2004 was the first year when I was based out of Bangalore for the whole year. So this is the year when Bangalore became home to me in the literal sense of the term ‘Home’. Looking back at 2004 and sharing the thoughts.
Looking back at 2004
Towards the end of 2003, I started thinking of taking my passion for travel little more seriously than just something that I enjoy doing. I started making conscious efforts to network with people who were a part of the tourism business. And also with a lot of people who I thought enjoyed traveling like I. In the process, I set myself a goal. That I must get out of Bangalore once a month at least. And must see a new country every year. And as I set foot in 2005, this is the time to evaluate and see how well I fared in my travel goals.
Travel Goals
Well, this year I made some 4 trips to Delhi. Two were personal, one for my brother’s wedding and one when my father met with an accident. Two were official for recruitment for my employer. Had only one overseas trip in the whole year and that was to the US for about 4 weeks in May. But I managed to see a lot of places in that tiring 4-week travel. It started from New York, then Dallas, followed by San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. I could catch up with a lot of my old friends in all these places. It was a pleasure to see a familiar face and voice in every nook and corner of the world. On my return, I had an opportunity to cover Singapore, which actually was my new country for the year 2004.
South India Travel
In India, I saw a little bit of South India. The most organized was my trip to Hampi in October. Trek to Honnemadu and Jog falls in June. The driving trip through Coorg via Mysore and Bylakuppe in July. The impromptu ones were night drive to Nandi hills in August, Sunday drive to Shivasamudram and Bheemeshwari in December. Somewhere in September, I did a small ‘Explore Bangalore’ by visiting a few things around my area in Bangalore like Lal Bagh, J P Nagar mini forest, Madiwala Lake.
The year ended with another goal met just in time, when I got to visit Calicut in Kerala. This was the first time I was visiting Kerala, though I had been around this place for almost two years now.
The regular places that I missed out traveling to were Hyderabad and Bombay, did not touch these cities at all this year, maybe could have had little more of Delhi.
So that was looking back at 2004, hope to continue the same in 2005. Anyone joining me as my travel buddy…:-)
Hi Vishnu,
I do love travelling in every form, including trekking. I am actually associated with a travel company called NatureYogi (www.natureyogi.com), and we also organise treks to all these places in Karnataka, along with a few in Uttaranchal and Himachal.
-Anu
Hi Anu,
just came thru ur blog while i was looking thru aurag jains webpage…u write very well…am sure am goin to read ur blog very frequently…i love travelling too…..try to do a bit of it on my offs thoug am really dissapointed for nt exploring much…..was really nice to kno that u hv done so much of travelling in karnataka though ur nt frm here .do tell me tell me when u plan for one…wud be a plesure to meet u :))