A few days back when I posted a few pictures from my Ladakh trip, Arun asked me: “Would you be posting some kind of a travelogue on the places you visited?” Now it is a very embarrassing question on a blog named ‘Travel Tales from India.’ It is time to set the score right. I love traveling and writing about it, in that order. For quite some time (and my archives are a proof for it) I wrote only about travel on this blog.
Some place I once said, “I recently started blogging and like many others initially I was not quite convinced about why on earth should I blog?” Let me say I do not have any such doubts about blogging anymore and I have found my voice and I am screaming myself hoarse. I do not think it will be ever again that I write about travel only as I do not have the energy for maintaining two blogs.
But this post is about travel and not like the fillers I wrote for the past few days and ultimately resulted in that comment by Arun. No Arun, I do not blame you, I deserved that comment and I enjoyed it.
Some of you might have noticed that I keep posting tidbits about Ladakh but never a full length post. Ladakh has been a truly memorable trip for us (that is me, my husband and a friend) and I have to go back there sometime soon, as I lost some 400 pictures through a hard disk crash.
Coming back to why I never wrote about Ladakh on my blog, well, sometimes I get ambitious. I sent my Ladakh story to GoNOMAD and it is finally published.
So, I did write about travel and I love writing about travel. It is only the second time but it gives me immense pleasure when I see my story published (the same used to be the case with research papers, but it is becoming a lost art for me that I have to revive and revive quickly).
And now let me gush about GoNOMAD. Well, they gave me a chance for the second time. But more importantly they accept unsolicited material (how do you think I got my first chance?) and they pay $25 (and that is a cool 1000 bucks for me) for each contribution apart from a few exceptions. Now I have seen so many well written travelogues on blogs that I wish to share this with you, a few of you might be interested?
That was a great article you wrote!
Teri, thank you so much.
Congratulations on having another article published! Your writing is so descriptive, you paint a wonderful picture of the places you visit.I’ve enjoyed reading all your posts, not just the travel ones. I hope you’ll keep blogging for a good long time.
Lily, thank you so much. I do enjoy blogging and the best part is the interacting with people from the different corners of the globe.
Loved the article, Mridula.Wonderful photos of the pass; I particularly liked the one near the tents at Pang. Too bad that your laptop gave up the ghost and lost those photos.
I’m so sorry you lost your photos, that is just the worst thing because photos are irreplaceable. I like how you mix up your blog with travel commentary plus other stuff, and the latest article you wrote for GoNomad is absolutely fantastic!
that article is real good!
Nice article on GoNomad. I like all that you blog about, but I am more partial towards your travel accounts.Keep writing !
hey mrids..great ur Ladakh trip finally got published on GONomad…it’s amazingly well written ..not that i hadnt read about it on your blog…thats the story which got me hooked to your blog ..so how could i dare not catch it when the story gt published on gonomad..hey btw..my old blog is up again..i managed to do something and get the posts back..being very careful with my posts..lest the mess it up a again..but pls do visit…and pls keep more of ur travails posted on ur bLog…cheers..Para
On Friday I wrote a long comment to this post, and I also commented on your last post, but somehow when I tried to publish it I lost the entire comment. I was so disheartened by the loss that I didn’t rewrite the comment.But today I want to say that I loved your article on Ladakh. It is beautifully written and it made me envy lily b and her upcoming trip to India. You have a real gift for travel writing, and I think you should keep it up, even as you branch off into other topics, too.
Nice writeup.. Though I don’t think I will ever be able to compress any of my trips to the guidelines of GoNomad.. Congrats! 🙂
Deepak, that tent photo is one of my favorites too, even when I took it, I thought it was looking good on the small screen of my camera.Thank you Crystal, the other stuff I write about, I care about them a lot but travel writing remains my first love.Poison, thank you.Pooja I can understand the bias :)para, I know your old blog is up. But you have switched on the comment moderation and probably you are not aware of it? I left a comment that I did not see on your blog.JB, I am so sorrythat you lost those comments, actually it is my loss! I was telling my husband recently that in order to write about travel, we need to travel. This December we should be heading somewhere.Sumit, I think the word restriction is made by keeping in mind the reading habits of people surfing the net. I agree it feels daunting to think of writing about Ladakh in 1500 wrods but then, one could concentrate just on one aspect of the trip. Most magazines put such restrictions.But then you always have your blog which is a pleasure to read 🙂
good u r back to writing on traveluma
Mriduls…someday soon, im gonna save up & travel wth u 🙂
Uma, I had to, after that question by Arun.Viji, for traveling in India and the way I do, budget travel, you do not need too much money. But seriously, everyone who can, should visit Ladakh at least once in their life.
Did you manage to get to Pangong-Tso? Or does one still need Chinese and Indian govt. permission to visit the famed lake? Did you get to Thiksay, Hemis, Karu etc?I loved Ladakh – wouldn’t mind settling there once I’m old and worn out.
Our primary traget was to do the Markha Valley trek, but we had to turn back midway because I developed a badly upset stomach.After coming back early, we did manage to visit Pangong Lake. These days the tour operators take care of the permits and I think we need only Indian one. I would love to settle in Ladakh but I fear the winter.
Anonymous, my interactions with Gonaomd has been excellent. I wrote twice and I got paid twice. I tried (and still sometimes do) searching other avenues, but many websites want you to write for free and on top of it they have ten page guidelines. So 25 US bucks (incidently that makes it 1000 Indian bucks)are fine with me.If you have noticed, they also offered to host my blog from their site. Mynew blog address is:http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/ So Gonomad has been quite a pleasent experience for me, who is not a writer by profession.
Nice trip log, went to Ladakh in September05. hope i will be able to go there this year as well. its a beautiful place 🙂