1. What’s the point of another travel talk?

2. Travel content as it exists today is centred around the
place / geography / hotels ergo supply side.
I want travel content which is centred
around the traveler, the human being

3. Travel literature that maps to
the mind and heart of the
traveler

4. Passage to more than India!
Are thy wings plumed indeed for such far flights?
O Soul, voyagest thou indeed on voyages like these?
Disportest thou on waters such as these?
Soundest below the Sanscrit and the Vedas?
Then have thy bent unleash’d.
My experience is
that the best travel
guides are not the
officially titled
Walt Whitman, Passage to India, 1871 travel publications
(Written on the opening of the Suez Canal and the but rather, it is
possibilities opened up by this new short cut to India)
literature.

5. Welcome to the live production of
Back Packing in India
A Practical Guide
Researched, compiled and designed by
All of us
@thegoaproject

6. here came a day
when the clouds
drifting along with
the wind aroused a
wanderlust in me,
and I set off on a
journey to roam
along the
seashores...
- Basho (On a
Narrow Road to
the Deep North,
Oku no Hosomichi)
Backpacking is a mode of mind. It has got nothing to do with what bags you carry. It is
about learning and discovering for yourself- discovering both what’s within you and
what’s outside

7. Questions Travelers Face
Finding a trail
To Plan or Not To Plan… Ladies Special
Does Back Packing mean I Can I take just one Patel Shot
can’t take a suitcase? please?
I am immune to the germs of What’s all this “feel the
Bombay but outside place” mumbo-jumbo?
Bombay?

8. Finding a trail
The answer is not in a
list of places but what’s
your objective.
Example:
As an urban planner, if
you want to visit classic
urban settlements in
India, where do you
turn to?

9. What do you see here?
As a rock climber, a challenge As a history student, the home
of an empire

10. To plan or not to plan?
My model is to pick an
opening line and then build
on the way
Even a day is enough
Know where you are;
know who you are
Find a trail that suits you

11. A trip that I created for
myself
The Vijayanagar Trail
– a legacy usually
forgotten
How a plateau of
volcanic rock can
become one of the
richest places in the
world and what it
leaves behind today

12. Does Back Packing mean I can’t take a
suitcase?
Travel light
Travel right
Zippo Smartphones
Books Toilet Paper
Swiss Army Knife
Pair of clothes
Chargers Camera
Maps
More things in your
bag, more things to take
(picture sourced from the web)
care of and bring back.

13. I am immune to the germs of Bombay
but outside Bombay?
The beer is safe because
the water is, surely,
treated before bottling.
Look for the crowded
restaurants
For European
sensitivities, stick to
Lonely Planet

14. Ladies Special
Open house – I can’t
say anything here
Over to you

15. Can I take just one Patel Shot please?
It’s not about the photo,
it’s about the
photographer… you

16. The “Been There Done
That” feeling, the perfect
scene, the perfect shot Rolf writes:
Oia village on Santorini My best picture of the
Island, Aegean Sea evening — a golden-hour
shot of a blue-domed church
overlooking the island’s
caldera — thrilled me at
first, but the more I looked
at it, the more it felt
artificial. Digging into my
daypack, I discovered the
problem: Both of my Greek
Islands guidebooks (a
Rolf Potts, Tourist Snapshots,
Rough Guide and a Lonely
essay in The Design
Observer Group, May 2012 Planet) featured the exact
same church, photographed
http://places.designobserver.c from a similar angle, bathed
om/feature/tourist- in the same late-day light.
snapshots/33668/

17. Surprise! You will never
walk alone!
Oia village on Santorini Rolf writes:
Island, Aegean Sea
Reckoning that a
confessional gesture might
redeem my own
predictability, I turned
away from the church and
photographed the village
terrace behind me: It was
populated by dozens of
digital-camera-clutching
tourists, angling for the
same shot I’d just taken.
Rolf Potts, Tourist Snapshots, This ironic new Oia
essay in The Design Observer photograph was, in a
Group, May 2012 sense, a self-portrait.
http://places.designobserver.com
/feature/tourist-snapshots/33668/

18. What’s all this “feel the place” mumbo-
jumbo?
As a backpacker, you
are, theoretically, the
closest to “feel the
place”. It may be
pleasant, it may be
unpleasant but it will
be more authentic than
anything on Travel &
Living

20. Join me in creating ideas for travelers:
@anannyadeb on twitter
http://flickr.com/photos/adzone
http://roadbelowme.wordpress.com