Going to Goa

Beautiful church in Panjim, Goa

After a couple long stints of transportation, including a very bumpy 10 hour bus ride and a 25 hour train ride, I finally made it to Southern India and the famous state of Goa. Goa is known as the party capital of India. With its majestic beaches, bars, electronic music, and cheap drinks, it’s easy to have a fun time here. What was nice though was that low season was starting up, so I experienced a much more quiet and ‘watered-down’ version of Goa, which I was totally content with after still trying to slowly ease my way back into reality after my Buddhism course.

But the main reason why I decided to come to Goa was because I was visiting a friend. Antoine is my French buddy whom I met in Tel Aviv, just as I was leaving for the airport. We both had the same flight back to Istanbul and ended up staying in Istanbul together for about a week while getting our Indian visas, since we were both coincidentally planning on going to India at around the same time. Since I was the first to arrive in India, we knew that we were gonna plan to meet up once Antoine got here. So we made some plans after my course, and since he was headed to Goa I decided to come join him. When I arrived I was welcomed onto the beach by Antoine and several other friends he had made during his short time in India. We actually ended up having a great group of people with us for nearly two weeks in Goa, and it was such a fun stint of the trip.

The daily life consisted of waking up, getting breakfast, hanging out on the beach all day, getting dinner/drinks, and then calling it a night. This is how most of the nearly two weeks were spent in Goa. But I really need to mention the food and music festival we went to one night. It was perhaps the funnest night I’ve had in India so far. We were in the capital city, Panjim (really beautiful Portuguese-style town) and there was a big food and music festival going on. Our group decided to check it out and we showed up to a massive stage surrounded on all sides by incredibly delectable food stalls. The food was incredible, but the highlight was the music. A classic rock cover band from India performed tremendously, playing all the classics, and then we decided to dance. And boy did we dance. We congo-lined ourselves onto the dance floor and joined the fellow Indians rocking out. It was so hot, I don’t think I’ve sweat that much in my life. We just kept moving and rocking out so hard. There was sweat exploding of off my face and I felt like I was melting. We jumped and ran around and played so much air guitar. It was the best. And the Indians were the best.

As always, it ended too soon, so we continued the party at a small pub and made our own dance party out of it. It was a great ending to the night and we had a blast. The remainder of our time in Goa consisted of milder nights, with the exception of a night beach party at an outdoor club that was also a blast. But alas, the time came for our group to eventually separate, as we were all on different itineraries and different life adventures.

The majority of us separated, with myself and Michael (our German friend who had been traveling with Antoine before Goa) made our way further south to Gokarna. Gokarna is known as a quieter beach alternative to Goa and was recommended to me by some previous India travelers and friends. It’s also a religious destination (as seem to be most Indian towns) and is a big pilgrimage site. However, being that we were just in Goa during the low season for two weeks this place was comparatively quiet, actually even quieter. Almost a little too quiet for my taste. I only say this because after two weeks of sweating and swimming on the beaches in Goa I was personally just getting a little beached out and needed some change in landscape. So Mike and I split up after a night in Gokarna, and just like that I was back on my own. A couple days of staying in Gokarna led me on my next solo mission to the much-visited and apparently beautiful landscapes of Hampi.

On the Path to Enlightenment

I had a pretty good idea about where to go after Amritsar. From here I was getting close to the mountains in northern India. After some research prior to coming, I knew that northern India was the birthplace of Buddhism, and I had always wanted to do some sort of retreat while being here to learn more and get a new perspective on things from a tradition that hardly exists in the West. Not far from Amritsar (about 5 hours north) is Mcleod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama; so what better place to start? I got a ride with some friends and after showing up, finding a hotel for the night, and walking around the small hilly village of Mcleod Ganj, we found out that the Dalai Lama was giving a public talk at his temple the following morning. Not a bad coincidence. Also, that following day was the first day of a 10 day Introduction to Buddhism course at one of the meditation centers up in the hills, so things just got busy.

The Americans with the Dalai Lama
(me in the far back, behind his left shoulder)

We started the next day early in the morning scrambling, trying to get to the talk in time and figuring out logistics. But we made it, and the first thing they did was organize everyone into groups of countries so that the Dalai Lama could take pictures with everyone. We organized and he came out with all smiles and got a picture with our group. I touched his back so I can say that I’m now officially spiritually enlightened. It was a really cool and surreal thing to just see him all of a sudden and get a picture with him, when the previous day I was not expecting this to happen at all. He gave a nice little talk that we unfortunately had to leave early from to get up to the meditation center for the course. I was on the waiting list for the 10 day course, which would be a silent retreat in which they take away all electronic devices for its entirety, so I wasn’t sure if I would be cut off from the world until the last minute, but I think seeing the Dalai Lama that day brought me some good karma and I ended up getting in.

Boy was I glad I got into that course. Talk about a profound experience. We couldn’t speak to anyone outside of asking questions in class and one hour of group discussion each day. I didn’t have my phone or computer for the entire 10 days, so entertainment mostly consisted of reading about Buddhism, writing, thinking, meditating, walking around, and watching monkeys (which was the funnest thing to do). This was by far the most peaceful experience I’ve ever had. It’s so difficult in today’s society to go even one hour without staring at a screen, let alone using a phone or even speaking. Opportunities like this don’t come up very often but I had quite an amazing experience here.

Our course material was also incredible. I learned so much about the Buddhist philosophy (which I can easily talk about for hours) and meditation practice, and our teacher was phenomenal. It’s difficult to stop writing about my experience at Tushita Meditation Center, but I’ve got to keep it short and sweet and just say that everything here was absolutely wonderful and I would absolutely do it all over again. I highly recommend any sort of retreat experience like this (of which there’s centers and locations all over the world) to everyone. After the course, I stayed in the small village outside the meditation center for about 5 more days just relaxing and easing my way back into reality, finally being able to speak and catch up with fellow students in the course and doing a couple hikes here and there. This was such a beautiful area of India, and my favorite part so far.

On my last day here, there was a very high-up and well known Buddhist nun visiting the meditation center to give some talks for a couple days. She spent 12 years in a cave in the Himalayas on retreat so I was definitely interested in seeing what she had to say. She had some pretty great ideas to share and it was a perfect sendoff to what was one of the greatest experiences of not just India but my entire trip. But sadly, it was time to leave and hop on an 11 hour bus back to Delhi, and then a 25 hour train the following day to Southern India to meet up with a friend. But as Jack Kerouac says, “we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”

The Quest for the Golden Temple

It took some time for me to figure out where to go after Delhi, and I had quite a few options. In the end, I decided to head to Amritsar, capital city of the Punjab region in northwest India. I’ve heard several good things about Amritsar and it was recommended to visit by a couple of friends who’d been there. So there I went, and I sure was glad that I did.
 

The main highlight in Amritsar is the Golden Temple. It’s the holiest landmark of the Sikh religion, so you have a ton of people making pilgrimages there all year long to visit the thing, and it’s a pretty incredible piece of gold. Surrounded on all sides by water with a promenade encircling the area, it also makes for a nice sightseeing walk around the temple. The first time I did it was with a couple friends during the day and it was beautiful. What was more amazing was how many pictures people wanted to take with us during our walk. It took us about an hour and a half to walk around the whole thing; not because it’s big, but because I think we had to stop once a minute because someone was asking to take a picture with us. I never had so many people want to take a picture with me in India. I think I got more pictures taken than most celebrities would on a typical day, which was fun for the first 20 pictures, but then it started to get old. But they didn’t stop, and it was picture after picture after picture before we were able to escape.

Later that day, we went to accomplish another popular thing to do in Amritsar. Every day in the afternoon there is a ceremony at the India-Pakistani border crossing. I heard about this before coming and heard about how interesting and bizarre it was, so I wanted to check it out. Before going there we went to a very strange Hindu temple in the city. The best way to describe it would be a hybrid between a funhouse you’d find at a fair and an actual Hindu temple. It was very popular and consisted of a labyrinth of staircases and crawlspaces, mimicking caves and mountainous passes that I think were supposed to resemble an actual Hindu temple in the mountains. There was also very elaborate tile artwork, mirrors, and sculptures of Hindu Gods and scenes, and just the line passing through it was entertaining. It was so packed we didn’t have enough time to get through the whole thing, but it was still an experience nonetheless.

After the funhouse temple we made our way to the border. We pulled in and joined the crowd of what seemed like a few thousand people and watched to see what this ceremony was all about. It was definitely interesting, and they basically built grandstands on each side of the border for spectators. Pakistan was heavily outnumbered by the amount of Indians there were on our side, chanting and dancing for what I can only presume to be their showing of national pride. The border guards then began their part of the ceremony, which consisted of a lot of marching around with excessively high kicks while wearing funny hats. Same deal with the Pakistani guards. Most of the ceremony consisted of what looked like a pride competition between participants and guards of each country, with each chant and march an attempt to beef up the mentality and crowd of each country. It was definitely entertaining to watch in a bizarre and comical way, and in the end I’m glad I went.

On our way back into Amritsar I got the chance to drive the rickshaw for a bit, which was really fun. We had a great driver, Vicky, who let anyone interested in driving it take it for a spin on the main straightaway. As we drove back, piles of young people in rickshaws and cars drove past waving and saying hello, making gestures and faces of excitement to see what all the white tourists were doing. It was so much fun seeing them on the road and waving, yelling hello, and smiling. It was probably my favorite part of that day.

We spent the following evening going back to the Golden Temple in a more organized group from the hostel, which came with a guide who gave us some more info about it and who led us into the mind-blowingly incredible public kitchen. Nearly all Sikh temples have a kitchen that feeds the people who visit it, for absolutely no price. This kitchen in particular, being at the Golden Temple, was one of the largest in the world. From my understanding this place feeds almost 100,000 people PER DAY, and is operated 24/7 on a complete volunteer basis. People just show up to help out with whatever they can and then leave whenever they need. We showed up and had some amazing food here while marveling at the concept of how this place could possibly be operating. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in India and it was such an incredible experience.

Volunteers helping out in the kitchen

Overall, I think the main take away from Amritsar was the people. The Sikh people were the nicest I had come across in India so far. They welcomed me with open arms and plenty of pictures, and the number of smiles, hello's, and waves was a constant overwhelming flow of warmth. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I left with comfort and happiness for this experience that India gave me, looking forward to more.

Pink Cities and Taj Mahals

I had quite the introduction to India in Mumbai and I was more than ready to do some more exploring in this crazy country. At first I wasn’t sure at all where to go after Mumbai. I was first thinking of going South to Goa, the party capital of India, but my new Indian friends had all told me to go North first because it was starting to warm up and soon enough it would be wayyy too hot to enjoy anything in that area. So go north I did, and it was still already really, really hot. First stop: Jaipur, as recommended by my Indian friend from Mumbai, Akshay. Jaipur is the capital of the region of Rajasthan, which is one of India’s most famous and most visited regions. It’s mostly desert climate with a hot and intense dry heat. I quickly began to experience this heat shortly after I arrived. I sweated the entire time I was there.

Hawa Mahal

Jaipur is also known as the “Pink City” because of its old, gated historical center which is highlighted by its pink-colored buildings and gates. It’s quite picturesque and makes for a really cool place to walk around. I visited most of the touristy sites: forts, views, monkey temples, and palaces, and it was all worth a visit. I also had my first experience of illness from the food. I decided it was a good idea to try some free local street food at a little community function that was going on down the street from my hostel. It was a cool experience but it didn’t take long after eating that I already started to feel the stomach pain from the not-so-high quality free Indian street food. It kept me up all night and set me back a day, but I was fine after that.

I decided to go from Jaipur straight to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and get that out of the way. The Taj Mahal was obviously one of the reasons I had decided last minute to come to India anyway, and I was getting a little anxious to see it. I stayed one night there and caught it early in the morning for sunrise. My group was some of the first people to show up there and it was just incredible. Obviously one of the highlights of India for me so far, the Taj really does look even better in person. And the lack of crowds, cooler temperature, and beautiful lighting of the sunrise make for the perfect time of day to see it. I wouldn’t go to India just to see the Taj, but people actually do come to India just to see it for a reason. It really is an incredible piece of marble, and don’t let the excessive-mainstream-buildup-tourism prevent you from visiting it because it lives up to the hype.

Since we got up for sunrise I was already finished with the Taj by 9am, and decided to catch a bus to Delhi that day. Delhi’s the capital city, and is known to be a pretty hectic and intimidating place. There’s plenty of scammers and commission-seekers riddling the streets searching for Western prey, trying all they can to get as many rupees from your pocket into theirs as possible. This wasn’t entirely new to me however, and no scammers would benefit from my interaction. Instead, my experience led me to have some fun and comedic conversations with these would-be commission seekers, and each interaction led up to a persistent ‘no, thank you’ from my side that led them searching elsewhere. It was fun but exhausting, walking around with these guys coming up to you all the time trying to get something out of you. But nevertheless, it’s all part of the experience.

The coolest thing I saw in Delhi was the Akshardham Temple. A friend had recommended it to me and it was absolutely stunning. I hadn’t been to many temples yet, but so far I’ve been really impressed. This thing was huge, but the most impressive part was how intricately carved the walls of the temple were. Everywhere you looked there was a sculpture of a God, elephant, some religious symbol, or intricate pattern, which totaled to around 20,000 sculptures surrounding the building. It was yet another stunning site seen and another successful day in India.

From Dubai to Mumbai

Oh India, where do I begin. I arrived in India and had by far the biggest culture shock of my life, plain and simple. I landed in Mumbai and immediately got hustled for money when a gentlemen started filling out my immigration forms for me and asked for a tip (this was BEFORE the passport control!). I actually didn’t have a single bill to give the guy so I got them filled out for free, but still.. I had to wait a bit for my couchsurfing host, Vikash, to wake up and direct me to his place from the airport since I arrived at 4:00 in the morning. I really wanted to couchsurf in Mumbai for my first stop in India, mainly for a proper introduction to the culture here and also because I knew I would have a million questions about how everything worked. So I was really happy to have Vikash host me during my time in Mumbai.

When it was time for me to leave the airport and head towards his place, I hopped in a cab and everything hit me. The sights and sounds were all new. First off, I didn’t realize India drove on the left side of the road, so there’s that. Second, rickshaws (or tuk tuks or autos) as they’re called. These little things are EVERYWHERE, and act as mini cabs but are much cheaper. They’re basically tricycles with roofs and motors and they’re very useful and cheap when trying to get around a city of over 20 million people. After that cab from the airport I’ve stuck to rickshaws. They’re fun and it’s a good experience. Also people are EVERYWHERE. Mumbai is the biggest city I’ve ever been to and there’s people all over the place. Driving in the street is absolute chaos that somehow ends up working out. Horns honk everywhere all the time. It’s rude not to honk your horn. There has never been a time where no one is honking their horn… ever.

Vikash was an amazing host. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better introduction to Mumbai. We went out the first night I arrived and I met all his friends and we had an amazing time. He lived about an hour away from the central part of the city (the city is so big that just about everything is an hour away) so I had to take a local train into the city center. I will never learn how the train system works, but somehow it does and there’s no doors so you can just hop on and hang out the doorway while you cruise through the railways of Mumbai and catch some breeze. It’s not safe but it’s really fun. I sat in the ladies compartment the first time I took the train which was embarrassing and really funny.

People stare at me like I’m an alien because I look a little different from your typical Indian. India is where I’ve stood out the most on my trip so it’s somewhat new for people to just stare at me wherever I go. It’s sort of cool though because I also get kids and people that just want to say hello to me and I’ve had a few take a picture with me just because I’m different. I feel like a celebrity sometimes, so I know what that feels like now.

My new Indian friend, who wanted to take a picture with me on the train

On maybe the second day in India I was walking around listening to music when an Indian guy approached me and asked if I was German. I told him that I’m American and he began talking to me, asking me questions about my trip and how long I was in Mumbai for, etc. He told me he worked with a school that had international branches in other countries and he’s really interested in just interacting with a foreign person. I didn’t have time at that moment to hang out but we exchanged numbers and he wanted to arrange to meet up the next day. I was definitely a little hesitant to meet up since he approached me out of the blue and this was my second day in India, so I really didn’t know what to expect. I texted him my concern and made him add me on Facebook which created a hilarious reaction from him. But he turned out to be a real person and when we met up he told me all of the cool sites to see in Mumbai and even drove me around on his scooter to see some of the sites. He took me to get some of the local food in town and we had a great interaction. Akshay helped me out a lot with getting familiar with the city and he gave me a rough itinerary for the rest of my time in India as well. He even helped me book a train to my next city. He took me to the train station and everything. This was an amazing introduction to the Indian hospitality, and between Akshay and Vikash I had a great experience with the Indian people so far.

People had told me that for the first two weeks I would hate India because it takes some time to adjust to the culture shock here, and after that I would begin to love it. But to be honest I don’t think I’ve needed two weeks to adjust. Mumbai proved to be a solid first step in my adjustment to the India way of life, and this was only the beginning.