I wondered why. Can you stop enjoying your passion? Passion for writing is why it all started. It is why I left corporate job, founded my own company and started travelling. I realized I had stopped enjoying writing because I wasn’t being authentic. I had chosen to write only about the beautiful things I saw. I wasn’t talking about the difficulties I faced, the times I felt lonely and times when even the most spectacular scenery didn’t appeal to me. Without a doubt I have had amazing travel experiences, but how much can I only talk about the good things. After all everything comes with a pinch of salt, isn’t it?
Truth is that in the last two years, I haven’t done a trip only for myself and without a purpose. There were few FAMs which I seldom enjoyed and some other trips that I lead for groups of people where, being the organizer, I didn’t really have time for myself. And being the blindly optimistic person that I am, I have always said – “all is well”, silently shoving under the carpet the fact that I had stopped loving traveling and writing itself. It had become just another job for me.
Alas! The much awaited motorbike trip to Spiti valley
Yes, I am going to the great Himalayan mountain desert in September. And this time, I will go only for myself. I might sit in a farm and look at the clouds over the mountains for whole day and I might even do some painting. I might play with children or I may just walk in the village streets doing nothing. I am a mountain man, and they are calling me again.
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The travel companion –
A wrong combination of travel companions sometimes makes you long for the vacation to end so that you can run for your life. I have experienced that closely, trust me. Yet, whom do you share the moments with if you are travelling solo all the time? Yes, solo travelling has made me introspect and discover myself. Hopefully this time the friend that I am travelling with, and I, will have common things to talk to and we will let each other live in peace.
I guess every traveller goes through the dilemma of switching between solo travel and travelling with friends. It is important to have travel companions of similar frequency. Having said that, I don’t want my family to read this post else a blanket solution to every experience good or bad will drill down to getting married – “Get married and then travel. You know it is necessary to get married at this age otherwise all good girls will be taken”. What the duck? Are we talking about vegetables here? Anyways, so getting back to Spiti.
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The thrill of motorbiking –
It has been over three years since I motorbiked solo from Darjeeling to Bhutan. I have missed the gentle vibration from the engine that flows through the body when I accelerate on the highway. I have missed seeing the endless roads in front of me while the green farms zip by on the sides. I have missed maneuvering on the curvy mountain roads. This is going to be the longest ever motorbike ride of my life till now. I will be driving almost 2000 km in 10 days. It is not going to be easy. We will end up with sore butts and dusty faces. Yet, I long for this to begin.
More to come soon from the trip to Spiti. Let’s see how it goes. This time you may not see just a poetic story, but the actual life of a traveler – The good, the bad and the ugly.
Featured Image: Pratik Gupte
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Gaurav BhatnagarSoftware Engineer turned Travel Writer, Photographer, and Public Speaker on Responsible Travel. Entrepreneur in Responsible Rural Travel @ www.thefolktales.com
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I totally understand! To be honest that`s the exact reason why I stopped reading so many blogs that I used to enjoy. These days so many trips are sponsored and whenever you read the posts it sounds like a bunch of bloggers just spent a week in heaven instead of an average 3-star-hotel in a boring concrete-jungle-city in Eastern Europe. As soon as there`s money or free stuff involved, we (yes, I`m guilty as well) tend to sugarcoat everything just to please the sponsors. Because whenever you criticize someone`s hotel, city or whatever you can be sure you`ll never be invited to another trip again.
It`s really hard to be authentic while being a professional travel blogger. But the good thing is: People really appreciate honesty. I for example received many grateful comments after telling my followers openly that I would`t recommend traveling to Sophia (Bulgaria) or Hollywood, cause they are just ugly and totally overrated places. I also think it`s very important to talk about your “travel fails” and that you won`t be happy 24/7 whilst traveling.
I`m really excited to hear about your Himalaya adventures. I bet this trip will inspire you and remind you of what you loved about being a travel writer.
Franzi, yes I feel I am doing injustice by not talking about aspects of my own country for example that need to change. While the places I have written about are beautiful, there are still issues like garbage, open drains, traffic, honking, road rage. There are times when I had to stay in dingy hotels in shady border towns. There is so much more to travelling than that beautiful view.
Hey, when are you publishing the rest of the series of your Spiti trip? it was interesting and going very well!
Hi Navina, sorry I discontinued with the Spiti series for some personal reasons. I know it must have been interesting 🙂 More blogs to come soon. Thanks for stopping by to read my articles. 🙂