Why do I travel?

I was asked to write for the Logica’s Women Network blog on Travel. They couldn’t  have chosen a better topic for me to write on. Below is what I posted on the Garam Chai blog.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page! -  St. Augustine

I love to travel, explore new places and re-explore already explored places!
People who know me say, my eyes twinkle and I become a different person when I talk of old travels and plan for new travels.
Why do I travel? To learn and grow – when I visit better countries, I wish to improve my own. I have now realized it is possible to drive without honking and I do try to do so. And if I travel to a country worse than mine, I learn to appreciate my own country.

The perspective of the word Still changed after my visit to the Amazon Forest.
Visiting Hampi, Ajanta & Ellora, Golden temple, I learnt that as we build the so called ‘state of art’ sky scrapers, we forget Beauty.
Fear was redefined after being chased by an elephant in Kabini.
Skydiving in New Zealand instilled in me a new found Respect for myself.
Scandinavians give a new character to the word Honesty.
As we travelled in the Norwegian Fjords, I discovered Majestic.
For the first time we Listened to our guide to stick together, after my friends were mugged on Copacabana beach in Rio.

I could go on and on but for now I want to leave you all with a beautiful quote from Mark Twain - “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

A bit of Johannesburg – March 2012

What a start to the trip! I had just finished my immigration and was waiting for the rest to join me when an official approached me and wanted to know if I was Sumitra or belonged to her group. As I nodded he asked for my passport and rechecked my visa and says –‘see ur visa is OK. But one of your frens has a transit visa and so we can’t let her out.’ WHAAAAT! I went to the baggage collection to send Sumi back to immigration and start the beginning of what seemed an endless wait. 2 were missing – Nalini and Smita. Finally Sumi returned …but only with Nalini – mixed feelings …whew for Nalini (they kept her passport for a day and allowed her out), and bewilderment for Smita – where the hell was she? We walk out and see her standing there – she had been up and down to the hotel 3 times in the shuttle looking for us! A porter accosts us and offers to show us the way to bus stop for the shuttle. But we had heard so many horror stories about Jo’burg that we found it difficult to trust him. On hindsight – what were we thinking? That one man is going to kidnap 20 of us!!!

A quick nap and lolee (yummy Sindhi style paranthas) courtesy Meeta’s mom and off we were to the Lion Park. The Lion Park - neither a game reserve nor a zoo, is split into two areas – one area for the herbivores such as zebra, giraffe, antelopes etc and the other area for the carnivores.

First stop was the Cub World area where sub-adult lions and cubs are housed and where we could enter and actually play with lion cubs. Awww…the cubs were sooooo cute…playfully pulling at our laces and trousers. I just didn’t want to come out of the cage.

Then off to the herbivores area where they roam freely around and we can interact with them at close proximity. The Giraffe was the cutest…eating peanuts from everyone’s hands and seemingly having a very intimate conversation my friend.

The baby Meerkats suckled while the mother stood patiently and majestically. Other sightings were Zebras (first time for me), Ostriches and deer and black wildebeest.

This was followed by the Self-Drive through the Main Park – first through the antelope area where our guide pointed out various species like Gemsbok, Springbok & Blesbokthen and Black Wildebeest, followed by the wild dogs’ enclosure where we saw what tops the list of the 5 ugliest of South Africa.

And then the highlight – we entered the cheetah and lion enclosures. There were 2 Cheetahs and they were like the synchronized swimmers – they were sitting in identical postures, facing in the same direction and when they moved they seemed to move in sync! The Lions and lionesses were very impressive, specially the white lions. But now I know why patience is required when you go on wild life safaris. Initially we couldn’t see the front of the 2 lionesses sitting as we entered the enclosure, so we asked the driver to move to the other side. But as luck would have it, before we all managed our pictures, they decided to turn to the direction where we came from. It was if they were trained to show only their backsides ;-)

And the lions were sleeping away peacefully - lazy bums refused to get up. But we waited patiently and patience pays. Because we finally saw them get up and I even managed a beautiful picture of one of them yawning. Unfortunately, my memory card got spoilt after a few days and I lost all the pictures of the first few days L

As we moved away, one of the lions emerged from the bushes and crossed the track right in front of the vehicle behind ours. Did a personal ramp walk for them – lucky people!

I was having so much fun that I just didn’t want to leave. The thought of Pan African cuisine at one of the top restaurant in Jo’burg pushed us into leaving and off were to the stylish Moyo restaurant at Melrose Arch. It had started to drizzle and sitting on the diwans under a Moroocan tent, with fire bowls close by – very, very exotic! I am told by M to go visit the loo – she doesn’t tell me why, but has this smirk on her face. Not getting into the details, but I have yet to see a more erotic loo!!!

Live music was playing inside so we moved to the bar after some time where some enjoyed the African Amarula (like the Baileys Irish Coffee).

A winding, spiral wooden staircase took us up to our tables. The waitress comes with a big bowl and a water jug and makes us wash our hands. They also paint our faces with intricate tattoos… a lot like what the Bengali brides do. The starter– a moyo flat bread with dukka spice and olive was awesome. Yummy carrot, coconut & cumin soup, chickpea, chilli & feta salad and abampofu salad and my tummy was nearly full. So I just nibbled at the main course of Tanzanian mango chicken, North African lamb tagine and tagine seven vegetables as I wanted to keep some space for the dessert. And thank god for that – the never ending bowl of toasted almond ice cream was sinfully yummy! I thought I’ll have a few bites and leave the rest…but it was just impossible to stop.

Thanks to Sumi and South African Airways we had an awesome time in Jo’burg. I now can definitely say – I enjoy wildlife holidays the MOST!!!

South America – preparations etc!!!

South America called…finally. I think I day dreamed of walking in the Amazon forests as Ms Bhati talked of rainforests in the geography class ages ago. As long back as 2006 I had started talking to travel agencies for quotes and realized I needed to have a separate ‘SA Fund!’ It was ****** expensive…but then that’s me…I always seem to like the most expensive product on the shelf.

The dinner  in Devonport, New Zealand comes back. On the 1^st day of our trip as we discussed travelling to South America the following year we nearly got ourselves a companion – the waiter wanted to accompany us after listing to our excited chatter!

Getting the required visas – South Africa, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina was a marathon by itself. A teaser to what was in store for us. Many visas – much confusion! Change of the application city for Bangalore wanderers, form needing refilling in black ink as I had filled it in blue! Some surprises too – one day I get an email that my (MY!!!!) Peru visa was rejected because they wanted original bank statements! Later I realized it was not rejected, but they just declined to accept the form. I thought printouts with signature and bank seal were treated as originals everywhere. What the heck? I was just wondering how to get 4 more copies from ICICI (what a nightmare that was gonna be), when I was informed that the WOW office had resent my passport with another bunch and it worked!!!Talk about weirdness!

Then South African airways decided to change the schedule and wanted us to leave one day earlier. In hindsight this worked better for us – not only did we get a break after an 8 hrs flight instead of traveling continuously for over 20 hrs but were also able to check out Jo’burg with the cost of one night hotel in Jo'burg, airport transfers, breakfast, and visa charges being borne by the airline!!!

The final straw was when on 5^th afternoon I got call – the South African consulate didn’t quite like my photograph (JERKS!). Some white shirt on white background nonsense. They needed spectacles – it was a white PRINTED shirt! Courier new photographs was what I was instructed. 7^th and 8^th were holidays at the mumbai consulate on account of Holi, 9^th night we were travelling – this was NOT going to work. Luckily it struck me that I had a soft copy of another snap, which I sent and requested them to take prints of in Mumbai itself and resubmit the forms. What a restless night that!!! I even contemplated staying in the airport for that one day and night

What a relief when we finally had our passports with all the visas stamped. And off we were to South America via Jo’burg.

Africa Calling

Several times during the course of my wanderings in Oulu I saw beautiful posters of dolphins. They said Villi Meri…couldn’t figure out if it was one of those aquariums like Deep Sea World in Edinburgh or was it a movie.

Google and Google translator to the rescue – Villi Meri means Wild Ocean. It was a film being screened at Tietomaa Science Center in Oulu, with special screenings in English on request! Tag line for the movie – Africa meets the Sea.

Africa...has been on my wish list for as long as I can remember. Even as a young girl in school I remember seeing photographs of my cousins who had visited Mombasa in East Africa, and thinking …gosh I do so want to be there too!!!!

The centre boasts of a magnificent super screen theatre. Believe you me, it not one of those kahli peeli boasts. The screen was super-duper.

The movie overall was a documentary to raise awareness of the effects of pirate fishing and global warming on the marine life. It lays stress on the fact that only 1/100^th part of a percent of the seas is protected and the need for marine reserves.

But it was based around a place called the Wild Coast on the coast of South Africa, where shoals of sardines head towards the coast in June/July every year. They are followed by all kinds of predators – various species of Dolphins, Sharks, Whales, Seals and Gannets.

The Gannets can plunge midflight to depths as deep as 10 mts to catch the fish!

This phenomenon is referred to as ‘The Sardine Run’ and it seems that people can catch sardines with bare hands at that time of the year as the swirling shoals are gigantic in size and very close to the surface and coast – the shoals can be upto 7 km long! More than fish, these shoals look like an oil spill in the sea.

The photography and the effects were brilliant. In the opening scene I felt as if I was sitting in a helicopter and approaching the coast!!!!

In between they also covered the local people and African music…the drum beats are something that make you just want to dance!!!

A place I love and a good screening make for some wistful thoughts. I just wanted to catch the next flight to South Africa after seeing that movie.

And then last week someone sends me pictures from an African Safari….too much of a coincidence. I just have to plan East and South Africa this year!!!

Getting around in Egypt – Nov 2008

One of the things that is worth mentioning about my recent trip to Egypt was the various kinds of mode of transport / moving vehicles that we got to experience.

Starting with the flight from Delhi to Cairo followed by a mini bus ride to our hotel and then dinner on a floating restaurant on the River Nile.

At the pyramids the next day we enjoyed Camel rides and later in the evening we took a train from Cairo to Aswan.

Next we boarded the ship for the Nile River cruise.

To visit the Philea temple, we used motor boats from Aswan.

Another mini bus ride…but this was different. To visit Abu Simple one has to join a policy convoy at 3:30 AM (!!!!!) and hundreds of buses interspersed with police vehicles move across the dessert.

Tonga Ride at Edfu to visit the Edfu Temple.

Hot Air Balloon ride was next on the cards at Luxor from which we got to see the Valley of the Kings, the two colossus of Memnon, the East Bank etc.

Later in the evening we went for a Felucca ride. Felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used along the Nile. It was a really beautiful evening - the sun was setting and a cool breeze was blowing…

At Hurghada the first day we went for Glass Bottom boat ride in red sea where we managed a few glimpses of the many varieties of rare fish and coral reefs.

So 2 of us decided to go snorkeling the next day so that we could get up close to the rainbow colored fishes and Coral reefs in the Red Sea. The safari boat that took us to the sites was bigger than the glass bottom boat, but smaller than the ship and so qualifies for a separate mention in this write up.

And all this in 9 days!!!!

Afrika Afrika Clip

Afrika-Afrika

As a kid I loved going to the circus…I really enjoy theatre… so what were the chances that I would miss a show described as circus-style theatre. Called Afrika Afrika, it has been described as a “kingdom of the traveling entertainers and a paradise for the zest of life”.
There are no animals or clowns in this circus but there are fantastic scenes of mythical creatures and African beasts, evoked through costume. Ostriches bound across the stage and tortoises open out into giant flowers. Though there are a few acts similar to those seen in a traditional circus.



Unbelievable acrobatics, intoxicating rhythms and costumes of exceptional beauty...left me at a loss of words. Fortunately, though photography was prohibited, we were advised that we can download some pictures from their website…
He walked onto the stage like a spider…Feet turned into hands; hands became feet – a rare spectacle only possible within the African tradition of perfect, absolute body control. Huit Huit, the contortionist from Congo, was amazing as he slipped through a tennis racket.

Jean-Claude Belmat, a tissue aerialist with perfect synthesis of strength and body control. He seemed to just float in the air as he slowly spiraled his way up to the dome of the tent and then balanced his body in a horizontal position.


It is not without reason that she has earned the nickname of “snake girl”. She wraps her leg around her head, until her toes are resting under her chin. She then twists her body in a way that her head appears to be resting next to her body leaving one staring in disbelief.


The pole artistes make the audience catch their breath as they effortlessly and elegantly swing back and forth on the poles at top speed or slide up and down, head first while performing dangerous stunts.

Dancers build dizzyingly high human pyramids.

The so-called water man makes 8 bowls dance at the same time and spouts out water like a huge fountain, several meters high. He has the ability to hold five litres of water in his stomach!!! Using pressure, he is able to bring it up, spraying it like a rainstorm.


First six, then eight, then ten balls are simultaneously juggled by the juggler from Addis Ababa. The way he tosses the balls is hardly noticeable until they pick up such a speed that they appear to stand in the air. The human eye simply cannot follow what’s going on.

Lying on their backs, the female artistes swirl tables, vases and furniture around in circles at breakneck speed. Simultaneously and seemingly effortlessly, they juggle heavy furniture with their feet.

There was an 11-member group of basketball players, who darted around on unicycles, blowing whistles, moving to pulsating hip-hop beats. They play a surreal game of basketball on wheels, combining physical prowess and comedy.
While 2 players turn 2 ropes, one of the unicyclist skips in between those 2 ropes…Amazing…

From South Africa comes the loud, forceful rubber boot dancing. This dance originated from the horrific conditions within South Africa’s gold mines during apartheid. With no drainage, the miners were given rubber boots to wear, chained up and forbidden to speak. They developed a language of feet-stamping to communicate and these moves have now blossomed into a dance.
The finale sums up the joie de vivre that is Africa - the energy given off as all the dancers come together is unsurpassable.