Travelling Woes

This post is a monologue that I want to dole out. I guess a lot of women would understand what I am saying – due apologies to the gentlemen if this post makes you feel left out!

Bitten by wanderlust… My feet itch to travel… I want to see the world! – these are phrases that I often use in my posts. And I agree, that every single one of them applies to me. However, itchy feet aren’t the most comfortable. While I have my woes as we travel, they have never been able to surpass my wanderlust and I hope that they never do! With that note, let me rant about my travel woes:

Getting a sunburn

If you have read our posts earlier, you would know that we love the sun. And we love the sea..and the sand…and the rocky shores. Long and short of the story, we love beaches. Besides, Ankur’s idea of a perfect vacation is to sit by the sea side with a glass that has a one of those fancy little umbrellas and go slurp, slurp, slurp. I love the idea too.

Cheers!!!

However, my skin doesn’t! Every beach vacation that we go to results in me getting sun burnt, to the extent, that lying down on the bed make me shriek. Sunscreens do not work for me; SPF 35 or SPF 50 – none of them offer me any protective shield. Whether our trip is a three day Maldivian get away or a ten days Croatian sojourn, I always end up spending one day indoors with ice cold towels dumped on me.

Sunny Maldives!

Packing winter clothes

While I love the sun, it does give me some grief. Why don’t I explore a winter destination, you ask. I love ice and snow too. Snowman Olaf (movie:Frozen) is amongst my favourite cartoon characters. I also love mulled wine, eggnog, ginger bread, Christmas carols etc. But I hate packing for a winter destination. The list of things to carry is endless – woolen inners, ski sock, ski gloves, lining gloves, warm caps, scarves, fleece, down jackets, snow shoes – how can you possible stuff all this into one back pack? Wear it as you get on the plane – doesn’t work for us. We stay in hot and humid Mumbai. Cold nights, which occur for a week in the entire year hail a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius – can’t board a plane with layers of warm clothes, can we? Our trip to Abisko made us carry all this and much more. We ended up lugging two suitcases for a 14 day trip!

Five layers to save us from the Arctic winter at Abisko

Packing multiple pair of shoes

For any vacation in good weather (I am discounting winters here), I need at least two pairs for comfortable flat sandals for walking and exploring – one white and one black (some colour co-ordination is needed!), one pair of shoes for some adventure and off course, one pair of heels for a good night out. Did I miss the beach slippers and/or the aqua shoes? Well, that is a lot – I agree. But I need them…all of them! I can never decide which ones to leave behind at home. As an end result, 60% of my bag is stuffed with footwear.

Footwear for the beach

Desire to be spoilt

Luxury isn’t a vice, is it? Our travel style is a mixed bag – backpacking with occasional luxurious splurges. However, luxury does spoil you and makes you crave for the delights that might drill holes in your pocket. Our vacation to Udaipur, Coorg and Maldives spoilt us silly.

Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur

Ever so often, I want to get back to these places to slather myself in guilt-free indulgence.

Sprawling property at Taj Madikeri, Coorg

However, the joy of meeting fellow travellers over breakfast in a hostel is beyond compare – it’s people who make the world a happier place! We met some super awesome people at the Swanky Mint Hostel in Zagreb this August. All inclusive resort South East Asia with all the privacy that we would want or warm and friendly bantering with people from different countries at a hostel in Europe; I guess I lean more towards people, but the devil always pokes me and tries to drag me towards the former!

Quest for food

Let me rephrase it – quest for vegetarian food. Let me also add, quest for warm food. The later has been added as we had to struggle quite a bit to find some warm vegetarian food in the Arctic. Even though we were ready to spend, we ended up getting fruit yogurt, muesli and a cold cheese sandwich for breakfast when the outside temperature was 20 degrees Celsius below zero. We could not even find a cafe that served hot eggs! Our next winter destination is Iceland – I have read food horror stories from fellow vegetarian travellers. I think Iceland calls for some self cooking in the hostel kitchens!

Craving some warm food!

Is travel always rosy for you? Or do you have travel woes as well? Share them – I would love to know that I am not the sole survior of the cribbers’ clan!

All said and done, I am still bitten by wanderlust and my feet still itch to travel!

Let the travellers’ tribe grow!