Almost 15 years ago now, Bernali Gosh and her husband, Anurvan Chatterjee, set off on

a world tour, from the Bay Area to Japan to Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India through

China, through Europe, and all the way back to the United States.

The trip took about a year, and during that year, they barely stepped foot on an airplane.

We took container ships across the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

That's Bernali. She and Anurvan are both climate activists, which is part of what inspired

this year of no flying.

It took only about 10 days or 11 days to cross the ocean. We were the only two passengers

on the ship. That was the only woman on board.

Once they were on land, Bernali and Anurvan could find a bus or a train to get them where

they needed to go. But they weren't in a hurry either. They spent several weeks in each

city.

And one of the ways we would experience these cities is by taking walking tours. That year

we took a ton of walking tours. We loved some, we and we hated some. But it is still our

favorite way to experience in New City.

We took a graffiti tour of Berlin. We went to New York City's Tenement Museum and took

the Tenement Museum tour. This is Anurvan Chatterjee, Bernali's husband.

I think for us having taken a whole bunch of these tours, it served as a kind of inspiration

for just the idea that the tours can look different. Sometimes tours can actually be

four locals by locals.

One of their favorite tours was in Rome. It was eight hours long and entirely in Italian.

The other tour goers helped translate it for them.

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