It was a fuzzy monday morning, a bit hazy for those who woke up with thought-filled (read hung over) heads. As if mourning his father’s death wasn’t enough, last night while he found solace in his Xbox, Hamlet’s father appeared in the games (crucially, just when he was about to win) and asked him to avenge his death! Now, Hamlet was your average super-rich heir with no given purpose in life...he could dabble in world peace and attend parties for charity once in a while, but revenge and upholding family honour was simply not his forte. His father always did ask a lot out of him, even after his death....

As Hamlet munched on his self-pity and cheese crackers, the morning unfolded outside his castle in Denmark, while his rough blue-blooded fingers clicked on several sites, opening up all his staple chat windows. On idle weekday mornings, European young royals like Hamlet would begin the day with chats and so it followed:

Rake: Let’s go travel Hammy. Enuf already.
Hamlet: Sure…where to, dude? I have no money and uncle Claudy sure isn’t giving me any.
Rake: Evil uncles can be such a pain. Oooh. I have an idea, let’s exchange homes and you can sell something and buy the tickets!

In a month from the chat, without his uncle’s consent and after making his dead father promise not to haunt the house guests, Hammy exchanged part of the castle for an Upper-East side New York apartment and set off on a month-long vacation. The site he used was www.homeexchange.com, one of the Internet’s many home exchange sites, which were popularised after the advent of films like The Holiday and the ever-shining economic phenomenon of the Recession. People didn’t have the money to vacation at exotic places and splurge on spas and resorts, but if they could exchange homes and vehicles, they saved a whole bunch of green.

There are generally two kinds of exchanges. One is the normal mid-luxury rung where you register for a fee of 10 dollars or so and the other are high-end luxury properties for which you have to register with a fee of 500 dollars.
Our Hamlet paid the 500 dollars, found an apartment and flew off to New York for Christmas.
Rest assured, the properties up for exchange are inspirational and down right ‘pads’ in the true sense.

Here’s how it works:
Home Exchange is based on the idea ‘you stay in my house and I stay in yours.’ Home exchangers trade their homes, condominiums or apartments at a time that is convenient to both parties, but these are not the only types of accommodations that one gets to choose from. For example, one exchanger traded his home for a 40-foot yacht. Often, home exchangers will include their automobiles as part of the package. If the idea of home exchange is unfamiliar to you, or even a bit frightening, don’t fret – there are 250,000+ successful home exchanges every year. It’s a web-based service because of its nature.

Now if you ask: what are the chances of falling in love with a Jude Law-like character via the same? (It makes it worthwhile, doesn’t it?) That is the fine print disclaimer, one of those happens-only-in-movies things.
What the sites do guarantee though are home-made meals, gardens, a car, friendly neighbours to show you around and a free place to stay. Once you land up at your new home, the owner will even leave maps and guides to help you with the place.
While theft is an issue that creeps up, it is a bit ridiculous to think that someone will spend thousands of rupees on air tickets, visa and blah to land in your house and steal your flat-screen TV. So don’t worry about the theft, just make sure you don’t get into it’s-not-mine-so-I-can-trash-it mode. There are rules of keeping the house clean.

A typical exchange site will advise you to ‘consider the following before you leave your exchange partner’s home. Replace food and other supplies you have used like sugar, spices, coffee, teas, wash linens and put them away, put items that you’ve moved back in their place, etc….’ Basically don’t let them find out how filthy you really are; they might just tweet about it.
As far as our Hammy is concerned, his father’s ghost apparently did land up haunting his guests, telling them about how irresponsible his son was, and Hammy had to rush back and, at least pretend to, avenge his death, till he got into a contract with uncle Claudy to split the estate into two.
If you choose to travel to, say, Paris, what better than to live in an authentic Parisian apartment? If you have money stashed away in private islands, exchanging homes is definitely a welcome break from the razzmatazz of five stars, bellboys and feather pillows…it’s almost like exchanging lives.

Quirky Travel Essentials

Whether you decide to swap homes or not, you can’t even start thinking the word ‘travel’ without packing in these must-have accessories

	Glow-in-the-dark Toilet Paper Imagine this, it’s dark, you are in the middle of your night forest trail and you really have to go. What would you not give for glow-in-the-dark toilet paper to shine some light your way! God said let there be light, and in came the glowing loo roll…and just when you thought you were done packing.
	LED Night Slippers If you have watched your share of horror movies, you will know that no self-respecting timid human should trust hotels. These are murky places home to psychotic ghosts and their horrid pets. So make sure you don’t fall prey to power cuts in strange abodes; carry these LED night slippers that promise to be the beacon of light in your dark journey. Torches are so passé!
	Beachbag-cum-towel Maison Martin Margiela has just made beach holidays more fun! It is a big yellow bag which unzips and unbuttons itself to become a towel. You can place your essentials inside it safely for this one has zips at its sides. There are big adjustable buttons so that you can adjust the length of the bag. Pretty beach totes are definitely not out of the picture, but in case you can’t find a nice one, this sure as hell makes up for it!
	Gun-shaped Comb For all of you who still have your real hair on (aww; also for those who don’t), here’s a comb shaped like a gun. Do remember that styling your hair in public with a comb inspired by a gun can be a little dangerous. I suggest that you pack this for short-distance road trips, and use it if and when stalked or attacked by a travel bandit.

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