In love with Ladakh

Shraddha Kapoor shares travel tales with LIPIKA VARMA including the one about running out of instant bhel in Europe

Shooting schedules are hard work, but they often are a boon for inveterate travellers like the lovely Shraddha Kapoor... what better way to mix work with pleasure! Read on for bytes from her personal travel diary...

Travel freak: In a way, you can say that I am a travel freak. I enjoy travelling to different towns and cities in India as well as abroad. I enjoy visiting and learning about different places. By virtue of our work, we get innumerable opportunities to travel to different places.

Nature lover: I have a weakness for destinations which are mostly surrounded by beautiful nature as I enjoy sitting and looking at nature. I believe while you soak in nature you get some sort of a deeper connection within yourself. Whenever I get some leisure time, I travel to naturally exotic environments to be closer to nature. It could be short distance travel, too.

Veggie wonderland: Most recently, I visited a beautiful location in Uttarakhand, where we were shooting for my film, Batti Gul Meter

Chalu. I was astonished to notice wonderful fresh and organic vegetables being grown there. I just wanted to pack and bring home a suitcase full of veggies! In fact one day, I polished off almost 48 lychees at a stretch.

Loving Ladakh : It is my favourite place. I had holidayed there with a few friends some years back. On our 10-day trip, sightseeing was on top of our list; shopping was not our priority. We visited different monasteries, watched flower-beds in gardens, and connected with the locals who were amicable, humble and good hosts as well. Family time:

Travelling with your family is the best time. It’s very important and I make it a point to travel with my family members at least once a year. We get the opportunity to be able to sip our morning tea together, laze around and goof around a bit.

Indian

stash: On our vacation in

Europe, we had maximum fun also because we had packed bagfuls of delicious dry food for ourselves.

From instant

bhel, to readymade chai and khakra, we relished all these food stuffs.

However, when we polished the lot off in four days, we were left desperately trying to locate Indian food restaurants over there. We really cannot do without Indian food!

Recognition calls: We prefer holidaying abroad as it is far from the maddening crowd, no one recognises us and we can walk around freely. However, recently, when I travelled to Portugal, while walking around like a free bird, to my surprise a fan called out to me by my name. She came up to me and wished me. Turns out she had watched Ashiqui 2. This made me happy and amazed as well, that people all over the world know us. But obviously, I now have to tweak my belief that we won’t be recognised abroad!

Bucket list: I want to see more of India. I would like to visit the North East; there are beautiful things to witness. I would also love to explore down South.