Today at your Adda we’ve got someone who loves to travel and explore new places. He doesn’t mind travelling alone or with a group of people, because all that matters to him is travelling! Photography is his new found interest and bird watching is an activity that he thoroughly enjoys. He believes a lot of people in India need to take time out of their busy schedules to break out of their safe zones and travel to explore the beautiful world around. Here’s a fun interview with Santosh BS, winner of the Best Blog Award in the Travel & Living Category at the BlogAdda Blog Awards 2014.
Q: What inspired you to start a travel blog?
A: Lack of information, lack of sharing, very few reviews, very few pointers to locations and the general intent of sharing what people are missing staying indoors led me to start a travel blog.
Q: It has been almost 7 years since you’ve started blogging. Tell us about 3 major changes that you have seen in the blogging world from then to now?
- Lot of people have started blogging since then.
- Lot of people realized that information shared helps others/self.
- It’s more competitive out there than ever before.
Q: What is the first trip you remember taking and how old were you?
A: I was in primary school when the first trip of the entire family was to Bombay.
Q: Which is the one place you really want to go to but haven’t been able to go to yet, your dream trek maybe? Also tell us why that particular place.
A: This can’t be one, has to be many 🙂 Valley of Flowers trek is one that is on my radar for long now but just not able to happen. Why that place – You just got to see it to believe it – a trekker’s paradise, a valley of hills and mountains, a land of true fantasy and landscapes.
Q: Do you have any funny travel stories that you want to share with our readers?
A: Travel without fun is nay-nay for me but once while coming back from Hyderabad, I boarded the bus to Bangalore and showed the ticket only to realize the ticket was for the previous day. The expressions on the conductor’s face and mine were just priceless!!!
Q: Give our readers 5 tips on going bird watching?
- Patience
- Loads of Patience
- A field note to note down important observations and a field guide
- Be slow and thoughtful, no fast or hard movements
- No disturbances please in any manner
Q: Do you prefer travelling alone or travelling in a group of friends or family members & why?
A: I take as it unfolds, either solo or in a group. It doesn’t seem to affect me much.
Q: What are the 5 best things according to you that travel does for a person?
- Builds up your confidence.
- Teaches you patience.
- You start admiring the world around.
- Discover oneself, those moments of joy / self-realization are priceless.
- You are helped by strangers unknown, that you reciprocate when others need your help.
Q: There’s a belief that most people have about travelling being too expensive. What do you have to say about this? Is it true that every time your travel you have to shell out a lot of money? Can you share some economy travelling tips if any?
A: Absolutely not! Price increases as your wishlist increases.
Ex: You are on a holiday and you want a spa to relax, a swimming pool, a luxurious cab to travel and a luxurious accommodation definitely bumps up your expenditure whilst a basic accommodation with the locals or homestays, local food, shared means of transport keeps the cost down.
- Travel light
- Choose homestays / basic accommodation
- Explore the local cuisine
- Travel shared or by local transport
Q: Have you been anywhere which turned out to be totally different than how you imagined? If so, how?
A: Yes. I had been on a return trip to Ooty and was not very happy to see the green hill tops razed and converted to fields.
Q: Have you had any bad experiences whilst travelling? When and how did you come out of the situation?
A: So far nothing major as such, it’s been a jolly good ride so far 🙂
Q: Out of all the places you have trekked to and travelled to, tell us your most favourite one till date.
A: This has to be Dandeli for travel/birdwatching and Kodachadri for a trek.
Q: Are you an impromptu traveler or someone who likes to schedule the travel and stick to the plan? Which out of the two do you think is better and why?
A: I prefer traveling on the go and would prefer unscheduled itineraries rather than fixed ones. The element of surprise/ excitement with each unplanned trip is worth a try by everybody.
Q: You won the Best Blog Award for the Travel & Living Category by BlogAdda at WIN. How did you and your loved ones react to this?
A: It definitely was a great surprise, I never blogged with an intention to win something but it always feels good for the recognition you get, when someone walks up to you and says your blog is good or an unexpected email coming your way stating how helpful a blog post of mine was for planning their travel. My family members and friends were all happy and excited and wishes were pouring in for many days.
Q: What is future of travel blogging in India according to you?
A: Definitely, the number of people who travel have increased but still there is a huge chunk of people who think they do not have time or cannot afford it. People need to start breaking out of their safe zones and start exploring. The world (India) is so beautiful and we just have one life to see it.
Q: Tell us your favorite quote.
A: Born here, live there. The wilderness is calling, I must go.
Connect with Santosh BS : Blog, BlogAdda, Twitter, Facebook, Google+.
Thank You Santosh for a great interview!
For all those who missed #WIN14, you can relive it through the photos!
Bloggers, we hope you enjoyed reading this Interview with Santosh where he tells us everything about his love for travelling and exploring new places. He also tells us about his blogging journey and new found interest in photography.
We look forward to your feedback about this interview.