Armchair travel pleasures

In the midst of every real and imagined problem, alternating between thoughts of what my life has become or should become; within my self-made cocoon - I forget what a beautiful place I live in. In the insane rush to secure my future, to be able to live upto external perceptions of what my life should measure up to, I cease to enjoy.

Small things bring this out. Today I was going through the audio visual presentations in the travel section of the NY Times. There are some incredible slide shows out there which if anyone is interested should be experienced with the audio on. After seeing this, I want to visit Angkor Wat, the Galapagos, Rome, buy a CD of Forr music, truly explore Chicago (something I havent done in spite of being here for the last couple of months). Links like these force me to expand my thinking. It makes me thankful that I have a laptop and broadband connection and appreciate the positive side of being in the USA (never thought that it would come to this!!). Another link which has some good travel-related articles is Haftamag's people and places

It also reminds me of the places that I am yet to visit in India. For that matter, even Kerala. I found jiby's blog fascinating. I had planned a solitary back-pack trip through the whole of Kerala just after my MBA, before I joined my job. It never materialised and I had thought that there would always be a next time. Its been 4 years since and I am yet to discover a window of time which would allow me to do it. To solely focus on planning the future is foolish. To let go of opportunities available right now is a crime