Looking back at 2012

Looking back at 2012

Another year has passed and it’s time to look back and take stock, time to update the set of to-dos, time to see how was the year 2012 for me in terms of travel and otherwise.

As I always say, I count my memories, not the places and I am happy that my travel memories are far more & better than the destinations. Some road trips, some train journeys and a few flights took me places almost every month. I made some new friends, consolidated my bond with old ones.
I also moved to a new place.

This was also the year when I was more offline than I wrote about it.
Hint: I am yet to start writing about my Valley of Flowers trip which had happened in Aug-Sep.

The year 2012 started in Thailand where we were holidaying since around mid December. This was the period when I also had to go through hundreds of articles since I was one of the 3 jury members to select “Traveller of the year” for a travel portal.
Two days into the new year, it found me in Cambodia on a volunteering mission to satisfy another side of me – We always live for ourselves and for our dears; try to live for others as well.

Cambodia was on my radar for many years and I thought it was a good decision to travel around the country during off days in between serving for the noble cause. I was invited by locals to their homes for dinners, in weddings, and my knowledge of local culture and history grew manifolds. When I returned to India in March, I had a gratified composure in addition to love, respect & blessings from so many strangers.

The Tourism minister with the speakers.

I was invited by Tourism ministry of Malaysia to speak in their first International Travel blogger’s conference in the month of May.

Another first to my credit …. I am the first Indian, in the capacity of a Travel blogger to be invited by Tourism Bureau of Spain to their country to cover a few of its Heritage cities.
At that time I had to decline another international invitation because my travel dates were clashing.

I again travelled to Malaysia and Singapore in the months of November and December.

On home front, the hiking trip to Valley of Flowers, Hemkunt sahib, Badrinath etc was the highlight.

I was once again invited by Club Mahindra to present a talk on Voluntorurism in Conclay conference at Kanatal Uttarakhand.

Delhi, Bangalore, Dehradun and many other towns happened in between.

As before, my articles were published in various travel magazines & websites and besides being mentioned, quoted, featured in various newspapers & magazines, I was featured as an intrepid woman traveller with daunting tales in the New Woman Magazine.

I hope to achieve more this year, not in terms of destinations but fulfillment. I am not in a race to conquer the world.

And I wish you all a very fulfilling year ahead too.

If you want to travel places with me, I suggest you to join me on my Facebook travel page.
P.S.- This article belongs to www.lemonicks.com. Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. If you are viewing this on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then that website is guilty of stealing my content. Kindly do me a favour. Please visit my site and help me taking action by letting me know against this theft. Thank you.