I started writing my blog “Travel with Ramanand” https://ramanand.in/ some years ago after my first trip to Italy . What makes this trip special was that I had done a lot of research and planning to arrive at a month long itinerary and made all the bookings on my own without any help. It was at the insistence of my friends that I share the entire planning experience. And that is how this blog began. What started as one article is now a blog of sixty five posts spanning travels across eight countries, My Italian trip – Planning for the Journey

My itinerary included Rome, the Amalfi Coast, Florence,Tuscany, Pisa, Venice and Vienna. The Schengen Visa process was an eye opener- Required enormous documentation to establish intent to return, which i did not get first time right. Visa Travails of an Indian I learnt the nuances of airline bookings and schedules, evaluating hotels and purchasing Trenitalia train tickets and Travelmar ferry tickets to the Amalfi and Railjet train tickets to Vienna. I also discovered that Flix Bus was a great way to travel. I however missed out buying a reservation ticket on the OBB Railjet which luckily didn’t prove to be an issue. Our hotel selections were good except for a perfectly located hotel in Rome where our room was in an attic without a lift . Overall three hits and one miss. I needed intervention from Vodafone to activate my SIM and missed out activating my bus ticket in Florence.I learnt that you cannot buy a SITA bus ticket in Amalfi on board or that you cannot just flag down a taxi in Florence but need the apptaxi and that my google map skills were not adequate to traverse on foot in Venice. All in all a successful DIY experience  with lots and lots of learning for the future. I am not a pioneer but it was a first for me.

As we continued our travels i learnt the nuances of foreign exchange transactions and the optimum way to spend using a combination of Travel cards , currency and credit cards and how to get the best exchange rates, My proficiency in navigating airline web sites was vastly improved and I learnt how to assess seats, request special menus and manage lounge requests.Ten Travel Tips- Obvious yet Overlooked . I now can evaluate flights on many more parameters other than just cost. But my biggest discovery was that in the Far East adding an additional destination does not cost very much more. And while transiting through Hong Kong with a duty free package I learnt about the STEB (security tamper proof evident bags) and the relevant protocols followed by different countries. STEB – I didn’t Know about it !

Hotels was an entirely different ball game.Price and a few add ons like discounts on drinks or meals was not the only selection criteria. Selecting the right hotel required a lot more evaluation which has been explained in great detail in a seven part series Choosing the Right Hotel – Location First covering Rome, Vienna, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Saigon, Zurich and Ho Chi Minh City. My hotel selection process has evolved over the years though i was once denied accommodation in the Citadines in spite of a confirmed reservation. Who bumped me off – Hotel or travel agency?

My post A Ghost in Lovedale? set in my school in Lovedale was very well received and has been posted and re posted through many alumni platforms. But by far the best read post was about the lack of ferry services from India to Srilanka. India – Sri Lanka Ferry ? Whither ? & India-Sri Lanka Ferry – Hopefully Soon?Updated 13 Oct 2023 where I tracked the status of this event till the ferry service was finally launched this October. That’s my next trip !

I was inspired to travel by my dear friend and colleague Sushil Bali – Soldier- corporate executive and an inveterate traveler to most countries in the world whose only lament was his inability to visit Antarctica though he went as far as Ushuaia. I had reviewed his book Travel the World on Your Own etc – A Book review which i would recommend to all my readers as a must read >

Traveling by metro rail and public transport was a different experience in every city – From the London tube to the MTR in Hong Kong or the Swiss Rail System or the Tokyo metro. Understanding the route maps and correlating to my tour plan or working out the most economical tariff system was quite an exercise in itself and a very important part of my planning and research. But the most complex of all was deciphering the various types of Swiss rail passes. Swiss Travel Passes ? A first timer’s dilemma. The Vaporetto in Venice was easy to understand but remember to to validate your ticket before boarding failing else you are treated as a ticket less. Malati and I were one of the earliest passengers on a cross-border coach between Hong Kong and Macau on the HZMB (Hong Kong-Zhuhai- Macao bridge) soon after its Inauguration,Hong Kong -Macau by bus on the HZMB

Malati makes it a point to visit a farmer’s market and Home stores in each city we visit -Whether it is the Campagna in Rome or Kappabashi in Tokyo or the Homestore in Sukhumvit we have seen them all! Knives at Kappabashi . And much to my consternation we end up buying things which are available at home. Our prized purchases are a mortar and pestle weighing 15 kilos from Thailand and a set of Japanese Knives specially designed to suit Malati’s vegetable cutting style.

When we visit museums we make it a point to absorb the whole flavour of the museum even if it means taking a lot of time. A few hours is just not enough and may even need a second visit . Uffizi – Simply mesmerising. The Uffizi In Florence really blew our minds to see work of the Masters as also the Vatican Museums , The Peace Museum at Hiroshima and the War Remnants museum at Saigon. The messages from the Hiroshima museum was one of peace and conciliation while the War Remnants was different .Hiroshima

I still have a lot to learn and the experience and learning gets better with each trip. I am much more calmer now when I travel which comes with more focused research and planning before the trip which is as much fun as going on one! We just returned from Hong kong and Ho Chi minh city which will be the next subjects of my posts. And we will continue with our travels to Greece and Sri Lanka this summer. Thank you once again for reading my posts – Do keep reading my posts and your comments will encourage me.