Wishes and Wishlists
I started 2008 with a strong desire to travel. It was a fruitful year of going to many places that were in my mind for years. My wish list for the year included Rajasthan, South East Asia, Ladakh and Tamil Nadu. I started the travel-year with Rajasthan in February, and then made it to Tamil Nadu just before end of winter. Ladakh had remained a place of longing for many years, and I managed to spend two months there in July and August. Busy schedules brought down my rate of travel since August, and I also preferred to take it easy and spend some time at home. A week long visit to Goa was a refreshing break late in November – a good time spent walking on the sandy beaches and swimming against the waves. South East Asia simply continues to remain in wish list.
Just when I started taking travelling easy and was hoping to focus more on work, I am struck by another new wave of wishes. A Bhutanese movie I saw yesterday makes me want to be there. Wading through a month of blog posts unread in my feedreader, a few entries on Garhwal are taking me back to the days I spent skiing in Auli. A friend pops up on GTalk and talks about his skiing plans this winter, not helping me one bit.
Snow Boarding in Auli
But there are enough things to do; I can’t keep running from place to place, and have to go easy on travel. Looking up to the coming year, I am hoping to spend a month sometime in the end of 2009 travelling in Vietnam and Cambodia. Other things in mind includes travel to Sikkim early in summer and to Garhwal in later parts of summer, sprinkled with bits and pieces of travels in South India.
Where are you planning to go in 2009?