Sikkim is one of the most beautiful states of India. I had fallen in love with its wild mountains the first time I visited (Monsoons of Sikkim) and harboured the dream to return ever since. Two weeks ago, I went back to trek in the West this time. We trekked along the trail to Goecha La, a high altitude pass at 4940m with amazingly clear views of the 3rd highest mountain in the whole world, Mt. Kanchenjunga (8,586m). Not surprisingly, I fell in love with this tiny state all over again.

Do you see the colorful tents? That's the campsite we had to skip due to overcrowding! We started from the previous campsite covering more than 30 kms including gruelling climbs of Day 5, in the name of adventure!

But before I begin with the thousands of pictures hiding in the memory card sitting inside the DSLR, here's a quick glimpse of the trek through my phone. 

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Yet another long walk through misty forests along a narrow trail on Day 6! The trek's ending but the climb's not.

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!

Well, having a smooth trip where everything goes according to the plan can be nice and all that but the human psyche sure does enjoy a misadventure or two! I mean, what are you gonna tell back home? I had the most amazing perfect trip ever and that's it? For me, (mis)adventures define travel. I take the road less taken, do the crazy, if I come out with flying colors I do have a great story to tell and if I fail, I still have a great story to tell!

While there are many ways to get yourself into trouble like giving into masochism and entering the forests in the absolute wrong time just for the pleasure of it, which I am sure most of my trekker friends in Western Ghats understand. I wasn't a traveler earlier. I was a trekker which meant I had little to do with the over crowded over sold tourist destinations and the noisy tourists. I was happy wandering in the valleys and mountains with little or no human presence apart from us trekkers. Then I started to travel and reality hit me hard. Even though India holds an abundance of natural scenery, the all pervasive tourist crowd and bad planning only makes it hard for me to enjoy the scenic beauty. In a bid to avoid this, I started traveling slightly ahead of season of just after season. It worked, well to an extent it did. Although, lately I have been traveling off season to places and I have to tell you, it is an awesome experience! I'll tell you why.

1. You get to see what few have seen before.

I went to Chhattisgarh in summer when everyone said it was a bad idea. I went to Sikkim in monsoons when everyone said it was a bad idea again. But both the visits have been extremely fruitful. I got to shoot the fishermen on Indravati River with the falls in the backdrop which I still consider to be my best shot. During the peak season, the waterfalls are in full flow and flooded totally. In Sikkim, I saw much more than that. The monsoon beauty of the place and its wonders were indescribable. There were wild flowers and green grass all around Gurudongmar for one. I haven't seen any such photos of the place so far and I think I might be one of those few travelers to have seen that. Last year in Goa, we discovered the so-called monsoon pilots of Colem who will take you on a ride of your lifetime to Dudhsagar falls.

This would interest you more if you are looking for experiences rather than ticking boxes on your to-see places list. I know Sikkim is famous for grand views of Kanchendzonga, Goa for its beaches and Chhattisgarh isn't on the tourist circuit at all. But who set in stone so and so are the only things to do and places to see and the best time to go? I personally don't understand the concept of Off Season. Well to me if the locals are able to survive, so can you. You'll see something different than the usual. If you market that, off season will also become the best season. Just put up with few discomforts and you are good to go. Explore!

2. Accommodation comes for dirt cheap prices.

This possibly can be the best thing about traveling in Off Season. The accommodation comes so cheap, a backpacker can live in luxury during this time. All the hotels and resorts slash their prices to almost peanuts compared to the peak season charges and if you are good at bargaining , you have an added advantage.Off season is the best time to try out hotels normally I wouldn't prefer or can afford. We stayed in luxury in Goa and accommodation in the usually sky high charging places of Sikkim was dirt cheap, so was in Chhattisgarh and Ladakh too.

3. Business out of their minds, the locals are much more laid back!

This is definitely an advantage to the travelers who are looking to connect with the community and learn about the locals in the places they visit. When I was in Sikkim, during peak monsoons, with no tourist traffic, all the vehicles were used as public transport for locals. Without the crazy demand for vehicles to go for the sightseeing tours, the drivers were taking a break. One such driver, whom I had hired to take me to few waterfalls was Sonam. He had no rush to go back, and he patiently waited while I took out my tripod and shot long exposures. I asked him many questions of his village life and he asked me so many of our city life. In the end, we concurred the grass is always greener on the side. With all this interaction I came to know of one thing, that the boys give dowry to get a bride here in Sikkim.

5. Have a few adventures here and there!

Well, let's face it, it is called off-season for a reason! The heat is too much, or the cold or the rain. With excess, there is almost always going to be some problem. And then, considering the traveler that you are, you will somehow manage to get across the problem. Then it surfaces, the pride that you have managed to survive another (mis)adventure. Like, when I went to Mannavanur Lake in offseason, it was raining like hell, we had no shelter or tents, only a tarpaulin sheet to save our lives. But the sheet wouldn't hold against the lashing rain, so one of the villagers suggested we take shelter in the school for the night and get lost early next morning. We were drenched to the core, had the lake all to ourselves, had lovely conversations with an old couple who were serving hot dosas in the night! Well, you know things like this don't happen when there are a horde of tourists all around. It is rare that you get these kind of experiences when you pay for it, because you can't really be sure if people are being nice to you because it is their business to be nice or are they genuinely being nice.

6. Well people, there are no people around!

This has to be the biggest advantage for me! I know not many feel this compulsive need to be alone in places, but I, for one, hate the crowd. I know it makes me sound like a unsocial being, but it is the truth. I can't stand the ubiquitous crowd, the screaming children, the screeching vehicles, the loud conversations and many more such things that come with a crowd at a serene place. The reason travel is so special to me is because it makes me feel special. Being in places where few have been to, seeing things few have seen. When a million others are seeing what you are seeing, it isn't special anymore. But when I travel offseason, I get to have the entire place to myself. There are no people getting in way of my camera either (very selfish, I know!). It is just absolutely wonderful to see nature with no distractions, just plain nature.

Not just these, but another reason why traveling in offseason is good for the traveler who intends to gather experiences rather than few postcard pictures is the fact that you get to see the problems faced by the locals and the ways they get around it. Like for instance, how do the people of Pin Valley manage to stay disconnected to the world for six months when it snows or how the people of Sikkim manage the incessant rains on the mountains and the really really bad roads. When we understand their problems, we do have a better respect for them.

What do you think? Is it worth it, traveling in off season? Share your views and off season travel stories!

P.S - Point 4 is missing! I didn't realize it until a reader pointed it out. You didn't realize it too, did you? ;) Well, why don't one of you give me another reason, we'll add it! :))