Interview - Mr. Harish Bali (Renowned Travel and Food Vlogger in India)

 

I am starting the interview series by talking with Mr. Harish Bali Sir. He is one of the famous travel vloggers in India and his channel Visa2Explore has a huge fan following and subscribers on YouTube. 

    If I talk of my personal experience, our family had a great time watching his travel videos on TV during lockdown phase in India. They are a great source of infotainment and Sir is always a happy and joyful person as he looks. Having travelled to a large number of places in India, his videos always provide great information to travellers and has a very meaningful content. Taking his interview will remain a source of inspiration for me as I get a chance to speak with one of the most successful vloggers and bloggers in India.

    Hope you all have a good read.

    

1. Hello Sir. Thanks for giving the interview. You are on a top list of travel vloggers in    India. How does it feel? (We feel the answer was very grateful and down to earth by you).

     I think there are many others who are doing good job. Yes, our content is liked by many but we are surely not the top. To answer your question - I never take it like that but all I attempt to do is take feedback on how we can do the job better and improve upon our content.

2. Job or Vlogging? What gives you more satisfaction and why?

    Vlogging; as I am self employed and gives more satisfaction,

3. Which is the most loved place that you would like to visit more and more in India?

    Sikkim is the place I liked the most; but yes, I would like to travel to other states of North East as well, like till date I have travelled to only 3 states of North East.

4. Tell us something about your products that you endorse. We viewers would be interested in knowing about that and buying that.

    We just have a small merchandise collection - that one can buy from kadak merch, that's a small range of 5 to 6 designs of T shirts.

5. My blogs are related to industrial automation and machineries. You have visited some factories in your vlogs. How do you see the future of industrial automation in India and it's awareness in rural areas that you visited?

    Actually I visit factories more with regard to getting knowledge on how some food products are processed, not with with reference to industrial automation. Like, I have visited poha factory, coffee processing... so I am not the best person to answer on industrial automation.

6. India is so deep to travel that even one life falls short. What would you rate the safety parameters in India for a new traveller?

    Safety - I think some common things which are true for travel any where or to any unknown destination - it is always better to travel during day time; though you may have seen in some of our videos that we have travelled late in night also. But I admit that it is not the right thing to do. It is always better to have a local guide along if you are travelling to an unsafe location, some areas of the country still have Naxalite issue. One should avoid visiting such places, but for some reason if you can't avoid, then have a local with you.

7. What inspired you to do Vlogging and Blogging after a successful job career?

    I wanted to do something that would give me happiness and satisfaction. Travel gives me the most satisfaction. I quit my full time job and took risk to take this as a full time profession.

8. Did you have any bitter experience while traveling or making videos?

    Yes; there have been some instances. I guess it was 2-3 times in last 5 years and that have been with taxi drivers- like most taxi drivers like to drink alcohol in night, but I don't like that thing. There was a conflict which lead to bitter experiences.

 9. What was your best food experience while making vlogs?

    Best food experiences - though there are many but I will quickly share my top 5... Ratna Cafe - Chennai; Idli Sambhar. Swati Restaurant in Chennai has lovely snacks - everything they serve is awesome. They have a restaurant in Ahmedabad too. Recently, I went to TGT - The Grand Thakkar Restaurant. Their Kathiyawadi lunch was awesome. I had a lovely breakfast at a homestay at Gokarna in Karnataka. I remember the Dal Makhani that I had a dhaba in Jammu; it was the best. I can go on and on; as, by travelling to different regions of the country, I get this opportunity.

10. Share some best adventure sports experiences that you had.

    I like mild adventure sports. I am not into hard core adventure stuff; but yes, I did enjoy doing flyboarding. I feel if someone goes to Goa - one should take this experience. It's really unique.

11. Tourism is one of the major source of incomes in India. Would you like to share some things for motivating our foreign readers?

    Tourism in India is currently at a very small fraction of its potential. India is among the few countries in the world that offers tourism in different domains - like we have forests, sea views, coastal areas, adventure sports, mountains, treks; plus so much more that one can plan the tour based on their area of interest.

12. Do you have any experience that you missed something worth while making vlogs and would like to tell the viewers to visit that for sure?

    There are so many things that I miss because of time limitations. But yes, if I think that, I feel that when I was in North Sikkim - I went to Lachen; but could not go to Gurudongmar lake because I had my return flight pre booked. I didn't had even one day extra; so it's better to keep 1-2 days extra buffer when planning tour.

13. Do you have any plans to expand your base or product range in future?

    We are planning to launch our website which will have itineraries. People can have a look at the itinerary and then plan their tour.

14. Are you still active in writing blogs?

    Not as of now; but yes, we are working on this website that I mentioned. That is not exactly a detailed blog kind of content, but will show information like 2 nights and 3 days in Bhubaneswar etc.

15. Finally, on ending our note, would you like to say something to the viewers and readers?

    I always urge people to travel - We all know that it helps to expand our horizon. One becomes more wiser and smarter in life.

Thank you Sir for your precious time. Also we hope you have fully recovered now from Covid-19. We will hope and wait to see more of your upcoming videos on YouTube.

Dear readers and viewers; those who are new to this name - kindly subscribe the channel Visa2Explore and enjoy his travel and food videos. I am sure you would like them. Here is the link - visa2explore - YouTube