Causetrotting, the adventure begins

Want to turn the ecological clock backwards or educate those who stay away
from school? Get to do all this, while travelling to exotic destinations

It’s a paisa vasool deal. Really. You can have the vacation of your life, enjoy nature in all its abundance plus do your bit to save the planet. Yes, this is the mantra of new age vacation. Visiting Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Disneyland, London, Paris and other places to shop or sight see is passé. The new lifestyle statement is holidaying with a difference. In fact, making a difference to the place you visit.

“I travel to learn and enrich myself. This sort of trip, where I learn about a new culture in an active, yet luxurious setting, is right up my alley,” explains Tracy Boyd (42), who works as a senior director, Product and Community, at Affinity Labs in San Francisco. Like Tracy, there are hundreds of others who want to vacation differently. This type of vacation tour isn’t like ordinary group tours. It’s not an individual tour. It’s not volunteering in the strictest sense of the word nor is it backpacking. It’s a mixture of all of these in just the right amount. It is like giving back to communities while globetrotting. And the best part of it is that it offers best value for your buck besides allowing you to see the most exotic places on earth

like Belize, Kenya, Island Piaza (Seychelles), Honduras, New Zealand, South Africa, South America, our own Ladakh and any other that you can think of, and doing your bit: preserving the ecology of places, educating the locals and helping them access medical facilities.

Elucidates Tracy, “I knew that I would be travelling alone and that posed several problems – among them the ‘single tax’ and also, I didn’t want to be alone while travelling. Initially I wanted to combine volunteering with my travel, but that didn’t really work out from a budget or timeline perspective. This is when I came across the concept of ecofriendly trip.”

	To help people like Tracy, organisations have sprung up the world over that help one plan tours, take care of all their needs and additionally contribute part of their earnings from this tour money to NGOs working in the localities that one visits. You also get the luxury of spending time with locals, learning their lifestyle, culture and look at their locality without compromising your comfort.

If you Google search, you will find many such organisations like Elevate Destinations, North Island Seychelles, Volunteer in India (Vii), SECMOL (The Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) among several others.

Many a times. while travelling. we feel helpless at the plight of the locals, and to appease our guilt, we buy some of the goods offered in the market or tip the lobby boys, taxi drivers or guides. Beyond this, we feel powerless to improve their lifestyle and feel guilty of the luxury we enjoy in their poor surroundings.

In fact, Dominique Callimanopulos, who noticed the inequities between travelers and native communities when she first began to travel, founded Elevate Destinations. Dominique saw the opportunity to combine the singularly exciting travel she enjoyed, with giving back to the communities she visited. Elevate Destinations developed from this vision. This was much before the travel sector began to go ‘green’.

Says Dominique, “Clients come to us in search of an amazing travel experience which also makes a difference to the country they visit, as well as green accommodations that do not compromise on aesthetics, amenities, service or security. Our trips are specifically designed to provide travelers with the opportunity to better understand economic, socio-cultural and environmental needs of the countries they visit. Some travelers prefer to make a donation: we donate five per cent of the net costs of all our trips to NGOs in destination countries. Other clients want more hands-on service opportunities in the communities they are visiting.”

North Island, a Seychelles-based conservation oriented company with an endeavour to ‘turn back the ecological clock’ offers similar travel packages. Slightly high on the budget, they offer a lot of privacy to their clients who can tour the entire north islands of Seychelles in whichever way they want to -- on bicycles, buggies or foot. No petrol driven cars here. This conservation- oriented company works on the philosophy of an unceasing endeavour to turn back the ecological clock. They offer scuba diving, snorkeling, etc, keeping the environment intact whereas the Elevate destination offers walking with the wildlife, seeing chimps, lions, zebras, etc in their natural habitat, besides learning from the tribals and locals about their lifestyle. Interestingly, they even offer green honeymoon packages!

Then there are others offering spiritual volunteering tours like the Ladakh-based Vii, which offers special packages of four to six weeks of stay in places like Ladakh, Leh, Dharmsala, Rishikesh, Tso Moriri nomadic camp, etc. Popular among Westerners with interest in Buddhism, Vii offers yoga and meditation sessions with monks, stay with the locals, sight-seeing on weekends and interaction with the locals to learn about their lifestyle.

Even a diehard city dweller or party hopper will find these tours intriguing and enjoyable. “The customs of these places and the scenery are enough to keep you captivated while you are there. There is no way one can get bored and, in fact, people who come to us want to prolong their stay,’’ says a Vii volunteer.

SECMOL, active in Leh-Ladakh, is a student interaction voluntary organisation. Purely voluntary work, which comes with a minimum budget of Rs 300 a day (inclusive of food and accommodation), it’s popular among students from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and others. One not only gets to spend time in the beautiful mountain ranges of the region for as long as one wants but also gets time to spend with the student community who are ever eager to learn things about the outside world. So why not change your usual vacation plans and go on a green vacation?