Finding the right words by Amrita Das

[Amrita Das a travel blogger and a freelance travel writer. She quit her corporate job to travel and explore the world. She moves to any place that allows her to travel and explore the off-beat path, volunteers to understand the various ways of sustainable living, and loves outdoor adventure. She travels solo to meet strangers as friends.

She has travelled across twenty states in India and has briefly explored Nepal, Switzerland, Italy and Paris. She aims to "get as many stamps on my passport because life is too short and there are too many stories to hear!"

Hear what she has to say about the many vectors of search a traveler has to face, and how finding the right search engine is as important as enjoying your vacation itself!]

Planning the next travel is a big decision. Even a bigger one than ‘do you want to mortgage a house?’ Well, at least for me.

Once I have booked my transport to and from the place, my next step is usually to select an accommodation. Depending on what I will be doing in the destination, I prioritise my accommodation. For instance travelling to Coorg was synonymous to staying in a rainforest and here my place of stay had become a crucial part of my search. However, when looking at something Goa, I am more open to options. My search, hence, depends more on my focus on the activity.

And even though search engines like Google are great in showing up the best results, I suppose I have to be quite specific with my keywords. If I am looking at ‘restaurants in Panjim’, I must type those. As a traveller, it may work better for me if my search engine shows up customised searches by itself. With a variety of essential and basic keywords to choose from, planning and researching over a destination becomes more focussed and easier.

Take for example my recent visit to Darjeeling where I was solely researching on the Sandakphu Trek. I intended to do the trek all by myself and spent unnecessary hours examining through millions of words on cyberspace to check if this could be possible. Finding information such as ‘solo friendly’ or ‘travel alone’ should be viable options in today’s day and age. After all, travelling solo is a quick trend that’s catching up the travel industry already. Nonetheless, specific keywords like adventure, trek or geographic locations like Darjeeling, NorthEast India; only help minimise time and effort while putting together a good suitable travel plan.

As explorers, we’d rather be lost on unknown turns of physical space than feel hapless amidst unknown words of cyberspace.