A couple of weeks back I went kayaking at Girgaum Chowpatty. I was a bit sceptical about it initially; the water’s going to be so dirty, I kept thinking. It was quite dirty, but not as bad as I expected, clearing up rapidly as we drew away from the shore. Read more

Do travel writers play a role in aiding the desecration of a destination by writing about it and praising it pristine beauty? By telling people just how to get there and where to stay and the highlights to enjoy, do we encourage the hordes to head there and speed along the destruction of all that is quaint and pretty and ‘untouched’? Read more

I have rather ambivalent feelings about the effect tourism has on a place.

It puts a destination on the travel map, bringing visitors who’re happy to have a new place to see and, along with them, money, new livelihoods and growth to the place and its people. Read more

I just realised the other day that I haven’t been anywhere fun in a while. So while I sulk in my corner, here’s a guest post from Dhamini Ratnam:

All it takes is one pretty stone, and I’m hooked. Then, destination and journey both become unimportant, and the only thing I can think of are stones. Big ones, round ones, oval-shaped ones, funny patchy designed ones, smooth surfaced, cool blue ones, multi-ringed purple ones. Never mind the raft full of people looking at me as if I was off my rockers. Read more

Travel is very rarely only just about the place and the beauties it has to offer. It’s also about the food, the culture, the architecture. Central to all this are people. To truly understand a city, you need to understand its people and what makes them tick. What drives their ambitions or causes their lack of them. Whether they believe in working hard, or in partying equally hard. Read more

Today’s post is about a motley collection of things that I want you to see and read.

Starting with this amazing photo essay of a journey down the Jordan river from the BBC website. Read more

Do all travel accounts have a fictional element to them? I started wondering about it after reading this piece, courtesy: Madhu. It raises an interesting point, one that’s not just true of travel books, but also of some travel writing that we see in magazines and newspapers. I realised this soon after the Rickshaw Run that I went on two years ago. One of the participants wrote a piece for a UK publication that conflated the events of the entire trip into a single day - making it sounds like one helluva 24 hours. Read more

During the past week, I thought of going for a jog. But between the thought and actual action, there was many a slip. The neighbourhood park was shut to joggers; the grass would be damaged during the rainy weather. The other closest park took me 45 minutes to get to in the 7:30 pm traffic, aggravated by the crowds assembled for the Mt Mary fair. By the time I got to the park, they were ready to shut. I jogged a round and a half before I was shooed out. Read more

Even in the times of affordable flights, bus rides still make more sense sometimes. Like the night bus from Goa to Mumbai, that gets you there bright and early in the morning. Its convenience is the reason why I keep taking it despite some pretty harrowing experiences.

What harrowing experiences you ask? Read more

A friend has dangled a carrot, and like a good travel-crazy person, I’m eager to bite the bait. The carrot is free lodging in Poland, a mere 3-5 hours ride away from all the east European countries I have ever dreamt of visiting. Of course there are dozens of reason why this trip probably won’t happen. So what’s important here is not going to Poland itself but what it made me think of. Read more