Tag: India
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Dharamshala
The next day we flew to Dharamshala, a small hill station in the very far north of the country, close to Pakistan and Kashmir, mostly known for being the home of the Tibetan government in exile and the temple of the Dalai Lama. After a long, winding, uphill taxi ride from the airport, we met the host for our Airbnb rental and he showed us around. It was a big, comfortable, gorgeous house, with a bunk bed fit for an adult and an “opium den”, perfect for our quiet stay in the mountains. After we dropped off our stuff and…
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Goa
The next day we flew to Goa for the second portion of the trip: palm trees, clean ocean air, fresh seafood, and lots of lazy beach time. We each had our own bungalow at Village Susegat Beach Resort on Morjim Beach, which offered us easy walking access to the beach, proximity to a few great bars and restaurants, a logo that would make a man-spreader blush, and the ominous sounds of crows day in and day out. It was perfect. After a great sunset walk on the beach, we walked a bit past our resort to Chia Lounge, one of…
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Delhi
The friends trip to India had been a long time coming, but 2019 was the year that it finally became reality. Mohit was planning to go back to India for several weeks for his mom’s 60th birthday party and to handle paperwork and other bureaucracy related to his work visa. The explanation I’ve been giving for how the four of us ended up going is that Clayton politely invited himself, which Mo was more than happy to oblige, and soon Erik and I followed suit. That seems about right. We bought our flights well in advance, Mo invited the three…
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Gokarna, Goa, and Mumbai
Gokarna Upon arriving at the train station in Karwar, we hired a taxi to take us to Gokarna, about a one-hour drive away. The drive through the countryside was similar to the other taxi rides we had taken (more on that in a bit), but for the first time in India, we were witness to the concept of stray cows. A bit unnerving at first, the sight of lazily lumbering bovines interrupting traffic with their slow road-crossings and zero-fucks-given attitudes has since become quite normal. While in Gokarna, another pleasant beach town with minimal crowds, we stayed on Om Beach,…
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Kerala
Trivandrum After saying goodbye to Chiang Mai, I started a 24-hour travel day: a quick flight to BKK followed by a six-hour layover, a 3-hour flight to Sri Lanka followed by a 9-hour layover (most of which was spent sleeping in an impressively uncomfortable position in airport lounge chair), then finally a short flight to Trivandrum. Getting out of the airport was a challenge as I had to wait to get my visa on arrival (a very recent program within India’s immigration system), leave the airport building to use the only ATM, reenter the airport, break the large, effectively unusable…
