If you obsess over privacy, air-conditioning and sleep, this one’s not for you. Teetotallers are going to feel left out, too. Harpreet Singh, Harry or Mister Beep to friends and clients, is no stranger to crazy adventure. Seven years with MTV and VH1, with its music festivals and reality shows, have taught him that millennials are changing the face of travel by mixing group and solo trips, and choosing word-of-mouth over traditional travel advertising. In November, his Secret Party Island in Vietnam package will see a small group of 10 tp 12 signing up for three nights of no-holds-barred debauchery. “It is a six- to nine-day trip and you get the partying out of your system on an island cut off from the mainland, with only about 70 people, and no internet,” begins Singh, before going on to describe his “booze cruise that will appeal to singles”. The morning-after offers gorgeous Halong Bay with its limestone stacks and biodiversity. “And the rest of the trip is about hills and paddy fields for that shanti vibe,” he continues.
Swimming with the Manta Rays
Mumbai-based Singh’s travel company, Beep (Beautiful Experiences, Extraordinary Places), was launched after he quit his sales job at MTV two years ago. A yoga studio came first, but he realised that “micromanaging studios” would only hold him down. The itch to “hang out underwater” with Giant Manta Rays in the Maldives and a Facebook post he sent out inviting companions for the same, was what resulted in Beep. “Fifteen people signed up,” he recalls. He has organised 30 trips since then. All his packages — from the psychedelic honey trail in Nepal, to learning Kung Fu at the Shaolin Temple in China’s Henan Province to skydiving over the Himalayas — are curated for a specific audience.
Singles most wanted
Candidates are screened for motivation, their online application forms containing intimate messages referring to break-ups, hook-ups and office ennui. Sometimes, an applicant might enquire if the hotel they are staying at has a pool. Instant rejection. “Why would someone planning to swim in the open sea with whale sharks or blue whales (some are as large as a 10-storeyed building) be so hung up on a pool, even if most hotels have one?” Singh, 35, wonders.
In his world, there are two categories of travellers — “super enthusiastic, young and ready for raw adventure” and those who are looking to be pampered on “holiday”. He caters to the former, “usually single or in groups, between 25 and 35 years. They are price conscious, but splurge on things that are worthy”. Often, their parents don’t get what the trip is about.
No pain, no gain
An astrophotography workshop in Spiti is underway, yet anticipation is building around two other Beep experiences in Nepal this season — skydiving over the Himalayas and an excursion with members of the Gurung ethnic group to collect wild honey. As National Geographic ’s July feature indicates, the life of a honey hunter in Nepal, swinging off slippery cliffs on a slender rope ladder, amidst swarms of the large Himalayan honey bee, is not for the fainthearted. The honey is hallucinogenic, courtesy the toxins from the rhododendron. It is the stuff of an extreme adventure reality show that Beep’s guests are ready to sacrifice sleep and other comforts for. “Hang on, I’ve been there. I’m not going anywhere near reality shows!” concludes Singh, laughing.
Coming soon
Skydive over the Himalayas. Includes easy hikes and paddle boarding on Phewa Lake, November 7-12, at ₹80,000 onwards
The Vietnam Secret Party island trips in November, at ₹30,000 onwards
The Psychedelic Honey Trip to Nepal in November, at ₹48,000 onwards
Kung Fu training at the 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple in China in September and October, at ₹50,000 onwards
The Maldives Manta Rays Special Scuba diving expedition trips in September and October start at ₹81,000
Countdown to 2018
Food trips to Israel and Iran, and a whisky trail through Japan’s underground bars
South America in December - two weeks of scuba diving in Colombia, Brazil and the Galapagos Islands
Register on gobeepbeep.com
Call: 9820715063
