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wayward wayfarer

female solo traveller, blogger and photographer

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Category: Karnataka

Hippie Island, Hampi: A Complete Travel Guide

Tropical Paradise. What comes to your mind when you hear these two words? Beaches, oceans, swimming, bikini bottoms? Tropical paradise meant all this and more for me as well- until I landed in the Happy Hampi. Turns out, tropical paradise isn’t all about beaches and the ocean but can also include paddy fields, historic ruins,…

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Do Gokarna the Right Way, Travel with Trippr!

At this point, I’ve just come to terms with the fact that sometimes life interrupts your plans and you have to make time for what’s more important. Last year I took a one-month hiatus from travelling to care for my newly adopted dog before I left for Spiti Valley in August. This year, I took…

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There are some place that you remember so incredib

There are some place that you remember so incredibly well for the people you met there.

One such place for me was Jaisalmer.

Amongst the many adventures Abbi and I set on, we also found a few friends in the locals we chanced upon. One of them was Husain.

Husain, along with his brother, runs a cafe called Cafe Plus in Jaisalmer city. If you remember watching my stories/ reading my blog from Jaisalmer, you must've seen me talk about it before.

Ever since the lockdown was announced, Husain had to shut shop and move back home to his village Pithla where his parents live and work as farmers. Cafe Plus mostly depended on tourists to run and since travel stopped due to the pandemic, this was one of the many businesses affected by tourism.

To make matters worse, the recent desert locust swarm that was abetted by global warming took over the crops in his village, destroying everything his parents had worked on for months.

For the past few months, the family had been living off savings and now that they're running short, they need our help.

The link to the fundraiser is in my bio. Or you can visit https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-husain-khan to help them in these troubling times. Please know, even the smallest contribution counts - I know most of us can't afford to donate big amounts ourselves.

For more info, you can follow my stories.

If I can't travel outside Delhi, I must do it with

If I can't travel outside Delhi, I must do it within my city!

This was taken at our usual chilling spot around 25 kilometres away from our place in Dwarka.

Abbi and I often go here in the mornings on his bike to spend a peaceful hour or two.

There's so much life here- almost makes me forget that COVID even exists. There are villages and paddy fields on one side of the road, and this lake on the other side.

There birds, so many birds! Everytime I visit, I chance upon a species I hadn't seen before.

And do you see the green plants on the side of the water? They are actually floating plants on the lake that sometimes reach very close to I'm siting when the winds are strong.

My point being- wherever you are, there is enough around our homes to go out and explore while we patiently wait for this nightmare to end. So do it!

Our short roadtrip to Sambhar Lake is very dear to

Our short roadtrip to Sambhar Lake is very dear to me.

Just two days before, we had lost Whiskey, @whereswarikoo 's baby dog, to the other side. Come 15th Feb and it was Abbi's birthday but he wasn't in any mood to celebrate or go anywhere.

At the same time, sitting at home in a house where Whiskey wouldn't trot around anymore wasn't doing us any good either, so I took it upon myself to coax Abbi out of the city.

Overnight, a plan was formed and in less than 12 hours, Abbi, @pulkit.veer and I were heading west towards Jaipur and further to Sambhar. And what mad two days they were!

We went drift driving into the sunset, walked on salty marshes, camped in the absolute middle of nowhere and saw one of the most brilliantly starry nights we'd ever seen.

I recently wrote an all-you-need-to-know guide to adventuring in Sambhar Lake. Hit up the link in my bio or read it at waywardwayfarer.com 📃

Instagram can be a hell-hole some days. Lately, i

Instagram can be a hell-hole some days.

Lately, it's been feeling like a never ending loop of terrible news doing rounds in world. Racism, casteism, mental health and a new natural disaster every few weeks.

Information overload is a real thing, y'all and I have just come back from a loooooong trip to the rabbit hole. And trust me, you do not want to go down there.

And I have to be honest, even my stories somehow go off that road every now and then and I've decided to make conscious efforts to cut down the amount of info I share.

I have also muted stories of certain people who are very active in the sharing game. And this is not to diss on someone's effort to spread awareness. It's just a personal step towards putting myself first before anything.

And I urge you to do the same. Don't forget to stop and think about what makes you unhappy and what helps you keep sane. Make conscious efforts to get rid of triggers from your social media (and life). Even if that means unfollowing some people, even if that means unfollowing me. Do it.

Because it's now more important than ever to consciously help yourself stay happy especially when everything around us seems to be falling apart.

Hope you find peace soon if you seem to be running short these days ✌🏼

Sitting by the window of a small apartment in a ci

Sitting by the window of a small apartment in a city littered with buildings, I'm craving me some jungle time. To hike through the muddy trails of Parvati monsoons to reach obscure little hamlets tucked away in the wilderness. Yeah, I'm craving precisely that 😌

Turning 22 in the quiet and comfort of home made m

Turning 22 in the quiet and comfort of home made me realise how birthdays had started to become more about other people and less about yourself.

How an annual birthday party which was an enjoyable event until a few years ago turned out into a pain in the ass about what you truly want to do vs what your social group wants to do with you.

Spending my birthday in the midst of a pandemic might sound like a total nightmare but I'm so grateful I was able to do it exactly how I wanted it.

Throwing a party was no-go, having people over for a "small get-together" was not possible either so it ultimately meant spending the day by myself, chilling in a (inflatable) pool, sipping on wine and having family around.

The only other way I'd have it would be travelling solo to a remote part of some mountain village where nobody even knew it was my birthday and hiking up to someplace quiet and reading a book under the summer sun.

It'd be nice to do exactly what would make me happy, without worrying about the responsibility of making others happy.

Well, here's to turning 22 in a pandemic 🥂

Heyo! I'm here to break my radio silence. This pas

Heyo! I'm here to break my radio silence. This past month has been a helluva ride.

My initial enthusiasm to tackle this unending lockdown by its horns started to wear away.

I couldn't get myself to practice yoga, cook, read, write, paint. And by some twisted turn of events, I couldn't even go to the park in the evenings for ten days straight. I couldn't do any of the activities that had helped me keep my mind at bay all these months.

And Mercury being in retrograde didn't help either 😅 .

Phew, but I'm glad all this is behind me now and I'm ready to go back to ignoring my impending sadness and engaging myself in a bunch of activities to stay busy and pretend to be happy. Haha, just kidding. (Or am I?) Anyway, I know a lot of shit has been going down in the world and there's not much good left to talk about.
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"What's up?" is now a question that does not hold much meaning in our lives anymore but I hope you remember to switch off and let yourself purge whatever negativity is being thrown at you ✊🏼❤️

There's so much I've been wanting to write. So man

There's so much I've been wanting to write. So many blogs, so many story ideas that take up space in my mind. But somehow I'm not able to find the words to put these ideas on paper. Somehow I'm not able to find the motivation to write that first sentence.

Whenever I'm going through a writer's block, I usually stick to journaling and wait for the block to eventually go away so I can get on with my writing.

But this one's been going on for too long now, I'm running out of ideas.

How do you get out of a writer's block? Please send help, tips or virtual hugs 😔

10 points to those who can guess where this was sh

10 points to those who can guess where this was shot 😍 .

Hint: it's a very famous cafe somewhere in Himachal Pradesh.

Hint: they give you a complimentary welcome drink on each visit.

Drop your answers in the comments 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

Facebook travel groups are suddenly exploding with

Facebook travel groups are suddenly exploding with people looking for accommodation recommendations in the hills.

And as much as I myself would like to run away from the city to breathe in the crisp mountain air, what kind of a responsible traveller would I be if I did? So here's a reminder:
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Yes, we seem to be going back to our good ol' days with each passing day. Yes, corona still exists but our offices, markets, cafes are all slowly making a comeback.

Yes, governments are trying to get the economy up and running once again. With that comes the opening of the tourism industry as well.

But should we, as responsible travellers, pack our bags and leave just yet? Heck, no!

The bitter truth is- that when we travel from one place to another, we can be carriers of the disease without actually having it. And once we reach our beloved mountains, we make the locals at risk.

These remote regions that are considered our travel favourites are often devoid of proper healthcare.
So riddle me this: would you want to put those at risk of getting sick who have fed you steaming rajma rice in a rainstorm, given you lifts when you couldn't catch the last bus, took you in when you had nowhere else to go, fed you copious amounts of chai and told you ancient stories about their motherland?

If you really love travelling as much as you claim you do, you must also love the people who make your travels as successful. Do them a favour, and stay at home.

• what I learnt during the lockdown # 5 • - I

• what I learnt during the lockdown # 5 •
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I learnt to improvise, adapt, overcome.

If you've been around my work for some time, you know that I'm a water baby through and through. I don't think twice before launching myself into a river, a waterfall, a lake, the sea.

Every year from April to October, I spend my summer days in Delhi spending a solid 2 hours swimming and relaxing in our community pool. But since the lockdown happened, my happy place was shut and I was left craving that simple activity that helped me relax and calm down. It might seem like a no big deal, but for me the pool and the water has been a very important part of my life. Quite similar to how people describe their experience with yoga.

One day, as I was expressing my desire to hit the pool, Abbi planted the idea of getting an inflatable one for our house terrace. In a matter of days, we measured the space available, went around our local street vendors and purchased this big boy.

To be able to turn your desires into reality is not always a piece of cake, but to make do with what you have is something I've been realising these past weeks.

Sure, I still can't swim and feel the same kind of peace I did in a pool or a water body, but it's a small step towards what I can't have. And right now, that makes all the difference.

It's a challenge, but it helps you get creative and motivated once you set your mind to it 💓
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#WaywardWayfarerXLockdown

I don't have much to say this "World Environment D

I don't have much to say this "World Environment Day".
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A planet where selective empathy is the trend, where if an elephant dies by accident, we cry and post images on social media, but won't think twice before wearing animal products.

Where if a dog is killed for its meat, it becomes an issue of debate but nobody cares about the countless chickens stacked on top of each other at meat shops.

A planet where people support destruction of forest land in the name of development.

Where people scream shitless at the sight of a cockroach, a bee, a lizard, a spider, a frog, and their instinct is to kill- but harp about how "all lives matter" on social media.

A planet where people cry about global warming and rising temperatures, but won't even think of using public transport over personal vehicles.

This world is full of a bunch of hypocrites who only talk about issues when it's convenient for them, who look the other way when someone points a finger at them.

The environment deserves much more than just a day a year so you can put the most beautiful landscapes across social media.

Our environment deserves to be heard, to be cared and fought for. The sooner we realise that the concept of "Humans Vs Nature" is fundamentally flawed and that human IS nature, the better.

We must learn to coexist and learn it fast.

Back from 2018 when I visited Spiti Valley for the

Back from 2018 when I visited Spiti Valley for the first time - without caring much about the altitude mountain sickness (AMS) cautionary tales I read online.

We got off at Batal - home to the famous Chacha Chachi ka Chandra Dhaba - in hopes of trekking to Chandratal from Kunzum La the next day. But surprise surprise AMS came knocking and I felt that my head would explode any second. The swings of whiskey I kept taking didn't help my case too.

Sure enough, our plans of the trek got thwarted and the remaining of the night was spent braving the ferocious winds of the arid Spiti with an excruciating headache.

Have you ever faced altitude mountain sickness? Tell me your experiences in the comments 👇🏼

• what the lockdown taught me # 4 • - One day

• what the lockdown taught me # 4 •
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One day while cleaning out his room, Abbi realised he had my tent over at his place.

The sheer finding of this object brought in so many camping memories for us, and we went into a spiral of how much we miss it.

Amidst talks of setting camp at Parashar as soon as travel restrictions open, the weather in Delhi turned and instead of the usual dry, burning days, we had showers and winds that gave us the chills.

And so instead of sitting around and moping, we decided to seize this opportunity and work with what we have. You can see what happened next! 😉 .

It wasn't an endless meadow under a starry sky, there were no gaddi dogs to keep us company and makeshift dhabas didn't sell piping hot rajma chawal.

But it was good weather, a tent, and the company of each other. And in such a terrible time, that was enough.
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#WaywardWayfarerXLockdown

Ugh, what I would do for a quick swim right about

Ugh, what I would do for a quick swim right about now 😫🌊

To all those who are locked down in the hills, the

To all those who are locked down in the hills, the seaside, the forest: remember to appreciate where you are.

We as humans always tend to take what we have for granted, and miss what is gone.

I wonder if you know what we would give to be surrounded by natural elements instead of being cooped up in our concrete buildings overlooking more concrete buildings as the temperature rises a few degrees every passing minute.

So go on walks, climb trees, swim in waterfall pools, hike a hill, cycle through the forest while you still can.

Take pictures of the flowers blooming in your backyard, the butterflies and bees fluttering, the sun setting the sky on fire, the houses twinkling on the hills, the waves crashing on the shores, the stream running down, oh and the stars. The stars, my god!

Play an instrument while sitting under the sun, draw the scenery that's in front of you, go on long drives amidst the woods.

Do whatever you can to remember to appreciate the bounty around you.

Do it for us, for those so far removed from Her gifts.

• what the lockdown taught me # 3 • - When the

• what the lockdown taught me # 3 •
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When the lockdown began, Abbi and I started climbing trees in our local park frequently.

He was more fearless in testing the strength of his body, whereas I chickened out a lot, with the fear that I might fall or slip off.

But once I kept on trying day after day with a little help (and coercion from @whereswarikoo ), I began to realise that the fear was mostly in my mind and once I let go of it, I realised how much stronger my body was than I gave it credit for.

I did slip though, also sprained my wrist a little but I came back day after to day to rid my mind off that fear with a little support and a little help until I climbed that damn tree by myself 💪🏼🌳 .

A small story of a small personal success, das all ✌🏼
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#WaywardWayfarerXLockdown
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Shot by @whereswarikoo 📷

• details • - Swipe to see the full image 👉

• details •
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Swipe to see the full image 👉🏽
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A few evenings ago, I set up the mood right in my living room with dim lighting, @peggygou_ on full volume and a bottle of Jacob's Creek.

Clicked this image while on a break from the non-stop dancing that was happening in my little private party 😉
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#ShotOnOnePlus @oneplus_india

• what the coronavirus lockdown taught me # 2 •
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Waking up to peak outside my curtains and look at the sky is a habit that I recently found myself doing.

It's one of those things that you don't know what you were doing before this habit began, but it began anyway and now you can't have it any other way.

Looking at the clouds, the sky, feeling the wind, I try to gauge what the weather is going to be like, and I have learned to identify the patterns.

A clear, sunny sky would usually mean a hot day throughout. A windless cloudy sky would probably be exceptionally humid and sweaty, while a breezy cloudy sky might indicate possible rain later. Regardless, a breeze does start to blow in almost every evening around 6 to 6:30 pm, giving a respite from the usual hot days Delhi faces these days.

These are things that I learned not from the internet, or the books, or by checking the weather app. I simply started observing the elements more, trying to be one with them. And this knowledge came to me.

If it hadn't been for the lack of endless activities I usually planned for myself each day, this simple little habit wouldn't have come to. But now that it has, I plan to keep it- lockdown or not.
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#WaywardWayfarerXLockdown
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📍 Shot by @whereswarikoo about two years ago on our trek to Serolsar Lake near Jalori Pass.

I've never said this out loud before, but by the e

I've never said this out loud before, but by the end of this year, I'd hoped to move to Bir - for at least a couple months - if not permanently.

I wanted to try being on my own. Buy my own food, cook, clean, eat by myself. Have my own space where I could write when inspiration struck, or go for long walks out in the open when my mind was at unease.

I wanted to be a stranger in a strange place and meet new people, forge new friendships and have new experiences - without a safety net to fall on to.

Now with the lockdown, work has diminished, so has the money and ultimately the prospect of renting my own space and paying my own bills.

But I tell myself - this too shall pass. What great plans did you have for this year? I'd like to know, let's share the burden of incomplete plans with each other 🌎🤙🏼

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