I am an armchair traveler!
This has nothing to do with laziness (though, Garfieldwould come a close second when compared to me)… it has to do with some other stupid issues (read parental permission).
But, I have decided to be a li’l rebellious (just don’t ask mom what she thinks about that)… and plan a trip to Europe… to just pick 2 random cities and fly off to them. Of course, it isn’t exactly a new or revolutionary thing to do… a lot of women do it… some, just out of their teens. Unfortunately, I haven’t been all that lucky when it comes to world travel! My little world has revolved around 3 cities… Mumbai, Kuwait & Kochi… that is Home, Work & Vacation in that order! Yeah… that boring.
This time, I don’t plan to plan (that sounds funny). Two years back, I had made this elaborate plan for a backpack trip to Egypt… the country being just a drive away from Kuwait. I got enough angry stares and furious “who do you think you are?” – Irrelevant question, but still asked by many and “What do you think you would do alone in Egypt?” – Again, weird… wasn’t planning to start that revolution yet. In spite of the relentless opposition by my folks back home and my guardians here in Kuwait, I went on with charting the itinerary and the complete schedule for the stay. It was meant to be a 10 day trip which was supposed to transport me to an era gone by… sort of like the flight would turn in to a time machine and when I land, I would step in to Ancient Egypt!
To allay the fears of my overprotective folks I even roped in a good friend of mine to accompany me… he was supposed to meet me in Egypt (traveling from India). As soon as I mentioned him to my folks they were aghast… “You are going to Egypt with a guy?” (Me: Why… do they have shoot at sight orders for pairs of the opposite genders?). In spite of all those setbacks, I plodded on with the idea; the good friend and me… we made all sorts of plans and included every Wilbur Smith inspired fantasy in the schedule. After weeks of planning for the trip… the result was quite unique… the trip never happened (that’s not the unique part… happens to me all the time)… BUT, we the co-planners found out that we had fallen in LOVE! I wondered if my Mom had a crystal ball / palantir and she had foreseen something of the sort and hence she was getting all MOM on me. We had a lot to laugh about our trip to Ancient Egypt… and though he and I are not together anymore, Egypt still holds a special place in our hearts.
Then, closer home, there was this trip to Diu we had planned… errr… the less said the better. 😀
So, this time I am not going to plan… hmmm… who am I kidding? I would soon be preparing charts and mapping routes and finding the best 2 cities to couple for the trip. I would be busy finding couch-surfers to host me or looking up hotels or lodges (depending upon the budget I have by the end of December). This time I would have to make the trip alone… Nawaab Sahebisn’t into travelling unless some work needs to be done at the destination or there is a huge party. The longest he would accompany me on a sight-seeing, living-the-life trip to some exotic location is till the airport (destination airport) after he makes sure that my flower-child, hippie style tour is booked Business Class!
Oh well… I love planning trips!!! 🙂
© Surya Murali
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