Roaring Through My Twenties

In January, two students from SUNY Cortland arrived in Mangaluru to begin their semester abroad. Just as I thought I was winding down on my travels until May, Savannah (pretty easily) convinced me to join her on some of her trips. And so became the duo that was me and Savannah as we traveled across three different cities laughing and learning (and sometimes fighting). 

Now, I would describe myself as a bit of a compulsive planner. Though, in the months I have spent in India, I’ve learned to kind of let go of the minute-by-minute plans and just let things happen. We lovingly (and sometimes frustrating-ly) call this “living on Indian time.” You know, people showing up fifteen minutes late to a scheduled meeting, friends coming by your apartment with no warning, staying hours long at someone’s house when you only planned to be there a couple of minutes…  

So, a common theme on these couple of trips was the last-minute-go-with-the-flow planning of it all. 

Finding the Perfect Rave Sunglasses (North Goa) 

Of course, I had a five-month headstart on adapting to this idea of living on “Indian time.” Savannah could not have been less thrilled when she asked me to join her on a weekend trip to North Goa and my response was an unwavering “maybe. I’ll let you know in a couple of days.” 

Soon enough, those couple of days later rolled around and it was only the day before Sav left that I found myself booking a train ticket to join her. 

Because the trip was so last-minute for me, I had no itinerary in mind except: Hang out. Sit on the beach. Have fun. 

And of course, we had a lot of fun. Oftentimes, and many people who have traveled abroad can agree to this, what makes a trip the most fun is the people you meet along the way. This was certainly the case in Goa. Hostels are, more often than not, full of people who are on the same adventures as you are. And it’s funny how quickly you all get along with just this one thing in common. In a blink of an eye, you’ll find yourself with someone who was a stranger to you only an hour ago, now as your bachata partner (yes, somehow we ended up at a late-night flea market that, for some reason, was hosting a free bachata dancing workshop). You’re stepping on each other’s toes and trusting that they won’t drop you on the “dip” part of the choreography. 

We were only in Goa for one full day, but we certainly made use of our time. The full day that we did have we spent on the beach soaking in the sun and swimming in the ocean. Later that night, accompanied by our new friends from the hostel, Sav and I attended our very first rave where we danced into the early morning hours. 

(Sidenote: North Goa actually has its own genre of techno/edm/electronic-esque music called Goa Trance. Apparently it was born out of the 1960s hippie movement when travelers from the West came to explore Goa. It became more and more popular throughout the 1990s and today it’s pretty widespread. I don’t know, this article really gets into it though.)

With some new experiences and lots of laughs, Sav and I (reluctantly) hopped on our train back to Mangaluru.

My Pink Stained Palms Tell My Future (Bengaluru)

Only about one week later, Sav and I found ourselves packing our bags again to take another weekend trip to Bengaluru. This time, accompanied by our local friend from Mangaluru, we chose to travel by the night train. 

We were lucky Bengaluru was the last stop of this train route. Sleeping soundly in our sleeper beds, it wasn’t until we were nudged awake and informed by one of the train workers that we had arrived. You really can’t blame us though, considering it was just around 6am at this point. 

With plenty of time to kill before cafes opened for breakfast, we hopped onto the metro and spent a little bit of time laying in the park.

Sav climbing a tree in Bengaluru, timestamped 7:16AM

Our trip to Bengaluru had several different purposes. The first (and arguably the funniest) reason was because the artist Marshmello was performing at a festival. Yes, the American DJ who wears a big marshmallow-mask on his head when he performs. No, I’m not exactly sure what drew us to attending this, but I think maybe mostly out of irony and a little bit of curiosity. In any case, this night for us consisted of a lot of dancing and laughing. 

The second purpose of our trip was to celebrate Holi. Holi, celebrated over many centuries by Hindus, is a way to welcome in the spring season. It’s also regarded as a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. And like many holidays in India, it also has some stories connected to it as well. One story is told about Hindu god Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, and deemed as a supreme god. Krishna is depicted with blue skin as legend says he drank poisonous milk from a demon when he was a baby. Falling in love with goddess Radha, Krishna feared she would not love him because of his blue skin. However, Radha allowed Krishna to dye her skin with color. And so becomes the reason for the colorful powder thrown during Holi. 

Now, hearing my fair share of stories from friends and friends of friends who have shared their experiences celebrating Holi in the North (where it is most prominently celebrated), I decided sticking to the South would be a better experience for us.

(Sidenote: Stories of Holi festivals in the North truly do vary. In our case, I knew for such a big festival going to a city that I wasn’t so familiar with without a local friend to take us around could be a little bit unsafe. And truthfully, sometimes I just don’t want to deal with the crowd).

And so, Bengaluru was the perfect place for us to celebrate. In a crowd that I felt was tame enough for us, we had a lot of fun throwing colors at each other and onto us by others. We received a lot of “Happy Holi!” from strangers who were eager to smear color across our foreheads and cheeks.

Sav and I celebrating Holi (we rocked pink-stained skin for a couple of days afterwards)

The fun of the previous days began to wear on us a little bit. Luckily, our remaining days in the city allowed us to relax a little so we were able to do just about anything we wanted. Mostly spending the day or two shopping, we also decided it would be fun to visit an astrologer. 

It almost seemed like fate didn’t want us to get our palms read. We waited a good while for astrologer-tattoo artist Girish (yes, he was a tattoo artist and an astrologer…) to arrive at his shop. But when he did arrive, he wasted no time. I blinked and suddenly my hands were in his hands facing upwards. As he traced the prominent lines of my palms, he shared with me what my future will look like…

 …Now, I preface this by saying mine and Sav’s intentions to visit the astrologer weren’t so much out of pure-heart. Part of us were testing him a little. But a little part of me was (and still is) curious to know if his predictions will hold any weight. 

According to my palms, I am healthy and will have no health-related issues in my future. In terms of my academics, he told me that I’ve already had a breakthrough in my studies. I’ll go back to school and likely experience another breakthrough. My palms say that there is a completely different career path for me, something that is different from what I have studied. He said that If I have the option to take it and somehow relate it to my studies, it will help me alot. By 35, I will have all the assets I need but I should keep it and reap the benefits later on. He says I’m likely not to settle in my hometown but rather in a foreign country. I’ll have two more relationships. I will have one son either at 28 or 36. 

Check back in with me, I guess, in ten to twelve years to see if my palms hold any truth. 

Besides shopping and getting our futures laid out to us, Sav and I spent the rest of our time in Bengaluru eating really good food. 

Back to Mangaluru, we took the night bus through the Western Ghats (a big mountain region in the South). Since we were traveling through the night, when midnight struck, so did my 24th birthday. Somehow sneaking a cake and some candles onto the bus, Sav and Isaac sang me happy birthday and I made a wish as I blew out the candles. Best midnight snack ever.

Me, Sav, and Isaac eating birthday cake on the overnight bus

How to Be the Perfect Tourist (Bombay) 

Only four days after our return from Bengaluru, Sav and I packed our bags one last time for our five-day trip to Mumbai. 

Truthfully, Mumbai (also referred to as Bombay, the City of Dreams, and the City that Never Sleeps) was one of the more intimidating cities on my travel list. It’s known for many different things – home to Bollywood films, the largest slums in India, tons of billionaires, etc. However, I was not going to let my reservations about the city stop me from visiting. And I’m glad that it didn’t. 

We landed in Mumbai in the late afternoon and wasted no time getting out into the city to explore. Actually, some friends we made while staying in Goa happened to also be traveling through Mumbai at the same time we were. Catching up over dinner and drinks, this was a nice way to spend our first night in Bombay. 

Now, Bombay truly brought out the tourist side of us. In all my travels across India so far, I’ve never felt and looked more like a tourist than I did here. And it was fun. In honor of this, I’m keeping a “classic tourist tally”. After every story I’ll give us a couple of points or so depending on the severity of ‘tourist’. Current tourist tally: 0.

On our first full day in Bombay Sav and I, joined by a friend, took a ride to the southern part of the city. 

Here we visited Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (aka one of Mumbai’s famous museums). Housed here is a collection of artifacts, art collections, and cultural treasures from India and around the world. Funnily enough, even with a degree in Anthropology (and with plenty of archeology training), I am not so much of a museum person. I like to look at things and am usually very perplexed by it all (people existed centuries ago and created these things and here we are today looking at it), but I really don’t like reading all the little signage and plaques that describe what I’m looking at. Luckily, here we spent the extra 50 rupees to have an audio headset so we could listen to the stories behind the items rather than read about them. Yup, this was the first thing that made us total tourists in Mumbai. I’d never do that anywhere else. Tourist tally: 1. 

Afterwards, we visited Mumbai’s famous Gateway of India. This was built in the 20th century to welcome the landing of King George V and Queen Mary on their visit to Bombay in 1911. No crazy tourist behaviors to report from us here. However, we did get a lot of people asking for photos with us and we just kept telling them it would cost them 100 rupees.

Sav and I at the Gateway of India

You’d be shocked to hear that these two activities took up the majority of the day. Tired from being such a tourist all day, we did some relaxing before heading for dinner and drinks. 

The next day, we actually met up with my friend Vinora who I met a couple of months ago as she was completing her studies here in Mangalore. Now she’s in Mumbai for the semester completing an internship. Accompanied by her brother, the four of us had a nice lunch and we set off to see more of Bombay, specifically the Bandra West neighborhood. We first visited the Basilica of Our Lady of the Mount, better known as Mount Mary Church. Afterwards we took a walk down by the sea, where we were able to see the impressive and very popular Bandra sea link (one big long bridge that connects Mumbai).

Vinora and I at Mount Mary Church

Again, Bombay is well connected to the Bollywood industry. Of course being in this city I had to visit Bollywood’s biggest star Shahrukh Khan’s apartment. Yes, everyday people stand outside of his apartment hoping he comes out and waves. He rarely does (and obviously didn’t when we went). This was such a silly little thing to do but massively touristy, so the tally count goes up once again. Current tourist tally: 5 (yup, that itself was worth 4 points). 

After taking us to the street market to do some shopping, we said goodbyes and parted ways to rest (again) before Sav and I headed for dinner and more drinks. 

The following afternoon Sav and I, with more company from friends we made at our hostel, visited Chor Bizarre. This is, allegedly, one of India’s biggest flea markets. It’s a lot of little trinkets, pieces of art, furniture, statues, etc. It actually literally translates to “thieves market” and a lot of the pieces are stolen goods. We had no idea that this was the case until after we went. Oops! Not doing enough research on things brings our tourist tally up to: 6.

Chor Bizarre (photo credits to Sav)

We were actually in Mumbai during the Ramadan holiday (a holy month observed by Muslims) and this particular night, we had made it back to the hostel in time for iftar (meal in the evening that breaks the fast) and were able to join. It was a nice dinner. 

Afterwards, with our friends from earlier, we went and sat on the beach to watch the sunset. It was nice. 

Sunset at the beach

Our last full day in India, Sav and I booked a guided tour to visit Elephanta Island. This island, another UNESCO Heritage Site, is about an hour ferry ride (that I did not find particularly fun) from Mumbai’s harbor. The island is a popular tourist attraction because of its archeological remains that give us a really incredible insight to its cultural past. Its creations, dated somewhere between AD 450 and 750, are nothing less than incredible. The carvings done in this cave are all dedicated to Shiva (Hindu destroyer god) and his many, many forms. 

This was, by far, our most touristy day. Throughout my travels in India, I’ve never booked a guided tour (and I’m not so sure what made us decide to do it for this one), let alone a group tour. Just imagine 8-10 other foreigners standing around in a group waiting for our tour guide to show up. Also, besides the 8 year old boy, Sav and I were by far the youngest people in the group. Really leaning into the whole tourist vibe, on our way to getting onto the ferry we passed a guy who was selling “Gateway to India, Mumbai” bucket hats that we just had to have. Truthfully, they were the silliest purchase of all time, but really completed the look. This, without a doubt, increased our tourist tally by a million.

Carvings inside the caves at Elephanta Island

Me on the ferry wearing the hat

Of course, throughout our time in Bombay, Sav and I enjoyed the social scene. Bars, clubs, nice restaurants, etc. I’d say our favorite night on the town was going to the karaoke bar where we sang “Jolene” by Dolly Parton (in which we killed). A couple of hours (and drinks) later, we decided to also sing “The Spins” by Mac Miller. Now the crowd, many of whom sang like seasoned performers, were taken aback by this choice (please look the song up if you don’t know it). Though it may not have been the perfect choice for that specific scene, Sav and I really stood behind it. 

And just like that, five days in Bombay flew by. Sav and I said our goodbyes at the Mumbai airport as I was returning to Mangaluru and she was taking a couple of days to see Jaipur, Rajasthan solo.  

And so, a last-minute trip to Goa turned into some of the most memorable moments in India so far. Shoutout to Sav for being one of the most fun, unpredictable, down-for-whatever travel partners there is. 

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As always, check out my Photo Gallery to see updated pictures.

My research wraps up by mid-May and I return to the US towards the end of June. In between that time, I have a lot of exciting travel plans. Due to travel, I anticipate a lot of my posts to be delayed.

Disclaimer: This blog is not an official site of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.  The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program, the U.S. Department of State, or any of its partner organizations.