Keeping travel facts alive! UK. nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

 Blog number 2.   05.10.2020. nguptatravelscrapbook.blogspot.com

Keeping travel facts alive!

I was most captivated by maps in my school years and spent a good deal of time looking at thin geography books and atlases in the library while in school in Delhi, India.

Later on in my life, map collections, writing travel memoirs and organising a travel scrapbook, became my habit, after realising that it was all too easy to forget the names of places visited barring the name of the country.

My first travel in real terms was a bus and rail trip to Shimla and Kufri ( North India) where I encountered the snow-clad Himalayas amid heavy snowfall, for the first time in my life at the age of 22 years. It was an unexpected Godsend gift.

This region of India ( Jammu and Kashmir) is one of the most picturesque parts of India and any traveller's dream to come true to.

My destination map collection( just a few here)

A glimpse of travel memoirs 

I travelled to London UK to join my husband in 1978 via Afghan airlines with one night stay in Kabul on my own! I was most amazed at myself!

Where Have I Been in the World? 

I, along with my husband, have travelled to more than 100 countries across six continents. However, I believe cultural experiences and hence the differences between them are more important than country tick boxing. I would try to make travel journals of the various countries visited in the last 40 years. For this, I would go thru my extensive handwritten travel memoirs (never re-read) and old photographs to recollect and to share the adventures with you. ( Finally shaking the dust off these files). I would scan my relevant old photos and improvise them digitally before posting here.

My adventure journal encompasses stories from some of the following countries we have visited:

 In no particular order. 

India, UK, USA, Japan, Australia, China, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Tibet, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Srilanka, Singapore, Hongkong, Mauritius, Seychelles, French Reunion, Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Most of Europe, Ireland, Jamaica, West Indies, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Turkey, 

Most of my travel took in the form of self-drives, fly and drives, escorted tours, road trips, Day and night rail journeys, balloon safaris, desert safaris, and lately via commercial cruises. I hope, my genre travels writing style, comes across differently, adventurously, responsibly and with a purpose.  

Balloon Safari in Mynamar

We have tried to travel with sustainable, eco-friendly and fair trade travel agencies, with a dedicated consciousness of decrease global warming.  Travel is more than just getting up and going. It's about knowledge- so one can travel better. I have read volumes of travel books before hitting a destination and wish to continue to do so ( awaiting clearance from COVID pandemic!). Eagerly on my return back, I often underline the places just visited in my copy of the book titled "1000 place to visit before you die". "

This book is now getting old, bruised and badly marked with different coloured markers!

Along with travelling world's hot spot destinations, we have travelled to off - beaten path destinations and travelled rough. Travelling with our children in our younger years was a challenge at times, but we all survived. I remembered a trip to Kathmandu in Feb 1986 with 6 and 3 yr olds when we struggled to obtain milk supplies for kids and offered them hard-cooked pizzas, from a food joint named Narulas, then just ventured out in Kathmandu.

In my next post, I would try to capture Mynamar ( Burma) as we travelled the length and breadth of this beautiful country back in 2016. Meanwhile, be safe, protect yourselves in the COVID crisis, and continue making dedicated efforts to save and protect our planet from global warming and climate crisis so that our future generations can also endeavour to enjoy this beautiful planet as we have. 

     Our Grandson Aaarav Rohan Barathan viewing his planet thru binoculars!

                                                                                                     Mrs Nirmal Gupta