A Tribute to Dust - Postcards from India
Traveling to India (2016) had not been a lifelong dream of mine. It was a desire driven mostly by the cheap plane ticket and a small travel budget. While there, I discovered a deep love of India through its embodiment of mystery and chaos; the constant stimulation excited me.
My first day in India I met up with my new best friend, Jadan, another world traveler whom I’d met while living in HI just 6 months earlier. For 30 days we traveled from hostel to hostel, befriending other backpackers, learning the bargaining price for tuktuks in each city, and wandering barefoot through Hindu temples.
Our route |New Delhi > Agra > Jaipur > Pushkar > Jaisalmer > Jodhpur > Rishikesh > Varanasi >New Delhi
Pieces of experience:
I learned that photos tend to dis-regard those who visit the Taj Mahal in pilgrimage. It is not an empty landscape, but white marble dotted with thousands of individuals barefoot and in awe.
Monkey’s love my nose ring and grabbed at it while visiting the Hanuman temple in Jaipur.
On mopeds, we wound our way through the camels in Pushkar and the baboons of Rishikesh.
We learned to be resourceful as the Indian government shut down banks as the new rupee notes were introduced.
Reminders of things held sacred were everywhere: cows, incense, candles, alters.