1100 KMS OF ROAD

The road trip to Calcutta was full emotions. Sometimes we were laughing, sometimes worried, sometimes scared, sometimes nostalgic,sometimes anxiety etc. Road always calls for adventure and roads in India, even more. The distance between Bhubaneswar and Calcutta is around 500 KMS and we drove around the city for another 100 KMs. In total we made 1100 KMs.

Here is the road in some pictures. 

ROAD TRIP!!

Here I go!!

This time to another city in another state. I am going to Calcutta in West Bengal. My brother in law is driving and we are 5 and a half. The Half is my 5 year old nephew. Its 6 am and we start our road trip. The sun is rising over the fields. But it is still dark and I am very sleepy. Everybody is awake and active. But I am going to wear an eye mask to sleep. 

I also am excited as the road goes on :) 

1 DAY, I GO HERE !!

Here I am talking about traveling around the globe and today it feels that there is so much to travel in my own country.

I am definite that one day I would achieve the goal I have set for myself i.e 30 countries in next five years. If not in 5 then definitely in next 10 years he he....


But for now here is a list of 9 surreal places to visit in India. 9 very off beat destinations which are less traveled.

http://www.tripoto.com/blog/9-surreal-places-to-visit-in-india/

ONE LIFE IS NOT ENOUGH !!

The to- go travel list is ever growing. I am loosing track of it.
I had a little diary to maintain.
A little box to collect pictures around the world.
I have a big collection of Magazines to take me around the world as I turn pages.
I have traveled and I want to travel more. But how much more is a big question.

It is my dream every single day and yet my boat has not sailed for months now. Its the situations, the responsibilities, the decisions etc. It is the permutations and combinations. The days of my life.

 I want to .... I want to go!!

So many places to go. Why does it take so long to reach South America from India. Why can not we reach Africa in 5 minutes. Is the science not developed enough? Or it is our technology?  I want to see the Spiti Monastery in Ladakh today and I want to wake up at the Las Medullas in Spain tomorrow morning. Huhhh .....A traveler's mind is always greedy.

It is a tough life when how musch we travel is never enough. It will be never enough. There will a new destination every time we say "Finito".

Last week I had made a list of 30 countries I want to go in next 5 years. But now I think even if I travel all the countries and territories, I would be not able to see all that I want to see.

Really I keep saying this : One life is not enough.

But I want to .... I want to go!!

EASY VISA FOR INDIAN TRAVELERS!!

Its true, Indians are backpacking now. But another truth is, its not very easy for Indians to travel. I know it from my personal experience. For us getting a passport is hell of job, then we have to fill many forms, provide thousands of documents, many calls & emails, flying to another city for personal interviews etc. Then probably we get a visa. After that tickets are very expensive. The list of rubbing our shoes goes on.

But I received a video in Youtube today from my brother in law and am so happy as there are still countries which gives Indians travel visa for free or Visa on arrival. I sincerely thank those countries for the trust. 

Here it is, a little run through this video tells us the destinations we can travel without the visa hassles. 

So let's keep traveling

SEEN UNSEEN!!

It was 28th of May in 2012. 

I arrived in the airport of Lisbon and my friend Jorge directly drove me to Sintra, a neighbouring city with picture perfect sceneries. We went to the city center to eat Almond Pillows in a shop called Piriquita. 

Right next to that was the Palacia Nacional de Sintra(National Palace of Sintra). I was very excited with this monument as this palace has two grand chimneys. The chimneys are the highlights of this palace when you see it from outside. 

My friend told me that there are many many things to see and probably if time permits then we visit this one. Seriously in Europe every corner has a monument. But my eyes were on this. We enjoyed the Almond pillows and left. 

I went to Sintra many times during my stay in Portugal and this monument caught my attention on many occasions both from far and near. But between an overflowing "to-do" list I missed visiting the Palacio Nacional de Sintra. 

Really, the more you see a place, the more you know the unseen. 

Definitely this would be my to do list in Portugal next time. 

WOW!! IT's 30!!

Today is the day of making lists.

Its a big coincidence as my count of countries to travel is 30 and the countries I have been is 30. So the immediate wish was to make a list of countries I have visited.

1. India
2. South Africa
3. Qatar
4. Thailand
5. Vietnam
6. Cambodia
7. Indonesia
8. Sri Lanka
9. Malaysia
10. Laos
11. France
12. Switzerland
13. Italy
14. Germany
15. Portugal
16. Spain
17. Turkey
18. Jordan
19. UAE
20. Brazil
21. Argentina
22. Chile
23. Uruguay
24. Bolivia
25. Peru
26. Equador
27. Colombia
28. Singapore
29. Philippines
30. Myanmar

So,  Wow!! Its 30!!

MY BUCKETLIST!!

Today is the day of numbers in my blog.
I am certainly very up with my research on travel to different places.

In between all the research work of goggling the destinations, watching videos in Youtube, writing notes, watching the travel programs etc; I decided to do a math. I started writing in my note pad the countries I want to go in accordance to my most preference. I call it my bucketlist, which is below :

1. Iran,
2. Uzbekistan,
3. Armenia,
4. Georgia
5. Japan,
6. Morocco
7. Mexico
8. South Korea
9. Bosnia & Herzegovina
10. New Zealand
11. Ethiopia,
12. Kenya,
13. Namibia,
14. Egypt,
15. Madagascar,
16. Oman,
17. Australia,
18. China,
19. Mongolia,
20. Russia,
21. Guatemala,
22. Nicaragua,
23. Costa Rica,
24. Poland,
25. Slovenia,
26. Hungary,
27. Czech Republic,
28. Greece,
29. Cuba &
30. USA

My list was 29 countries and ended at Cuba without any interruption. Then I immediately wrote down USA. How can I miss USA, its a beautiful country to travel too. Also I wanted it to even at 30.

When I shared it with my brother in law, he was surprised that I am going to places which are full of tensions. When he heard Namibia, Kenya, Ethiopia he said Ebola Virus. When I spoke of Iran he spoke of the tensions. When I said USA after Cuba, he said probably they will not allow me to USA if I am coming from Cuba. Discussions on traveling can make very interesting conclusions.

This is my list, I might go to one place before and it does not have to be in order. But I would love go these countries one day between the other countries I would be traveling to :)

DREAMING OF PORTUGAL!!

Here am starting my day with the dreams I lived in Portugal and I am definite that I would go back to this dream one day.

Here are some moments I lived in Portugal. 

Here is the beautiful Portugal in few pictures. 

SO MUCH TO TRAVEL!!

There are many destinations to go, many places to see. Many lives to live. Many travels to do. 

But then why I am not traveling. It is also a fact that we cannot always travel.  Sometimes visa hassles, sometimes its the mood we live. Sometimes it is the circumstances that stop us. It feels a great pain when I realize that I have not travelled since last March. It feels Life is at a standstill. It is not moving. It is not going anywhere because am not traveling. 

But we also have to earn. Work is the most important part of life. I am busy between different work, the real estate work and the rentals for my mother, the ongoing or the never ending maintenance work, the online selling and accounts for Erwan. Always occupied. Sometimes it is the end of the day when I sit to think that I could do this or that. 

Yet it is a need of my life. A desire that is never satisfied i.e to travel. Really so much to travel. 

WHERE TO GO, IT'S A BIG CONFUSION!!

So much to travel.

In my last post I mention that I have this crave to visit Morocco. But there is so much to the bucket list. 

Just two days ago one of my best friend Vijay sent me a message to go Tokyo or Beijing. 

I have my friends calling me to revisit Portugal everytime. I even had an invitation to go Azores, the islands of Portugal far in the Atlantic. A friend from Armenia called Narine always inviting me. Also another friend from Malaysia calls me for a revisit. My friend Xay, always calls me to Laos, a friendly country I want to go back.  

I also want to go Egypt. I want Ethiopia. I want Oman. I want to do a tour in the Balkans : Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia. 

I always want to go to eastern Europe, like Hungary, Austria, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia etc. 

I cannot miss the stans in the list. I would do anything to travel the silk route like Uzbekistan, Tazakhistan, Kazakistan etc

This list seems like never ending for the Iran in west Asia. Japan and Korea in far east. The neighbouring China. Madagascar in the Indian ocean. Many many countries in the Africa like Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Namibia etc. 

My Vijay always invites me Australia and New Zealand. 

There is also central America like I want to fly to Mexico and then climb down the Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica to Panama and then take cruise boat to Cartagena in Colombia. 

I have many easy destinations where I would not need a visa like Nepal & Bhutan where I was almost going in Sept-Oct. 

The first country I have traveledto is South Africa. Then after there is always hunger for new landsThere are many countries I want to travel again, to relive the times I spent there, to see what I have missed, to eat and stroll in the streets I miss so much. Some of which are France, Switzerland, Portugal, Turkey, Jordan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia. 

With so much to travel, it seems that, this one life is not enough!!

I WANT TO SO MUCHHHHH .....!!

Here Is where I want to go so much.

Find out the destination in this Video

MOALBOAL IN PICTURES.

The beautiful MOALBOAL in Pictures.

MAYRIG

12 Noon

It was when I was swapping channels. I was at Zee MGM when I realized that they were showing a french movie. Its always a curiosity for me watch classics in foreign languages, plus languages always fascinate me. Another point of interest when I realized that the kid in the movie is called Azad. 

The movie was already raising my interest as I thought this could be about a family that migrated from the Arab world to south of France. I was right it was Marseille in the South of France but the family is not from the Arab but one country called Armenia, where I would love to go one day. 

Azad is a Hindi word which probably came along the persian migration to the then Indus basin or maybe from Urdu to Hindi with the Mughal invasion. It is hard to tell and I have no mood to google it. But the name of the little boy Azad means free and is very symbolic in this movie. 

My friend Narine from Armenia had always told me that there are many similar words between India and Armenia. While I invited my mother and her nurse to accompany me for the movie, I also simultaneously wrote her that am watching this movie based on an Armenian family which exiled from Armenia to make a life in the south of France. 

It is family of three sisters: 

Anna the eldest who did not marry to keep a promise to her dying mother that she will always take care of her sisters. 

Mayrig who is married with one son called Azad. 

Gayanne who decides to be a spinster as she lost her love interest Zasken to death. 

There is another character called Apkar who escaped the massacre by the Ottomans, survives with the help of a Kurdish herd to land up in France and later helps the Zakarian Family from Armenia to find a home in France. 

The entire Zakarian family fuels bit by bit their sweat to build Azad and make him an Engineer. 

Half way through the movie my friend had wrote me back that this is the movie which she watch every year on 24th April. The same day to which she has lost some of her ancestors in the genocide planted by the Ottomans. She also tells me Mayrig in Armenia means Mother, which made the movie more emotional for me and my mother. 

Its incredible for me how I am watching a French movie with English subtitles about an Armenia family sitting in my hometown in Bhubaneswar, India. More than that I am translating it into Oriya for my mother and her nurse. My mother is also fascinated by the old France they show in the movie. 

Sometimes we travel a lot across countries, cultures, languages and people. Thanks to technology it is possible even if while we are watching a movie in our bedroom. 

MOALBOAL BREAKFAST!!

Sometimes it is okay to praise yourself. 

It might look that am bragging about the subject, but I am really proud for preparing the breakfast that morning in Moalboal. For the fact that it is rare I cook and also that it comes out so well. 

It looked good and Jorge appreciated it too

So Ladies and gentleman, here is the breakfast I prepared.

1 PICTURE STORY # 3 : MISSING !!

Missing my little house in that Island

That country, that island, that house and the time spent will be part of my life for I travelled like a free person.

To wake up early morning and making breakfast. Right from shopping till preparing it with my own hands. Making it nicer was all my focus. Really, I never did this before. 

In the 2 PM in the afternoon, I left the house to bring vegetables and Chicken Lechon for lunch. But my feelings were like I fled to never return. It was confusing to find way to the main market. Sometimes I was next to the sea, sometimes I drove by the mountains and sometimes narrow earthy roads. I was driving around fearlessly like a free person.

I was a free person. I had no map and yet I would drive kilometers and kilometers to follow my love for the road without knowing where am heading. I never had such an experience before. 

It was late when I arrived. By the time I fetched the Chicken and vegetables for lunch it was 4 PM. So our lunch turned out to be a delicious dinner. Thanks to my friend Jorge who is not only a foodie himself and but also make wonders when it comes to food. 

We live many small lives in one life. This one was special and I realized that, home is not where you live. It is where your heart belongs. I certainly made one in 5 days in Moalboal in the Cebu Island of Philippines. The one I am missing today. 

What is it called to do the undone?

Certainly, it is to TRAVEL.