I spent two weeks in Rajasthan. As expected it was very commercialized and crowded but I managed to find some quiet and quaint corners for myself. I trekked through the Thar desert, spent few days deconstructing the paintings of Shekhawati Havelis and had dinner with royalty to name a few. Here's what I saw. :)

Start of the five day trek through the Thar Desert. Our guide on his camel.

A Lady offering prayers in the beautiful Jain Temple of Ranakpur

Frescoes of many a kind adorning the domes of tombs in Shekhawati.

This is where we stayed in Desert National Park, Sudasari

Beautiful pristine sand dunes of neither Sam nor Khuri

A glorious painted Haveli of Shekhawati, now in ruins and neglect

A French artist bought a haveli and restored the frescoes to bring to its former glory, Fatehpur

Businessman around Jodhpur

Beautifully lit Jal Mahal of Jaipur

Pesky kids running after us for money, after a while they just smiled and left.

Gadisar Lake, Jaisalmer

Mustard fields in South Rajasthan

A beautiful sunrise and a solitary tree

The gravel was hurting my feet. After all, I was walking on the streets without footwear. I was walking in the village that doesn't wear footwear. The logic was simple — everywhere you turned, you would tumble into a temple. When we reached the place after a four-hour hike the previous night, a board that read ‘Please remove the foot wears' welcomed us. We obliged.

Vellagavi is a small hamlet located on a hill top, home to 99 families and 300-odd people. Along with the houses, there are 24 temples of all kinds located within the village. The houses were packed so close that you could count the number of lanes on your fingers. And, every lane ended up around a temple. The devotion in the people was quite obvious — the village was holy, the temples were holy, and they firmly believed in the gods above. The day we visited was the last day of a week-long of prayers held for rain; It did rain the previous day!

Road-less travel

On a higher ground, next to a grassy patch was a Muruga Temple with a brilliant view of the forests below and the mountains above. As we walked back from the temple, a retired headmaster of the primary school, Shanmugham, greeted us. I was shocked to know this village had a school and even a post office — although there is no road connectivity to this village.

One can reach the place only on foot on a steep trail — either through the jungle up from Kumbakarai or down the hill from Kodaikanal. The village has been in existence before the pre-Independence days, and it's a surprise that such an old settlement, so close to Kodaikanal, never got a road.

The headmaster was kind enough to invite us for a cup of coffee, and told us many more stories of his village. He said no one was spared from the ‘no footwear' rule. He went on to say that 15 years ago when a certain forest ranger refused to remove his footwear and entered the village, he was ‘duly punished' on his way down — he was attacked by a bison and lost his legs.

The lady of the house handed us hot cups of coffee. It was strong and black — with no cattle around, milk was a rare commodity there. All the essentials had to be bought from Kodaikanal. They live off the earnings from the estates and the produce, which mainly consists of fruits and coffee.

Tremendous hospitality

Later another family invited us for a scrumptious breakfast. Based on the tremendous hospitality they'd shown us, I assumed this village didn't see much tourist traffic. But I couldn't have been more wrong. Vellagavi is part of a village tourism circuit where, and gets frequent visitors from Kodaikanal, mostly foreigners. And, the incredible generosity is just part of their culture. I have found that people who live in trying terrains have been the most kind.

Hours later we said farewell, walked barefoot to the village boundary, put on our shoes and started the three-hour climb. As I walked towards Kodaikanal, I wondered when the last time was that I got invited for a cup of coffee by a stranger.

Far across the distance I saw mountains with dark clouds looming. Soon, the village and its charms were buried deep in my thoughts. But Vellagavi could do with a road.

This story originally appeared in The Hindu

The moment I started watching the video, the only thing that was going through my mind was from where did he get the courage to do something like that? This is an incredible story of a young adventurer from Australia, Tim Cope, who set out in 2004 to cross 10000 kms from Mongolia to Hungary by horse, alone and unassisted. The catch is he could barely ride a horse. Learning everything he could from the nomads who inhabited these unforgiving desolate lands, he traced the trail of Gengis Khan in three and a half grueling years! From camping with the wolves to dealing with horses that abandoned him, from terrifying lonely days to the incredibly welcoming nomads, this is one adventure that will not let you rest until you have seen all the 6 parts of this mind-blowing documentary! Central Asia has captured my imagination for ages this amazing adventure is the first crossing of the steppes in the modern times. He filmed the entire journey which is now available as a documentary and he is also writing a book on the same.

Watch the entire series on youtube - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

This is yet another never-before-done adventure of epic proportions! Ed Stafford walked the entire length of Amazon continuously for over two years to become the first person to do so. From dealing with drug mafia to a botfly living in his head, this journey has all kinds of extreme situations that Ed and his guide deal with. If Tim Cope’s journey had me wondering about courage, this made me wonder about his determination and commitment. It is not easy to get up every morning and walk non-stop in a jungle along 6530 kms of Amazon River for 860 days. Even if the whole world said it isn’t possible, to have the single minded dedication to commit to a goal as challenging as walking the Amazon just goes to show what humans are capable of. While intense cold or heat can kill within a short span, jungles are like slow poison. Of all the adventures I have known of, I’d say this would be one of the toughest ever! Ed Stafford also filmed the entire journey now available as a documentary and there is a book too.

Watch the two part documentary on youtube - Part 1, Part 2

Ever since I saw Ewan McGregor singing as the adorable Christian in the movie Moulin Rouge, I had fallen in love with him! You can only imagine my surprise when I found out he can rough it out and have an adventure. Actors and friends, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman rode around the world on motorcycles starting from London going towards east through central Asia, reaching Russia after which they flew to Anchorage in Alaska and rode till New York. After you get over the initial pangs of jealousy at all the support they were getting, it is a really well made 7 part documentary because they also had a cameraman riding with them alongside. While the initial parts of riding in Europe is boring, all the fun starts once they enter Kazakhstan and it continues till they reach Russia. Beautiful landscapes, funny situations, good adventures, motorcycle breakdowns aside, what makes this fun to watch is the wonderful camaraderie between the two bikers. They will remind of you of your rides with your friends, of the ups and downs and all the crazy moments in between. 

After the success of their first journey around the world, the same team of Long Way Around gets back together for another entertaining documentary covering Ewan and Charley’s journey from the northernmost tip of Scotland to Cape Town in Africa. With the same production team and cameraman, the quality of the filming is top notch again. If long way around was about crazy places and adventure, Africa was all about people and children and problems. It is very difficult not to be affected by the plight of the war torn continent. Even though it is sad to watch at times, the journey does bring into light a lot of issues about Africa. Meanwhile the crazy adventures continue as Ewan’s wife also rides with them for a while, they drill holes in shoes, have signboards inviting them for coffee. It gets funny when Ewan expected to be mobbed at a stars wars location in Tunisia but nothing happens. This journey also turns out to be as entertaining as the previous one, if not more. 

While I haven’t seen this yet, I imagine it must be a good watch. About the only Indian adventure documentary I could find, Gaurav Jani films his journey from Mumbai to the remote deserts of Ladakh. Just the fact that this documentary is filmed in Ladakh is enough to convince me watch the movie, which I will be doing very soon. 

Again another movie that I haven’t watched yet, but the trailer looks promising and the idea, crazy! Three ultra runners, Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Li ran 6920 kms across the Sahara in 111 days covering about 80kms per day.  What I really liked about this adventure was that the team had decided they would abort the expedition if one of the runners went down, which meant they had to support and encourage each other all the while. The desert run is yet another glowing example of what the human body and mind is capable of. I will be placing the order for this movie soon. 

These are my recommendations of films that showed us impossible journeys undertaken by people pushing their mental and physical limits. All these were filmed during the adventure and not later re-enactments. We'll make another list of those kind of movies too. 

So, how many of these have you watched? Any other suggestions to add to this list?

2012 has been a year of lot of firsts and adventures, things I never thought I’d do. Looking back at the 12 months I realize I’ve had a bit of everything in it, from little joys to major milestones. I certainly spent some quality time refining my travel, writing and photography. Small changes and a conscious decision to find something new helped me immensely. I didn’t realize the impact of this until the very end of the year. As I look back at all I did in 2012, every experience and every trip has been different in more ways than one. And I say this at the risk of sounding clichéd, but each one of those moments has changed me in more ways than one. What more can a traveler ask for?

Wave after wave was crashing on my face and I couldn’t get enough time to even recover from each blow. With the surf board under one arm and the other hand tightly clutching Dhruv, my teenage instructor’s arm, I was going farther away from the shore. Lying flat on my stomach on the floating surf board, I would wait for the wave to come. Meanwhile, for one small moment, the sea would calm down. I couldn’t see the shore, neither could I see Dhruv. All I could see was the blue sky and a wave forming slowly, gracefully and silently. The blissful silence was ephemeral when another wave rose from behind and swept the board ahead. I tried standing up but within seconds I found myself tossed and tumbling underwater as if I was inside a washing machine. The ordeal continued for long that morning. If anything, I can only say I, very very briefly, managed to stand on the board and surf. I am not a beach person at all, I am a mountain person. But that was the first time I experienced the power of the sea, up close and personal.

I have seen Himalayas of Himachal, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Ladakh but Kashmir was in a different league altogether. Once in the unknown valleys of Kashmir, it was very easy to see why it is called “Heaven on Earth”! Beautiful alpine scenery, glacial lakes, crystal clear streams, wild flowers, green meadows, silver birches and everything else made it such a special place. For a week, the agenda was to sit by the stream every afternoon and just watch the show, of clouds, of mountains and of nature. I have travelled extensively in India and I can say that Kashmir is the most beautiful place I have seen yet.

In the summer of 2012 my cousins came to visit me. They were 10, 10 and 11 years old, all boys. They grew up hearing my travel escapades and watching the translated Bear Grylls shows on TV. Thankfully their interest in nature survived all these years. I have taken them on small day hikes earlier to waterfalls which they thoroughly enjoyed. But this summer, I took them on a major trek over a weekend to climb Chembra Peak, at 2100 meters, one of the highest in Wayanad, Kerala. One of the 10 yr olds freaked out before he started the trek but once he got on the trail he was in his element. The climb is easy but the gradient can be tough at times, all three of them climbed the peak effortlessly and were one of the first few to reach the top. And I am so incredibly proud of the three kiddos for never giving up and enjoying being in the mountains! It was a special moment for me, introducing outdoors to the next generation in my family.

Islands are special places. They have their own secrets and can be incredibly scary at times. Times like when I was in an island which was at least 6 hours by ship and another 1200kms away from mainland. I stayed in alone in bamboo huts amidst forest, scared to catch a wink but equally excited to be in such beautiful places. From the remote islands of Andaman I went searching for the headhunting tribes of Nagaland on the other end of the country. I stayed with the tribes in the frontier village at Indo-Burmese border. Entire northern Nagaland was plunged in darkness when I reached due to recent rainfall. The sun sets by 4.30 which meant a lot of darkness had to be endured. I was incredibly scared but felt incredibly alive. I was having the kind of adventures I have dreamed of since childhood. It was monumental that I took and survived these solo trips!

The rain was lashing at me and my oversized windcheater was acting like a sail, playing along with the raging winds. Meanwhile I was trying to cycle up the mountain to reach the peak. I bought my MTB (Mountain Terrain Bike) in early 2011, rode like crazy all through the summer and was eagerly waiting to take the rides in monsoon. But thanks to a failed Himalayan Cycling trip and lots of other travels, I couldn’t ride in the rain. However this year I did ride in the rain and how! It was refreshing to say the least, to feel the rain amidst nature. For two day we cycled in the rain, by the rivers, by the lakes, through fields and mountains. For me, life is in the outdoors!

It didn’t matter if I was in the Himalayas or in the tropical islands, this year I went out of my way to get out in the night and capture the galaxy and beautiful night skies. Since I bought the wonderful Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 Ultra Wide Angle lens, low light photography has really taken off for me. Luckily for me, this year all my trips have been to places with zero light pollution which meant brilliant views of milkyway galaxy. At this rate, in the coming years I will have an enviable collection of nightskies and I am extremely psyched about it!

Apart from these significant adventures, there have been many other things that made 2012 a good year. I won an award for photography, was invited to speak about my travels, learnt some lessons, made a list, spent time above the clouds and officially entered the world of travel writing and photography. My images and writings were published in national and international publications. But above all, I travelled much and I travelled well.

Here’s hoping 2013 will bring in more adventures. Hope you had a good year too!