How it Takes Time to Adjust to Home after a Long Travel Time

It is absurdly strange after a long time of solo travel to be at home, which appears like a foreign land, unlike the foreign cities that I have actually visited earlier. When I was in India for four months, I felt like being at home. I never felt like people hated me there; rather they treated me like I was their own kin who had come home after a long time. When it was time to leave, my friend, Rohan asked me if I would feel okay to go home. I understood what he meant to say, but I replied that I keep returning to the UK once or twice in a year. However, this time, it had already been two years that I had not seen anyone in the family face-to-face.

When I reached home, I really felt like I had arrived in a new country. Kids in the neighborhood seemed more direct about everything, and ruder to the strangers. I didn’t like it that way because I was brought up in a time when everyone was taught to be polite, no matter what. Food choices of people have changed, the clothing has acquired a new fashion sense among men and women, and people seem to be busier than ever before.

Things do acquire a new meaning when you are out of touch for a long time. I had heard it from everyone that travel changes the personality of a traveler. I did notice a few changes in me, but a few subtle vagaries went unnoticed. I never realized that I had become a completely different person than I used to be. Amendments in the personality are very slow when you are on a long, really long road trip. And I always felt like I had been like this only all this while. Being back home made me realize that I had actually become a different person.

Back there in India, I spent a long time in the south admiring the natural beauty of the country. I would hire an Innova for hire for self drive in Chennai and go for a long road trip. When I was in the middle-east, most of my time would be spent in absorbing the shocking culture of the countries. Japan was way more expensive than I had thought. However, all these things never bothered me because I always knew that I was in a foreign country. I was the one who needed to adjust because everyone else was born there, or had already spent a long time there.

Maybe I am just being irrational while thinking of my own country as a strange land. Maybe I am trying to find an excuse to fly to some other place again. I cannot point out what is wrong with my mind, but I don’t like the feeling of being a stranger in my own hometown. I would, perhaps, fly to some other country really soon.

How I Enjoy My Vacation in India and Abroad

After being a traveler for so many years, it is not easy to write down what I like the most about a place. Nonetheless, I do like to travel to various places, most of which are in India, and some of them are abroad. Here is my top list of things that I love to do, no matter where I am.

Enjoy being idle

Whether I am at an airport or a railway station, I just love sitting at a place to watch people busy in their lives. In my usual city life, I barely get a chance to sit with myself. That is why; I enjoy the waiting period at such places and do nothing at all. Even if I feel sleepy, I prefer to stay awake and observe people doing various things. There are parents busy with their cute kids, old people struggling to read the newspaper, people from various backgrounds struggling to find their train or the way to boarding the airplane.

I also love to wait for people at the cafés, restaurants, or public parks unless I have something urgent in my schedule. While I was sitting in the garden city browsing self drive cars in Bangalore, I met a lovely elderly couple who talked about their life history with me. It was intriguing to know how they survived a plane crash in London. I had never met a truly grateful person before that day, and just one session of conversation made me realize the gifts I had in my life. 

Read books

I am not a tech-savvy person at all, which is why I never thought of buying a Kindle to pursue my love for reading books. Even though I am a lazy reader, I am persistent at it. During my airport hours, I make sure to read something if the waiting time is too long. The railway stations in India sell interesting novels at throwaway prices, and I buy them in abundance whenever I get a chance.

Window shopping

There used to be a time when I would shop for literally anything that caught my eye at a tourist destination. However, I have matured as a traveler with time and I am not an impulsive buyer anymore. Nonetheless, it does not mean that I have stopped visiting the local markets completely. Now I prefer to go for window shopping and shop for things that I truly feel will not take any extra space at home. I don’t like to haggle too much with the locals of a tourist place, which is why, I tell the shopkeeper upfront that I am only looking around at stuff and I don’t intend to buy anything. They also understand my thoughts as they encounter several window shoppers in a day. I get out of a shop once I am done satisfying my eyes with the beautiful local stuff.

Travel gives a lot of time to kill, but I love to enjoy it rather than just pass the time.

Why Solo Trips are Not My Cup of Tea

There was a time when I was crazy about solo road trips, and then I got bored of them!

Yes, I got bored of something that drives the entire world mad. On my first road trip to the hills of Himachal Pradesh, I had a lot of fun on my own. It was pleasant living in a hostel for the first time. The dorms of the room appealed me so much that I wanted to live there forever. However, I met two girls in the dorm who were staying in the same room on the same bed for six months. It was too difficult to visualize a life where you have only one bed and a small cupboard that can accommodate only a few clothes. I used to live in a paying guest accommodation at that time, and even a small closet would appear too petite to me. I wonder how these girls were managing without proper arrangement for their clothes and other stuff. I dropped the idea of staying for too long in a hostel! My PG was better than that.

Then again, after a 2-3 more solo trips, I realized that I cannot travel like this forever. It becomes too boring at times to be in a new city and not be able to share my experiences with anyone. Yes, I can make new friends at all times, or that is what I always thought about solo travelers. However, I realized that even after being an extrovert person, I can only make good acquaintances, not friends. I don’t trust people easily and I don’t reveal too much about myself to anyone unless I am too sure about the person. I did meet many people like me who would like to share a meal with me, or talk to me for a few minutes, but the conversation would become too boring to continue after a while. That is when I would start missing my friends with whom I could talk my heart out.

Cost is also an important factor when it comes to enjoying a luxurious trip. When I have to decide the mode of transportation, for example, I have to choose the public transport since I cannot afford to hire a Self-Drive Car on rent Delhi as it would burn a hole in my pocket. I have to be with a group of 3-4 people to share the costs of expensive activities so that we all can share the burden. There is no scope of sharing the expenses with anyone when I am all alone on a road trip.

Getting bored is also something that kills me. Although I have my books with me whenever I travel, I still look forward to talking to someone. Reading cannot provide the inner satisfaction at all times; I do need someone to crack jokes and gossip about people when I am out of the city. Nonetheless, after being to so many solo and group road trips, I would prefer to travel with a group of people.

When a Road Trip Becomes a Nightmare during Winter

I was really being a macho when I thought about going for a winter road trip, and that too at the wrong time, or I should say that I was ill-prepared for it. I must have thought well about it, especially coming from a hot region like Kolkata where snow does not ever fall from the sky. The Bengalis of West Bengal only dream about extreme cold and go to chilly regions only as tourists.

So it was my first trip to the Himalayas and I, being a wanderer, had thought that I would manage on my own just like I had always done, but I was horribly wrong. I should not have underestimated the snow and overestimated my potential. I bought only two layers of warm clothing while leaving from Kolkata, but I was shivering from cold just as I landed in Delhi. I still thought that it was only sudden change in weather that made me shiver and I would be normal in a while, but I was wrong again. I started getting it that I would catch cold if I did not buy warm clothes immediately.

I went for shopping before leaving for Manali and bought another set of clothing to keep myself warm. I had to buy two blankets as well because the search results from Google had already scared me about cold regions. I could not imagine spending a night in the car in case I was stuck, but I had to prepare for plan B just in case I have to manage on my own. The news channels were already stating that many vehicles were stuck in the snow because of landslides.

I left for Manali using a Car Rental that I had booked from Delhi and left for the hills. Even in cold weather, I started feeling dehydrated. It was a new thing for my body to experience because until now I had experienced dehydration only during summer. I had hired Self-Drive Cars in Kolkata several times and been to road trips where beating the heat was my only concern. Beating the cold this time was a unique experience that I had to battle this time. I bought a dozen water bottles so that I do not go out of water until I reach Manali and Spiti.

When I reached the city, someone suggested that I should spend a night in Manali so that I can acclimatize my body to the extreme cold gradually. I thought that it was a good idea, which would not let me die at least.

Keeping the feet dry was a challenge in Spiti when I had to walk for a long time. My feet would start feeling numb and I would take a long time to dry and warm them. All in all, Spiti was indeed a wonderful experience but a challenge indeed for someone like me who had never experienced snow before that. Without feeling scared, I would love to go for that kind of road trip again.