Weird rituals I follow #MyTravelRituals

The travel bug bit me even before I understood what Wanderlust actually meant. Even though I come from a typical lower middle class family, my father loved to travel and explore new cultures and so he would save every bit of spare money to take us on a trip every one or two years. Throughout my childhood, I have traveled extensively in North India.

My first trip was when I was about one and half years old. It was a road trip of 24days on a bus. The destination was Gujarat and Rajasthan. But as it was a road trip, my parents were able to explore Uttar Pradesh and Agra too. For my mother, chanting Shlokas from Bhagavad Gita while standing on Sangam still remains one of her favourite experiences.
       
I don't remember any of that first trip, obviously. But since then we would go on a trip every now and then. I have been to Nainital, Ranikhet, Kausani, Amritsar, almost all of Himachal Pradesh, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Mussoorie, Gangotri, Kashmir, Sikkim, and closer home Bhutan, Darjeeling, Digha, Puri, Kalimpong, Jhargram and so many others. I have even trekked to Vaishnodevi in Kashmir and Tunganath in Uttarakhand. I can go on and on about my travel experiences but sadly it won't fit into this blog.

Also this blog is about the travel rituals I follow on every trip. One of the rituals I follow before my every trip is making a long list of every little thing that we might need on our trip. It can be as commonplace as a toothbrush. And also we would start packing more than a week before we are supposed to leave for the trip. It is more of a precaution than a ritual. But my sister and I follow this quite diligently.

Another ritual I have picked up over the years is trying atleast one local dish of the place we are visiting. For example, two years ago when I was in Bhutan, I tried their dish Ema Datsi and Shakam Datsi.

Also I have this weird fetish for Phuchka, which is also known as panipuri, golgappa, gupchup in different parts of the country. I make it a point to try the different versions of this very common street food. For example, I had Golgappa outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar and hated it because they serve sweet water along with the Golgappa instead of the tamarind water I was used to in Kolkata. The Golgappa I had outside Tulip Garden in Kashmir was prepared by a man who hailed from Bihar. His version was good in terms of taste. But he used chickpea and onion in the potato mash that was unheard of in Kolkata.

The rituals I shared, I still follow them diligently and will do so in future as well. But since now I am earning on my own and will not always be traveling with family, I am thinking about coming up with new rituals to follow. Maybe I will be find some soon and that can be a nice addition to this write-up.  Happy Travelling!!
#TravelRituals