Shekhar Golchha, executive director of Golchha Organization, enjoys travelling and exploring new destinations. Heir to an elite business house, Golchha has so visited over 60 countries. Apart from adventurous thrills, he enjoys cycling and hiking around the capital city during his off days. Tamish Giri of New Business Age magazine caught up with Golchha to note down his remarkable trip to Iceland .

Travel Preferences
My work makes me travel a lot; I travel to conventional destinations all the time, which I no longer enjoy exploring. I prefer going to unique places. For instance, I was in Africa to watch the gorillas. Likewise, I visited the Amazon to observe the piranhas and Argentina for a glacier walk. Besides, I love to walk and trek with my wife, my companion. We both feel that the best way to see a country is to walk around. So far, we have completed numerous treks together both inside and out of Nepal. Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Base Camp, Annapurna Circuit in Nepal and Machu Picchu in Peru are some of the notable treks that we have completed. Similarly, I have climbed Kilimanjaro, Mera and Island Peaks. In addition to this, I also enjoy road trips; I like hiring good cars and driving around. Driving all around Europe and driving from the East to the West coast of the US are some of my memorable road trips.

Unique and Beautiful Landscape
Iceland is an amazing country; it is known as the land of fire and ice because of its unique landscape. The country is laden with volcanoes that are either covered with red hot lava or with snow. The country is surrounded by lava, and the underground water percolates out in different ways through the cavities of land. While you walk around some places, you will be amazed to see water coming out of nowhere, serene view of colorful mosses accumulated in the lava and sea beaches covered with pitch-black sand. Iceland has some truly breathtaking landscapes.

Memories of Iceland
As per our plan, we started our adventure by climbing the Vatnajokull Glacier situated in the south-east coast of Iceland, boating through the Antarctic Ocean. It took us almost eight hours to reach the top of the glacier with crampons on our feet and axes in our hands. The climb was challenging, thrilling and tiring. Similarly, we drove to the Hverfjall Volcano in a Land Cruiser to satiate my road trip hunger. The off-road drive was challenging because the trail was rocky and tough to drive on. On our entire trip, we hardly had any human intervention and were entirely relying on our GPS device to navigate. The drive was special because we encountered a couple of arctic foxes. We stopped our car to observe the creatures who seemed excited to see us. The setting sun at that time left us with a breathtaking scene that one could hardly forget. Likewise, our visit to Old Harbour in Reykjavik to see the whales also was remarkable where we took a small boat to watch the whales in the Antarctic Ocean. At first, we had a hard time finding a whale, but at last, while we were about to return to the port, we saw a gigantic whale, much to our excitement. I had never seen any living creature of that massive size before. It is an unforgettable moment in my life. Lastly, the other beautiful thing that I witnessed during the trip was the Blue Lagoon. Blue Lagoon is a pond where the seawater percolates within the earth and goes through a silica mine and comes out on the ground mixing with the freshwater. It is a place where the powers of geothermal seawater create a transformational spa.

Regrets
Although our entire trip to Iceland was exceptional, we also had some regrets. Even though we were in Iceland, we were unfortunate to not see the Northern Lights due to the cloudy weather, and we missed out on scuba diving in Silfra to touch the rift of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates inside the Antarctic Ocean. Even though we missed it during the trip we will definitely return to Iceland to experience it someday.     

Hospitality
Iceland is a small country both in terms of area and population, but yet the hospitality of the country is of a high standard like that in other European nations. Even though the hotels are not that big, the facilities and services offered by them are of the highest quality. Most of the employees at the hotels and resorts are immigrants of other European nations who are well trained to take care of the guests.

Travel Wish List
Since I love travelling a lot, I have a long wish list to accomplish. Travelling all around New Zealand in a motor van, exploring Cuba and travelling in an Orient Express train from Moscow to Beijing are some of my notable desires for now.