At one point of our life, we all have revolted against the daily shackles of our life. We all have planned to break free, at least in our mind. To travel far and beyond, and to savour life’s true essence, has been our vision. Well, WanderTrust did have the opportunity to plan a surprise trip for a culture-enthusiast who managed to break free.
Scenic, isn’t it ? Comes right from the eye of our wanderer, Shailesh. For starters, Shailesh found out about WanderTrust from a friend whose friends had undertaken a surprise trip planned by us. His friend shared our Instagram account with him, which Shailesh explored and found the concept to be amazing. Let’s see what Shailesh had to say –
I wanted to go and I had a lot of work back in office so I couldn’t plan it completely. So hearing about WanderTrust relieved me.They can plan the entire thing, so let’s go with this.
Planning end-to-end trips is our forte, and we hope Shailesh got to see the best of it. Once he had shared this with us, we moved on to find out more about his experiences and reactions during the trip.
Q. What was your reaction on receiving the email and envelope ?
Ans. When I was contacted by the team initially, I wanted to go either to Rajasthan or to Gujarat. I mentioned the same, but I was told that there wouldn’t be any surprise left if you pre-plan your trip, though it’s doable as well. After that, I made up my mind to go for the surprise location because I really wanted to go for the solo trip. Somewhere in my mind though, I wanted to go to either of those places because both of them are culturally very rich. So when I got the location, I was out of my mind and fascinated. I was going to re-live everything.
Q. Were there any special experiences during the trip ?
Ans. There are a lot actually. I found every place to be very beautiful. I remember standing over the Mehrangarh Fort and seeing the blue city, it was just just just beautiful. The sunset from the Kumbhalgarh Fort was the next thing. What was special was the guy I met, my car driver for the trip who was taking me full day. The conversation I had with him was next level. He shared his experiences with me and it gave me insight. His simplicity genuinely struck me. His soul seemed very pure. He could have dropped me at the bus stop next day and gone but he was there with me for one hour for my bus to come and board it. That struck me too.
We werent really sure of one of the bus stops, so my driver told me “kuch nahi Sahab, agar bus nahi ruki toh main beech me khada ho Jaunga bus rokne ke liye”. I met a lot of people in Zostel also, but I will remember Kailash (the driver) for a lifetime.
Shailesh was enthralled by his experiences during the trip. He did mention that Udaipur was the “cherry on top”. He could feel Rajasthan and its essence.
Q. How did you like our surprise, the sweets in Jodhpur ?
Ans. I went to Zostel, and the attendant told my driver to show me the place and not to tell me anything. I was shocked what they were talking about. “Aap andar Jaiyye, hum batate hai”, and I was standing in the middle of God-knows-what. I was all “what is happening”. As I was about to leave the fort, he gave me the sweets and it was literally a sweet gesture. I was wondering how to eat alone, so I shared it with the driver for his family too. You don’t expect something to come up suddenly like this, so it was nice.
Q. Was the trip different from any pre-planned trips you had taken before ?
Ans. It was pretty good, I had never stayed in a travel hostel. It was nice because I wanted certain type of places and WanderTrust kept surprising me. The people were really nice everywhere. I didn’t know how everything worked out so well, everything was completely sorted.
It was like Shailesh is booked, Shailesh’s car is ready, bus is booked. It was like everything sorted and nice. I remember when I was leaving from Udaipur, the 2.30 bus would be late so the team made sure that I got an earlier bus at 12.30, and I reach on time.
Q. How was your overall experience?
Ans. Because it was a surprise trip, it always runs in the back of my mind if something goes wrong or not. Because nothing had been planned by me. But everything was so perfect and sorted. I just went back and stayed there and had the best of my time. Everything was on there, and sorted before time. I would rate my trip with WanderTrust a 9/10, and I did share my experience with my NGO and group.
Well, just like this picture that Shailesh had to share, this trip was as bright and vibrant for us as it was for him. What are you waiting for then ? Go ahead and fill out our survey form and get surprised too !