"The Impulse to Travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life."
Hello there! Hope you are doing great and staying safe. For the past 1 year, our new normal is no newer and staying home has turned into reality. Some jobs gave the privilege to Work from home and few didn't have that option so continued to run business with fear in mind.
Being in an IT job, since March 2020 I have been working from Home. Before March 2020, I used to make the most out of long weekends or the paid leaves coz I love traveling. Every 2 months or so I managed to take a short or long break. And when I shifted to WFH and nowhere to go, I felt dull day by day like everyone else :P
Well, that motivated me and put me in a thought Why not take shorter breaks while working from anywhere given I would be taking full precautions and not gonna put myself or anyone at risk.
From where did this all start?
Well, I am currently staying in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. When offices closed last year, I moved back home. And so I had the perks of exploring so much in Rajasthan over the weekend or long weekends. I started with Udaipur.
After Udaipur, there was no looking back. I almost covered most of Rajasthan which included Mount Abu, Jaipur, Ajmer, Pushkar, Ranakpur, etc. And in the coming months, I explored Surat, Nashik, Igatpuri, Ahmedabad, Kasol, Manali, Spiti, Goa, Macleodganj, Dharamshala, Bir, etc. Sounds like many places, but trust me nice planning kept me safe while traveling. Sharing more below but before that I wanna share challenge of convincing parents.
How do I manage my expenses and Convince my parents?
Whenever I talk to someone who knows how I am on work from anywhere mode, the first question comes up How much are you spending? and of course, the next one is how did you convince your parents for travelling at this time.
For me, travel is always about exploring rather than a luxury. So I research a lot to get that good deal for stay or meals. I love spending time with locals, so definitely, instead of fancy hotels it is either homestay or I stay in hostels on a budget like a backpacker. The laptop is of course my true travel partner these days. And since I travel with full precautions, I have convinced parents to let them know where I am and with whom I am staying so they understand.
Ok! So let me take you to beautiful places in India now.
Places I Explored all these Months
Back in August 2020, when lockdown slowly went off, I planned a weekend trip to Udaipur with my family. It was the rainy season and Udaipur is none less than a Hill station in Himachal during the rainy season. It's all green everywhere.
We packed our food, hopped onto our car, and here we go. First time stepping out after so many months, what excitement! We skipped all the touristy places in the city and rather chose 'Bahubali Hills' to enjoy the weather. And some on the way waterfalls in monsoon made our road trip more beautiful.
Booked a place to stay overnight in very outer part of the city where hardly 3-4 guests were there. The next day we explored Ranakpur and came across beautiful stopovers in the mountains over there.
While being at home, I have got my comfort zone with road trips with weekend explorations. My uncle had some work in Ahmedabad so I hopped along for 3-4 days. While entering Gujarat via Rajasthan, how can we miss stopping at Mount-Abu, so we explored Mount Abu for a day or two and then went ahead. Again, skipped all the touristy places and just explored hidden gems.
Guru Shikhar, Nakki lake, Mount Abu market in night are nice places to explore while here.
While my uncle used to go for work, I used to work in the day and explore places to eat in Ahmedabad.
Until now I got comfortable with the Work from Anywhere norm. So I planned a long workcation in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh in October 2020. I wanted to explore a small place like a local, so it came out to be 2 weeks long stay. And at that time, I fell in love with this beautiful hamlet. Morning and evening walks were soothing, working by the Parvati river bank was magical on its own.
I truly enjoyed working in natural vibes. I started making myself productive, instead of extended work hours, it became 10-6 for me. I had the motivation to wrap up early so that I can go for a stroll into the wood. Tried out so many local delicacies in Kasol. Check more about this place in my Kasol blog here.
Weekends were exciting as I planned nearby treks every weekend. Kheerganga, Malana village trek, Grahan Village trek, and many more. Plus this workcation made me meet so many travelers with the same thoughts
After spending nice 2 weeks in Kasol, I took a break for a week from Work and explored Manali and Spiti. Back in October, the newly built Atal Tunnel was inaugurated. So went for a drive till tunnel and landed in hidden gem Sissu Village. Beautiful terrain and more beautiful locals, loved staying there and waking up into snow-clad mountains.
I stayed at Hotel Aliyas in Sissu and this place definately had amazing balcony view. The owner uncle was also super friendly and so caring.
50 km drive from Sissu lies Keylong. It was October so Autumn was going on. And Lahaul Valley was full of different colored dry leaves. Magical it was.
P.S: While I stayed in Himachal for a long, I took full precautions amid covid-19. Skipped going near crowded areas and wore a mask all the time I stepped out of my room. Used the same vehicle throughout.
After exploring Himachal for a long, it was time again to explore Rajasthan. In December during Christmas, I had no company to go for any weekend trip, so I drove myself to Pushkar which is not yet so touristy and that makes it so beautiful.
From catching nice sunrise from Aravali Range to spending sunset in the desert, that's all I needed to give myself a rejuvenating break. Solo trips are fun on their own and I explored Pushkar like never before even though I have been visiting this place since Childhood.
Check more about Pushkar here.
2021 came in with the hope that it's not gonna be the same as 2020. But who knew this could go even worse by April. When this year started things were getting better. Tourism boosted again. So I planned to revisit Jaipur over one of the weekends.
The most colorful gate, Patrika Gate made my trip beautiful. I Visited Amer Palace, tried Rajasthani delicacies and this Road trip turned out to be another successful refreshment.
Since the covid situation was getting better in February and Tourism also resumed after a dark 2020, I planned to shift my base to Surat for a while since my sister stays there. If you are in Gujarat then definitely you would look forward to breakfast starting with Nylon khaman, lunch might have Dabeli and snacks would have dhokla too. I love Gujarati food.
While working from Surat, weekdays included exploring local, and weekends used to be some nearby trek. Maharashtra is also a few hour's drives so trekking in hills near Nashik was our first choice. One of the most adventurous treks was the Alang-Madan-Kulang trek near Igatpuri. From rock climbing to stepping on steeping and round stairs to staying in caves, it was a real adventure.
After spending few weeks I headed to Goa for 2-3 weeks in the second half of February 2021 for a workcation. I booked a nice homely stay in the Sinquerim area in North Goa and rented a scooter. I didn't want to be near any crowded place but just explore Goa beyond beaches and parties.
There I met Yashodhara from Tripotocommunity and my solo workcation trip turned out to be the most wonderful one. She being local helped me in curating an off-beat Goa itinerary. From Chorao Island for bird watching to the Colourful streets of Fontaihnas. From exploring old cafes in Panjim to morning walk to Aguada Fort. I had my best time from all these months there.
After spending beautiful time by the sea and getting all the tan lines, I had planned to spend the rest of March while working from the Mountains. I flew to Bir in Himachal which is a quaint village of Birds, coz it is known for paragliding.
Paragliding was not my main reason though, I wanted to stay longer and feel slow travel, plus that is safe as well. To my surprise, Bir had much more than Paragliding. Nice cafes to work from, amazing food, soothing walk by the barley fields all around, so many beautiful monasteries all around, a town covered with colored flags and so much more.
Bir has taught me so many things. I met so many travelers and locals and each one of them had their own set of beautiful stories. Working with a view of a sky full of glides made me feel so happy at work.
If you are in Bir do visit Deer Park monastry, Sherabling monastry, Avva Cafe, Ara Cafe, Cafe Sterling etc.
Bir was beautiful and I didn't want to leave this place after spending best 10 days here. But had new place to explore for coming days so moved to Macleodganj which is around 3-4 hour drive from Bir. It is known as "Little Lhasa" or "Dhasa" because of its large population of Tibetans. Also, its Dalai Lama's place.
While working from Macleodganj, I already had a plan to go for one of the best trek, Tirund. It's a day trek or one-night camping one, but the terrain and hike are drool-worthy.
With this, I stopped my nomad work for a while and came back home since the Covid situation was spiking again and I had parents to look after at this time. I did give a thought to stay back in mountains and continue working from there, but couldn't bear another lockdown and leave my parents alone.
Working from anywhere is a nice concept we all have shifted to after this Pandemic, but right now wherever you are Stay inside and Stay safe. Staying at a place and avoid traveling is the only way we can stop the spread. It has already caused so much harm that we need to stop it. Even if you traveling for some reason, avoid the crowd and keep on sanitizing your hands. Precautions are a must.
While I traveled all these months, I took full precautions and avoided every place with small or large gathering to keep myself and people around me safe. Hope you also do that. Take care!
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