Movies that arouse my wanderlust...

Travel and movies are somewhat similar - they are both forms of escapism. We all want to escape from reality and experience something new. Travel takes us to places we've never been and movies take us inside characters of people very different from ourselves. Both distract us, inspire us, educate us, awaken us and broaden our perspective. They offer much needed therapy to our soul by transporting us to another world which is very different from our mundane lives.

Its so easy for me to sit through crappy films if they are filmed at exotic locations. Being passionate about the subject of travel, the destination takes precedence over the story. I get lost in the backdrop and almost  demerge the cinematography from the actual movie. Movies have a powerful ability to evoke a sense of exoticism and they surely inspire travel to those destinations.  Here's a list of movies that arouse my wanderlust...

The Beach - It's a cliche to put this up. If you love to travel you've seen it a million times. A travel movie list would be incomplete without a mention of The beach. It's a story about young backpackers who set out to find a tropical "island paradise" in Thailand. It's a bible for backpackers traveling to Asia & truly depicts the laid back life on Thai islands. Its was shot on the Thai island of Phi Phi. Just don't make the mistake of heading to Phi Phi island- its a tourist magnet since the movie released.

Under the Tuscan Sun - Starring Diane Lane, this is a story about a woman who moves to Italy after divorcing her husband. It's centered around her experiences of purchasing a villa in Tuscany where she finds new love, friendship and happiness. The story is mundane, but the cinematography is stunning. It indulges you with amazing vistas of Italian countryside surrounded by rolling green hills Tuscany as well as the breathtaking Amalfi Coast.

 The Lord of the Rings - Without any hesitation, I rate New Zealand as the most beautiful country I've visited. If there is any country besides India I could live in, it has to be NZ. There couldn't be better setting LOTR -the stunning landscapes, evergreen forests and wonderful mountains are what New Zealand is all about. Peter Jackson captures the magic of the place wonderfully. Cant wait to go revisit NZ.

Blood Diamond -  Africa's profound beauty and striking landscapes have always enthralled me. The fact that Sierra Leone is dangerous & life threatening country makes it all the more alluring. I've been to several countries in Africa - but they are the touristy bits of the continent. Sierra Leone surely sounds captivating.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Although this movie was not filmed in Japan, the set designers did a great job in recreating it you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The opening scenery of the Japanese coast, the little fishing village, Japanese tea houses and the set of the small Kyoto alleyways lined with geisha houses and you’ll immediately feel like you have been transported to Japan in the 1920s. The result is a visually stunning love letter to Kyoto. It's on the wishlist.

Seven years in Tibet - This movie is one of many reasons I want to go to Tibet. It's probably one of the few visual insights we have of what Tibetan culture might have been like before the Chinese invasion. This movie is about a German mountaineer and his time with the Dali Lama. Released in 1997 and starring Brad Pitt, it takes a good look at Tibetan culture on the eve of the Chinese invasion. You get an outsider’s perspective on this remote nation and of the ruler who now lives in exile in India.

 Honorable mentions...

                   

 Some movies like Eat-Pray-Love, The International, Bourne Identity and Dhoom (Hindi) are filmed in several international locations. But I'm biased towards movies that singularly focus on one nation / culture, as opposed to actors globetrotting every few minutes.

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

A winter dreamland...

Travel and snow don't gel very well (unless the traveler is a snow sports enthusiast). When planning leisure travel, we always google  "best time to visit XYZ" or "XYZ weather in January". The destinations with sub zero temperatures are easily filtered. And it's a fair justification. Without snow the luggage is lighter, flight disruptions lesser, beaches are buzzing, cities are bustling and sightseeing is a lot more fun. Even when travelling to the mountains -  we love the sight of snowclad peaks, but don't want the white stuff on the surface.

The winter temperatures are wavering around 20C in Mumbai. For most mumbai-kars it's perfect weather conditions. But being a travel addict, I hate the four letter word called home. So instead of celebrating the perfect Mumbai weather...I'm actually remorseful of being at home. I'd prefer to be in freezing temperatures than home. And actually, I'm fantasising of being in the snow...especially after reading about the sparkling Sapporo Snow Festival in Hokkaido prefecture, Japan. Cheers to the Japanese for proving it that snow can be a lot of fun.

The traditional snow festival began in 1950 at Odori Park in the city of Sapporo, when a group of students prepared snow statues and showcased them. Later, the event started to draw thousands of spectators for the majestic snow sculptures carved by the self defence forces. Today, more than two million people flock to Sapporo in Japan to take a look at the awe-inspiring structures, from palaces, statues and scenery's drawn out of the fairytales to events reflecting all that is contemporary. For seven days in February,these statues and sculptures(both large and small) turn Sapporo into a winter dreamland of crystal-like ice and white snow.Every year the number of statues displayed is around 400 in total.

The subject of the statues varies and often features an event, famous building or person from the previous year.A number of stages made out of snow are also constructed and some events including musical performances are held. Visitors can enjoy long snow and ice slides as well as a huge maze made of snow.At night those statues are illuminated, and the views are incredible.Watch artists create legends in the fragile blocks of ice and get a taste of the local delicacies as you dig into some of Sapporo's delicious food.

The 2011 snow festival will be from February 7 to 13. I'm quite sure there's a fellow traveler in Sapporo willing to swap homes with me in Mumbai !

All images via the City of Sapporo website

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

5 steps to be a better traveler....

Going to a far-flung destinations and lounging at fancy resorts is surely a fun experience. But it's also the effortless part of the travel game. I crave for travel experiences that are up, close & personal. I worship all forms of travel - mountains, islands, jungles, villages or cities. But travel is more than just being somewhere - it's about getting under the skin of the place. It's about creating experiences that amaze and delight. It could be the best local hangouts, cultural experiences or adrenalin adventures. And after a wee bit of globetrotting, I've realised I lack amateur level travel skills ! If I could cultivate these skills, I could really stimulate my travel experiences. Here's a short list....

1. Ride a motorbike  - Believe it or not, I cant maneuver a geared motor bike. It's right on top of the things to learn list. Since I can ride an automatic scooter, it should be easy. The sole purpose of learning a mobike is to zip across stunning landscapes and rarely visited corners of the Indian Himalayas. Maybe the classic journey from Manali to Leh.

2. Eat vegetarian street food in Asia Pacific - Sounds like an oxymoron ? Asia is the land of spices. There's hardly any street across Asia where you don't see a vendor selling aromatic food. I've never had the courage eat at food stalls in Bangkok, Hongkong or Guangzhou. After all what could a vegetarian eat in countries where people consume birds, dogs and worms ?  Now there's a conflict of interest here. The traveler within me is intrigued by the street food & wants experience the local cuisine. The vegetarian within me confines me to touristy restaurants with clearly demarcated food. It's a real adventure to enjoy street food, while still being vegetarian. And I'm finally ready to ride the roller coaster.

3. Scuba dive or surf  - I learned basic diving skills in Thailand, but my attempt to become a certified diver ended up in vain. However, I'm ready to give it second shot.  And if I'm not allured by diving, maybe I'll try surfing. The problem is that beaches aren't an important part of Indian culture, so it's not easy to get training and practise locally.

4. Photography - I've never been beguiled by photography. It's really absurd since travel, blogging and photography are supplementary. Maybe I was too immersed in the "experience" rather than capturing pictures. I went to Brazil without a camera. I've been on African safaris without a camera. I don't even have a picture of me when I was on top of Kilimanjaro ! But I'm finally inspired to buy a camera and learn some photography.

5. Speak an foreign language - English is enough if you are happy with spending all your time in star hotels & eating pizza. But lets face it, the areas that are solely catering to tourists are the same the world over. It's surely cumbersome to learn a new language. It's even more cumbersome to decide on which one to learn. If I decide to learn Spanish, I would still be helpless in France or Japan or China. But you need to learn a language if you want to go somewhere and really explore beyond the tourist facade. The local people probably speak little English.

 “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

What $1 buys around the world

Lonely Planet’s Facebook fans  were asked, what they could get for $1 while travelling. They got amusing comments and I thought of sharing them on my blog.

•Chester, England: US$1 (63 pence) gets me half a loaf of bread. As for Philippines, one of the best things you can get with $1 is a big bag of sweets to keep in your backpack, to hand out to kids. – James

•Vienna: a dollar would buy you a freshly baked Kornspitz (a kind of bread roll), but wouldn’t be enough for a salty pickle from a street market or a short-distance public transport ticket. However, with the change from that Kornspitz, you can visit the museum of applied art (MAK) on a Saturday since it’s free of charge. – Dilyan

•Tenerife, Canary Islands: it will get you a good cup of coffee in the capital, Santa Cruz, but in the tourist areas of the South you will be lucky if it gets you half a cup. – Linda

•South India: it will give a unlimited servings of rice with rasam, sambhar, curd, papad, 1 piece sweet on a banana leaf. – Tarun

•Cebu, Philippines: $1 can get 30-45 minutes of a glorious foot massage – Dexter

•Nepal: you can get momo (ten units of dumpling) and a 250ml of coke. – Niraj

•Croatia: a big scoop of ice-cream. – Morana

•The UK: 60 pence buys you about 3/4 litre of milk, half a litre of petrol/diesel for your car, 2 cigarettes (that’s two single ones, not a packet), 3 apples, 2 days supply of the Sun tabloid newspaper, a small portion of fries from Maccy D’s or a can of coke from my office vending machine. – Alex

•Denmark: you can get a litre of milk, a ciabatta bun in the Godthaabsvej Bakery, a stamp for a postcard/letter with receiver in Denmark, a cucumber or maybe a chocolate bar. 1 dollar = 5,5 danish kroner – Sandra

•Budapest: 1 scoop of ice cream/4 small apples/1 plain hamburger at McDonald’s/1 postcard/1 daily newspaper/30 minutes parking in the downtown area – Csaba

•Canada: Nothing! Haha. Blame it on Canadian taxes – Ashley

•Faroe Islands: A pack of chewing gum, 2 apples at the supermarket, some candy probably, hardly anything – Bjarki

•Vietnam: you can buy either 1 hat, 1 or 2 magazine(s), 1 DVD, 3 pairs of flip sandals, 5 instant noodle packages or snacks, 1 meal in some cheap food courts. ALOT, rite? – Lynn

•In middle Italy: a litre of cheap wine or 1kg Spaghetti or 6 bottles of mineral water and just about one tablet of Ibruprofen which you might need if you drank the cheap vino!!! – Robert

•Chiang Mai: The question is, what can’t you get in Chiang Mai for US$1? Street food doesn’t usually cost more than that. I even get a cooked to order vegetarian lunch delivered to my office everyday for that price. – Sheila

•Bogotá, Colombia: A cup of coffee and 2 fresh baked cookies. Or an arepa with some spicy home made aji salsa! – Andrew

•Seoul: one subway or bus ticket and a mask pack for your skin. – Yun

•Egypt: you could buy a koshary plate which is an Egyptian dish which basically includes spaghetti, rice, lentil and fried onions on the top. Another choice would be about ten Fool (beans) sandwiches maybe even some falafel or in other parts of Cairo just a donut. – Aly

•India: ‎1USD = around 50 Indian Rupees which can get you a hearty meal of boiled rice, dal, vegetables, pickles, chutney and papads in a Kolkata ‘basa’ …and it’s usually eat as much as you want! – Priyanka

•Costa Rica: you can buy one papaya, one watermelon, one pineapple… and perhaps a cup of coffee of decent quality. – Luis

•Los Angeles: one hour of street parking – Christina

•Paris: about 40% of an espresso at Starbucks. – Michael

•Dubai: a dollar will get you a ‘Jabal Al Noor’ shawarma. – Ineke

•Portugal: 1 espresso coffee. Except if you are in the airport – Nuno

•Australia: a scratchy (lottery ticket) with the chance of getting enough cash together for your next trip – Kin

So if you’re looking to make one dollar go further, ‘Indonesia, Thailand, and India are the winners’!

The content of this article is from Lonely Planet (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/asia/travel-tips-and-articles/76028 ).

Kilimanjaro continued....

Read the first excerpt of Kilimanjaro here

    

It feels terrible to be back in Mumbai. Kili was ruthlessly cold with fierce winds, sleepless nights, no beds or showers  - but I still miss it :).  I'm going to write a a brief synopsis of my experience.....

The porters collected our backpacks every morning & transferred it to the next campsite. They also setup and dismantled our tents. The campsites are always near a water source. We carried our own daypacks which were loaded with water, snacks, packed lunches, warm clothing, toiletries and other essentials. Everyone dined together in the cozy mess tent & it was fun to mingle with new friends.

We had full service candlelit dinners with meals served in chinaware ! Although there were no showers, the support crew gave us small containers of hot water every morning to freshen up. We had portable toilets for the group. It's amazing how much they spoil you on the mountain ! Without a doubt, its mission impossible without the porters, guides & the support crew at the campsite.

Eat well, sleep well & drink plenty of water was the success mantra to make it to the top. It sounds simple - but hard to obey. Guides advise you to eat carbohydrates, sugar rich foods like chocolates & drink 4-5 litres of water everyday. The water we drink is collected from the stream and boiled every morning on request. After drinking excess water, my bladder really annoyed me every night. Towards the end of the trek, I despised water and chocolates.

I'm a fragile sleeper and didn't get any sleep the first night. After sleeping in temperature controlled rooms & thick mattresses it's initially hard to sleep in a compact tent and rocky surfaces ! My last experience camping was probably in school. But subsequently, the body got really exhausted climbing & it was easier to sleep. You're always snoozing on the mountain, rather than being in a state of slumber.

I was the sole lacto vegetarian (a diet which includes dairy products, but excludes eggs) in the group. I kept my hands away from omelette's and scrambled eggs for breakfast. My only option was to gulp down the utterly unpalatable porridge seven mornings in a row. The food was disappointing initially, but after everyone grumbled  it was a tad better. They served us hot soup every night before dinner - a real bliss in freezing temperatures. As my sole aim was survival, I ingested whatever was offered. I had begun to appreciate the little things in life :).

 

 

 I was well prepared for altitude sickness - but it never showed up ! We all used a drug called diamox to fight altitude sickness. There are contradictory opinions on taking diamox. My dosage was 1/2 tablet for breakfast and another 1/2 for dinner. Everyone in the group was absorbing diamox & it seemed to work well for all of us.  Once, in the middle of the night I had a stomach disorder & I was unable to find my headlamp in the tent. It was pitch dark & impossible to walk without any illumination. It took about 15 minutes to find my headlamp & rush to the toilet. That was harsh !

 The summit day is brutal and the ascent begins at midnight. Luckily, the weather was only about  -7 C that night (can get as bad as -25 C). It's pitch dark and & you cant see any further than your next step  with your headlamp.  My pace was awfully slow that night and eventually I lost my colleagues. I was left all alone along with Lucas.  Lucas was a backup guide in case someone splits from the group.  I don't know how I crawled my way to the top. Each step took more effort than the previous one; I must have paused about 80 times in those 8 hours. Eventually the sun came up we could see the surreal landscape - the glaciers, the several hundred foot drop into the crater, the mind-blowing expanse of the debris field stretching down to the tiny dots of base camp below.

 
Finally on Saturday 21st August, around 8 A.M, I concluded my ascent at Gilmans point (5695 metres) . Gilman's point is on the rim of Kilimanjaro. However, Uhuru peak (5895 metres)  is the highest point on Kilimanjaro about 200 metres higher up & 2 hours further away. The park authorities give you a successful completion certificate if you reach Gilmans or Uhuru. When I reached Gilman's I was all alone - without a camera & a frozen water bottle. Some colleagues had descended back to the the base camp & others had departed for Uhuru peak.

Except for the extreme exhaustion, I was feeling comfortable. I didn't suffer from any sickness, headaches, vomiting etc, unlike some fellow climbers. I had the stamina to go all the way to Uhuru, but Lucas advised me to retreat in order to make it on time to the base camp. It was still 4 hours to the base camp & another 4 hours to a lower camp where we would be spending our final night. Most big mountains are summited at night to avoid hazards like ice falls.  Another  reason to climb Kili at night is to avoid the shock of seeing what you have to climb because its dark.

 

My candid thoughts on Kilimanjaro...

Kili was undoubtedly a dream come true. I certify its not technical climb & can be attempted by anyone who is reasonably fit. Although the trail is not vivacious like the Himalayas, its fun. The path except for the summit day inclines very gently making it a comfortable trek. We walked about 6 hours each day except for the summit day which was 16 delirious hours. The summit day is demanding, but not impossible. About four climbers in my group were in their sixties & they all made it. Their courage & determination was really commendable. I now believe that "age" only exists in the psyche & reminiscences of their conquest will be an immortal source of inspiration.

The porters are the real hero's of Kilimanjaro. An average trekker like me spends his time at the camp moaning about the hardships he is suffering – white eating popcorn & sipping a steaming hot cup of tea. The porters are the hardy individuals - putting up the tents, helping with the preparation of the food, refilling water bottles and generally making sure every trekker’s desire is catered for. The average wage for a porter is $5 per day (excluding tips) & the weight they can carry is capped to 15 kilos. Every time I saw a porter on the mountain, it felt terrible that someone has to carry all the weight to make my journey more pleasurable. But as an afterthought, the process generates employment for porters in a country where poverty and unemployment is high. Unfortunately this is the fate of the world.

The trek made me poorer by around $3000 & I wouldn't exchange it for an overwater villa in the Maldives! It's unbelievable the amount of satisfaction the ego derives by climbing great heights. Why else do climbers from across the world commit to their own misery ? Now this was my closest encounter of "mountaineering", but definitely not the final one. When I signed up for Kili, it was merely another adventure. The journey's initial motive was to get to the top & prove my physical capabilities. But when I concluded by climb, my belief had changed. It turned out to be a spiritual journey. It helped me stretch my limits, inspired me, expanded my consciousness & made me aware of the little joys in life, which are often ignored at home. Adventure was a measly part of the package.

As Dr. Joseph Dispenza says:

 “Travel is intrinsically associated with expanding consciousness. Travel is an inner experience as much as an outer experience. Travel is the great metaphor for embarking on a journey of emotional, psychological, and spiritual growth. Being essentially materially minded, we undertake physical journeys so that we can better understand the inner process that is at work when we go out. We will eventually discover something about ourselves that we had not known. We travel to complete ourselves. We need these journeys to understand how all the pieces of our lives fit together. Every time we go out we are going in and seen in that way, all travel is a spiritual experience.”

(P.S. - All images by Jayant Sasikumar & Sanjeev Ganju)