Movement is inbuilt in the human DNA. Right from two million years ago, when some of our ancestors left their homeland in East Africa to settle in North Africa, Europe and Asia. As early as the beginning of last millennia, the world started getting interconnected. Arab and Indian merchants brought cumin, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon to Egypt via the Red Sea. Slaves from Russia and North Africa were traded in Byzantium and the Balkans. The Vikings travelled to Canada, connecting many trade routes. Movement is never just a transportation to another place, it is a transformation from within. Different cultures get internalised and new ideas become ingrained. Each time we move, we change. And when we move collectively, the world shifts a little.
And then it all came undone when a virus brought us to our knees. Borders were closed and travel restrictions imposed. That age-old impulse to move had to be curbed. The northern lights of Scandinavia, the hot springs of Bali and the subtropical volcanic islands of Portugal became merely photographs on the Instagram pages of travel bloggers. Travel turned second-hand.
In a Covid-struck world, one thought twice before indulging in the smallest pleasures—canoodling inside a cinema theatre, stress-shopping at the nearest mall, going to a fancy party (with all your party clothes now gathering dust in your wardrobe)…. Whoever knew you would start to miss the freedom of haggling with your neighbourhood vegetable seller? Only a virus could turn our erstwhile complaints into privileges we took for granted.
When we prepared this travel package last year, the world was a different place, pulsing with life and vigour. One could travel to the caves of Meghalaya and wonder at how they are an evolutionary playground for age-old cave creatures. They bear in them the imprint of the world in its making, ancient secrets that will not survive in the light. One could take a train journey around India and discover how the country seeps into you in indelible ways. One could trek to the summit of the Rupin Pass, and right at the top, reach out for a fistful of heaven. Disillusionment, after all, belongs on level ground. One could spend a fortnight with the Apatani Tribe in Arunachal Pradesh and be in awe of how they straddle the ancient and the modern. They put up videos of their age-old customs on YouTube. They wear designer rip-offs and nail chicken feathers to their doors. Perhaps happiness is to be found in this no-man’s land where time has come unmoored.
Nothing can replace the joy of travel. That losing of the self in something larger than itself—a sun-drenched vineyard, the musty inside of an antique shop, the ruins of a lost city…. The stories in this package are more relevant today because they exude the bittersweet fragrance of the world that was. They are an ode to the hope that we will reclaim it soon and a pledge that we will never again take it for granted.
Ranking done by Charukesi Ramadurai
Charukesi Ramadurai is a freelance journalist who writes on travel, food, art and culture for many Indian and international publications. She has travelled to 48 countries in six continents and has Antarctica firmly in sight. Her travel experiences range from playing pied piper to curious street children in rural India to playing the alphorn in the Swiss Alps. From taking a microlight flight over the Victoria Falls in Zambia to learning to kayak on the Shannon river in Ireland. From rising at the crack of dawn to go bird-watching at the Ballestas Islands in Peru to cooing over endangered baby green turtles at the Ras al-Jinz Turtle Reserve in Oman. She tweets and instagrams at @charukesi.
In addition to our stories, we got some well-known travel writers to recommend the best places to visit under these categories: adventure, beach destinations, wildlife and nature, and art and culture.
