“For Santosh, a tour guide in Bangalore, life is good. As a result of the IT boom, he has launched his own web-based travel firm, getoffurass.com, and is doing a booming business selling weekend getaway holidays to stressed-out IT workers.”

Bangalore based Santosh was featured in this BBC article and you can read the whole article here.

I’ve been a regular visitor to the website that Santosh runs – Get Off Ur Ass – and he often sends emails about the different travel programs he’s running.

If you’re interested in travel and adventure, it’s a good idea to get added to his mailing list. I also asked him to share with me how he got started off.

Santosh explains it in this own words:

“What simply started as an alternative profession for an injured river guide; today has grown in to become getoffurass.com. After working as a river guide on the Kali river and couple of other rivers in Indian Himalayas, providing logistics for German biking expeditions and endless trips in the wilderness, there came a day when I had to lay off because of a knee injury on one of my trips. I had to go through surgery and my doc says “no more masti, complete rest”.

That’s when I set up the “Get Off Ur Ass’ adventure store which was more focused on selling camping gear and equipment. It did not last for too long; fascination for freedom and spirit of adventure never dies. That’s how www.getoffurass.com came into existence; here I explore and discover places to stay’ off the beaten track, I plan trips that I enjoy doing myself and rest of the time I endlessly travel.

The trips that I enjoy organising the most are trips to Ladakh (June – September) and Hikes in the protected areas of Nilgiris. They are very limited in numbers; three trips to Ladakh and about six trips in Western Ghats/Niligiris. Other than these trips; I also organise rock climbing trips in and around Bangalore/Hampi/Ramnagaram, extended travel in wilderness, beach combing and motor cycle trips. These are all customized trips or planned in short notice.

I am also planning to start this “work for holiday” concept wherein writers/photographers can use their skill to evaluate places to stay and write for the website.”

Must Visit Links:
– Get Off Ur Ass
– Fringe Ford
– First Sunday Rides