From office deadlines to travel timelines

I've always loved to travel, but while I was working, it was a challenge. Getting time off was tough, and even when I did, it was usually for only a few days. The thought of returning to the office was always on my mind.

Now that I'm retired, I have all the time in the world. In June I did a two-week tour of four places in Maharashtra, and the next month it was a road trip through Kerala.

THE WAY I TRAVEL HAS CHANGED

While on our way back from Mangaluru to Bengaluru in 2019

When I was working, any trip that lasted more than a day was usually by flight to save leave days. Now, it’s by train. I don’t mind however long the journey is.

Train travel requires a lot of advance planning. Bookings open 60 days in advance, and, unless you plan that many days ahead, chances of getting a ticket are slim.

The IRCTC website and app are good enough. Some third-party apps are helpful if you are waitlisted. They use AI to predict how probable it is to get a reservation against cancellation.

A few months ago, while planning my trip to Maharashtra, I hit a snag. My original plan was to visit Pune, Thane, Shirdi, and Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad), starting and ending in Bengaluru. But I realised there wasn't a direct train from Sambhaji Nagar to Bengaluru, so you'd have to go back to Pune. This made no sense. So, I reversed my plan: Bengaluru - Pune - Sambhaji Nagar - Shirdi - Thane - Bengaluru.

My seven trips abroad were solo official ones. Two personal trips, and the domestic ones have been with family. While some people love to go solo, others hate them. I'm flexible. Both have their pros and cons.

GETTING READY TO GO

The build-up to a trip is always exciting! The bookings for travel and accommodation, getting and packing the essentials like clothes, toiletries, first-aid kit, and ensuring adequate cash, though there is always the option of online. For foreign trips, it's a travel card and forex. If it’s multiple cities, then the entire sequence has to be planned to make the most of the time.

Before a trip, I do my research. I used to travel without much preparation and would later regret all the things I missed. Reading up on a place doesn't spoil the surprise; it only enhances the experience. Being there in person is still a whole different ball game with its own surprises.

I'm not a big fan of shopping. If I buy something, it's a unique souvenir or memorabilia. I especially love collecting fridge magnets or something that represents the place's unique character.

At the Museum of Goa in 2018

I always carry a book, either a physical one or an e-book, especially if I'm travelling alone. However, I rarely get a chance to read. My days are packed. I'm usually out by 7 or 8 a.m., visiting as many places as possible, and I'm back at the hotel by 7 p.m., exhausted. There's hardly any energy left for reading or listening to music, leave alone watching TV in the hotel room!

I don't make playlists or shopping lists, but I do create a "tour list" on Google Maps. I save places of interest to this list. It's incredibly helpful because it gives me a visual picture of which place is where. This makes trip planning much easier.

WHY I TRAVEL

The biggest reason I travel is to learn about local customs, traditions, languages, food, and landscapes. India is so vast, and each of its 28 states and eight union territories is incredibly diverse and multi-cultural. I still have 11 states and four union territories left to visit. Hopefully, I will get there soon!

This post is part of the Blogchatter Blog Hop

My favourite places are historical monuments and museums. They put the present in historical context and help me better understand the world around me. I also love landscapes, beaches, and mountains. They are great for taking photos and are perfect for relaxing and unwinding.

Travel is more than just a break from the monotony of daily life. It's a brand new experience that broadens our understanding of people, places, and cultures. 

There's a well-known quote attributed to the American writer Henry Miller: “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” He believed our perspective, not the place itself, shapes our experience.

This is why you don't always need to travel far. Our own neighbourhoods often hold surprising treasures just waiting to be discovered!

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Kerala diary 1 - Confusing numbers and ticketless travel

Train journey is always more lively than one by flight. And a day travel is better than one by night. The view from the window, of hills, barren land, rivers, bushes and trees, is an ample and welcome relief from the clutter of vehicles and concrete buildings of the city. The journey itself is a sort of perfect getaway.

Where is my coach?

While boarding the Inter City to Ernakulam this morning, I found the numbering of coaches confusing. Though coach D followed coach C, the numbers went in the descending order rather than ascending. That is, after C1 came D11 then D10, D9 etc.

This is confusing. A person looking for coach C would end up in the wrong end of the train if he followed the numbers. Since alphabetically C comes before D, he would look for C coach before D1. But actually the C coach was before D11. That's absolutely strange.

If alphabets followed a particular order, it would make sense for the numbers too to follow the same order.

Now you don't need a ticket to travel

As the ticket examiner did the rounds, I saw that many people had the printed paper ticket, though while booking online IRCTC clearly discourages you from printing out the ticket. A few of us showed our mobile phone. But he did not look at the SMS confirmation. He only checked our identity card -- PAN card in my case. He asked me which was my seat number and he verified what I said on the list he carried. He wanted to see the identity card of passegers who brought printed tickets too.

The advent of internet and mobile phone has done away with the physical, printed ticket that was once upon a time mandatory to travel. Now you just need to know your seat number and have your identity card.

It's too cold

The chair car is too cold and I can't find a  regulator. There isn't one, it looks like. There should have been one for the blast of cold air streaming out of the two vents overhead. The train has reached Dharmapuri. The sun is up and the warm rays are finding their way in. Hopefully it will help matters.

Jan Ahaar, a let-down.

Ernakulam Jn (South) railway station has a new neat-looking Jan Ahaar restaurant of IRCTC. When I checked half an hour back, it had nothing listed in menu, except idly-vada. Not surprisingly, there were no customers. Misleading menu is a big put-off. Nearby restaurants had much more & were crowded. Bad show by IRCTC here, though I am quite impressed by IRCTC's online reservation system. I am a big admirer of IRCTC, so this Jan Ahaar was a big let-down.