BON VOYAGE

INTRODUCTION
There is nothing quite like Travelling. That's the statement I'd use to start my writing. People of all
ages and places travel for different reasons, work, family or leisure by road, train or flight -
whichever can satisfy their budget.

But wherever I go, for whatever reason; seeing out of the window and staring at the roads and a
whole new place seeing a new culture, unique architecture, distinct people, diverse climate - maybe
a mountain top or a beach or an island or snow. The eyes can see, the brain knows, and the heart
can feel that a unique opportunity to explore this civilisation has arrived in front of me.

Travelling has more benefits than one's need to make money. Seeing an unusual place for the first
time or getting back to a favourite one, going to the village and seeing your loved ones or just one
bag and you and the world; It all gives happiness, experience and memories to one. There are
several other benefits to travelling worth mentioning.

Many people think that adventure is risky and might harm a person, but travellers with a backpack
believe that routine is even more dangerous. More than often, people get wrapped up in their day
to day life, in their habit of sleeping, going to work, eating, chatting and all that they become self-
absorbed to such an extent that it starts affecting their mental health, future and even happiness.
Going on a trip can be the best anti-depressant you can get. While playing sports, you think of just
playing and nothing else, well it is the same case in travelling. When you go on a trip, you forget
about everything else that's that.

Travelling gets a person out of his/her comfort zone, far from home and those luxuries like having
friendly people around you, no worries of food, etc. This forces the person to be explorative and
adventurous. It is like you get lost in a fictional story, but here you get to play the protagonist of the
fictional story where you're in the unknown lands, a foreigner to the native people maybe not even
knowing the local language.

Some people think that travelling is tiresome as it involves locking houses, packing bags, not sleeping
on the cosy bed you like at home, travelling on public buses and much more. But most people
understand how exciting and enjoyable it is.

Another important aspect of travelling is education. Many schools and colleges take students to field
trips maybe nearby of faraway places. Even as a current example, students of a course have gone to
Dwarka to study its heritage. When you read in a book that Somnath Temple was looted and
destroyed 17 times, you know that as a fact but you don't get the feel of where is Somnath, how
grand the temple is. It is when you go there, and you get the feeling, listen to stories about the
temple & its history from the locals. You mostly would have read or heard about Maharana Pratap
and the Battle of Haldighati. So, you know that there is a place named Haldighati which as the name
suggests must be as yellow as Haldi, but when visiting, you find out that that's a mere exaggeration
and its yellow but not that much; also its more abundant than your imagination can reach. On
addition to it, you find out that there is a museum dedicated to it and you can spend a day there
diving deep in the history and the place.

There are mainly three parts of travelling - Transportation, Stay and Food. From personal experience,
I can vouch that searching for a hotel and getting a train ticket or bus ticket has gotten a lot easier
than it was in the last decade. No one has to stand in long lines at the railway station for tatkal
tickets, and it can be done just with an application on the phone. Moreover, apps like OYO have
made life so more relaxed, no more travel agents or brokers taking you to unknown locations.

“Travelling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta. This is so true
that I have chosen to write on my travelling experiences and then go here and there writing about
the cultures and civilisations I have witnessed and learnt about. For me, travelling has always been
about nature, interacting with people, getting a break from routine, having a great time with people
around me, making memories & having a goal that even if I don’t remember everyone, everyone
shall remember me as maybe I will have a long life or not, going to one place many times is not me.
There is a significant difference in how I used to spend my time in foreign places when I was a kid
and how I do it now.

Never Regret a day in your life!

Good days give Happiness,
Bad days give Experience,
Worst days give Lessons and,
Best days give Memories!
Well, you work hard all year and then the money shall be used to create some memories and trust
me, travelling help in creating the best memories of life. All the lessons learnt, experience earned
and happiness gained for the whole year is equivalent to a short 15-day trip – that is how much
travelling teaches us becoming a better person. It has always been me when I travel or at most the
people that I consider family. It can be just me, songs and a car that I’m driving for 2 hours or it can
also be a whole joint family, 20 people, travelling together in style.
Going down the memory lane, the first time I recall is of Kerela and then there are countless,
Rajasthan to Madhya Pradesh, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, even towns of Bhutan and Southeast Asia,
adding a trip to the USA and Europe and the Explorer’s Fellowship as the final shot giving enough
experience to me to write something so long, exploring Asian, Roman, Italian, Swiss, American,
Indian and many more as I go along in the book.