BPD: Why Backpack solo?

(BackPack Diary: Why Backpack solo?)

Ever since I 'planned' this trip, the 2 questions I've had to answer almost everyone were 'Why backpack?' and 'Why a trip alone?' Let me try and answer this here, for posterity and for quick redirection of future questions to this blog.

I had always wanted to backpack, after all the years of hiking, trekking and visiting places on other modes of travel. While traveling and on other 'touristy' trips with friends or family there was always an intent to get to understand the place and the people better, rather than criss-cross 6 or 9 defined points to tick-off the must-see spots within a day. Backpacking provides just this platform to let one explore places without the compunction of having to 'cover' many, or even any tourist spot. When all you have to move around with is a backpack, you can move with ease, stay anywhere and pause enough to, as they say, 'smell the roses'!

Going solo was a tough, but an interesting decision. One of the inspirations was my friend Prakash Jha, who shared wonderful experiences from his solo trip over a much longer duration. Another friend, Jai Govind who had also trekked solo for months before founding his adventure travel company, helped finalize the decision. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed convincing - a Freedom to explore at one's own pace, Experiment a completely non-planned trip that wouldn't be possible in a group and finally do some Introspection, which has become such a tough thing to do in our fast-paced daily lives. 

For those still not very convinced, the documentary, 'A map for Saturday' is a good starting point. For this trip, all the planning that I had done was just to choose the region to backpack and decide the drop-off/return destination. Based on weather considerations at this time of the year, Sikkim-Bhutan seemed to be a good option with a beautiful landscape that was pristine & relatively less 'touristy'. So, the drop off point was decided as Bagdogra, bordering Sikkim, in West Bengal. To keep options open I planned the return leg of my journey from Kolkata. With nothing planned in between I had all of 2 weeks to explore, and decide moves by the hour.

PS: Trip experiences follow in the upcoming posts. Here are some Himalayan trek operators to check out: RenokAdventures, TrekTheHimalayas, Moxtain.