Back-Pack Trips: Much More Than Just Fun

Back-pack trips!!! Or, I should say the back-pack trip season started in my life in last few months of my MBA at Great Lakes. The trips were also fastrack like our course here. I had 3 trips continuously to Madurai, Kodaikanal, Kancheepuram and Pondicherry. However, the essence of the back-pack trips doesn't lies in the places, however, in the travel to these places. All these trips were almost unplanned. The maximum time went in the planning was be 1hr only. The fun in the trip is inversely proportional to the time spent in the planning. The least the planning, least is the expectation. So, whatever happens becomes the reason for enjoyment.

The fun lies travelling in local public transport buses. These buses are so solid for travel that you actually hear the bus metal striking hard against each other and shouting. Sometimes, the sound resembles the Anu Malik's voice. Carry the least luggage with you so that you actually enjoy the trip light. Meet people on the way and let them decide your next destination. Discover new eating joints. Buy daru whenever you see theka. And search for adventure every next moment.

Back-pack trips are not only meant for enjoyment. However, are great source of learning or self-training. Few lessons which I learnt from my back-pack trips:

• Patience - You really need to be patient. You will encounter many such situations when you are just helpless and the only thing you can do is sit patiently and find new ways of travel. Like reaching the bus-terminal when all the buses are full and no available seat.
• Struggle - You need to struggle with each and everything. The bus, the people around, the food and sometimes the unbearable shitty smelling public toilets.
• PR Skills - PR skills are really handy in catching up some localite and asking them to reveal all the information of the town. So that, autos and rickshaw walas are not able to cheat you.
• Common Sense - Back-pack trips check your common sense to the bottom-most level. From simply asking for charges to identifying the right stranger to guide you.
• Smartness - Never try to act smart with local people even when you know only few words of the local language. Don't use few local words to start your communication just to show that you are local to the place. Because if the opposite person replies in local language and you are not able to comprehend and answer, he will get to know where you belong to. If he is egoist, then you better say sorry to him/her and move on.
• Accounting - Right from estimating the correct price to bargaining power to calculating the expenditures and the remaining amount with the bank for the rest of the trip, your accounting/banking skills come in handy. The quick you are able to judge the price the better you are with your budget on the trip and better your decision making skills.
• Generosity - One need guts to learn this skill. Taking care of the poor people on the move by providing them food or just talking to them needs whole lot of courage or better to say humanity. But when you are actually travelling with all kinds of people, you are able to identify yourself with them more and able to treat them as your friends. One blessing from them can make your life.

Now lets see what should be inside back-pack to make the trip just lot more than fun:

• Pair of jeans
• Pair of shorts
• Extra t-shirt
• Swimming costume
• Shoes
• Slippers
• Comb, paper soap, sunscreen
• Mobile chargers
• Glares or shades
• Cap
• Extra pair of undergarments
• Towel
• One pullover (if going on heights)
• Basic medicines
• Awesome trip buddies

If you just carry all this in your bag and start moving towards the destination without any solid planning, you will for sure have the best of your trips like in the pic above.