DesiTraveller

  “These Indians in India are getting too big for their boots lately. Something needs to be done, and soon!” “I know! Let’s make a movie about remote forests, elephants, tigers, poor people, and throw in the usual binaries?” “Good idea, I know just the book, and just the right people.” “Great, thanks, would be wonderful if you could throw in some awards too? Will help ticket sales at those award functions.” And thus was - probably - born THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS. The yellow food-grade plastic tank on top of the cement platform at the side of the elephant’s night shelter sets the trend for much of the rest of the movie. Even the Foreign Correspondents Club in Delhi, tasked mostly with taking photos of the naked mendicants sort, could not have done this better. Brilliant wildlife shots, it’s the selective choice of human habitats selected for their poverty, which make this documentary a dual play. Get the Euro-Atlantic crowd in for the exotica and the perception building of In...

 Do you need to travel by train suddenly, for a holiday or otherwise, but are daunted by the huge waiting lists that are increasingly common as the holiday and festival winter season draws nearer? Well, keep your bags packed, and be ready to travel as short notice. Not only are there going to be a large number of "festival special" trains, some have already been declared and can also be spotted on the booking websites, but there are often "special trains" declared on some routes at short notice. One way to do this is to keep looking for options on the booking websites, for your preferred routes, with the "Flexible with Date" option ticked. Another option that works very often is the quotas being released 4 hours before the train opted for departs from origin railway station or en-route charting station. Either which way, it is always good to check up on the booking websites about 4 hours before departure, as trains often open up with seats and berths avail...

  People in the trade are already talking about a surge of inbound tourism to India this winter of 2022/2023. The impending fuel shortage in Europe as well as rising inflation makes it not just cold but also unhealthy to hang around there. Likewise, there is the expected rush of ex-pat Indians from abroad, whether NRI, OCI or foreign born confused desis, running away from the recession that is staring them in the face. They too will arrive on Indian shores. Whether long-stay or short, foreigners or OCIs or NRIs, all of them will need some amount of tourism facilities. From fancy expensive hotels in Metro cities to home-stays in rural parts of the country. And for once, we appear to be ready as a country, for this influx. Today, for example, we have international gateway airports in India that provide direct bus services to the interior parts of India, Delhi to Punjab, Bengaluru to everywhere in Karnataka, Hyderabad to different parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are some example...

  Destination weddings, or destination functions of any sort, are amongst the biggest evolutions of package tours without the tours. In most cases they comprise of taking a flight plus some other form of transport to a resort or a hotel, attending expensive choreographed functions, and then returning back to base. Getting wasted appears to be, often, one of the core objectives. Trying to imitate a random Hindi movie is another aspirational here. In almost all cases, all that this achieves is travel inside another tube, and food that tastes the same. In addition, your budget is likely to go totally out of shape on basics like drinking water and airport food, because those are not cheap. I have done a few destination weddings, in addition we also live in a second home sometimes in an Indian city which has a lot of destination weddings, so there is a wee bit of experience involved too. Destination weddings abroad are something else again. Here I try to tell readers how a good quality ...

As the description says, this one will be about documenting and writing about domestic India travel by surface, aimed at a not higher than 5000/- rupees per couple per day all in effort - which is a reasonable number in this post-COVID world. Travel, board and lodging, with sight-seeing. We actually managed that last month, May 2022, Goa - Udupi - Coorg - Bengaluru. 5 days, 4 nights, driving a 9 year old WagonR.  And we've done it in the past too, though COVID put a bit of a gap in the proceedings. Both of us are in our mid-60s and so we also aim at a similar profile of readers, not in a very big hurry, and where the journey is also the best part. If you feel tired - stay another night! Every which way, if you are no longer fascinated by paying vast sums of money for doubtful holiday experiences abroad, then India awaits. The Indian tourist in India is the big focus for the smarter tourism industry - especially outside the larger cities, where real estate is still affordable. Our p...