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Published: January 30th 2019
Made up my mind. Next week I will start the journey back to India. It will be my first time in the subcontinent since my initial trip in October 2008 when I spent a week in Delhi. Back then as I was flying away from India, I told myself that I would come back with a friend and travel around the whole country. Well, I never did find that traveling companion, but I am going back anyway. I can’t keep away any longer. Memories of a country brimming with life and every possible human emotion linger on. Each hour in India seemed to bring a week’s worth of life experience. And the entire week? It felt like a lifetime.
However, I feel like I did not give a good enough account of myself last time I was there. India knocks you back a bit and wears you out. Looking back, there was too much time spent lounging luxuriantly at my hotel’s pool and too many meals ordered from room service. This time I want to look into all those darkened nooks and crannies, spend more time interacting with the locals who stare at me, and maybe even chance that roadside
samosa cart.
My stay in India will last for three weeks. I will base myself in three locations and branch out from there. First, I arrive in Mumbai. I am staying in the western suburbs hoping to catch a glimpse of how modern Indians live and rub shoulders with the locals on a few nights out. Next, I will travel to Varanasi to get in touch with the spiritual side of India. My hotel is right on the Ganges River where I hope to spend my days contemplating life’s mysteries. Finally, I will end up in Goa. There I will let the sounds of the sea help to crystalize what exactly this whole trip has meant to me and give some time to recuperate after my headlong dive into the chaos of Mumbai and Varanasi.
India however is not the first country on my itinerary. Before India I will spend a week in the United Kingdom. The last time I was in England was in 2012 when I got stranded there by Superstorm Sandy on my way home from Greece. My first port of call is London, a favorite city I have been to more times than I
can count, where I will be staying with my uncle. Then it’s a train trip north to Nottingham where I will stay with a friend I have travelled with in such varied countries as Brazil and Japan. I have not seen him since 2009. Ten years. It will be good to catch up. Old connections will fade away if you let them.
Anyway, that’s the plan. Let’s light this candle and find out where this next road leads...
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Keep Smiling
Mike Fossey
Namaste
In the ten years or so since you visited Delhi and Agra, little has changed yet everything's changed! The culture, the colour, the people are unchanged. The country is now more populated, more polluted, more modern, more everything. You'll enjoy it nonetheless! In Mumbai, be sure to visit the slums at Dharavi (contact: Reality Tours & Travel, don't attempt it on your own). In Varanasi, you can easily see the tourist sights on your own but, if you want to see other even more fascinating scenes, get a guide (I recommend Raju Verma of Beyond Varanasi). As for Goa, well... It's not very Indian, Russian tourists love it and the beaches are okay! I look forward to your blogs.