By Devkumar Vaidya
Director, Baron Luxury and Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd
My family and I love to travel. It is our passion. Going to places gives us an adrenaline-like rush. We look forward to learning something new every day as we travel to different parts of our country and the globe. Talking to different people, making new friends, understanding different cultures, experiencing new places and things… this learning is what expands our minds and makes us who we are.
It was only after visiting Sasan that we realized that there are African tribes which have migrated to India and live peacefully in pockets of Gujarat in cohesion with Gujaratis. They speak fluent Gujarati as well as their own language and are very proud of their culture. We learnt about their culture as well as their love for Gir forest and its lions as we interacted with them.
Then we were at a place in the deserts of Western USA called Monument Valley, where we learnt about the Red Indian Tribes that live there. There were no hotels there at that time, just a trading post with rooms and tents and an RV park called Gouldings Lodge. What a time we had, learning about the flora and fauna of the area, just off the old highway from Chicago to Los Angeles called Route 66. We visited many small towns on that route. Imagine our surprise when a Disney Pixar Movie was released about the same people and area around the same time as we had gone there – it was called ‘Cars’. The Ornament Valley in the movie was based on Monument Valley and the winding roads with beautiful waterfalls on them were based on the Drive to Sedona, Arizona. The people of the area are really nice. We had seen the heartland of America, which many Americans would not know about.
In Asia, we stayed out of the mainstream tourist spots and went to the heart of the continent which retained the splendour of tradition in spite of people living a modern lifestyle. The Philippine Islands are one such place, where we revelled in the Intra Muros Walled City in Manila, the island of Bohol, a three hour boat ride into the Philippine Sea to see whales and pink dolphins, but avoided commercial Cebu.
Travel is about the journey, and not the destination. It is a continuous endeavour to expand one’s mind, meet people and learn about this beautiful world we live in. The human lifespan is indeed too short when you think of all the places there are to travel to. As for us, we always seek out new destinations and different cultures to travel to, so that we understand our world a little better than we did before the journey. The more we travel, the more we realize what we haven’t experienced and how much more we need to see.
Feedback: devkumar.vaidya@baronaviation.com
