When you are solo, you don’t just travel but experience different facets of life. It sounds cliche, but trust me, it’s not. I have started travelling solo when I feel I don’t want to depend on others for travel. It happens every time we start making plans with friends; they get cancelled in the end. It can happen for any reason, sometimes reasonable, sometimes not.
You can’t force anyone. It’s not that I haven’t travelled with friends; in fact, I have covered many places in the Himalayas with them. There are beautiful memories that are still fresh in my mind. Because of all these memories, I have started to develop a passion for travelling to different parts of India.
I love the mountains the most because I was born in Himachal Pradesh, a state in the northern parts of India. The craze for mountains intensifies when you live far from them, and the same happens to me. Every landscape has its own color. I have experienced the mountains the most, so I understand them the most. I love to explore plateaus, beaches, or plains. But as a middle-class boy like me, I need to be patient and plan well in advance. Time and money are hard things to buy, and you need to work hard to get them. So far, I’ve only visited four or five states: Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh. There’s still a lot to see and a lot to discover.
When I travel solo, I usually divide my journey into three main components: transportation, accommodation, and food. I will decide my budget according to these requirements. For transportation, I prefer state roadway buses or trains. For accommodation, dormitories are the preferred choice, and for food, I look for hotels outside the main market. Keeping expenses to a minimum is the option. Yes, on the mountain journey, things become different. I chose my tent for accommodation and my own food rather than eat outside.
The constant companion that I carry during all this is the camera. It keeps me indulgent during the whole thing. The action camera, mobile camera, and tripod are just the perfect storytellers. The DSLR and drones (the expensive ones) are the dream electronics that I would love to buy in the future. So let’s start this journey and end it at some beautiful place.