Preparing and Planning - The Bare Essentials
Once we had the basic thought process in place for this trip, we began by hunting stay options along the route. Nagarhole, we read, had the highest tiger density in the south so we decided to pick that as a base camp of sorts. Regardless of the fact that Nagarhole was the least eventful of the safaris for us, it turned out to be a blessing since the homestay option we picked there turned out to be one of the key highlights of the trip. More on that later...
So a few ground rules that I've set for all our vacations with the same group of friends:
You do not need to empty your pockets for a great vacation.
Plan your trip by starting at least 2 months in advance so that it gives you ample time to do a thorough research and figure out the best things to do and the best places to stay at your destinations.
You DO NOT need to book packages through some travel agency. Part of a great vacation is exploring the place in its truest form..drive around, walk around, talk to people.. live in that moment. You will come out of it a totally changed person.
Tripadvisor.com is a blessing. Use it to the fullest.
Trust your instincts when selecting a destination or booking a stay based on traveler reviews. There is no 100% guarantee the places will be splendid but then again, there is no guarantee you will be here tomorrow to complain about them :)
Surprisingly, the day we began our hunt for our stay around Nagarhole, was the day we chanced upon The Jade (Thank you Rohan!) and took some swift action to book our stay at the homestay over the next couple of days.
For our Goa halt, I started by identifying homestays or budget hotels around the Calangute/Baga/Panjim stretch. During one of these browsing sessions I chanced upon the Holiday Rental section of Tripadvisor and lo! - Casinha Raibandar was found. 4bhk wooden chalet overlooking the Mandovi river... and for under a thousand bucks per person per night.. a proposition that couldn't be ignored.
The biggest struggle unarguably was booking our stay at Bandipur. For the first few days that I tried, the reservation section of their website was down. Finally when it got working, there was a major language barrier when I called up their office to confirm a few details before I made the online payment. Luckily I had a friend who could converse in Kannada and so that too was a done deal. I had read in a few reviews that these government guest houses provided basic accommodation but were smack in the middle of the forest area. I found it hard to believe at first and even more so when the lady from the reservation office told me that the forest was "wonly 50 meters away" in her very heavy south indian accent. What we witnessed there was nothing short of spectacular.. but more on that later in the Bandipur post.
Google Maps was our sole map engine (the navigation device in the Honda City had a mind of its own) and turned out reliable for the greater part of our 2500 km journey spare a few glitches.
A definite tip - if traversing through mountainous/forest regions where you know for a fact that our reliable cell phone providers won't have any coverage, save the maps on your phones for offline viewing or just print the damn things. It won't provide real-time GPS tracking on the print out but at least it will get you out of a tough spot.
Lastly, no trip preparation is complete without a checklist. Since this blog post won't allow me to attach the Excel, I'm adding screenshots of our list broken down into three main parts - 1) Personal 2) Group 3)For the Car.