Aha! First post!
Before we begin, let us introduce ourselves.
We met in 2005 while pursuing undergraduate studies in Sociology Hons. In 2008 three months before our final exams, we used a month out of our study leave period to trapeze across rural Karnataka. We pursued a Masters in Social Work from 2008 to 2010 in the course of which both of us kept up with our road trips. Between 2010-2014 we worked and traveled a genre of backpacking road trips and business travel.
While meeting our challenge to ourselves, we have met several people who have asked us how to go about this. Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions we have managed to address:
1. Is it safe to travel cheap? (Asked by a young lady considering taking a gap year after college)
We: Safety is subjective to a situation. However one can be careful. Some of our methods are to always take State transport (Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa, Himachal, so far have stunned us with their brilliant fleet), to travel mostly during the day, extensive use of Indian Railways and to connect to a wide network of friends and family who live across Indian. Don't stay in shady places if you are traveling alone. Asia and I stayed at a hut on Palolem Beach paying Rs. 500 per night. However we would not have made that choice had we been traveling solo. Read up on the place you are about to visit. Google helps. You can also talk to a random local (not taxi drivers.) Opt for homestays. Opt for off season travel.
2. How do you select places? (Asked by a bartender who was serving Lime-water at 1 am to a super dehydrated Asia)
We: Random. Some are completely on the basis of opportune moments. Later this month, Asia is joining a trip to the North East to touch the living roots in monsoon. On August 10th , either both of us or one of us will be at Lahol, Spiti to witness the perigee full moon.I am training for the Valley of Flowers and to become a certified scuba diver by December 2014.
However that said, a good way to map places are to start with the less adventurous ones. First plan a weekend getaway. Every city in India has a convenient weekend getaway. We are working on a map to mark it. It will be up on our blog shortly. Stay tuned. Plan a trip which does not stretch your pocket. Does not stress you out. And then start challenging yourself.
3. How do you budget? (Asked by an innkeepers' wife)
We: First we allocate on travel. Train tickets. Bus tickets. We are committed to Indian Railways. Then on accommodation. We read reviews. We look at location photographs. We call up the places. We book for one night. Once we are there we look for cheaper options. If we find, we move the next day or we stick on. We are hardly ever at a single place for the entire trip. We then allocate for food. You will be surprised how cheap a good meal can be in places that localities frequent and how absolutely delicious. We then budget for packaged drinking water. And that often is more expensive than how much we spend on food on a single trip. We set aside a good amount for emergencies and luxuries. One must never forget that no matter how cheap you are traveling, it is a vacation!
4. How do you manage souvenirs? (Asked by a foreign national at his wits end while trying to pick up things for folks back home)
We: Ah, you see, anything can be a souvenir. We tend to pick up local weave (textile), seeds and saplings of local plants, sometimes even those growing in the wild (We almost planted a forest of citronella after hiking through the woods in Karnataka), tablets, spices, glass work. If you stop by any local market or even a market day, you can be amazed at what you can gift. If in the hills definitely pick up local music CDs or CDs with chants.
You can buy pretty glass bottles, fill them with the spices sold in the open market, put a hand written message with a local stamp from the post office and voila! your souvenir for the special person back home is ready.
Or like one of our dearest friend, Niti did, you can go to the Post Office and post a letter. She did it from the highest altitude post office in India and that added more to it.
5. What about medical emergencies? (Asked by my doctor)
We: Every place in India has a Health Centre. Every district has a hospital. The moment you reach a new place, enquire about the following - 1. A good place to eat, 2. A 2X7 or atleast close to it pharmacy and departmental store, 3. An amicable doctor 4. An amicable policeman. Also, buy a local newspaper and read.
6. What do you definitely need to pack? (Asked by our neighbour)
We: This is going to be quite a list:
Medicines (ask your General Practitioner for this)- My kit contains Paracetamol, Flu meds, Azithral, Anti Histamines, Odomos, Flucos, Pudin Hara, Sinarest, Combiflam, Band Aids, Betadin, Betnovet, Tears Naturale, Relispray, Hand Sanitizer.
One All Out with Machine. (Good Knight is slimmer but its smell turns me off.)
Clothes! One complete outfit for half the number of days you will be out. So if you are traveling for 6 days, make sure you have atleast 3 lowers, 3 uppers and corresponding inner wear and socks. Add a comfortable sleepwear. Remember the Indian Mosquito. Pack accordingly. Quick dry innerwear.
One light weight towel.
Cosmetics- The usual suspects - soap, shampoo, tooth brush, tooth paste [you can get all this locally as well] and Lacto Calamine, Boro Plus (they double up as moisturizers, treat minor cuts and burns, is a soothing lotion), a small bottle of eucalyptus oil (the common cold is very common. stay prepared), glycerin (it is the mixer which can turn the boro plus cream into a body lotion within minutes, does not take too much of space and the smallest plastic bottle will last you a week).
Tissues and wet wipes.
Phone, charger, spare charger...And even if you possess a state of the art smartphone please carry a spare Nokia basic phone with a BSNL sim card - I have a Nokia 1616 and it is the best Rs. 1000 I have ever spent. The BSNL sim card means you will have coverage EVERYWHERE. Nokia 1616 means a great battery life.
One easily replaceable identity proof. My go to choice is the Driving License. Replacing anything else in the Indian pantheon of identity cards is a great pain. Keep Xerox copies of all known identity proof known to you and mankind handy.
Health insurance card. A good book. Earphones.
Cash. Debit Card. Credit Card. Some stamp and passport size photographs of yourself. A notebook with phone numbers of everyone you want to call if you lose your memory or your luggage.
A Swiss Knife. A pair of scissors. A good nailcutter. (Especially if you are planning on hiking and trekking)
Stay tuned for the next posts which will chronicle our trips.
To contribute to this blog, please let us know of your interest through a comment below.
Before we begin, let us introduce ourselves.
We met in 2005 while pursuing undergraduate studies in Sociology Hons. In 2008 three months before our final exams, we used a month out of our study leave period to trapeze across rural Karnataka. We pursued a Masters in Social Work from 2008 to 2010 in the course of which both of us kept up with our road trips. Between 2010-2014 we worked and traveled a genre of backpacking road trips and business travel.
While meeting our challenge to ourselves, we have met several people who have asked us how to go about this. Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions we have managed to address:
1. Is it safe to travel cheap? (Asked by a young lady considering taking a gap year after college)
We: Safety is subjective to a situation. However one can be careful. Some of our methods are to always take State transport (Assam, West Bengal, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Goa, Himachal, so far have stunned us with their brilliant fleet), to travel mostly during the day, extensive use of Indian Railways and to connect to a wide network of friends and family who live across Indian. Don't stay in shady places if you are traveling alone. Asia and I stayed at a hut on Palolem Beach paying Rs. 500 per night. However we would not have made that choice had we been traveling solo. Read up on the place you are about to visit. Google helps. You can also talk to a random local (not taxi drivers.) Opt for homestays. Opt for off season travel.
2. How do you select places? (Asked by a bartender who was serving Lime-water at 1 am to a super dehydrated Asia)
We: Random. Some are completely on the basis of opportune moments. Later this month, Asia is joining a trip to the North East to touch the living roots in monsoon. On August 10th , either both of us or one of us will be at Lahol, Spiti to witness the perigee full moon.I am training for the Valley of Flowers and to become a certified scuba diver by December 2014.
However that said, a good way to map places are to start with the less adventurous ones. First plan a weekend getaway. Every city in India has a convenient weekend getaway. We are working on a map to mark it. It will be up on our blog shortly. Stay tuned. Plan a trip which does not stretch your pocket. Does not stress you out. And then start challenging yourself.
3. How do you budget? (Asked by an innkeepers' wife)
We: First we allocate on travel. Train tickets. Bus tickets. We are committed to Indian Railways. Then on accommodation. We read reviews. We look at location photographs. We call up the places. We book for one night. Once we are there we look for cheaper options. If we find, we move the next day or we stick on. We are hardly ever at a single place for the entire trip. We then allocate for food. You will be surprised how cheap a good meal can be in places that localities frequent and how absolutely delicious. We then budget for packaged drinking water. And that often is more expensive than how much we spend on food on a single trip. We set aside a good amount for emergencies and luxuries. One must never forget that no matter how cheap you are traveling, it is a vacation!
4. How do you manage souvenirs? (Asked by a foreign national at his wits end while trying to pick up things for folks back home)
We: Ah, you see, anything can be a souvenir. We tend to pick up local weave (textile), seeds and saplings of local plants, sometimes even those growing in the wild (We almost planted a forest of citronella after hiking through the woods in Karnataka), tablets, spices, glass work. If you stop by any local market or even a market day, you can be amazed at what you can gift. If in the hills definitely pick up local music CDs or CDs with chants.
You can buy pretty glass bottles, fill them with the spices sold in the open market, put a hand written message with a local stamp from the post office and voila! your souvenir for the special person back home is ready.
Or like one of our dearest friend, Niti did, you can go to the Post Office and post a letter. She did it from the highest altitude post office in India and that added more to it.
5. What about medical emergencies? (Asked by my doctor)
We: Every place in India has a Health Centre. Every district has a hospital. The moment you reach a new place, enquire about the following - 1. A good place to eat, 2. A 2X7 or atleast close to it pharmacy and departmental store, 3. An amicable doctor 4. An amicable policeman. Also, buy a local newspaper and read.
6. What do you definitely need to pack? (Asked by our neighbour)
We: This is going to be quite a list:
Medicines (ask your General Practitioner for this)- My kit contains Paracetamol, Flu meds, Azithral, Anti Histamines, Odomos, Flucos, Pudin Hara, Sinarest, Combiflam, Band Aids, Betadin, Betnovet, Tears Naturale, Relispray, Hand Sanitizer.
One All Out with Machine. (Good Knight is slimmer but its smell turns me off.)
Clothes! One complete outfit for half the number of days you will be out. So if you are traveling for 6 days, make sure you have atleast 3 lowers, 3 uppers and corresponding inner wear and socks. Add a comfortable sleepwear. Remember the Indian Mosquito. Pack accordingly. Quick dry innerwear.
One light weight towel.
Cosmetics- The usual suspects - soap, shampoo, tooth brush, tooth paste [you can get all this locally as well] and Lacto Calamine, Boro Plus (they double up as moisturizers, treat minor cuts and burns, is a soothing lotion), a small bottle of eucalyptus oil (the common cold is very common. stay prepared), glycerin (it is the mixer which can turn the boro plus cream into a body lotion within minutes, does not take too much of space and the smallest plastic bottle will last you a week).
Tissues and wet wipes.
Phone, charger, spare charger...And even if you possess a state of the art smartphone please carry a spare Nokia basic phone with a BSNL sim card - I have a Nokia 1616 and it is the best Rs. 1000 I have ever spent. The BSNL sim card means you will have coverage EVERYWHERE. Nokia 1616 means a great battery life.
One easily replaceable identity proof. My go to choice is the Driving License. Replacing anything else in the Indian pantheon of identity cards is a great pain. Keep Xerox copies of all known identity proof known to you and mankind handy.
Health insurance card. A good book. Earphones.
Cash. Debit Card. Credit Card. Some stamp and passport size photographs of yourself. A notebook with phone numbers of everyone you want to call if you lose your memory or your luggage.
A Swiss Knife. A pair of scissors. A good nailcutter. (Especially if you are planning on hiking and trekking)
Stay tuned for the next posts which will chronicle our trips.
To contribute to this blog, please let us know of your interest through a comment below.
