No..this is not about me! :-) But I'd love to belong to this category by traveling more and as much as I'd love to! This is about some people, some of whom have become friends, whom I met during the Spiti trip.
One is a gentleman who left his job in 2004 to follow his passion for travel. He has traveled and explored innumerable places in the country and spends most of the year in the Himalayas trekking from one village to another. He spoke of a time when he was in the city for some work for more than a few weeks, and got so uneasy that he had to go back to the Himalayas where he belongs! I listened in awe as he narrated fascinating travel stories. He spoke of a Swiss man whotravels overland in his camping car from Switzerland to Goa and also takesother travelers with him for a fee, a group of travelers who do the length andbreadth of any country only by train, without stopping in any city, a solocyclist from Mumbai who has toured Asia and Europe on his cycle and many more tales!
Another is a 65 year old gentleman who makes at least 4-5 trips to the Himalayas in a year and left his job 16 yrs back to pursue his passion for travel and photography. He said he has a 35 yr old son who is specially abled, but that does not make him wallow in sadness not does in deter him to travel. He puts up exhibitions of his photographs in Mumbai annually and he showed me some of the pictures he had taken and needless to say they were stunning.
I also met a friendly and helpful Israeli couple who were in India for a 3 month trip. They mentioned some places in India they had traveled and I'm ashamed to say I had not even heard about those places! :-( One thing the lady said left a mark. She said others of her age (25 yrs) had a house, a car and other things, but what she has is unmatched, a back pack and loads of first hand travel experiences!
And all these people have been traveling to remote, relatively unexplored places and living the life of locals, dining and participating in their celebrations. I couldn't help but recall what a former colleague had told me once. She and her husband had been to Kerala for a vacation and she said that they spent the entire day in the swimming pool! But to each his own.
Cheers to those born to travel!
