My Love Affair With Travel - Where It All Began!

As far back as I can remember, I've always enjoyed travelling and exploring the world. I was exposed to travel very early in life. My father was an Indian diplomat, and every few years, we would live in a different country. So in addition to my hometown of Delhi, I grew up in Sofia (Bulgaria), Thimpu (Bhutan), Belgrade (Yugoslavia), and Vienna (Austria). My father would take a couple of weeks off every year, and we travelled quite a bit as a family, especially during our stay in Vienna from 1985 to 1989. So, we travelled around Austria, and to various countries in Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, England, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

My Sales and Marketing job in my first company, Britannia, gave me a chance to travel quite a bit around India. I also got a chance to travel to England for a few days, as part of the team that accompanied 100 lucky winners in the "Britannia Khao World Cup Jao" consumer promotion, that was a phenomenal success in 1999. My frequent flier points on Indian Airlines gave me an opportunity to travel to Bangkok and to Dubai for a few days in 2000. But my first proper, lengthy, solo international trip wasn't till 2001, when I spent close to 5 weeks travelling around Europe. And that's the trip that made travel my life's biggest passion! My trip was initially planned for the US, as I had never been there and had always been keen on going. However, it was soon after 9/11, and my visa application got rejected! So I ended up visiting the US for 4 weeks 2 years later in 2003.

I was lucky that my bosses agreed to grant me such long leave. It was within the maximum annual leave permissible by the company, but it was still not something anyone ever did! I was also very fortunate that my father gifted me his Virgin Atlantic frequent flier miles, which were adequate to get me a Delhi - London - Delhi return ticket. I got myself a Eurail pass, which allowed me unlimited travel by train, across Europe over a 1 month period. My father's Indian Foreign Service connections also ensured that in several of the places I went to, I got to stay with my parents' friends, often in luxurious Ambassadorial residences! My itinerary was London - Paris - Vienna - Rome - Milan - Munich - Amsterdam - The Hague - Brussels - London. So, that was 9 cities, spread across 7 countries! I went armed with a series of DK travel books, by far my favourite travel book series, full of information, colourful photographs and illustrations, maps, and trivia!

I started and ended my trip in London. It was 6 days in the British capital at the beginning, and another 2 days at the end. I had visited London once before with my family in 1987. I stayed at the home of Debbie, an old friend of my mother's. She was out of town for most of my time in London, but she opened up her apartment for me, and hid the apartment key for me in a flower pot outside! Debbie's apartment was in the heart of London, and close to the London Underground, so it was very convenient for me. I loved my time in London. London has a very large number of fascinating places, and I visited sites like Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, the National Gallery, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum (they're all over the world today, but London has the original), Tower of London (the Kohinoor diamonds were a special treat), Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. There was just so much to see and do in the city. The only bad experience I had was that one evening, very early on in my trip, I decided to get myself a drink at a bar-cum-nightclub in the heart of town, walking distance away from Piccadilly Circus. It turned out to be a shady place, and I got a bill running into well over a hundred Pounds for getting a Coke!! I objected vehemently, but was told I had said OK when a bikini-clad waitress had asked me if I'd like her to be my waitress for the evening, and that was going to cost me. It had been as innocent as that! I was blown away by the bizarreness of the situation! I didn't even have that amount of money with me. Before I knew it, two big bouncers held me, took my passport, and asked me to withdraw money from a nearby ATM! I was out of options and did it, but it was a learning for me as a traveler that one really has to be very careful and on one's guard all the time when one is in a different country!

National Gallery at Trafalgar Square, London (UK)

Next, I went to Paris for 6 days. I stayed at the apartment of Vinay, a friend of my elder sister's. It was my second time in Paris too, because I had been there in 1987. Like London, Paris also had a tremendous amount to see. I visited attractions like Eiffel Tower (nothing to beat the view of Paris from the top of the tower), Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur Basilica, St Chapelle (with its amazing stain glass panels), Pantheon, Invalides (containing the tomb of Napoleon), Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees (with its many high-end designer stores), Place Vendome, Place de la Concorde, Moulin Rouge (famous for its Parisian cabarets), and Versailles Palace. Unfortunately, there was a museum workers' strike throughout the duration of my visit, and I missed out on visiting the Louvre, Museum d'Orsay, Musee Rodin, and Musee Picasso. I went to the museums practically everyday, but the strike didn't get over in a hurry. I made a special trip to Paris a few years later, largely to see the museums I had missed out on. It was well worth it. I spent a full day at the Louvre (and realised that the museum had so much more than just Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the Winged Victor of Samothrace, and Venus de Milo!), and managed to see only parts of the museum's enormous collection. The impressionist art collection at Musee d'Orsay (with masterpieces like Manet's Olympia and Renoir's Moulin de la Galette) also made that second trip so worthwhile!

Eiffel Tower, Paris (France)

Basilica of Sacre Coeur, Paris (France)

Next up was 6 days in Vienna. Returning to Vienna was like going back to my second home. I was back after 14 years, having lived there for 4 years during my middle and high school years. I knew Vienna so well that I still remembered the tram numbers and U-Bahn (the local underground) numbers. Little had changed in the city since I had left it! I stayed with a colleague of my father's, Hamid Ali Rao. He had been in Vienna when we were there, and this was his second posting there. Hamid, his gracious and friendly wife Asiya, and their daughters Alia and Alvira were very warm and hospitable to me through my stay. I met Frau Sarma, an elderly Austrian lady (who had been married to an Indian) who had been the Ambassador's Social Secretary during our time there. I also met old friends like George and Mohan, who had been staff working with the embassy for years. I got to visit our old home at Spitzergasse 2, in Vienna's 18th district. Mr Sreenivasan, who was known to my family, was now the Ambassador in Vienna. Visiting the grand Ambassadorial residence brought back lots of memories of my happy times spent in that house! I managed to meet a few of my old friends from Vienna International School. It was good to meet old friends like my Iranian friend, Shoki, and my Italian friend, Giacomo. I also visited my old school. I had mixed memories of my time spent at the school. It had infrastructure like no other school I had been to, the faculty had been fabulous, I had made some good friendships, but it was also a place where I had unfortunately been subjected to a lot of bullying. I relived the essence of Vienna, by visiting the city's various landmarks, like Stephansdom (the city's main cathedral), Karlskirche (a rich baroque church), Peterskirche (another well known baroque church), Karntner Strasse (the main pedestrian street), Graben (the plague column), the Opera House, Schonnbrunn Palace, Hofburg Palace, Belvedere Palace, the Fine Arts Museum, the Rathaus (the Town Hall), the Parliament (inspired by ancient classical Greek architecture), and the famous Prater amusement park (with its large ferris wheel). I also made it a point to have a slice of the famous Sacher Torte at the Sacher Hotel on Karntner Strasse. I didn't miss out on eating Wiener Schnitzel too, and I made sure I bought a few boxes of my favourite Mozart Kugeln chocolates!

Karlskirche, Vienna (Austria)

Schonnbrunn Palace, Vienna (Austria)

I then went on to Rome, and spent 5 days there. Rome was no stranger to me either, because I had been there once before, in 1987, with my sister and my cousin. This time round, I stayed at the Indian Ambassador's residence. Mr Siddharth Singh and Mrs Jyotsna Singh were posted there back then. They were old family friends, and had been with us in Thimpu in the late 1970s. Siddharth Uncle and Jyotsna Aunty were meeting me after more than 20 years, and remembered me for the mischievous brat I had been. On my first day, Jyotsna Aunty called me and said "Akshay, we have an official dinner tonight for a visiting Minister from India. You may join us, but you have to promise to behave yourself!" Siddharth Uncle also said to me "Akshay, if you hadn't been my Ambassador's son, I would have whacked you!" Oh boy, I had really been a trouble maker as a 7 year old! In Rome, I visited sites like St Peter's Basilica (the head of the Catholic church, and one of the world's grandest churches, featuring works of art like Michelangelo's world-famous Pieta), the Sistine Chapel (with Michelangelo's masterpiece, The Creation Of Man, on its ceiling), Castelo San Angelo, the Vittoriano, the Roman Forums, the Colosseum, Capitoline Museum, Trevi Fountain (I did throw in a coin, which indicates I shall return to Rome!), Piazza Navona, and Piazza Spagna.

I then spent a day in Milan. I was picked up from the railway station by the driver of the Indian consulate, and I was dropped back at the railway station in the evening. It was enough time for me to take in some of the city's main landmarks, and I saw the Duomo and the large city square surrounding it. I spent time at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, with its impressive interior and its swanky, high end stores. I also saw the exterior of the famous La Scala Opera House. Everything I saw was at or around the Duomo square, but there was so much to take in there that it took me several hours to do!

Duomo, Milan (Italy)

From there, it was on to Munich for just a day. While travelling from Milan to Munich, I had to unexpectedly get off the train at the Swiss border, because my Schengen visa didn't include Switzerland, and I couldn't enter the country, even though I was not getting off the train! So I took another train and made my way to Munich through a roundabout route via Austria. I didn't have much time in Munich, but it was enough to give me a flavour of the impressive city centre, with its many churches, city squares, and pedestrianized streets. I visited Frauenkirche (the main cathedral), Peterskirche, Heiliggeistkirche, Marienplazt (the main city square), Neues Rathas (the New Town Hall), and Altes Rathaus (the Old Town Hall). Despite being a large city, the centre of Munich is compact, in addition to being pedestrianized, so I was able to see a lot of places in a relatively short period of time. I also enjoyed feasting on authentic German Bratwurst, which I happily downed with a mug of German beer!

Peterskirche, Munich (Germany)

I then spent 4 days at a hotel in Amsterdam. I visited sites including churches like Oude Kerk, Nieuwe Kerk, Wester Kerk, and Zuider Kerk; Dam Straat (the main commercial street connecting the central railway station to the main square, Dam Square); the Sex Museum; Madame Tussaud's Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum (famous for its many masterpieces, including Rembrandt's Nightwatch and The Jewish Bride, and Vermeer's The Kitchen Maid); the Van Gogh Museum (which has some of the artist's best known works, including Sunflowers, The Wheatfields And The Crows, The Potato Eaters and many self portraits); and Anne Frank's House (the house where the young Jewish girl lived with her family in hiding from the Nazis during World War II). I walked around the notorious but world-famous red light district. I also went on a canal cruise. I found Amsterdam to be one of the liveliest and most vibrant cities I have been to.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

On one of the days when I was in Amsterdam, I also visited The Hague. I met Mrs Shyamla Cowsik, an ex colleague of my father's, who was now the Indian Ambassador there. In The Hague, I visited Mauritshuis (a fabulous museum, famous for Vermeer's The Woman With The Pearl Earring, and Paulus Potter's The Bull), the Grote Kerk (the main cathedral), and Madurodam (with its miniature models of the most famous buildings and sites of Netherlands). I also saw the Peace Palace from outside - the grand building houses the International Courts of Justice.

Mauritshuis, The Hague (Netherlands)

Next up was Brussels, where I stayed for 3 days with Mr and Mrs PK Singh. Mr PK Singh was the Indian Ambassador in Brussels. The Singhs had been with us in Sofia in the mid 1970s. As a 3 year old, I had proposed to their 2 and a half year old daughter, Shipra, when the family had come to our place for dinner. Shipra had readily agreed to marry me! She refused to go back home with her parents, until my mother eventually sent her home by saying "We'll come with a 'band-baaja' and marry you and Akshay off when you are 12!" Shipra and her two brothers were away during my stay at their home, but the Singhs were extremely warm to me. I was visiting Brussels after 14 years too. I managed to visit the Grand Place with its Hotel de Ville and Maison du Roi, the Cathedral of St Michel, the Notre Dame Basilica, the Fine Arts Museum, the statue of the Mannekin Pis (the tiny size of the world famous statue came as a surprise!), the Atomium (a huge structure shaped like an atom) and the Butt de Lion structure in nearby Waterloo (where Napoleon was defeated). I feasted on Belgian waffles and Godiva chocolates, both of which were sinfully divine!

Maison du Roi, Grand Place, Brussels (Belgium)

From Brussels, it was back to London for a couple of days, and then I returned to India, after a very memorable trip. I managed my budgets within around Rs 2,50,000, which was impressive, but then I hadn't paid for my air travel, plus my stay had been free in most places, thanks to our various family friends who were scattered everywhere. I also controlled my budgets by travelling everywhere by public transport, and by surviving on inexpensive fast food, which was just fine because I've always enjoyed eateries like McDonald's and Burger King! 

After that trip, travel became my life's biggest passion, and practically every year, I would set out to a different part of the world. Over time, I developed a big interest in travel photography too. Over the next 2 decades, I managed to visit more than 40 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia. I, however, always look back at that 2001 trip of mine that started it all off for me as a passionate traveler! I always say a silent word of thanks to my late father for giving me his frequent flier points, which facilitated that landmark trip of mine. I also say a word of thanks to my late mother for always encouraging every interest of mine, including this keen interest in travel!

Over the decades, I've used up a lot of my hard earned savings on my various international travels, but for me, it has been money well spent. My international travels continued unabated even after I left the corporate world and started earning far less than I had been earlier - my travels were something that I accorded the highest of priorities, even at times when my bank account wasn't exactly overflowing! I feel that much richer through all the travel experiences I've had; the many things I've learned about the history, art, and culture of the countries I've visited; the amazing local cuisines I've got to taste; and the interesting people I've met. I wouldn't have it any other way!