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riderNot just travel, I always had this dream to experience our Incredibly diverse country. When I say experience, I mean staying at places for an extended time, indulging in local culture, cuisine, language, customs, beliefs, geography and its people. And I did. I had travelled 25000km all alone across India in 3 phases including 20000km motorcycle(RE Himalayan) ride with an estimated cost of 250000 INR that took 1.5 years to complete that too even working parallelly without an unpaid leave. Considering the distance and time span, the expenditure is quite low provided that tourism is an expensive affair. This is so low that, a 2-day MAKE-MY-TRIP curated Kashmir plan is estimated to be 40k, a 5-day Kashmir package through a travel agency cost my friend(+wife) 75k, but I had executed my month-long Kashmir exploration in just 18k. Insane right! How did I pull that?
This blog will help you with effective travel planning, ways to minimize expenses and motivate you to travel to distinctive regions of our country. Don't forget the incredible benefits that come as a byproduct of large-scale travel. Travel can throw you into a temporary discomfort zone by teaching you about history, can push your boundaries, can create a completely new perspective to see the world, make you understand factors responsible for geographic/demographic changes, foster community, establish connections and build pleasant memories. If you are passionate enough, it can encourage you to build a career out of it.
Covid-19 pandemic shook the world, brought everything to a standstill and forced sizable employees to work remotely. After four months of complete lockdown, threads loosened for economic activities. As a travel enthusiast, it had occurred me to work in a new city, where I could roam nearby heritage places & also support work remotely. Born & educated in Odisha and working in a Hyderabad-based org, I have been to places of Eastern India (states). So initially, I thought of Chennai but shifted my mind to Pondicherry as COVID-19 cases were on the rise in overpopulated Chennai. That's how I started my South India expedition in Sept 2020 where I reached Pondicherry on my motorcycle through Chennai. I found month-long accommodation in a Backpackers hostel with food availability (cost 8k) by working on weekdays and covering nearby sites on weekends. Additional expenses include fuel, local food & entry fees for heritage sites etc. That summed up to 12k on an average monthly expenditure.
After a month, I thought of going deeper into the South as I had already come this far. I rode to Madurai from Pondi and covered all places on the same day but couldn't locate a PG so I continued for my next destination ie Rameswaram, covering all important places on the same day including Ramnathswamy Shiva Jyotirlinga. Thanks to my motorcycle that gave me incredible control over time and speed. The very next day I started for Kanyakumari & traversed all heritage places on the same day. My next stop would be Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of state Kerala. During that time COVID-19 cases were on a steep rise in Kerala and I came to know that there were state border check posts that forced people to a costly self-quarantine procedure. In order to avoid this blockage, I had to stay in the temple & resume my ride to Kerala late at night around 2:30 AM. Somehow I crossed the border but I had to endure quarantine on the PG I got inducted in Trivandrum. I stayed for a month and covered breathtaking sites of mountains, beaches and backwaters of God's own country by following all COVID norms.
From there onwards, I roved places like Kochi, Munnar, Thrissur, Coimbatore(TN), Coonoor, Ooty, Mysore(KA), Coorg, Wayanad, Bangalore, Chikmagalur, Manipal, Udupi, Mangalore, Murudeswar, Shivmoga and Hampi. My South India expedition took 6 months with an estimated cost of 70k to execute. When almost everyone stayed isolated fearing for their life in the middle of a pandemic, a small village boy gathered courage to chase after his dream.
In a similar fashion, I have executed West India (7 months) & North India (4 Months) expeditions with an estimated cost of 1 lakh and 80k respectively. Also, executed a month-long Uttarakhand trip covering UK's Chardham but this time with the support of public transportation. Only North-east India and a couple of states like Himachal & MP remained to visit. That I am planning to cover in phased manner as my WFH phase came to an end.
Many things might have gone wrong for me COVID-19, a fatal accident, could have been robbed, possibility of wild animals on Easter/Western Ghats mountain passes but I pushed my dream anyway. Because of that, my life became more meaningful. If you have an inner urge to do something, go for it. After all, It's always worth chasing your dreams.
Always plan 30 days ahead of your journey like your next destination, accommodation, days it will take to cover, popular local food options etc. Once done, get into a PG with food availability. Work on weekdays. Go & explore on weekends. Eat only local popular food and avoid all sorts of luxury. Opt for a 15 to 30-day stay based history/heritage/size of the city. In case no budget accommodation is available, cover the region in couple of days and move to your next destination. For one-night stays, list out all backpacker hostels/hotels in apps like Justdial & opt for the cheapest. Consciously use apps like Couchsurfing and also explore free community centres around popular heritage cities. That's it. Travel can be expensive but with a consciously planned budget trip can drastically reduce the overall expenditure.
Already listed out South expedition places.
West India expedition:
Karnataka: Badami, Goa: Palolem, Margao, Majorda, Vasco da Gama, Panaji, Divar island, Maharastra: Marleswar(MH), Mahabaleshwar, Pune, Lonavla, Gujurat: Surat(Gj), Dandi, Vadodara, Ahmadabad, Gandhi nagar, Junagad, Dwarka, Beyt-Dwarka, Mehsana, Modhera, Patan, Rajasthan: Mount Abu (RJ), Udaipur, Jodhpur, Khimsar, Jaisalmer, Pokhran, Tanot, Longewala, Sam, Pushkar, Ajmer, Jaipur, Uttar Pradesh(UP): Mathura, Brundavan, Barsana, Aurai, Vindhyachal.
North India expedition:
UP: Varanasi/Kashi, Lucknow, Noida, Delhi: Delhi, Haryana: Kurukshetra, Punjab: Chandigarh, Amritsar, Atari-Wagah, Jammu & Kashmir: Jammu, Katra, Srinagar, Narnaag, Kupwara, Tangdhar, Teethwal, Gulmarg
Himalayan expedition:
Uttarakhand: Badrinath, Mana, Joshimath, Auli, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Dehradun, Mussoorie.
Nepal: Kathmandu, Manthali, Lukla, Phakding, Namche Bazar, Dingboche, Lobuche, Gorekshep, Everest Base Camp, Pheriche.
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