This phase was one of the toughest of my life. I had decided to do something that was considered ridiculous by my family and friends.
Why ridiculous?
I come from a conservative Indian family and so does 90% of India. For us, travelling is limited to Goa, a honeymoon in Italy (if you are rich) or going on a guided tour around the city. Travelling is something that doesn’t come naturally to me or the people I know. I was at the stage of my life where the next logical things to do as per society routine were to buy a house, get married, have kids, be a good grandfather and die eventually.
So when I announced that I wanted to go to Iceland, it was madness ofcourse.
“What is this guy thinking?” “Has he completely lost it?” “Why are you wasting your hard earned money?”
Those were common responses. Even by own standards, I thought this was crazy. I questioned myself many times..’Was I really ready for this?’ This was a trip that will involve lots of ‘Firsts’.
First time outside India.
First time camping.
First time travelling without my friends/family.
First time I am going to see snow.
Inspite of the staunch opposition and lots of counseling, I decided to stick to my decision of going to Iceland. When you are staring at a picture of Iceland, every criticism falls into deaf ears.
So how it all began?
The only memory of Iceland I had was while filling the nationality column in online forms where Iceland used to pop-up while searching for India. And it all started when I came across some pictures on a website. The landscape was so mesmerizing that it was love at first sight.
The normal routine after seeing these pictures would have been to mark these places in your wish list and keep dreaming about them for the rest of your lives. But that day something unusual happened. I don’t remember whether I was drunk or sober that night but the next thing I know it was 5.30 in the morning and I had been researching non-stop about Iceland for the last 5 hours.
Fixing the budget
I had fixed a budget of 1 lakh rupees for the whole trip when I began planning. I decided that if the cost of the trip exceeds the budget, I won’t go. With the rupee value higher than Icelandic krona and Iceland unfortunately still recovering from the effects of recession, Iceland on a budget seemed possible. A rough breakup of the budget-
Flight tickets – 55k
Car rental and fuel – 15k
Stay – 15 k
Miscellaneous – 15k
Convincing friends
Now that I had made up my mind, how do I convince my friends? I explained them the budget and tempted them with pictures. Though they seemed to be excited with the plans, none of them gave me a confirmed response. I decided to make the itinerary first and then focus on convincing them.
Itinerary – the biggest headache
‘To cover the best of Iceland in 12 days’ – keeping that in mind, I started designing the itinerary. But this was not as easy as it sounded. Different sites recommended different things. Some said you can’t miss the Northern Lights, some said a visit to the Blue Lagoon is a must. I ended up with so many places that it was impossible to cover them in 12 days. Also the names of these places were a big pain to remember. Forget about remembering, you can’t even pronounce them. After 2 months of brainstorming, I had nothing to show.
Regina – the saviour
With repeated failures to design the itinerary, I finally stumbled upon Regina’s page on Virtualtourist.com. Her travel pages are like an encyclopedia for anybody travelling to Iceland. I got to see Iceland from a local’s point of view rather from a commercialized travel site. The little unknown places that only the locals would know; that’s the sort of places I want in my itinerary. With a detailed account of all the places, I finally had a guide from where I could design the itinerary. After reading her pages, I made an itinerary for 12 days covering the best places of Iceland. I sent her the itinerary and she helped me fine tune it to make it the best possible itinerary. If you are planning to travel Iceland, do check her pages:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/m/f4b0a/
Sorry…where is this Iceland?
This was the common response from travel agents when I inquired about tickets. Though makemytrip.com did offer the cheapest deal, I was little hesitant to book it online. This was until I found out that they also had a office in Andheri.
When to go?
This was a tricky part. After comparing prices, May seemed to be the best option because it falls in the winter (off season) and also has almost 18 hours of daylight. June – August is usually considered as the summer season and also the peak season for tourism. The differences in prices for these two seasons can be very high. The downside to travelling in winter is that many inland roads might be closed and also it is going to be extremely cold.
| Prices | Climate | Daylight | Advantage | |
| Summer (June – Aug) | Expensive | Bearable temperatures | Average 20-22 hours | Maximum time to travel with more daylight hours |
| Winter (September – April) | Relatively cheaper | Extremely cold | 4 – 12 | Chance to see the Northern Lights. Christmas and New year is a great time to be in Rejkyavik but the prices are higher during this time. |
| Winter (May) | Relatively cheaper | Still cold | 18 hours | Maximum time to travel with more daylight hours at cheaper prices than June – Aug |
For instance, a rental car that will cost you 50 euros in the winter season, will cost 80 in the summer.
Temperatures in °F
Source – http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/icelan1/ss/weathericeland.htm
Going solo
It didn’t came as surprise when my friends backed out eventually. I realized that it’s not fair to blame them as this was my dream and only I can achieve it. I started reading different experiences of solo travellers but was still nervous about travelling alone.
The Team
After lots of searching, I finally met Witold Rybski from Poland on Virtaltourist.com. He and his wife, Agata, had posted a request to share a car for a 10 day trip. We connected and luckily he liked my itinerary too. The flight tickets had already touched 65k; 10k more than 2 weeks before. I didn’t wait for their confirmation and booked the tickets. But fortunately they confirmed and everything slowly started to fall in place. With one seat still to be filled, I connected with Marie from Canada just 2 weeks before the trip on couchsurfing. Finally, the team was formed. Three continents coming together for one destination. I think travelling without my friends was a blessing in disguise; this was going to be a great learning experience. Travelling with regular backpackers and the joy of listening to their backpacking experiences – priceless.
The criticism and the obstacles
As the day of my departure started nearing, the obstacles also became more fierce. The criticism started getting more aggressive. So-called friends ridiculed me by telling not to spoil India’s name there. I started to wonder who these people are..Brand ambassadors of India? It’s really amazing that in situations like these you realize who your real friends are. For my family, the biggest concern was not the money but my relatives’ reactions. They wanted me to get married first and then go such places. The criticism started motivating me further. Maybe I wanted to prove a point that travelling is not just for the rich. But the obstacles just kept creeping up.
The biggest obstacle was Visa. The Visa requirement stated hotel reservations for the entire trip and IT-returns for the last 3 years. As staying in hotels was not my plan, I was completely clueless on how to work this out. Also. I had never filed my tax returns ever and now I was left rushing to my former employers for Form-16 and other documents. Then if that was not enough to demotivate me, they also wanted me to have a minimum bank balance of 1 lakh rupees. It seemed like the entire world was trying hard to stop me from going. All I want is to visit a beautiful place on my planet. Is it too much to ask for? Was travelling really for the rich?
Visa – The last bridge
With no hotel reservations and the flight return ticket already booked, I went ahead and submitted my application. I was at a high risk of losing all my savings if something went wrong here.
I still remember that moment with the Visa officer and her blank look when she saw my application. She asked me to wait for 5 minutes and went inside to consult with her senior. Those five minutes seemed like ages and my heart was beating rapidly. I suddenly went into flashback. Am I going to lose my flight money? Was this a stupid decision afterall? I was already imagining my family ready to show off their ‘Told you so’ look. Finally the Visa officer came back with a tense face and I became more tense. She looked at me and said, “You are lucky. He has accepted your application.” Those words will always remain with me forever. I felt like kissing her but I was rather in shock and still not sure of what the fuck just happened. Am I really going to Iceland? I went outside and sat at the Marine Drive looking over the sea. As I lit up a cigarette for this moment of celebration, only one thought kept popping in my head over and over again.
Am I really going to Iceland? Am I really going to Iceland?
Hell yeah…Iceland baby!!! Here I come!!!