'Liebster Award’ nominations

I don’t know much about 'Liebster Award’ but it definitely makes your day when your followers, readers, or fellow blogger friends appreciate your blog. Some time back, there was another such award for which TravellingCamera was nominated by a blogger friend. Thanks Ami bhat & Kash Pals for nominating me for Liebster Award. That’s an honor and it also gives me opportunity to nominate some of the bloggers I am following these days. Not only this, these series of award nominations make me think about ways to recognize folks who actually played a big role in inspiring/motivating me to blog almost daily.

Liebster Awards:

The Liebster awards are designed to discover and recognize new bloggers. It is an award that gets passed on from one blogger to another, to welcome him/ her and appreciate his/ her blog. This in my opinion is the perfect motivation and encouragement for us bloggers.

The nominated blogger (me in this case) has to answer 10 questions shared by the blogger who nominated him/ her (Ami in this case. I will be doing a separate post for Kash Pals) and link back the blog to theirs. The nominated blogger then, nominates 10 other bloggers and shares his/her set of questions for them to take forward. A perfect pay-it-forward chain.

Here are answers to Ami's questions -

1) What is the best part of traveling?

I had to think a bit after reading this question. There are lots of things but finding the best became an issue for me. Since our answers revolve around our current state of mind. At this point, I feel that travel takes out all the stress of regular life. Although how you are traveling, who is your companion, and what kind of travel it is also make a difference. As one of my friends say - Travel is a very good positive distraction from all the stress you go through on daily basis :).

2) Is there something about traveling that you dislike?

Again I had to think :). When I have to travel with groups, there is a probability of differences in priorities. Generally I compromise on things I want to do during travel and then I regret. Other thing which bothers me the most is the way we treat Indian places. A lot of popular tourist destinations are very dirty and the so-called off-beat would not be that off-beat in a few years. It’s a cycle in case of off-beat place. After 5 years we would have to find other off-beat names. My worry is that we are promoting tourism but not thinking about sustainability. PHOTO JOURNEY team is planning to launch a campaign soon and taking pledge to plan cleaning exercises, wherever we go.

3) Beaches or Hill stations?

Hills. Check out my blog to find a detailed answer :)

4) What is that one place that you did not have enough of and why?

There are plenty. Every place is unique and different things about a place vary in different weather, harvest etc. There are many places where we have gone and then thought of making our own house there :). Is it common amongst travelers? Practically we can’t do that. But this shows that we want to explore that place, its people, culture, food, and weather more. It's unlimited like the ocean in the photograph below.

5) Share your one crazy moment / embarrassing moment when traveling.

This one is difficult :) . I have done a lot of crazy things when I was single and was staying alone in Delhi. There were days, I made random travel plans alone and without planning. And I went to some of the most difficult treks in India without planning. I will call that foolishness rather than crazy moment. When I went to Shrikhand Manadev trek, my health deteriorated badly and then I had to take a long leave to recover. 

I would call it a CRAZY MOMENT when we planned to do a bike tour to remote areas of Kullu & Shimla districts of Himachal, when we got to know that Kinnaur is blocked because of land-slide. We were in Jeory (on the border of Kinnaur district) when we got to know that we can’t go to Kinnaur, which was planned. Check out my 5 year sabbatical story to know more about the incident and it’s outcome. It will remain as one of the special trips for me. 

Embarrassing moment - I planned a vacation with my college friend and his wife. My girlfriend was also accompanying us. On our way back, we visited my friends in-laws, who lived in a tiny village. While having lunch, my friends mom-in-law started asking questions like - what is your hometown, how did you guys meet, what do you do, if you are from Himachal & she is from Delhi where did the marriage happen etc... She had no clue that we were not married at that point of time. After some time, my friend interrupted and said that 'they are not married yet'. It was embarrassing in that environment and my friend's mom-in-law was in shock :). 

6) What are the key things that you keep in mind when picking a destination?

Most of the times, I try to avoid main tourist places and then never visit a place which is flooded with tourists in season. That’s pocket-friendly and also gives you great experience. These days, I prefer visiting places which have nice homes-stays and give you an opportunity to explore the culture in a better way. The list increases when I travel with family. There are lots of things which we need to consider when traveling with folks of different age groups and interests. 

7) Your best travel companion? Why?

My Camera and Travellingcamera.com says it all :)

8) Any movie/ book that inspires your travel?

 Zindagi na Milegi Dobara

9) Tell us your one travel as a kid that has still stayed with you.

All the train journeys I have done to with my grandparents. My Nanaji was in Railways and after retirement he used to get 1st class passes. I used to accompany my grandparents as assistant :).

10) Which is your next destination and why?

Don't know :)

My nomination list goes - 

Akanksha Dureja

Antonina

Archana Kapoor

D.Nambiar

Mahesh Divya

Sri Kri

Srinidhi Hande

Stepstogether

TheUnTourists

Here are my questions for my nominees - 

1) Why do you travel?

2) What is your most beautiful memory from your past travels?

3) What are the things you keep in mind when you plan your travels?

4) Do you recommend that people should travel? Why?

5) How do you manage your jobs, family lives? Especially if you travel often.

6) What is your most favorite destination so far?

7) What is that one place you want to visit, that you haven't visited already? Why do you want to visit this place?

8) What is your favorite travel song?

9) What is your favorite mode of transportation and why?

10) Where are you headed to next?

Over to the nominees to take the Liebster Award forward.