Travel Smart to Travel more !

Just like most of us, I love to travel. However, I am a greedy person and no matter how much I travel , I always want to travel more. I am a regular on all travel related websites , whether it is Tripoto or Tripadvisor - I love reading about various places irrespective of whether I get to go there or not. These websites have helped me a lot to plan my trips, I swear by Lonely planet and trip advisor. I am sure all of you, who like travelling, must have read various blogs or stories about people who left their jobs and promising careers to travel around the world and it sounds so wonderful, but I won’t be writing about any of that because I am a regular middle class girl.

I love to travel but cannot afford to leave my job and become a full time traveler (may be in future I might ) . So, I want to write about how people with jobs can manage travelling within limited budget and limited holidays .I try to increase my trips with each passing year and this is how I plan it. After all, being middle class doesn’t curtail options!

First and foremost thing -DON'T ever take packages, why? because:
That just spoils the trip and the budget too - Of course, they have to make money somehow which they will charge from you.
In addition to that, most of these packages are group packages so, it gets very restrictive as you need to stick to a particular group with a particular itinerary. what I would suggest is do good research before you plan to go anywhere, you can use lonely plant, trip advisor, we are holidays, tripoto etc (there are zillions of websites to give you all the information that you need).
Hope I have now established the fact that you should not take holiday packages. Therefore,try and plan in the beginning of the year the number of trips you want to take in that year and what kind of places you wish to visit. For example in 2015 I had planned to take 4-5 trips in that year and I divided that into 3 categories 2 big trips (one national and one international , 1 medium and 2 small trips - just to let you know by big and small I mean the no of days and the budget).

Big trip (Within India) could be Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kashmir, Rajasthan, North East , Leh Ladakh etc.
Biggest cost involved is generally the flight cost so few ways to save money are:

·   To check tickets every day for good a month or two and there comes a day when the tickets get cheap (Believe me), I booked Kerala return tickets in 7 k from Delhi. Try travelling off season if weather is not an issue.

·   Use sky scanner, it shows which could be the cheapest city to land in a a particular state, use goibibo , refer it to friends and get go cash which you can use from 100 bucks to 5000. 

·  Try and use credit cards which gives you miles, make all spending through them and collect miles, you can easily get 2500 off due to miles if you make your regular payments using credit cards. 

You need around 5 holiday for such a trip (Monday to Friday ) and you get to spend around 8- 9 days. Try to take Saturday early morning flight to save your day & come back on Sunday evening to make most of your days off!

Big Trip (International) - start with close by places as they are cheaper, could be Thailand, Sri lanka, Kazakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar and eventually you can eye Europe, Africa, America, Russia etc.
2nd biggest expense is staying cost, I am not a luxury person but I definitely need an average place with nice view and clean washrooms and sheets. I recently started using booking.com and trust me it’s just amazing.

I recently went to Sri Lanka and stayed at home stays everywhere and I am so happy that I chose to do this instead of spending money on hotels. It's one of the best ways to interact with locals, meet fellow travelers, get amazing home cooked food and get more by spending less. Booking.com & airbnb have a lot of amazing options. Try taking 2 weeks off so that u can travel for good 14 days.

Mid Size trips - For such trips you just need to take 2 holidays and they don't cost you more than 8-10k per person. You can combine 2 holidays with a weekend or even better long weekends and go to places like Kasaul,Manali, Kullu,Udaipur, Jodhpur, Shimla, Jaisalmer, Bikaner etc.
You don't need to book flight tickets, take a car and hit the road, go with a bigger group as it always costs less when you travel in bigger groups. Enjoy your journey, take multiple stops, binge on road side dhaba food, chai and hospitality.

Small trips - You just need your weekend and may be 4-5k in your pocket for such trips, these trips are best if they are improptu. Leave on Friday evening post office and come back on Sunday night.
So called weekend getaways these are, you can go to Agra, Bharatpur, Rishikesh,Jaipur, Pushkar, Mussorie, Nainital, Landsdowne, Kasuali , Jim Corbett etc.
These trips work best when you had a hectic week in office and all you want to do over a weekend is to get away from the city life.

So that's how I have been planning my anti corporate getaways in the last 2 years :

Year 2014  -
Domestic Big Trip - Kerala & Karnataka - 12 days (cost 32 k per person)
International Big Trip - 4 Countries in Europe (this was partially official so cant determine budget)
Mid Size - Mukteshwar - 3 days (8k per person)
Small Trip - Bharatpur & Jim Corbett - Weekend trips (4-5k per person)

Year 2015 -
Domestic Big Trip - Leh and Ladakh - 12 Days (38 k in caravans, you can do it cheaper)
International Big Trip - Sri Lanka - 8 Days (38 k per person)
Mid Size - Dharamshala & Bir Billing - 3 Days (9-10 k per person)
Small Trip - Amritsar - Weekends trip (7-8k per person)

Most importantly, I feel one should be open to travel, do not make plans and not execute them. Spending on experiences rather than materials is what broadens our horizons and makes us learn. The world is really huge but then it really isn’t for those that have met the world. You are born on this planet- knowing the planet is but a natural need within each one of us- we just need to find that need and realize it!

Lots more to tell my fellow travelers, will write soon again.
Till then Happy Travelling :)

Check out mt trips on Tripoto -  http://www.tripoto.com/users/view/8003

PS - I stay in Delhi so all my suggestion for places and budgets are as per that.

Change - the only thing constant!

I have been a reader but i never though i could ever write but here i am writing my first blog. Not because its the "IN" thing these days but because  i have so many things running in my mind that i think writing them will probably bring some clarity.
You know like how when in school whenever we used to learn something, we used to write it to make sure if we have learn it well.

This article is more like thought of the day and how this thought struck me.
When your mind is cluttered, you start seeing each quote that you come across deeply, start finding meaning in each song you listen to and start listening to people more carefully thinking that you may find some clue, some idea, some cue - Universe might give you some sort of signal and the decision will be made.
Something like that just happened to me- before you assume, no- universe did not give me signal exactly, i just learnt an important thing just coz i started listening to people and not just hear (like earlier times).

So the other night i was talking to one of my flatmates and she told me this really funny story from back her school time. She was in 4th or 5th standard may be and she and one of her friend wanted to complaint about a teacher as she used to beat them, so they dared and wrote a letter and thought will send that to the principal. They wrote the letter and kids being kids put that in the notebook of the same subject (the subject that the same teacher used to teach) and gave the notebook to teacher next day with everyone else to get those checked.
It struck them after a while that they have done this blunder of giving away the notebook with the complaint letter to the same teacher and for next 2 nights they could not sleep at all worrying and stressing over that their life is over as the teacher is going to rusticate them from the school , their will be no college, no career and hence end of their lives.

After 2 days they got to know they will be getting their notebooks back and they were holding their breath and waiting for the worst to happen. The moment they got their notebooks back, first thing they did was to check for the letter and to their relief, letter was intact.

You must be wondering why did i tell you whole story, the point was that for a kid that was such a big problem ,something that could ruin their life but now when they look back they laugh on those things.

So may be now when we are in dilemma or difficult situations, this is what we should think that few years down the lane this problem will be too small to matter . Infact you might be laughing over it coz the only thing constant in our lives is CHANGE and all of us do change, i am not how i was back in school or even college and i wont be same say 5 years down. so what seem like an uphill task will become a wisecrack.

There are various ways of looking at a situation or a problem and may be this is one of them.

We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” -SAINT AUGUSTINE

I truly believe in this and that's my reason to travel. So honestly this love for travelling started some 4-5 years back, before that all my travelling was confined to family trips to Musssorie, Manali and Nainital where the idea of travelling was to go to those fixed 3-4 tourist spots, eat same north Indian daal makhni and shaahi paneer and shop at mall road.

Being a middle class North Indian girl, there was no way i was allowed to travel with  friends till...let me think...til i turned 21 actually and that too thanks to my profession - it demanded good amount of travelling. So i got into events and travelled all across India and later on abroad as well for my events, one good thing that my profession did (besides ofcourse making me travel) was that it made my parents believe in me that i am OLD and SMART enough to travel on my own.

So i took my first all friends trip to Jaipur and thats when the travel bug technically bit me and there has been no stopping since then. Sometimes i sit and wonder why do i enjoy travelling so much, by any chance it could be because its the new "IN" thing these days or may be because i want to show off on Facebook and make people feel jealous...Thankfully these are not the reasons but unfortunately these have become reasons for many people to travel.

Anyways so i stating putting down reason of why i love to travel :

• Recently i went to Leh & Ladakh and when i was standing and seeing a mountain and was getting amused by the giant size of it and the nature around , i realized that the problems we face everyday are so small and we play a minuscule part in this Universe - Nature is so vast so we should stop making a big deal about small day to day problems.

• 3 years back i had gone to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer and it was a beautiful experience,  you know i have always been into reading travel blogs & travel stories of people and read a lot of times that you must see a sunset sitting on sand dunes and to my luck i did experience that. It was one of the most bful and serene moments of my life and that day i started making my own travel checklist, places to go, things to do, food to try etc etc and trust me that keeps me going, that makes me feel like going to office every Monday coz i know i am earning and saving for  my travelling.

• 3rd thing which always draws me to difference places is meeting different people and you know these meetings are very refreshing, sometimes you meet people and have a quick short talk, sometimes you have deep philosophical talks and sometimes you make best of friends and if you are too lucky then you may find your soulmate on one such trip.

• You learn to take life easy and take time off for yourself, we are not here to earn and die - we are here to do much more , see places, meet people, help people, eat different kind of foods, experience different things and much much much more

• As per me - when you are sitting sea side or on a hill or in the middle of a desert, you feel much more serene & peaceful than you can ever feel sitting in Costa coffee or in a mall. So travel to be one with nature and soak in & embrace what it has to offer.

There are many many more reason but i would like to leave here. One more thing i would like to say , don't think you don't have enough money for travelling. Travelling is travelling whether you are going for a weekend to Nainital or to New Zealand . Do as your budget and pocket suggest but do save to travel, this is one thing which is totally worth it and these experiences are going to stay with you die unlike materialistic things like a 55" TV or a new phone.

Just like how i started with a quote, i would like to end with a quote :

“Travel brings power and love back into your life.”  - RUMI