Leaving Rishikesh was no easy feat. I called this place home for a little over month and over the month’s time I got to know the area to a level of feeling right at home. I recognized each individual local cow, knowing which one’s I could pet without forfeiting food first, and which ones would ram me if I hadn’t a treat for them. I greeted, fed, and shared some loving with a street dog I basically claimed as my own—Captain Josh, I miss you. I shared munchies and bananas with the monkeys I was lucky enough to observe and hang around throughout the day; one even grabbed onto my pant loop and proceeded to jump off doing a flip into a handstand, I gave him a 9.5. Cafe owners greeted me with smiles and well wishes morning and night and cared less about me paying the bill and more about my overall contentment, peace, and liveliness. I deepened my meditation practice and got to feel a new strength in the spirituality of nature, especially of that in the Himalayas. I explored countless of cafes nightly after my school day was finished, being absolutely blown away with the jam sessions being held comprised of strangers from all over the world. I gained nine beautiful girlfriends from all over the world, with backgrounds that opened my eyes to the differences in cultures we live, yet how similar in heart we are. My mind and body was in it’s healthiest state since 2010 waking up at 5:30 every day, eating vegetarian, being sober, meditating, practicing yoga, not experiencing stress or anxiety, and getting adequate rest. This month that I was completely immersed in education, in the mountains, in spirituality, and around truly genuine and driven people gave me a glimpse of a lifestyle I am thrilled knowing exists for people to enjoy.

Departing my temporary Indian home, Rishikesh, meant taking overnight public transport (eight hours of luxury, let me tell you), which was a local bus filled with Indian men and few women struggling to sit upright while bouncing along the pothole filled streets, fearing for our lives while taking sharp turns around corners and avoiding cows, dogs, and street walkers, and finally getting dropped in the great big beautiful city of fresh air and open roads, New Delhi.

I was in Delhi for just enough time to get a few hours of sleep on the floor, unload my bag of unneeded belongings, see a friend for coffee and pizza, and physically jump onto the moving bus headed out of the station for Jaipur. The name Jaipur has a much cooler and more mysterious name than the city itself. I don't mean to rag on it, maybe I was just hoping get something opposite of the big city of Delhi, which Jaipur isn’t, but the place didn’t hold my attention.

The Pink City in Jaipur is neat to walk around but it isn’t an attraction to stress over seeing if that's a main reason for your visit. The pink color is decently faded and the streets are lined with repetitive touristic shops (clothing, jewelry, scarfs, tourist souvenirs) where merchants haggle you to come in for a look. The Monkey Temple attraction holds far less monkeys than you can find in other places such as Rishikesh or Pushkar so don’t waste your money getting a tourist-priced rickshaw to take you there. We did manage to hike up to Amber Fort situated on a hill top giving an almost 360 degree view of the Jaipur area. I do recommend this if you're up for an uphill climb and people asking to take selfies with you.

Jaipur is the place to buy gemstones, which we weren't particular about purchasing, rather watching the manufacturing process of. We scavenged around for a couple hours asking shop owners to see behind the scenes action, no one could cater us. Finally when we decided to give up, a man appeared and asked if we wanted to see his shop, we said we were only interested in seeing the shaping and manufacturing process. He obliged and showed us up to his work space which employed around 15 men shaping gemstones. This was something extremely rare to see which gave me a greater sense of the working conditions these people live every day - heat, close confines, semi-dangerous machinery, no hand protection, sun up to sun down hours. Yet these people were still happy as can be, working all together, listening to music, some even watching a sorts game while shaping the stones, HA!

All in all, if you’re on a short travel holiday to India seeking recommendations of places to visit, I suggest skipping this and spending more time elsewhere in parts of the Rajasthan state. There are reasons Jaipur is a place of interest, but when on a time crunch traveling India, find yourself some better places to immerse yourself in local culture rather than big city tourism. Research and notice the places that speak to you.

Heading on after a two nights stay meant another local bus, luckily this one only being a few hours. We arrived at 4 AM in Pushkar, another city in the Rajasthan state. This is the time I give major credit to Otto, the friend I met while working in Barcelona that I’ve been traveling this part of my journey with. He has traveled India twice and I’m not kidding when I say this, he has friends everywhere. Arriving in the wee hours of the morning I would normally think we’d find refuge dropping in last minute at a rather expensive hostel, but we showed up to Paramount Palace nearby the center lake that the city revolves around. Otto’s friend, a worker there, woke from his slumber after hearing us come through the door. He welcomed us with a room far less expensive than would have normally been requested. We later even managed to upgrade to a room with windows and a balcony overlooking the city in all its glory for almost half their asking price. Yes, it pays to go around with a well-traveled and highly-experienced motorcyclist with expertise in the Indian field.

The first order of business was renting a motorcycle. Although it is an absolute madhouse on the streets, knowing how to ride a bike or being comfortable on a scooter is a major plus in India. I encourage you to engage with caution. Next thing was meeting my new close friend Elly from Australia. I met Elly during our yoga teacher training course in Rishikesh and we couldn’t accept this part of our journey together as the end, so I decided to follow her to both Jaipur and Pushkar. We grabbed coffee at a Spanish owned coffee joint, Coffee Temple, while planning some excursions—Aloo baba, dinner, sightseeing, etc. Otto and I hopped on the bike afterwards to explore the city only to find that the fuel tank emptied while in route to the gas station. We glided down a main street all the way until the fuel pump, perfection. Next we took the bike to the desert where the largest camel fair in India, and maybe the world, takes place. The scene was beautiful—rolling sandy hills, a sun-colored yellow landscape, silhouettes of camels and tourists riding or being pulled in elaborate decorated carts behind them. I hate giving bad reviews of iconic and culturally special places but I have to tell you, the scars, hair loss, foaming mouths, and overall physical state of these majestic beings was horrific—at least to my eyes. Those details didn’t grab the attention of the tourist riders, or maybe they did but weren’t minded. I’ve wanted to ride a camel in the desert ever since reading the Alchemist but in this moment all I wanted to do was yell at these people for feeding this attraction that treats these animals so terribly while cutting loose al the ropes and harnesses enslaving them. I’m all for tourist attractions, some people don’t bother, for whatever reasons, but it’s understandable that certain attractions take on such a high influx of people because they usually are pretty wondrous events. However when a tourist attraction involves unjust protocol, specifically in the horrific care of animals, who could possibly stand behind it? It’s taken me some years of my life to understand the multiplicity of power currency has, but I’m now conscious that my dollar is not just something I earn or spend on that which I need or want. It is a supporting force to whatever business I’m spending that dollar, euro, pound, or rupee at. It’s a “thumb’s up, you’re doing a great job, keep on doing what you’re doing.” It’s support and approval in the treatment of the animals that are slaughtered for the processed burger patty you’re eating. It’s agreeing with the poor treatment of overworked camels. Your dollar has the power to increase and encourage plastic manufacturing by continuously buying single-use plastic water bottles. These issues are something completely bigger than what I’m getting at today here so we’ll move on.

That same night after exploring Pushkar, Elly, Otto and I curiously and “mistakenly” got lost and stumbled into an Indian wedding where we were greeted by the bride and grooms parents, taken to the platform holding the bride and groom themselves, and directed to get on stage to perform a short dance for the audience of guests. After awkwardly making our way off stage we obliged to photos with the bride and groom and parents on the marriage celebration throne next to the stage. Talk about overwhelm. Nonetheless, this was one of the most epic experiences I’ve been apart of. They showed us to the food area and proceeded to bring us plates of sweets and vegetarian dishes, treating us as absolute royalty, just like the event they were putting on. By the end of our stay, we had been asked invited to stay at the family’s house in Roorkey, India, if it had aligned with our planned journey. This is a common example of the hospitality and generosity of the Indian people. We headed out after an hour and called it a night.

Morning came and Elly, Otto, and I hopped on the bike and headed for the infamous Aloo Baba—the Potato Guru. This man is said to have lived on only potatoes for about the last half decade of his life. He greets travelers and people with questions regarding India, personal advice, his own philosophies, Buddhism, and how he survives on a potato diet. Three minutes into conversing he and his friends that were around pulled out a pipe and started loading in hash, offering us what we wanted of it too. We sat this one out.

The basic message he conveyed to us, even upon some of our more complex questions, all centered around these ideas:

1) We are all connected - the planet, mother nature, us - we are all one

2) When there is no change, there is no life

3) Nature is the greatest gift and when we’re in its space we engage with little to no societal rules, no business, no buildings, no people, only God

4) Control of the mind is key and once we have hold of it we can easily control our actions, eating habits, goals, and overall life course

5) All energy comes from the earth therefore being vegetarian greatly impacts your life, your energy, your health, and overall success in life

Baba had some key advice and although it did seem like a place of more tourist attraction than that of a holy place centered around authentic buddhist worship, I recommend going and getting your own guru experience. A genuine and caring Baba is.

After riding for about an hour back to the city center for lunch, I felt more tired than should have been likely and went for an early nap only to find that I’d taken on some sort of stomach bug or spoiled food. The next two days were a struggle but I pushed on to make sure I got myself some of the cheapest and purest silver in the world. If you’re wanting cheap silver of a whopping 92.5% purity, Pushkar is the hub. Hundreds of shops sell delicately made rings, pendants, necklaces, bracelets, and other pieces incorporating precious and semi-precious gemstones and a multitude of beautiful designs. I got two rings, one with aquamarine and one with citrine, a labradorite stone necklace, and a pair of earrings for 1,000 Indian Rupees, or $15 US dollars. This. Is. The. Place.

Although I got to see and do so much here, three days in the small but rich city of Pushkar is too short of a stay. I could go on about the energy of this lively town so if you need any recommendations when you travel through, shoot me a message.

Bags packed, snacks bought, goodbyes said, and medication stocked, I headed for South India. The 35 hour train ride gave me plenty of time to think about India in all of its variety. Being here, you don’t feel like India is such a big place. If didn’t even occur to me until after a few days getting settled in the south that it had taken almost two days to get here, and we hadn’t even traveled from top to bottom of the country, just a middle portion of it. Maybe its the friendliness of the people, easy transport system, low prices, or high energy that makes India actually feel more homey and quaint and less gigantic than us foreigners view it as. Being in the mix of things here you really feel apart of the culture and having this reality makes each experience fuller and more memorable, making the size of the country vanish in your perception. It’s especially easy to say yes to each new destination, but even heavier in your mind how addicting life here is. More freedom, less law, little societal judgement on your chosen lifestyle, truly unique and friendly backpackers, rich spirituality, respect for nature, and a rare amount of generosity and hospitality. You could say I am questioning my choice of a two month visa rather than six, but, all the more reason to come back. Now onwards to Karnataka and Goa!

Rajasthan, India | Jaipur & Pushkar