A Year In Travel

Part 1

As another great year draws to an end, I could not help but look back at all of the new places that I have been to and the experiences garnered from a year in travel in 2017.

My favourite month of the year, also my birthday month – January, took me to Vibrant Vietnam. While exploring the length and breadth of this gorgeous country, I had many unique experiences. I paddled a hand woven bamboo boat in Halong Bay. It took some practice before it went in the right direction, luckily, the rest of my fellow passengers were rather supportive. Away from the floating village, I paddled us through a cave towards a huge water body land locked on all sides. There was a moment when we thought the boat was going to capsize!

Later on this trip, I cycled through rice fields and villages in Hoi An. A great experience overall, it was a bit of a pain as well. In my derrière to be precise! After cycling for 14 odd kilometers, I was ready to call it a day. But since it was my last night there, I dragged my sore self onto the lantern lit streets filled with merriment and awe, and revelled in the festivities.

A short distance from Ho Chi Minh city, I visited Cu Chi tunnels, an intricate network used by the Vietnamese as a hiding place during the Vietnam war. This is where I experienced the unimaginable - firing a few bullets from an AK47!  Out of a group of 40 people, me along with a couple of fellow Indians opted for this experience as it was expensive. My left arm hurt for a few days thereafter due to the sheer weight and impact of the firing but it was well worth it.

I further travelled down to Cambodia and got to witness the much talked about sunrise at Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. While walking with my torch towards the main entrance of the famous temple under a carpet of stars, I could feel the magic and magnificence of this UNESCO heritage site. There were thousands of tourists waiting to capture the sunrise. My friend and I tried to find the perfect spot and waited patiently to capture it on our lenses. I have cropped out all the crowds in this shot.

As luck would have it, I got some beautiful shots of Angkor Wat after sunset when there was not even one person in sight. I went back to Angkor Wat in the afternoon to explore it at leisure. I got blessed by one of the monks in the temple complex and visited Bakan, the temple’s central sanctuary, for which people generally queue up for hours.

Visiting Angkor Wat was a dream come true, although looking back, it stills feels like a dream.