayed on. No guidebook or pre-planned 'adventure' trip would have prepared me for that. That became my 'postcard' experience. Don't strive too hard for your postcard experienc. It will happen as long as you have fun.

Live off the grid - In certain parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, as it will be in many others part of India too, there is no mobile phone connectivity and it will be dark by 6 in the evening. Use moments like these to contemplate and relax. Listen to the crickets outside , snow falling or boats thudding against each other as the waves slap against them. Revel in face-to-face conversations and get re-acquainted with pen and paper. A few days in such locales and you will realize that you have been 'connected' without been connected.

Travel alone - There is something amazingly overwhelming about being alone. Part fear and part thrill at the prospect of facing the unknown. The best part about travelling alone is that you are not really alone as this gives you a wonderful opportunity to meet new people, forge new relations and see things from another person's perspective.

Travel with little or no homework - Homework is good. It makes you prepared and ready but so does a course in disaster management or a meeting to ahieve targets in your office. Where is the fun it that? I am not suggesting that you go to Afghanistan without doing your homework but sometimes no homework opens up new insights in your mind and new locations that you never knew existed in the place where you are going.

Royal Travels News