DECEMBER 2015 • `150 • VOL. 4
ISSUE 6
Cities of Joy PARIS THE ART OF PEOPLE-WATCHING
BENGALURU ONE STEP AT A TIME PANJIM REINVENTING THE MODERN
PLUS EUROPE’S RISING STARS: 12 CITIES YOU SHOULD VISIT NEXT
Coast With the Most A Sri Lankan Holiday
Voices |
S LOW T RAV E L
Am I Tough Enough?
Biju Sukumaran is a travel writer currently based in Barcelona, Spain.
GETTING OUTDOORSY CREATES A NEW BUCKET LIST
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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA | DECEMBER 2015
DAVID EPPERSON/PHOTODISC/GETTY IMAGES
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Argentina Polo Day that spreads appreciation for the sport of crabbling up the side of the mountain, I reached out polo. I’d assumed I would learn about the game from the sideuntil I found a handhold on the sheer rock face rislines. As professional polo players thundered across the field, my ing above me. At Kent Mountain Adventure Center group learned the game’s rules and history. This quickly changed in Estes Park, Colorado, I was safely hooked into the to more interactive demonstrations, and soon I was practising harness and treated to views of the forested slope below. But I’m swinging the long-handled mallet. Before we realised it, we were actually scared of heights, and though I followed the advice not mounted on horses, and the practice session culminated in an to look down, my mind see-sawed between fear and elation. actual game. This step-by-step process made a daunting task I was never the audacious one when I was a kid. I was the one like playing polo quite doable. with my nose firmly planted in books while my friends traipsed In an Internet culture obsessed with snapshots of life, many around having adventures. So how is it that I came to be hanging of us also long to be that person in the amazing adventure picoff a Colorado cliff? When did that change happen? Not overture. But sometimes it’s difficult to take that first step. We think night for sure. that it’s best to watch and appreciate. What I’ve learnt instead is During my travels whenever I’ve come across outdoor that gradual changes eventually have an impact on our identity. adventures that sound too far out there, I’ve tended to assume Breaking a skill into smaller parts makes everything possible. they are for people who’ve always been athletic. This is especially At a kitesurfing festival in the Dominican Republic, I met the case when I’ve travelled to places like Colorado, which some amazing athletes that seemed worlds apart from me. Later, immediately summon up images of young, fit mountain climbers when the resort offered a class in kitesurfing basics, that feeling dangling off precarious ledges. It’s an image that has older, less of impossibility first arose in my mind. But then I remembered fit travellers shaking their heads and shuffling off to the nearest the people I’d met, and it sparked a curiosity. Soon I was practicbrewpub. Thankfully, more and more companies now offer ing movements with a gigantic kite. I learnt how to keep it in the services for complete beginners. air, and got comfortable with the arm movements that would Which is exactly how a novice like me was hanging off a rock. move the kite higher or lower. Did I become a kitesurfing athLess than halfway up, I had been tempted to turn back. But I lete instantly? No. But broken down into smaller components it persevered, bit by bit, chanting “one more step” in my head like didn’t seem like an impossible thing to do after all. a mantra, until I completed the climb. Finishing, I lurched awkTravel has the ability to open new doors, offer untrodden paths wardly onto the ledge pinned to the cliff face. The whole world and passages yet unknown. When we overcome fear and venture seemed to spread before me just as a wide range of new options into new territory, we encounter opportunities to redefine ourin travel opened up in my mind. I was shocked when I realised selves, and for a moment, glimpse who we could be. that despite my fears, I had actually enjoyed myself. Earlier that week, I had confronted another fear: descending down a mountain on a bicycle. Leafing through a brochure about biking the nearby Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved road in the United States, the words “arctic tundra” and “29 miles of biking” leapt out at me as a challenge. Though I had been an avid cyclist in high school, those days were long gone. “That’s not me anymore” I had initially muttered, thinking only of the pain that I’d have to endure. But soon enough, the visions of tumbling down the mountainside disappeared and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. The tour operator kitted me out with a bike, warm clothing, and assurances of a leisurely downhill glide, and I began to relax. I stopped frequently to admire the view, which shifted from intimidating icy walls of snow to warm alpine meadows. My journey to enjoying outdoor activities started Crested Butte, unexpectedly, during a visit to Argentina in late 2013. Colorado, U.S.A. I attended an event organised by a company called