Planning a Trip: Feeling the Elderly Family Man.

Feels good.

Although these plannings would materialize in the Pujas, but planning a trip for just over a week is really a work that can bring in some grey waves across the curls, you so gently combed in over the years. And then, you start feeling that you have grown up. Similar incidences were common in the past as well; but there was a huge reversal of act. Those days, Dad and Mom used to chalk out all the trips and the finances, while I was too excited to pack my binoculars (bought from the Hongkong Market, Siliguri in 1994). There had been quite a number of trips that I had the opportunity to make with my Dad and Mom. I still remember then thin and thick:

1988 - First ever trip of my remembrance was to Puri.

1990 - Second one was Digha.

1992 - It was Puri again.

1994 - Darjeeling, Gangtok, Rotang, Changu

1996 - Delhi, Agra, Mathura, Jaipur

1998 - The last trip with dad was to Digha.

After that, many equations in life had changed. Although I was frequent within the trip books, making a all new dimensional trip to Mirik, Lava-Lolegaon and Kaimpong with my school excursion trip in 2001 and then in 2005, went to Hyderabad, Vizag and Araku with my Presidency Excursion team; the University trips were great. Infact, it was these University trips that had put me into the practice of trip planning. But again, I had the luck to have Joydeep, Budha, Avisek and Kanad to manage the finances, while Ari and myself, along with Sioma and Ankita made all the jolly go merry stuff. Three trips to be included with this group; 1) Digha 2) Diamond Harbour and the most enjoyable, 3) Ghatshila.

Since, tripping was a very thought productive stuff, hence, in 2007 mom and myself, opted for Kundu Special, the oldest tour operator of India to make a pleasant trip to Kerala, the Land of Gods! Simply awesome, especially Munnar and Periyar although the trip had Kanyakumari, Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram within it's grasp!

After 2008, that is Ghatshila, there was a mini trip to Shankarpur followed  by Ravangla in 2011. In between there were two conference trip to Vellore and Shankarpur, yet again.

2011 promises a new challenge for me. For the first time I am planning a week long trip, to North India, taking mom alongside. I had several portals at my aid, to plan the trip, find the hotel availability. This article is a testimony as to what one should keep in mind, while planning a trip, all by him/herself, as an amateur. Small experiences did help me, but, I had faced new avenues to make a trip successful.

Salient Points:

1) Plan the trip considering spare days in hand. This is important as the convenience may face hindrance, natural or political.

2) Survey the packages offered by the different travel portals. If you follow my advice, I looked into the costing at makemytrip.com, cleartrip.com and even at Thomas Cook. But what allured me and helped me to plan my trip was the IRCTC website, governed by the Indian Railways. They had proper information about the railways as well as helped in planning the trip with all the available stations and hotel contact details.

3) Always consider the maximum possible price, especially in the transit. In this regard, to get an idea of the transit price, you ca visit wikitravels.com. In this case, my moto is, travel less but just don't be monetarily harassed at an unknown place. The magic equation is take 30% extra cash, of the total trip cost.

Hope, you all will have a success, amateur trips in running. You all will be beautified, with the trip, due this October, 2011. Till then, keep reading.

Somnath Paul, 2008. 

Bungdugri Artificial Lake, Ghatshila.