Travel stories by Travelling Ides of March, a travel blog from India. Amrita Das is a travel blogger and a freelance travel writer based in Kolkata, India.
Have you ever worked on a project which resulted in nothing? Or walked a kilometre in the wrong direction for food? The previous week has been exactly like that for me—every ticket I buy stands cancelled. No, this is not going to be a post wallowing in self-pity. I haven’t been able to shudder this constant…
Through the crowded, dusty roads of Haridwar, the jeep took me through Shyampur’s dimly lit village towards the yellow lights of Aalia. I had just finished the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib trek. Escaping the exhaustion, I allowed Aalia to flatter me with its luxurious comfort. And in the following days, I realised how addictive…
On an excruciatingly hot day, I decided to walk around Rishikesh. It was not my first visit to this mystique land but things have changed much since the 2013 floods. My eyes looked for the landmark statue of Lord Shiva, facing Parmarth Niketan and not having located it, I asked a passer-by, who told me it…
At 2:35AM the cops in Colaba stop my cab. Gufran steps out and shows them his documents. After the interrogation, he returns to his driver’s seat with a frown and in a few minutes, he calmly vents out his frustration in the matter. I am impressed by him at many levels. Firstly, even though he…
In all my travels, whether naturally or compulsively, I emerge as a different person. And that has made me realise that seeking is a continuous process, through all aspects of life. But then there are those moments when I have felt that I could no longer go on. When answers come hard and even worse, truth…
Seldom do we realise the power of our own words. A casual remark can often make or change decisions. In September 2009, when I was travelling to Kashmir for work, I had encountered certain stereotypical words used for the state. Unsafe, conservative and dangerous were just the popular ones. Even though it was an official…