Being Traveler: 2016

Jim Corbett National Park, Uttrakhand, India

Jim Corbett - PC - Nitesh Ranga - Insta ID - @traveller_mate

Has it ever happened with you that you plan to visit a certain place but due to some reason or the other, your plans to visit that place don't materialize? Jim Corbett was one such destination in my list. I planned to visit Jim Corbett in 2009, didn't happen; then I planned for it twice in 2010, didn't work out. I didn't give up and planned again in 2012, but as the fate had it, it got cancelled for some reason or the other. I thought to close this loop in 2016 where I had already set goals for myself to visit the places on my list. But now I am happy that finally I made it to Jim Corbett this year.

I often wonder how much time was spent in traveling mere centuries ago when the road of the traveler was hard. No flights, no high speed trains and the most prevalent medium to travel was ships. People spent a fortune and even in some cases, they spent their all earnings to just see what the world looks like. They spent days and weeks in traveling from state to state and even months in reaching from one country to another, some for leisure, some for business and others for just curiosity and amusement, from the stories they heard from people returning from The Great Voyage. In fact, many case, people did not even return from their great journeys, some due to will and others due to illness. Well, that era was different and so were the people. They had patience to travel and that was no less than the adventure for them.

Goodbyes are always hard. No matter how strong you are, there is always an emotional chemical somewhere hidden in the corner of your heart that makes it bit difficult to say Good bye to your favorite place. Even a slightest thought of you not being visiting the place again makes you want to capture every single moment of the vacation which will bring smile on your face later.

Though handy cameras in phones and digital cameras have enabled us to capture as much pictures as we can but maybe that's not enough.. maybe we need something more....

Source: www.amusingplanet.com

The world’s shortest commercial flight takes place between the two Orkney Islands, Westray and Papa Westray, north of Scotland, separated by a distance of just 1.7 miles. The flight is operated by Loganair, and its duration is officially two minutes, but under ideal wind condition, it can be completed in only 47 Seconds. The tickets too the flight are priced at about $30 per passenger with obviously no in-flight service and infotainment. About 30 percent of the passengers are associated with the Orkney Islands Council's education services and others are health staff and patients of the Scottish National Health Service. The island of Papa Westray is home to just around 90 people, and is home to 60 archaeological sites.

Sanawar, Kasauli

In case you are wondering why this article is called Almost Kasauli, it is because we made a plan to visit Kasauli, but instead, landed up in Sanawar, 6 kms away from Kasauli. And the reason we landed in Sanawar was because no hotel in Kasauli was ready to accommodate group of 35 plus members in a short notice and the only place we found suitable and available at that point of time was camping in Sanawar at Sanawar Nature Camp.

Well, Kasauli or somewhere else, it hardly matters! What matters most is the company of people around you, its never really the destination that's fun, but people around you and this trip proved that.

This is my blog, this is my story and I can clearly be the Hero of my own story, but I am not, not in this one. The story is about all other members who joined for the trip and acted as heroes, superheroes/superwomen in fact. There were several things that did not go as per the plan, but none of the members cribbed, as a matter of fact they all came together to help/ accommodate, have fun and share as Power of One. More on this later....

Well, this vacation meant a lot as we were going together as a family after a long long time. It took us 2 months to finalize the holiday destination. We started planning for Mauritius, Singapore, Kerala, Pondicherry (now Pudducherry) and then we finally agreed on Goa. Though we have been there before but since Goa has it's own charm and value proposition, the excitement grew each day as we were nearing our vacation dates.

Selecting Goa was also a wise decision as we were taking along our 2.5 year old son and we didn't know how will he react to completely new place, that too for 5 nights. We had it in mind even if feel restricted with him on our vacation, it will not be a problem as we have been to Goa before and stayed in the same hotel and I knew what all facilities I was going to get. But all our anticipation was false. He enjoyed a lot and didn't want to return home at the end of our trip. More on this later.

Punjab, India has always fascinated me, be it's history, it's food, love of it's people. Recently I was in Punjab where I visited Chandigarh, Jalandhar and then went ahead to Amritsar Golden Temple. I spent couple of days traveling and interacted with locals listening various stories, some I remember, some I don't. The one story that I will never forget is the story that dates back to the era of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, who ruled the Princely State of Patiala.