Tips for comfortable travelling by an expert

I came across this rather amazing and original article on travelling recently, in a magazine. It was such an eye-opening piece that I had to share it. One can’t be selfish in such matters and especially not when the travel bug is slowly making a comeback. Let the world benefit, is my motto.

The article was titled ’Travelling made easy with these hacks’, and me being a lousy traveller, checking the piece out was a natural next step. For many like me out there, this piece will doubtless be a game changer and you will never see travelling in the same light again. In the writer’s own words, these tips, tried and tested by himself, guarantee a stress-free and comfortable trip and after this profound statement, all I can say about the guy is — he’s the man!

I was hooked right from the 1st tip which advises potential trippers to select the destination well in advance. There now, see what I mean? The moment I read this I realised where I’ve been going wrong all this time. You see, I never plan — I just have this crazy habit of getting up one fine morning and declaring, “Let’s go to Timbuktu today,” even before I go to the loo!

Arguments get uglier 

nd my husband, a worse planner than me, will do his eye-rolling and eyebrow-raising thing and my sons, well … by the time they get out of their beds, we could get to Timbuktu and back! But we don’t …. because as the day progresses everyone wants to go to a different place, the arguments get uglier and there’s a consensus only when we all go back to our mobiles and stay there.

Tip no 2 is another gem. Apparently, we should be smart and select off-season travel dates to off beaten places; that way we escape the crowds and get ourselves some ridiculously low deals. I confess, I would never ever have thought this one out by myself.

Normally, we try to fool airlines and tourists by announcing our plans aloud and when everyone is looking the other way, we slink off to a completely different destination. Something like a decoy, get me? This has been our POA up until now; but not anymore. Following the expert’s advice, for the next trip we may just plan Oymyakon, Siberia in December.

It couldn’t get any more off beaten and off season than that, could it? So what if the temperature there is — 43C. and our hotel is buried deep in snow outside and we’ve turned into ice sculptures inside? The point is to avoid crowds of silly tourists breathing down our neck with selfie sticks! Besides, with no one else at their counters then, except us, Siberian Airlines might just offer to take us there and back for free!

Now, I bet you’re dying to know the next advice. The author says — and here I pause to admire how well the guy reads me — he says to travel light and not to carry your entire wardrobe and half your household goods. Ouch! I need to tear off the article, highlight this line and pin it on the wall opposite my bed, so that it’s the first thing I see when I start packing for a trip and remind myself to not pack the pickles and ready-to-eats and utensils and my favourite dinner plate with the blue flowers.

For the next tip he suggests we dress in loose and comfortable clothes for the actual journey and here’s me doffing my hat off to this genius because I was really planning to take my next trip in my designer sari, the one with gold motifs and the heavy border. And matching accessories — nothing much, just a few chains and an armful of bangles maybe! Silly of me, I realise now!

There are more such gems in the said article, but there’s also a slightly urgent matter I need to attend to first. I’ll be right back once I’m done explaining to my family where Oymyakon is and why exactly we’re going there in peak winter.

Radhika Acharya is a freelancer and author of two books Adventures of JP family and Girl from Goa