Tripping on travel, girl power and caravanning

Ankita and Sharanya, along with Luna, are living the dream of slow travelling

Tripping on travel, girl power and caravanning Ankita Kumar and Sharanya Iyer with Luna | Facebook

Two gypsy girls travelling across Northeast of India in a hippie caravan named ‘Luna’ is the stuff dreams are made of. Ankita Kumar and Sharanya Iyer are living their dream of slow travelling in Sikkim and they do not want their adventure to be without a cause. “This season of Caravan Chronicles is all about girl power. Our main aim is to promote caravanning and homestay cultures in India as well as to introduce the idea of slow travel,” says an enthusiastic Ankita.

The previous season of Caravan Chronicles, first of its kind in India, had Ankita crisscrossing the country for 100 days with globetrotter Rohith Subramanian and “investigative traveller” William from Ireland. The overwhelming response that they had received for the first season inspired Ankita and her friend Sharanya to do what they love the most―travel and create content. “So when Jockey Woman agreed to partner with us, it made us more confident to embark on this crazy journey all by ourselves”. And making their journeys as adventurous as ever is Luna, the tempo traveler they travel in.

Caravan Chronicles and the beauty of slow travelling | Facebook Caravan Chronicles and the beauty of slow travelling | Facebook

As opposed to the first season, where Ankita travelled from Kerala to Rajasthan in a caravan, this time she decided to take it slow. “While planning our journey, Sharanya and I decided that we would adopt a slow travel approach to emphasise the connection to local people, cultures, food and music. We chose to tour only Sikkim so that we can show people the beauty of the state in detail and educate them on the importance of being sustainable for local communities and the environment.”

This season, Caravan Chronicles focuses on homestays in an effort to boost the local economy. They agree that it is great fun as they get to bond with locals, understand their culture and relish the authentic food of that place. It will also help them to sensitise people regarding caravanning so that they embrace the “caravan culture”. This helps ensure the safety of travellers, especially girls, as people would understand that they are not involved in any illegal activities. The responses that they have been getting while caravanning is what keeps them going in this journey.

“People stop and stare at the caravan and at times request us to take them on a ride, which we happily oblige to. The locals are an integral part of our journey and they are a great help during our misadventures with Luna. Also, the caravan chronicles is a great hit on social media with many enthusiastic to undertake similar caravan journeys.”

Tripping on travel, girl power and caravanning Ankita Kumar and Sharanya Iyer with Luna | Facebook

However, Ankita says that people refuse to consider their endeavour ‘Caravan Chronicles’ as “work” and like to term it as “chilling”. To help people break free from this mentality, Ankita and Sharanya are planning to show them the work that goes behind the scenes and to educate people that travelling entails not just “chilling”.

Having said that, Ankita reiterates that India is not yet ready for caravanning due to many legal constraints. “We keep facing a lot of legal hurdles when it comes to crossing state borders. The colour of Luna landed us in a lot of trouble as there were many legal procedures”.

Ankita and Sharanya aim to reduce the stigma attached with caravanning this season so that the legal system will ultimately support such initiatives by providing them public bathrooms, charging points and most importantly, ease the legal entanglements. 

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