The BackPack of Travel

Earlier people might have called them vagabonds, but today they are the esteemed ‘backpackers’. The first time I had heard of one traveling the whole of world for two years, I was instantly jiggered; the gumption, leave aside money and time, needed to do so is monumental. But that is travel - we may never understand the joy of it unless we do so.

This is not to mean that I am a big time traveler. On the contrary, I am a much laidback person, preferring a cosy day at home to a slog in the outside. But whenever I had managed to visit some places, I have been overwhelmed. Part of that comes from the sheer occasion of being present at those places, and the rest of it from the sweet and sour travails of reaching there. I can’t categorically say though whether the occasion was better or the experience. I think it has to be experience.

I believe tourist spots fall into three main categories. First, the most likable 3’S category (Sun, Sand and Sex). Go flipping around the periphery of Europe, S-E Asia, Caribbean - in fact all the exotic islands, one can find these places in plenty. The buzz of life or night-life, on beaches or discotheques, is hard to find anywhere else. But as with most things salacious, these are ephemeral. The second type of tourist places is the ‘Nature Trail’. Mountains, snow-laden hilltops, steep cliffs, deserts, water resorts etc provide enough of excitement, challenge or recreation for the hardened nature-lovers. Indeed there is nothing more soothing than natural beauty. But there is another genre which is probably more esoteric than all these, at least for some. The Historic and Religious places. Some are absolutely smitten with history and religion, so no wonders they feel truly whelmed on just being at those places. It is not uncommon for them to feel vicarious about the legends and stories –true or untrue- associated with those sites.

Not tough to judge by now, if I have to place myself in any category, then I will fit in the third slot. I do like buzz and nature, but somehow those experiences don’t last with me forever. Talking of my recent trips, I have liked Manali coolness, or Ayia Napa intoxication, or St Louis’ Six Flags topsi-turvyness, or Nile’s felucca ride or London Eye merry-go-round or Israel’s Dead Sea. But nothing can match the excitement of their historical counterparts: ‘Vaishno Devi darshan, Baths of Aphrodite, Dayton’s Air Museum, Luxor’s pharaohs’ tombs, British Museum, and the whole of Jerusalem. In fact, the most lasting image till now of my whole travel-career is walking on the alleys of Bethlehem in Palestine on the Christmas 25th Dec Night with the Palestinians and us exchanging looks, glances and also glares of many unanswered and unfathomable tenor. That is what I call experience, and that is what I always try to find: the feeling of the place.

Take whatever one may; the reasons are galore, and only one is sufficient to drive one away on a trail. I wish I too could pack my back up one day, and get oblivious to the world around. But sometimes the word ‘backpacker’ isn’t meant to become everyone, at least not to me who didn’t visit the Taj in spite of living only an hour’s drive for five straight years :)