We (millennials and the previous generations) have been taught from early age that marriage, family and kids are the ultimate goals in life. No matter how successful you are professionally, you need a happy family to be accomplished. However as the world is taking new strides everyday, the perception about "accomplishment" is changing.

Call me old fashioned, but I feel that there is no "grey area" in a marriage. You are either 100% in or fully out. You can't love or commit to more than one person at a time. And using it as a weapon for immigration is disgustingly low because this is making the lives of real married couples difficult. The number of documents required for visa and all get annoying and so does the process. Our parents and their generation didn't even get their their marriage registered, yet they have been together for about 40 years. Where has this commitment gone?

Is marriage still a pious institution? Or is it just a fancy facade?

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly) Challenge.

 Preserving travel memories is essential for reliving those unforgettable experiences long after the journey has ended. While photographs and souvenirs often serve as keepsakes, there are many other creative ways to capture the essence of your adventures. Whether it’s through storytelling, videos, or personalized crafts, these methods can help you hold onto the emotions and moments that made your trip special.

In this article, we'll explore seven innovative ways to preserve your travel memories. From journaling to video compilations, these ideas offer a unique blend of traditional and digital approaches.

Create a Travel Journal

Creating a travel journal is one of the most personal and effective ways to preserve your travel memories. Whether handwritten or digital, it allows you to document daily experiences, thoughts, and emotions during your trip. By capturing the details in real time, you ensure that even the smallest moments are remembered.

A travel journal can also include photos, sketches, or ticket stubs to make it more interactive. This blend of written reflections and visual elements enhances your storytelling, offering a deeper connection to your travel experiences when you revisit the journal later.

Capture Video Memories

Capturing video memories is an excellent way to preserve the full experience of your travels, from vibrant landscapes to lively street scenes. Videos not only capture the visual aspects but also the sounds and movements that photos can’t convey. By filming key moments throughout your trip, you can create a dynamic and engaging record of your adventures.

Once you have your footage, using a free video editor can help you enhance and organize your clips. This tool allows you to trim unnecessary parts, add music, and create a polished final product that’s perfect for sharing and revisiting your travel memories.

Building a travel photo book is a wonderful way to preserve and showcase your favorite travel memories. This personalized keepsake allows you to curate your best photographs and arrange them into a beautifully bound book. Whether you choose a digital or printed format, a photo book provides a tangible way to revisit your travels and share your experiences with others.

Incorporate captions and brief descriptions alongside your images to provide context and enhance the storytelling. This method not only organizes your photos but also creates a lasting memory that can be enjoyed for years to come.

Create a Memory Box

Creating a memory box is a charming way to store and cherish physical mementos from your travels. Collect items such as postcards, local souvenirs, and ticket stubs throughout your trip, and keep them in a dedicated box. This tangible collection allows you to hold onto the unique artifacts that represent your experiences.

A memory box can be personalized with decorations and notes, adding a creative touch to your keepsake. Combining these physical items with printed photos or digital copies creates a comprehensive and meaningful way to preserve your travel memories.

Use a Video Maker App to Create a Travel Compilation

Using a video maker app to create a travel compilation is a practical and creative way to showcase your travel footage. These apps simplify the process of compiling various clips into a cohesive and visually appealing video. With user-friendly features, you can easily arrange scenes, add transitions, and incorporate music to enhance the storytelling.

Additionally, many video maker apps offer customization options like text overlays and filters, allowing you to personalize your travel compilation. This results in a polished final product that captures the essence of your journey and is perfect for sharing with friends and family.

Design a Custom Map of Your Travels

Designing a custom map of your travels is a unique and visually appealing way to document your journey. By marking the places you’ve visited on a map, you create a personalized visual representation of your adventures. This can be done using various online tools or traditional methods, depending on your preference.

A custom map can highlight key locations, routes taken, and memorable spots, providing a comprehensive overview of your trip. Whether displayed as a framed print or integrated into a digital travel blog, this map serves as a functional and decorative keepsake, allowing you to easily revisit and share the highlights of your travels.

Share Your Travel Stories on a Personal Blog

Sharing your travel stories on a personal blog is an effective way to document and preserve your experiences. A blog allows you to combine written narratives, photos, and videos to create a rich, immersive account of your journeys. This platform not only helps you organize and reflect on your travels but also enables you to connect with a wider audience interested in your adventures.

Regularly updating your blog with new posts and travel tips can engage readers and inspire others. It also serves as a lasting digital archive, where you can easily revisit and share your travel memories with family and friends.

Conclusion 

Preserving your travel memories through creative methods ensures that your experiences remain vivid and cherished for years to come. Whether you choose to keep a detailed travel journal, capture videos, or create a custom photo book, each approach offers a unique way to relive and share your adventures. By incorporating these creative strategies, you can transform fleeting moments into lasting treasures, keeping your travel memories alive and accessible whenever you wish to revisit them.

 Successful and happy people too have 24 hours to sail through the day. So what sets them apart from us mere mortals? It's the daily habits! It's said that motivation is a scam, discipline is the real deal. When you inculcate good habits and make them a part of your routine, you are bound to progress; even if the steps are small and slow!

But having a good morning routine can make sure you start your day on the right foot and can set you up for success. So it’s super important to make sure your morning routine has healthy habits to make sure your mood and body are prepared for a successful, productive day.

1. Wake Up Early

Waking up earlier gives you more time to prepare for the day. It also gives you time to have some ‘you time’. This can be either showering (not just a 30-second scrub and dash), doing your skincare routine or makeup, etc. or just sitting with a drink and a book before you start your day. Or if you are really trying to make a difference in your life, squeeze in a 15 minutes workout. Stretching also counts!

2.Gratitude

Incorporating gratitude into a morning routine can boost your mood and put you in a positive, successful mindset, ready to tackle the day.

Even saying thank you and being grateful for something like clear blue skies in the morning, can help you start your morning on a positive note. 

3. Make a note of your priorities for the day

   Jotting tasks down in a planner or journal can make it super easy to keep track of your daily to-do lists. Tackle the elephant in the room first. I am a complete believer of " A job well began is half done".

 If these 2 or 3 tasks are the biggest, most challenging tasks, then by completing these tasks first, the rest of your to-do list looks like a walk in the park. And we all love an easy walk in the park.

You can make the list at night prior, or early in the morning. In any way, it adds a structure to your day and makes it organised.

What are your favourite activities in the morning? Add yours in the comment section below!

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

Every city has an alter ego after the sun goes down. When the stars come up and the lights start twinkling, the regular spots become unrecognisable, especially when you are on a vacation. One of my favourite activities while travelling is to revisit the popular spots at night, so as to be able to fully appreciate the difference.

We were in the capital city of Vietnam, Hanoi, for three nights. The first night, when we returned from Cat Ba island, I really wanted to explore the city. We were staying in the heart of the city and almost every major attraction was at a stone's throw distance.

However, most of them closes at 5 PM. Also, online I saw that the shows of Water puppet was available throughout the evening but in reality, it was not. When we scurried to the Thang Long theatre, all the shows were sold out and there wasn't any later in the night. The next two nights we weren't available, so that was out of question. We decided to take a leap of faith and hurry to the Lotus Water puppet theatre, another very famous place but that was sold out too. And the last show was at 6 30 PM. I was absolutely crestfallen. I had to accept that this was not happening.

Then we proceeded towards the next spot on our list: the Hoan Kiem Lake. It's a natural freshwater lake situated in heart of Hanoi, something which has a very strong historical significance. I won't go into those details but would only try to hover around its natural beauty. This lake used to be full of soft shell turtles centuries back and there is still one left.

There is the Huc bridge on the lake that leads to the Ngoc Soc Temple. The temple closes at 5 30 and we couldn't take the rest of the family members inside. Luckily we could explore the inner campus in a hurry. There is a turtle tower too, from the colonial times. The bottom-line of this travelogue is that this entire area lights up like magic at night and shouldn't be missed.

Of course there can't be any travel day without something glitchy. After we found the puppet theatre closed, we explored the Ngoc Soc Temple and then went back to our hotel to pick up our kids and my parents. Now the kids wanted to shop for toys so my husband decided to leave for the market with the elder one. Only my phone had internet plan, so he took it and asked me to meet at the lake with the rest of the crew.

I am not very good with directions and was scared at the bottom of my heart how to reach the lake with my elderly parents and my three year old. The locals couldn't speak English at all. However, we succeeded in navigating the market area to reach the designated side of the lake. After some time, the father daughter duo joined us.

We gorged on street food on the way back. It was such a simple yet a wholesome evening.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

While choosing accomodation (especially when abroad), we are usually torn between selecting our Air BNB or hotel in the city centre (crampy yet expensive) or farther (relatively cheaper and beautiful). Because staying in the centre means better access to facilities and public transport, while comprising on the beauty of the property (especially if we are on a budget). While the farther you move away from the heart of the city, you have more spacious accommodation at half of the price.

Now it depends what your preference is. We are local transport users and prefer walking over everything. And of course, the hustle bustle and the culture of any city can be fully fathomed by staying in its heart, not fingertips. With a clan of 6, which included 2 kiddos and 2 seniors, it was best that we stayed as close to all the Indian restaurants and historical places. So while booking a place in Hanoi, we opted to stay right in the heart of Old Quarters, where everything we needs were right by the curb.

Our hotel was Moon Hotel. It was a small boutique hotel with no more than 20 rooms, spread across 4 floors. Now coming from Cat Ba island after staying in the Oasis Bunglows that offered a straight view to the Lan Ha bay from the room, it felt crampy and slightly disappointing. Because even though the size of the room in Moon hotel was big, there was no connection with the outside world. The windows opened to the lobby and there wasn't any balcony. There was neither a restaurant that offered breakfast nor was there any room service. However the staff was extremely helpful.

The Vietnamese people are extremely sweet by nature but language can be a severe hindrance. On the last night of our stay (and our trip) we realised that our elder daughter needed to get a Covid test done in order to safely enter India (this is 2022 November and Indian entry from the South East Asian countries was subject to the result of these tests). She was eight at that time and of course not vaccinated. Now panic struck in the middle of the night. We had come back from a whole day trip to Ning Binh and were dead exhausted, and we were flying back next afternoon. We needed to get the test done ASAP.

We tried contacting the local hospital by ourselves, but no one spoke English. Then we reached out to the receptionist and he helped us communicate with the hospital staff. We learnt that they called us early in the morning, and they could handle us the results after 6 hours.

Now the beauty of staying in the heart of the city is that you can walk to all the important places and save a hell lot of cab fare. Next morning, we walked to the hospital and gave the sample for testing. Then we spent the rest of the morning buying souvenirs and visit to the St Anthony church and few other spots. 

On our way to the airport, we picked up the test reports from the hospital. Thankfully it was negative and we all heaved a sigh of relief. No one could bar us (and my little girl) from entering our own nation. I will always be grateful to our hotel receptionist who made communication with the hospital a breeze, that too in the middle of the night. Otherwise it would nearly have been impossible to get things done, especially at such a short notice.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.

When we think of Thailand, nightlife seems integrated in that thought. A trip to this tropical destination is absolutely incomplete without a taste of the throbbing discotheques and bars. While prominent cities like Bangkok and Pattaya have dedicated streets and localities, there isn't a single town in Thailand that is free of bars. While the Bangla Street in Patong, Phuket steals all the limelight for the best nightlife, there is a very unexpected place that really has glitzy evenings. That place (very surprising to some) is Phi Phi Island.

Majority of the tourists do Phi Phi as a day trip. Even we did that, when we visited 12 years ago as a couple. We tend to think that it's a day beach area (like the Ile Aux Cerfs) and the place shuts out after dusk. However in reality, Phi Phi Don is a really big island. (Not Phuket big, but not as small as Dhiffushi) It's a non motorable island and is quite hilly. So if you need to traverse from one end of the island to another, you will need to take a boat for that. 

That's why we chose to reside near the Tonsai Pier (the city/island centre). We needed the market with the groceries and restaurants at an arm's length and believe me, it was the best decision ever. The island really goes to sleep at night, and it becomes quite spooky and eerie. So had we been staying on the more peaceful parts, we couldn't have enjoyed the nightlife.

Well the Loh Dalum Bay is an area where you would get transported elsewhere. Surely there are a number of happening bars and clubs in the centre. But the ambiance on that beach is a different scenario altogether! There are elaborate fire shows. We even crossed a burning rope from beneath a few times to get free shots as rewards. Almost every crazy task comes with rewards. You can find weed everywhere and laughing gas is for sale too. The waves often come crashing on the chairs, where you are sitting for watching the fire shows. We loved every moment of the glitz and glamour for the 2 nights we were there and I highly recommend staying at Phi Phi overnight to witness a completely different phase of this lively island.

This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024.