Chronicles of an Indian bus-hopper

”Missed tatkal train reservation. Book a bus ticket.”

This is the advertisement catchphrase used by the popular online bus ticketing service Redbus. But what happens when one has a tatkal reservation and misses the train instead? And what if the distance we are talking about is nearly 3000 km?

You might have seen the Tempo traveller on Indian roads, with the Tourist nameplate on the front and the Traveller labelled on the side. That’s just because the vehicle has got a Tourist permit and the brand-name of the vehicle is Traveller.

What got me thinking in this direction was the ride that I had taken across India; the difference between a ‘Tourist’ and a ‘Traveller’?

If the above infographic blunts a thousand words, I realized it through experience. When I had decided to go on a solo back-packing trip across North India for a few weeks, though I did no meticulous planning or booking of sorts, I had thought out a probable itinerary for the weeks to come. The minute I got confirmed seats on Tatkal train reservation, I geared my backpack and was set to go.

With the train to Delhi from Cochin leaving at 7 15pm, I casually reached the station on time, that I caught up with a friend there and exchanged pleasantries. For those people following Indian standard time, expecting a long distance train to arrive late by 10-15 minutes is considered absolutely normal. As I was at the station, there was a train slowly leaving the platform.

Never expecting that to be the train, I went to look for the chart prepared, later realized the train that had just left was the one I was supposed to board. For some reason it was slightly before time, as I double checked on a mobile application that showed the running status.

Given an option of 3 trains to Delhi for that day, I had opted to book the one with the least stops. I then approached the Station Master to enquire if there was any way to catch up with the train, to which he responded, “Highly unlikely, you see its got very few stops.” I thought to myself, “Few stops, you’re telling me!”

If that was how it was supposed to be, I relished the thought of chasing the train all the way to Delhi. With the possibility of catching up with the train in Coimbatore or Salem, I hit the highway, hoping the Volvo bus to do the chase. With a delayed start and traffic on the road, I could see where it was headed.

Reflecting on the positive side, the 3 hour ride to Coimbatore could be utilized to replan the entire trip. That is exactly how it turned out, as I used Google maps to replan the travel in the next couple hours.

Bus-hopping from Cochin to the Himalayas

I arrived at Coimbatore and checked the train running status through the app, only to reaffirm that the train had beaten the bus by almost an hour. Not bad, the Volvo did good, given the head start of over an hour and quarter, plus the traffic. Past dinner time, Coimbatore central had several buses double parked with travel agents and conductors calling out destinations like Chennai, Salem, Ooty, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Madurai. With a glimmer of hope of catching up in Salem, the journey continued with Bangalore in sight.

The bus touched down at Salem around 3 in the dead of the night. I switched the mobile phone off, no more checking the train running status, its time to conserve energy as the plan of bus hopping all the way was now on.

Part 1

Journey to Central India (distance : 1400 km)

Bangalore. The garden city of India, welcomed me into the contingent of India’s Silicon Valley folks, making their way to the IT offices early in the morning. The Majestic bus terminal, a rightful name to this terminal, had KSRTC buses plying to nearby states like Kerala, AP, TN. I was however introduced to an APSRTC for my onward journey to Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh.

Kurnool was a good 350 km from Bangalore. Expecting to reach late into the afternoon, I relied on the famous cool breeze of Bangalore to add fragrance to the initial half of the 6 hour ride.

The bus grazed through humid conditions, with the highway seeming barren for most of the journey. Reached Kurnool APSRTC stand as expected, with the plan of visiting Srisailam before heading to Hyderabad.

Summer was in full swing, as the bus station had all sorts of thirst quencher’s stalls buzzing with people. While people with heavy pockets opted for fresh juice/shake, the lighter ones went for buttermilk or a Rs 2 water sachet to stay refreshed.

Large bus terminuses have dormitories, if you need to get a quick nap and freshen up. Dormitories start at Rs 150 for non A/c while A/c comes at Rs 250 a bed for 24 hours. As my bus to Srisailam was to leave in an hour’s time, I decided to wait right there.

That’s when I noticed a cloak room sign which said Rs 20 per luggage for 24 hours. I thought of dropping my backpack and walking around town for sometime. So I walked up to the cloak room which had 2 attendants and enquired the rate for an hour. One of the attendants replied, “Rs 30 for an hour”, to which I shot back, “Okay, I will take for a day.” The other attendant couldn’t control his laughter, as the person who quoted the rate started to offer an explanation. “That’s all right, my bus was leaving now anyway”, I smiled back.

Srisailam Mallikarjun temple

Srisailam, famous for the shrine of Lord Mallikarjuna on the flat top of Nallamala hills (1300 ft), was on the banks of Krishna river, around 170 km from Kurnool. As the bus stretched itself negating the long winding curves, darkness soon fell upon the temple hill.

With the promise of a darshan in the morning, I went in search of a place to crash for the night. The Temple guest house provided ample rooms for families and A/c dormitories for singles. Morning come and a wonderful darshan ushered in the Hindu Kerala New year, as I then headed towards the land of Nizams.

As the sun shone bright, the bus picked itself through the scorched terrain, women using dupatta to fend off the heat while some replenishing with water. The drive downhill was picturesque with sights of Krishna river gushing through the open gates of Srisailam dam, as the bus went around the hairpin bends.

The downhill drive and expressway eased the time, and no sooner had the bus parked into the Mahatma Gandhi bus station in Hyderabad - known to be one of the largest bus stations in India after Delhi and Chennai, serving Telangana, AP, Chattisgarh, TN, Maharashtra, MP.

It was evening, snacks of all sorts was being cooked up and this place is known for its culinary art. If you belong to the meat lovers category, Hyderabad is nothing short of paradise. With Hyderabadi biriyani at the back of my mind, I used Redbus to book the night journey northwards before stepping out and exploring the neighborhood in the meantime.

Just before visiting any eatery, it was decided to tick Charminar from the to-do checklist. It was walking distance from the bus stand, as I found directions to the city market. So crowded was the streets that I felt it best to walk almost through the shops. A brisk walk and I spotted the pride of Hyderabad at a distance, when I stumbled upon a pearl dealer who started to market his goods. “I am just visiting Charminar”, I politely responded. He replied pointing towards the landmark, “Oh, in that case just check if Char Minars are there”, grinning impishly.

It was either the popular monument name, or the cigarette pack bearing that name which usually came to the mind upon hearing the word Charminar, never really thought of it as Char Minars (Four towers).

After taking a round around it, I came back to him and confirmed the findings, “You are right, the Char Minars are fine, maybe just a bit of renovation here and there”. “Sahin hain” he replied in a Hyderabadi tone. Always had a predilection for sarcasm, since it mattered only to those who dealt in it.

Time to indulge in the popular Hyderabadi biriyani, as predicament came not just in the form of a number of good biriyani houses that warranted a visit, but also the bewildering variety of mutton, chicken dishes to choose from. One is thus spoilt for choice, as haleem, kebab and other side dishes made way to the table.

My ride left the crowded streets, with hopes of reaching Nagpur in the wee hours of morning, watching the nightlife unfold through a luxury bus. My fellow passenger guided me through another of India’s IT hubs, by hinting at the parks that houses the software giants. I noticed another popular eatery named ‘Paradise Food Court’, which had a slogan, ‘World’s favorite biriyani’. I thought to myself, we Indians must have fared well in spreading this Persian inspired dish across the world, just by the number of variants found across India.

The first leg of the journey was completed on reaching Nagpur, nicknamed the ‘Heart of India’, for its geographical location. I recollected Nagpur for the oranges that reached Kerala during winter, and also the heatwave that gripped these parts during peak summer. Never wasted a minute in the onward journey with the latter thought at the back of my mind.

Part 2

Discovering the spiritual capital of India (distance : 800 km)

They say that when Shiva, the mountain ascetic, descended from the realm of perpetual meditation and married Parvati, daughter of the Himalayas, he chose the city of Varanasi as their home.

A city as old as time, sometimes referred to as the oldest documented city in the world, which historians have mentioned as a city founded ten centuries before the birth of Christ. As Mark Twain put it,

"Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice old as all of them put together.”

My journey from Central India would have to deviate eastbound to reach this eternal city. At Nagpur there was a direct bus to Varanasi, only problem was that is was overbooked due to the holiday season. Fourteen hours on a bus, with people sitting right across the bus floor, was definitely not in my list of to-dos - not to mention the the temperature hovering around 45°C. In fact, the term cattle class would have found its counterpart among buses, the term that Shashi Tharoor controversially tweeted in the context of Indian aviation.

It was decided to break the journey further into smaller fragments, making progress one step at a time. After boarding a bus from Nagpur to Jabalpur, expecting to reach the third largest city of India’s largest state (Madhya Pradesh), and then to catch another bus to Varanasi.

The drive to Jabalpur with the bus occasionally drifting from the expressway into the villages, ferrying passengers to the city, led to an illusion of time inching at a snail’s pace, with the sun and sand knocking at the window.

You know the landscape had changed when the flex board and other information signs came only in Hindi/English, without any regional language in place. All the way from Kerala, TN, Karnataka, AP, Telangana, Maharashtra, each state had its regional language, while in MP it was just Hindi with different dialects.

When the bus once again drifted from the national highway into a nearby village, I noticed a huge flex board with full length picture of 3 youths. I casually asked my fellow passenger what that was all about, since I could read a short caption written in Hindi, but it wasn’t making much sense. He said, “Oh, its nothing. Just local stuff.”

“That’s fine, is it political, celebrity, any celebration?”, I inquired. “No, nothing like that. Its just usual for some people to do this”, he replied. “Maybe they become politician one day”, he added after a short pause.

One had seen giant flexes of celebrities promoting brands, politicians showing their party power to the extent of entrepreneurs/industrialists self endorsing their goodwill. But this was a first.

On reaching Jabalpur ISBT, it was time for another first. Inter-state bus terminus or ISBTs in short are the best option exit points for your travel between states. But my options were cut short as I was informed that MP had no government operated buses.

It was back in 2008 that MP became the country’s first state to apply brakes on its state road transport corporation (MPSRTC). Which meant that the only other means of a direct bus was a private one.

I went in search of the private bus offering a direct route, to my surprise it was the same operator offering the cattle class ride. Only this time they couldn’t offer the ride, for the only space left to be allotted was the driver enough arm width to manoeuvre the steering wheel. It was time for my bus hopping streak to call in its first pitstop at 2000 km.

The calling came from a place screening the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match, as the sights and sounds of a dim-lit pub with the foaming of chilled beer and munchies set the tempo. If a smartphone energized itself by plugging onto a wall socket, a worn out traveller did the same by visiting the nearby tavern for his ale.

The next day went in relaxation with beat the heat activities - ice creams, buttermilk, shakes and anything sweet, cold and tempting that I could lay my hands on.

Later that night I got back on the road and resumed travel by hopping to a nearby town called Satna, and then to Allahabad (goodbye MP, hello UP) - which was famous for Triveni Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. 

The state of Uttar Pradesh had its UPSRTC plying to Varanasi throughout the day. I got into the first available one and made it to Varanasi around midday.

Varanasi

I wondered if it would be crowded with tourists while saints, guides and small retailers hovering around willfully pitting culture and tradition against religious beliefs. Being peak summer meant there were fewer tourists with Ganga river in all its serenity glistening at length across the ghats (river bank), with people taking a dip in the holy river. 

A city also known by the name of Benaras to some and Kashi to the spiritual lot had almost everything a foreign tourist imagined about India.

As I shared a tuk-tuk with an American guy, who along with his girlfriend had just arrived there, we had a casual chat on his travel experience in India. He added that he was a student in Bangalore and it came as a pleasant surprise when he told me that he studied Theology in college.

During my travel I had come across foreigners seeking initiation from gurus and studying meditation, yoga etc, it was good to know some studied formally too!

While staying at Varanasi the next couple days, I spend my afternoons taking short strolls to the mithai (sweet) shops, exploring the flavors of the place, as it was too hot to wander outside during this time of the year. Sitting under a shade and watching children play cricket and flying kites while chomping a Benarasi paan - time remained a constant … pure bliss.

The boat ride along the river is an activity that one cannot miss, just as much as a visit to the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple and an evening Ganga aarthi at Dashashwamed ghat. The Ganges or Ganga is the largest river in India, and the most sacred river to Hindus who regard it as amrita, the elixir of life, which brings purity to the living and salvation to the dead.

Speaking of the dead, cremations are held in broad view at specific ghats areas, following which the ashes are tossed into the river. In particular death cases, the bodies are not cremated and are submerged into the river. They later emerge and float along the river - one could recollect the famous dialogue “I see dead people”, from the Hollywood thriller ’The Sixth Sense’, only this time in the literal sense.

These activities are now carried out in a highly civilized manner, keeping in view the sanctity and purity of a river that is also lifeline to 400 million people living along its basin - courtesy Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Clean Ganga campaign, who holds his Lok Sabha seat from the Varanasi constituency.

Death here is a sacred routine, just as the local people go around doing their chores. Unlike other religions where speaking of death is more of a taboo topic, Hinduism and Buddhism for that matter are quite open to the concept of death as much as life. That is because they view death as an unending process, evolving each occasion until finally attaining moksha (nirvana).

In fact, it is so liberal that you have the professional pooja people marketing their way into getting others to perhaps pre-book their own cremation and other ceremonies.

The importance of dying here is believed to be so auspicious that there is a provision of free housing (Moksha Sadan) and care to people who want to call in their final days here. In the olden days, people used to have home-births and home-deaths, while now deaths are mostly taken care under the supervision of a specialty hospital. Varanasi still holds onto the tradition with the elderly believing in the destiny that a death here can offer, in their outlook towards life.

Summer heat had its toll on me, as much as it did to my hostel owner who himself was planning to leave for holidays in the next couple days. As I was the only Indian from around 10-15 foreigners living in that hostel, he jokingly commented on how the foreigners could bear the heat, with some spending as much as couple months here, while the heat was just too much for him to force himself on a vacation. I too had tan enough to get moving into the next leg of the journey, which was towards the cooler side of India.

Part 3

Into the cooler, wilder side of India (distance : 1700 km)

The land of Nawabs, Lucknow was the first of stops in the onward journey to the Northern frontier. Another foodie’s paradise, with time enough to experience a pallete of Lucknowi kebabs and biriyanis before hopping onto the next available bus to Bareilly.

From Bareilly all thoughts were just in one direction, to be welcomed into the cooler zones that the state of Uttrakhand had to offer. It was late in the afternoon that I had reached the hill station of Nainital, situated in the Kumaon foothills of the outer Himalayas. 

You are the sky, everything else … its just the weather

That’s exactly the sort of feeling that crosses one’s mind in a valley containing a pear shaped lake, surrounded by mountains with the cool weather on offer.

The next day was spend on exploring regions around Nainital, climbing higher through haven of oak, fir, deodar and pine trees with narrow paved roads eventually offering a bird’s view of Nainital and superb view of the Himalayas.

Coming back into the hill station city studded with restaurants, hotels, shops around the Naini lake with people riding pedal boats serenaded by the sharp, bracing air that roars through the valley. It was good to see the crowd of family folks having a nice time in the holiday-maker’s paradise with plenty of activities in store.

I boarded a bus headed to Chandigarh from Nainital that dropped me off at Haridwar late into the night, before finding a connecting bus that took me to Dehradun. While Nainital had me clinging onto a pullover to stay warm, for another valley on the foothills of Himalayas, Dehradun was on the milder side of the weather, as the pullovers came off during the day.

Each time I reached a destination it was Google maps that helped me gain insights into nearby tourist spots and accordingly assess places to halt and have quick visits.

While under the comforts of a hotel, the next guidance would come from the ‘Tripadvisor’ app which filtered ‘Must visit places’ by the distance from current location. This was particularly useful in finding the next place to visit by giving the real time distance to other spots nearby and with an option to strikethrough the places you have already been to.

As a backpacker the intent is to travel as far it goes with exploring the wilderness, and not really to target the must visit food joints or take snaps at the popular landmarks. Nevertheless, the mobile apps come in handy when you need a preview of ‘What’s around you’ with a review from people who have recently visited.

There is a saying among restaurateurs that ‘A restaurant is only as good as the last meal served.’ I could care less about latest reviews of landmarks, but getting the latest review of a cafe really helps get an idea of the kind of service one can expect.

The capital of Uttrakhand, Dehradun was like a metropolitan in the making, catching up with the lifestyle that the nearby NCR region had to offer. With multiplexes and malls sprouting up next to the older architectural styles of the Brititsh colonial era, this city had urbanization written all over.

The city was gateway to nearby tourist destinations like Mussoorie, Shimla, Rishikesh and I chose the longer route to Dharamshala as mine.

I have this experience of telling my friends and relatives about going North towards the Himalayas, and they have this notion of the Himalayas as being a distant land somewhere really at the crown of India with snowcapped mountains only inhabited by ascetics and few local villagers.

Totally would agree to it being a crown on the Indian cap, but it just does not stop at India. The Himalayas is the greatest mountain range on earth, a virtually unbroken wall of rock stretching 1800 miles from the borders of Afghanistan to southwest China. It spans five countries: Nepal, India, Bhutan, China (Tibet), Pakistan with this range being home to nine of the ten highest peaks on Earth.

Few more facts to set things straight:

- Hima (snow) + alaya (abode), meaning ‘Abode of snow’

- Believed to be the abode of Shiva, encompassing Hindu religious destinations like Badrinath, Kedarnath, Amarnath

- Home to various Buddhist monasteries

- Rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra, Indus originate from here

- One of the most majestic natural barrier with a magnificent wilderness that covers 0.4% of the Earth’s surface

- In fact it stretches over 75% of the famous tourist country of Nepal

- Having the third largest deposit of snow and ice after the Antartica and Arctic, with Siachen glacier as the largest glacier outside the poles

- Such that in its early days the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) used melting snow in the Himalayas to predict rain

The Indian side of the Himalayan Range spans 8 states namely: Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, West Bengal.

Well, the reason for a high school geography class revision, was to understand that after being in Nainital (Uttrakhand) one could head North to Jammu Kashmir region or even head East to West Bengal region and still be in the vicinity of this natural beauty.

With the central Himalayas primarily in the 3 states of Uttrakhand, HP and Jammu-Kashmir, my journey resumed by taking a night bus from Dehradun ISBT to Dharamshala, which was part of the state of Himachal Pradesh.

Early morning as the bus winded around the mountainous curves, one could see the beautiful green Kangra Valley below. After reaching Dharamshala city, few passengers alighted, as the bus then climbed further up towards the village of McLeodganj, which was around 7 km from there. McLeoganj was final stop where everyone got off.

One could tell the landscape had changed when street side cafes menus had suddenly changed from Dal/Roti to Momos/Thupka/Chowmein, Buddhist monks in their maroon and yellow robes, Chinese styled architecture with hanging prayer flags that blew prayers up to the gods with the blowing wind.

I had decided to stay at Dharamkot, which was another 3 km climb up towards the Dhauladar mountains. This place boasts of a fantastic view of the snowcapped Himalayas along with a host of good cafe joints. It was also a starting point for the trek to Triund hill, one of the day activities had I planned to do later during my stay at McLeodganj.

McLeodganj is the official residence of the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile after a failed uprising against the Chinese invasion of Tibet. The Indian Government had offered him refuge in Dharamshala and it now is home to several Buddhist monasteries along with the thousands of Tibetan refugees.

The next couple days were spend exploring the Tibetan culture, which was more than just the temples and Dalai Lama residence. The teachings of Buddhisim, their art, culture and way of life is just as blissful as the mostly smiling Dalai Lama.

When I had learned about monks learning Buddhism at monasteries that had an equivalent of a PhD, which they studied for 10 years after a high school degree, I thought, "What must they be studying for like 10 years." They seem the happy-go-lucky lot, always in a cheerful, positive frame of mind - but studying that long in a religious context just seemed to increase the curiousity.

As Dalai Lama puts it, 

"Buddhists and scientists have much in common, while in the field of psychology the Buddhists are well ahead. By 2000 years."

Their concept of reincarnation, one of the basic beliefs of Buddhism, with 6 realms that you can end up - God, Demi-God, Human being on the good side and Animal, Hell and Bad spirits being less good; this certainly goes a lot deeper into the psychology part where our scientific thinking has a threshold. Maybe 2000 years, seemed less all of a sudden.

My backpacking had its next trekking challenge, with the one-day trek of around 8 kms (one way) from Dharamkot to the Triund hill. A trail which took me 4 hours to reach the top and another 3 hours downhill.

After staying couple days at Dharamshala, I took a night bus to Manali.



It was a Tempo traveller that mostly had tourists from Israel and Europe, with the driver speeding across the hairpin bends like there was a crisis calling. It seems the speed was making everyone uneasy, until during the dinner break the tourists found solace in a certain grass indigenous to Manali.

The remainder journey to Manali was dark with occasional forest fires at few places that looked like mountains on fire, from a distance. Later, I was sad to learn from a newspaper article about people intentionally inciting forest fires to gain unlawful access to wood in that region.

Upper Dharamkot was the coldest of the places until Manali happened, with night temperature dropping pretty low. The tourists were happy to be staying at Old Manali (a 5 km drive from Manali city area), as I joined a group that settled into one of the hostels there. In the morning I found the place equally picturesque as any that I had been to.

With plenty of sightseeing and adventure activities around the area, I decided just to spend time casually hanging out with the local people. A young guy who had a boutique and other family business concerns in that area gave me good company, as we ended up chatting for an entire day. He enlightened me on the Himachal culture and their strange, mystical beliefs as he took me to his ancestral home and family temple.

It was from Manali that a lot of bikers rode along the Leh-Manali highway to the Leh Ladakh region, after passing through the Rohtang Pass, which would open from May to November.

With the gates at Rohtang Pass not open at that time, my next stop was Parvati valley in Kasol.

Nicknamed ‘Goa of the mountains’, Kasol was a backpacker’s paradise with tourists camping along the Parvati river. This place had tourists outnumbering the local villagers, with mostly Israeli tourists spending even months staying in the remotest corners.

The next morning before leaving for Delhi I explored the hot springs of Manikaran, which was around 6 kms from Kasol. Manikaran is a pilgrimage centre for Hindus and Sikhs, with the area known for its hot springs and beautiful landscapes.

Part 4

Festivity in the humid West (distance : 1400 km)

If not for the Mahakumbh mela, I might have ended the bus hopping streak by flying out of Delhi.

Mahakumbh mela, a festival that happens once in every 12 years led me to Ujjain in the MP region, as I found my way there with stopovers at Jaipur and Kota in Rajasthan.

From the luxury Volvo, Mercedes, Skania to Deluxe semi luxury to the rickety state transport buses, having taken a cross-country ride in these really summed up India.

Paradigm shift in the concept of Travel

Over 7000 kms on the road in 25 days by just planning on the go. Made possible by technology. Its the smart phone applications from the Google maps to Redbus, Tripadvisor, Ixigo buses, goIbibo, OyoRooms, MakeMyTrip, Accuweather that helped in the travel, which earlier had been dependent on local tourist guides and travel operators.

While Euro-rail pass is a cheap way to see Europe, India might just pull something similar for youths in the near future. With smart phone applications shutting the middle man out of business, its the era of OTA 's trying to gain market share with heavy discounting, which makes present travel the cheapest it can get for the youth to simply explore.

In fact, the tourism and hospitality industry which is marketing on the digital front by native advertising is looking for quality, original content to advertise their service in the new media space. There are startups in this sector who pay people to travel in return for original content that is useful to them.

On the other hand, there are more passionate, experienced travelers who have made traveling a profession by creating a viewership for their blog and associating with brands that advertise through them.

The Indian couple who run bruisedpassports.com does exactly this. Certainly in this context, traveling becomes a demanding profession that requires immense energy and passion.

During my solo backpacking trip, I did come across people who were surprised at the concept of backpacking alone. They would say, "It would be really boring." To which I reply, "How would you know until you have tried?!"

When you travel with your friends, its lot of fun were you mostly drink and make merry. And when holidaying with your wife or girlfriend, its about capturing the romance in the air and food on the plates, with occasional duck mouth selfies to publish on FB and other platforms.

On both occasions there is no discovery into your inner being or meeting up with new people. The same old routine in a different environment.

Its also the era of certain people working in the IT industry who are given the option of ‘Work from home’ to maybe extend it to ‘Work from anywhere.’ And youths who are single or haven’t started a family yet are opening up to living casually abroad and moving cities when provided with this option.

There is a startup operating in this space which allows a person to sign a lease with them to sublease their apartments in cities like Rome, Paris, London, NY, Madrid. A person now only needs to sign a single contract and live in any city in which the company has apartments, while they take care of utilities like cable, internet.

This opens up the experience by switching the concept of working from home to vacation at work, while having real neighbors and staying for a month or even longer. When they are done with living in one city, they can try another city.

There is another case of Ex-Googlers leaving Google’s famed free food and other lavish facilities in the office to take up consulting positions and work from wherever they please. With some even splurging on renting yachts and working from wherever they dock!

The best part about traveling for a longer period is that it infuses a whole new level into your perspective.

With bus hopping proving to be an invigorating experience, maybe the next one should be a really long train ride. 

I believe Trans-Siberian Railways could offer just that where one could start from Beijing in China to Moscow in Russia, while sipping tea to get over the Siberian chill, as one hops from Asia to Europe.