The Road Less Travelled

 

“The clean air, vivid tribal areas and the sea side.”

‘A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.’ Perhaps Lao Tzu, when he said those words was speaking about the likes of Ja Achim Fraenznick. A German by birth, he’s a traveller by passion. Owning a 2006 Mahindra MM550, a military jeep, purchased and repaired to handle all kinds of terrains, he’s on road trips across India. This month he was in Vizag with his friend and co-traveller Rhythm Singla, whose father is a travel agent in Delhi. That’s where they met, and they’ve been taking road trips together ever since. Here’s what he had to share when the Yo! Vizag team interacted.

Tell us about yourself
I’m from the University town of Tubingen, Germany and own a restaurant there that caters to youngsters and we make food for the students studying in the university. I love travelling and am usually away for 6 months.

How did travelling to India happen?
We have an employee in the kitchen who is from Punjab. I came to Punjab with him and stayed there with his family. And I’ve been coming back to this country ever since then, having fallen in love with it, especially its food and everything. The first trip was in 2012. I did 2 road trips on a bullet, one along the east coast and the other along the west coast.

Do you travel in the night?
We usually travel from morning 11 to 7 in the evening. We avoid night trips. We don’t need to stock on food as we don’t go to remote places. We never pre plan visits and refer to the ‘lonely planet’. Like in Agra, it was not about visiting Taj Mahal, but more about experiencing the culture, food and how people react to us.

Take us through your current trip
It was the motivation to go to the North-east from Delhi. We started on December 1 from Delhi, went to Kushinagar, crossed the border to Nepal, Kathmandu. We checked out at Siliguri to enter India, went to Guwahati and then to Assam. The next stop was Jagdalpur, where we visited the local markets of tribals and from there we came to Vizag through Orissa.

Is this your first trip to Vizag?
We were here last July as well. These 4 days, we’ve been to Rushikonda, beach, Thotlakonda and have also done the ocean drive to Bheemli. We have also been to the Simhachalam temple. We passed through Araku as well, but didn’t stop there.

What is your favourite hotspot right now?
I would say The Park hotel. Out of 5 days, there have been parties all around for 3 days. I think it’s more of a party hotspot. Even the weekends are quite packed.

What will bring you back to Vizag?
The clean air, your vivid tribal areas, and the sea side. You don’t find too many beach areas in India.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]