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All posts tagged: travelling solo

solo female travel india, solo travel tips

Solo Travel: To Go or Not To Go?

Published by Shivya Nath

Come with me, for if you never step out that door, you’ll never know how far you can walk.

Reflections / Solo Travel

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My book – a national bestseller in India!

Read reviews of The Shooting Star

ABOUT ME

Hello! I'm Shivya Nath. In 2011, at age 23, I quit my corporate job with a dream of traveling the globe. 2 years later, I packed up my life into a backpack and decided to hit the road indefinitely. I travel slow, seek offbeat and local experiences, stay in a place for a few weeks or as long as it inspires me, and move on.

I've done a solo land journey from Thailand to India via Myanmar and travelled overland from the Persian Gulf via Iran to Armenia. I've lived with a Mayan community in Guatemala, volunteered at a coral reef restoration project in Cuba, lived in a nunnery in Ladakh (India), and shed my fears and clothes at onsens across Japan. I hope to inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and experience the world!

What's a life of travel like?

Why I turned vegan

PUBLISHED ON:

WHERE AM I?

Currently in: India

[2020]

Jan – Mar
India

[2019]

Aug
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan

Sept
Bhutan

Oct-Dec
South Africa

To invite me on a travel blogging campaign, see my Work with me page.

UPCOMING TALKS

[2020]

27 Mar
The Economic Times Women’s Forum: Mumbai

[2019]

3-5 May
PEP: Hyderabad

6-7 Jul
Vegan India Conference: Delhi

22-25 Aug
Mountain Echoes Literary Festival: Bhutan

To invite me as a speaker, see my Speaking page.

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shivya

I know it’s tempting to pack those bags and head

I know it’s tempting to pack those bags and head up into the mountains. To wake up to majestic views, fill our lungs with fresh air and forget about all the madness of 2020 for a while...

Some mountain states in India have rushed to open their borders, presumably because of the huge loss of livelihoods and lack of any financial support to those completely reliant on tourism.

What does that mean for us as travellers?

I’ve been discussing this with friends who work closely with local communities and focus on socially inclusive and environmentally mindful travel.

There’s almost unanimous consensus that now is NOT a good time to travel, unless you’re stranded or moving long term.

Here’s why:

👣 Even with a covid negative test done 48 hours before, it’s possible to catch the virus on any public transport while getting to the destination. False negative results are common too. It will take only one person to spread it - and most mountain communities are extremely vulnerable with little access to healthcare.

👣 Places like Spiti and Munsiyari have decided to remain closed to tourism until end July / August. Life and health >> tourism income.

👣 If we genuinely want to travel to support those dependent on tourism, there are other ways. Like book now, travel later.

👣 If travelling involves a constant fear of public spaces + staying away from locals, is it even travelling at all?

Would love to hear your thoughts, and how you’re coping with this period of no travel?

Just published on the blog: “Can We Reduce Singl

Just published on the blog: “Can We Reduce Single Use Plastic During the Pandemic?” Link in my bio or read it on the-shooting-star.com 🌱

A single use plastic catastrophe is silently brewing in the midst of this pandemic 😔

As we use more protective gear, rely more on e-commerce, get more home deliveries, opt for takeaways and worry about the virus lurking around on surfaces that we normally would’ve re-used, we’re creating more trash.

Masks have already started washing up on Hong Kong’s beaches. Single-use plastic usage is estimated to have gone up in the US by 250-300%. Athens has reported a 150% increase in the amount of plastic waste. India’s ban on plastic bags has taken a backseat.

Fish, turtles, dolphins and other marine animals can choke on gloves, get entangled in the elastic bands of masks and get injured by face shields. With all this plastic filling their stomachs, they can starve to death. Some recycling plants have been shut over fear of the virus spreading. Poorer countries and neighborhoods are disproportionately being affected.

How can we stay safe yet reduce single use plastic during the pandemic?

🌱 Use reusable multi-layered cloth masks instead of use-and-throw ones.

🌱 Opt for eco-friendly e-commerce sellers who don’t wrap everything in plastic + leave feedback for sellers.

🌱 Insist that home deliveries are single-use plastic free and return the packaging immediately.

🌱 A “sanitize, quarantine and reuse” routine rather than an open and throw routine.

Detailed research, hacks and other ideas on the blog.

Go read, then tell me, have you noticed an increase in your single use plastic consumption since the lockdowns began? What are you doing / going to do about it?

For centuries, the valley remained cut off from th

For centuries, the valley remained cut off from the rest of India. Legend has it that when a road was finally built and the first car drove up, the locals weren’t sure what to feed it. The driver playfully declared that the car likes chicken and whisky. The locals innocently obliged, and the driver made it his dinner!

They also say that when an elderly woman boarded a bus for the first time, she left her shoes on the road as a sign of respect to the bus. Getting off at her destination, she was shocked that her shoes were gone, no longer outside the bus where she had taken them off.

Such are the legends of Kinnaur, whose wild beauty I was lucky enough to witness many monsoons ago.

Winding along the Himalayas several hours from Shimla, our car screeched to a halt beside the jagged mountain rocks. The steep bend ahead was one of the most dangerous, cursed even, on these mountain roads.

Hidden away in this mountain is the cave of a saint, without whose blessing no buses dare to continue the journey.

On that cool monsoon morning, warm sunlight poured through the dark grey sky.
On one side, the lush Himalayas stood tall, their peaks kissed by ominous low-lying clouds. Far below on the other, a dramatic valley with clusters of villages sat untouched.

The saint was busy preparing his chillum (pipe) when a bus halted across the road. He instantly dropped it, picked up a steel thali with a white tikka, and ran across barefoot, chanting, nodding, blessing every passenger, collecting money, his long white hair and beard flying in the wind. For decades, this saint has led a solitary life in the mountains, and his blessings and chillum have earned him the nickname of Happy Baba!

Have you heard of any fascinating legends on your travels?

Excited to share that the AUDIOBOOK of The Shootin

Excited to share that the AUDIOBOOK of The Shooting Star has just been released 🤗⁣⁣
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A few months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from my publisher @penguinindia saying that they had begun working on the audio production of my book. ⁣⁣
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To be honest, the only audiobooks I’ve ever heard are those of Agatha Christie, way back in school, when an aunt gifted me a bunch of cassettes with her stories 🙈 Never expected that mine would be made into one, and sure feels strange to hear it read out aloud, but I think the narrator Karen DeSouza did a fab job! ⁣⁣
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If audiobooks excite you, go check out “The Shooting Star” on Audible. If it’s your first time, you can also sign up for an Audible trial with your Amazon account and get your first audiobook free!⁣⁣
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Link in my bio / stories.⁣⁣
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Curious, do you listen to audiobooks or would you rather read a book? ⁣
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PS: Put volume on to hear a few lines 👆🏼

What’s it like to be a travel writer / blogger a

What’s it like to be a travel writer / blogger at a time of no travel?⁣⁣
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To tell you the truth, it took me a long time to reconcile with the fact that there might be no travelling this year. Not for the foreseeable future. Perhaps not until there’s a vaccine.⁣⁣
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It obviously doesn’t make sense to travel to densely populated places where social distancing is difficult. And while the prospect of travelling somewhere remote might be tempting, it would be rather irresponsible to do that knowing that any of us could be asymptomatic carriers and that many rural communities have no access to healthcare. Especially in India.⁣⁣
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Besides, if you ask me, the essence of travel is to build connections with people along the way. Now we need to hide behind masks and avoid sharing spaces. The prospect of public transport, staying in someone’s home, sharing a meal with someone, it’s no longer what it once was.⁣⁣
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Professionally, it’s been okay so far. Some of my blogger friends have been quick to pivot into other spaces and offerings. And I admire that. I haven’t yet found the motivation though, for I still have delayed payments rolling in (never thought I’d be grateful for those delays!) and a couple of things in the pipeline. ⁣⁣
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Instead I’m spending a lot more time experimenting with vegan recipes and trying to get a passion project off the ground. My productivity was super high in the first month of the lockdown but has deteriorated considerably since, and that’s okay I guess. ⁣⁣
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Personally, it’s been a bit of a struggle. Travelling wasn’t just something I did to make a living or for the gram. I’ve lived out of two bags for nearly 7 years. It’s the only way of life I’ve known for a while. But the unpredictability of the road is helping me accept the unpredictability of life right now. ⁣⁣
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I’ve been consciously pushing away my longing for faraway places. I know it’s in there somewhere, but until it comes bubbling to the surface, I’d rather not deal with it. For I’d have no idea what to do with it. ⁣⁣
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What about you, how’re you doing, professionally and personally? ⁣⁣ ⁣
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📷: #shotoniphone

IF WE DON’T RESPECT NATURE, WE’LL HAVE NOTHING

IF WE DON’T RESPECT NATURE, WE’LL HAVE NOTHING. No freedom, no health, no economy.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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But instead of moving towards sustainable development, India seems to be racing in the opposite direction.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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While we’ve been in lockdown, environmental clearances have been granted to infrastructure, hydroelectric and mining projects that infringe on protected national parks, sanctuaries, forests and tiger corridors - all over video conference!⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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We’ll have a new railway line through a tiger corridor in Telangana. Sacrifice 2,70,000 trees for a dam in Dibang Valley. Lose 768 ha of Uttarakhand’s precious forests to a hydro project so far denied environmental clearance by the National Green Tribunal.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣And then the worst: A new draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣
The EIA process determines possible environmental (and related social, economic and health) impacts of new / changes in existing projects �’ before approving / rejecting their environmental viability. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣⁣ It’s the only mechanism for the public, especially communities directly affected, to have a say in the social and environmental costs of such projects.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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The draft EIA notification 2020 asks for public comment in the midst of a pandemic - at a time when most communities are already struggling to survive. It seeks to reduce the timeframe for environmental clearances, exempt many projects from public consultation, allow for clearance after the damage is already done and weaken existing institutions.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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In a nutshell, it paves the way for easy environmental disasters. It opens up our forests, rivers, coastlines and other natural areas to industrial development without strong environmental oversight!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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And we have only ‪till June 30th‬ to stop this from happening.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Go to letindiabreathe.in/WithdrawDraftEIA2020 to send a pre-drafted email to the Ministry asking for the draft notification to be withdrawn. Link also in my bio.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣
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If we don’t act now, we stand to lose our environmental safeguards - and with that our long term well being. Resources to read more in my stories. Please act now 🙏

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