In my last post about Angkor Dreams, Prashanth wrote about Peru, which triggered thoughts of a few more things I have been longing for. Prashanth said
” And I’m dreaming of Peru – after reading a book from Nemichandra – Peruvina pavitra kaniveyalli..”
To give you a background on his comment, Nemichandra is a scientist, writer and obsessed traveller. And the book he is referring to describes her amazing journey into Machhu Picchu and then sailing down the Amazons into its thick evergreen forests.
Amazon is one of the dreams I have been living with for long. Infact I had even budgeted it once, worked out a plan, checked ticket prices and options of travelling – considerable homework for someone who would not really be making it! 😀 I did not make the journey, but the thought remains – Amazon is one of the regions I intend to travel into, before all those thick unpenetrated forests end up as tissues in North America’s kitchens and bathrooms!
For those who are interested, Kon-Tiki by Heyerdahl is an another interesting book to read. It is a journey that starts in the forests of South America and ends up as an adventurous sailing journey into Polynesia.
Since the days I saw McCurry’s photos of Angkor a year ago, I have been dreaming of Siem Reap. And there have been other dreams of Indo-China – to visit Vietnam along with Combodia, and may be a little bit of Malaysia too. I made a home work for this as far back as four years ago, but never really got around to kick myself up to travel that way. Reading about Angkor in a few blogs recently, the temptations are back again. But right now, a journey to these parts of the world is not visible anywhere in the horizon. Reasons are many. First, I hardly have any holidays with me and I end up spending them as quickly as they accumulate. Second, whenever I do find time, it gets spent travelling somewhere within India. Let’s admit it, there are few places as magnanimous as Angkor anywhere in India or rest of the world, but for some unknown reasons, it is India that I prefer. And I somehow don’t feel like burning my money overseas either. I know IndoChina is cheap and I can afford it, but just can’t make up my mind on it. Wish I had some sponsors!! 😀
Most of the time when I meet any India Travel Blog reader offline, there is something similar I get to hear. Most people would have built an image of me based on my online persona. But surprisingly, every one seems to have different thoughts in their mind. Some people have said I am just like they assumed I am. Some people imagined me to be an elderly person and there are others who thought I am very young. And then there are a few who were just curious but did not have a very concrete image. I was quite surprised to realize that these opinions are diverse.
Over time, as I am meeting more and more readers of India Travel Blog offline, I thought I might as well add a little more personal touch online too. And then there were many queries to me about people searching all over paintedstork.com for my photo and not finding one. And so, I am finally adding a photo on India Travel Blog.
It might surprise you, in the vast collection of images in my hard disk, this is one and only picture of mine that I have! And even this was shot on a sleepy morning without even taking trouble to make myself look good. But then, I am too lazy to setup another shot and take one more picture..