My travel round-up

Every year on 15th of September, for the past few years, I have been updating my travel list as a recap to all the places I have been in the previous year. This is my way of keeping the count on. Here’s a little secret—all these didn’t start until May of 2016. So in this much time, the count looks decent. Isn’t it?

Round-up: 2016-2017

In the last one year, I should have probably gotten settled, as it always ‘looks’ like the most normal thing to do. I could have also started planning my family as that’s what you are expected to, per our Indian belief system. But, I didn’t do any of these—also little ashamed to say, I didn’t find enough time to do these. Because, I chose to work damn hard and travel! It all started from Hyderabad, did Goa, back to Hyderabad.

Then one fine morning I landed in Delhi, and there started the roller-coaster ride: Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata (back-to-back four times), Manali-Kasol, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jammu & Kashmir, Leh-Ladakh, Shimla, Kochi, Kanatal, Kolkata, plus the cancelled trips—Coorg, Valley of Flowers, and Agra. I couldn’t have done all these travelling without two sets of people—first, the ones who actually were out on trips with me, and second, the ones who helped me pull myself up from the mess I was in. Thank you, my people! Here’s to more of seeing the world, and not looking our age.

Round-up: 2017-2018

I have been able to do multiple short trips to the Himalayas, a long one as well, and I have traveled to Europe. Here goes past year’s travel—Ajmer/Pushkar, Kolkata (twice), Haridwar/Rishikesh, Jilling (Bhimtal), Spiti Valley, Spain and Portugal. And the perpetual question is, ‘Where next?’

Round-up: 2018-2019

The last year, I consciously did not go to many trips because they were not giving me the happiness I was expecting. Expectation is a bad thing, people! But since I am spending my time and money, I just can’t leave all those, right? Some of last year’s trips were more frustrating than ever. So I avoided trips where I thought I might not enjoy, because of the company or the place.

The round-up just has a paltry number of one-city tours which started with Hyderabad, followed by Kolkata, Jaipur, Kolkata, Gandhinagar/Ahmedabad, Goa, Amritsar, Kolkata, and ended with Udaipur. Hoping to make 2020 better with peaceful trips!

Round-up: 2019-2020

We will remember this year, not for traveling or any fun activity, but to be grateful that we are alive and healthy, at least till now. I had minimum travel this year, like most people, as travel completely stopped from March 2020. So the only places I covered are Kolkata, Bali, Mathura-Agra, and back-to-back trips to Kolkata.

Round-up: 2020-2021

Well, this year was just an extension of 2020 in ways which were more terrible. We saw a deadly second wave of coronavirus in India which had put us under house arrest for major part of the year. Also, I had some personal affairs to take care of in this year, hence travelling kind of took a backseat. Thus, the list is small and here it goes: Haridwar-Rishikesh-Mussourie, two back-to-back Kolkata trips, Haridwar-Rishikesh-Mussorie-Dhanaulti-Tehri (again), and Agra-Fatehpur Sikri-Sikandra. However, post the first wave of corona, we saw a new form of travel called Staycation so if we consider those, then adding few more here: Westin Sohna, Rajbari Bawali near Kolkata, ITC Royal Bengal Kolkata, Westin Kolkata, Taj Gateway Resort Damdama Lake, Taj Agra, etc.

Round-up: 2021-2022

In this year, we did some good amount of traveling in North India, in which we visited some places even twice. We started with a visit to Kolkata and Asansol, then came back to Gurgaon to go to Amritsar to celebrate my birthday. In between, I squeezed in a short visit to Bangalore. Then on the list was Kolkata, from where we planned an impromptu trip to Darjeeling during peak December winter. Few months later, we Kolkata and back twice which included Asansol as well. Then we did a road trip to Amritsar, Naddi/Mcleodganj/Dalhousie, Manali and Anandpur Sahib. We went to Kolkata in summer and after coming back from there, we did a week-long trip to Jaipur, Ajmer and Pushkar. I did a two-day visit to Hyderabad for office work. Must also add there was Dilli darshan in between with my in-laws and my father.

Round-up: 2022-2023

Like every year, this year-phase started with a trip to Kolkata to attend Durga puja, followed up with another trip in a month’s time. After coming back, we went to Benaras and Ayodhya. Few months later, I traveled to Edinburgh (and did the highlands). From Edinburgh, we went to London and covered Greenwich, Cotswold + the surrounding scenic villages, and Stratford-upon-Avon alongwith.

Round-up: 2023-2024

By the time I’d start journaling this, I knew this year involved a lot of travel, not for pleasure as much as it was for life. It started with me visiting Kolkata in November, followed by another visit in December that included going to Asansol and Dhanbad. At the end of the month, we took the flight to Edinburgh for good. The first travel after coming here was to Leeds for work. Then a day trip to Glasgow, another to Portobello, another to St. Andrews, another one to Musselburgh! We visited Liverpool and Manchester for few days – which we absolutely loved. In May, we went to London for work and for general touring. We, then, went for a trip to Ireland, stayed in Dublin – our first cross-border travel from the UK. In August, we did a few days in the Scottish highlands, starting with Inverness, then Glencoe, the midlands and Oban. In September, I did a work trip to Leeds and we did a day visit to Portobello.

Round-up: 2024-2025

We started it by attending the Durga Puja at Paisley, near Glasgow in October 2024. What followed was a month of travel and reminiscence, i.e., November 2024, in which I went to London to celebrate my birthday with my friends and family, mixed with a day trip to Manchester for a work meet-up. We went to India in December where we covered Delhi/NCR, Kolkata and Pune. After coming back, we went for a weekend trip to Aberdeen in Scotland – it was quite a chilly and windy gateway. In March, we did a short trip to London to meet friends again and also to go to the Emirates Stadium (Arsenal FC), Highbury in London (that was one of the main reasons). In April, we did another trip to India – the same plan – Delhi NCR, Pune and Kolkata. While we were in Kolkata, we also went to Asansol, Durgapur and Burdwan to meet our relatives. And while coming back to the UK, we did a half day layover in London. That’s it. Fin.

This post gets updated every year.