Hyderabad – first nights 

Traveling to India to meet up with a friend, and my first days there going to an indian wedding, what a way to start my Asia adventure. An adventure that I have had on my bucket list since I first fell in love with traveling in 2013, with an interrail trip with my the danish scouts, and with this stamp my trip starts finally.

Vijayawada in Andhra pradesh – wedding 

The indian wedding, is a massive party with something like 5000 people over 2 days, loud music, fireworks and lots of food. I was the only white person there but everyone was so nice. So first day was the wedding party here we came to bless the couple putting rice on their head and then next day was the reception, the big party day. Where the bride and groom would go from their house to the party arriving with fireworks and then go on a horse throne getting pulled from the car all the way to the big stage, where people would again come up on stage and bless them, this time with flowers, and then 3 massive food courts around the premises with different food stands. I was just following my friend who sometimes would tell me someone wanted a picture with me because the guest would first come to him to ask. 

Hyderabad – Big city, going out. 

Going out in Hyderabad, pretty much like any other big city so not much to tell here. But I did get to taste india’s delicious food, I absolutely fell in love with pani puri a snack, a hollow deep-fried crispy shell (puri) filled with spiced potatoes, chickpeas and chutney then dipped in tangy, spicy, or sweet flavored water (pani). And one thing I look forward to is to test the indian food out in Denmark, because funny this is I didn’t actually use to eat Indian food in Denmark and I usually hate rice dishes, but after having tasted all the amazing food in India that has definitely changed.  

North Goa – Party town, crazy life 

And then we took a sleeper bus to north Goa, and this is a bumpy 9 hour ride with no toilet but in a bed but was honestly almost easier to fall asleep in 4 meter waves across the atlantic, maybe just me being more used to sailing though. But we made it and checked into our hostel, Dreams, in Arambol, North Goa, the home of psy trance parties so naturally our days was more from afternoon to morning. Our days would be waking up, go to the common area outside our dorm rooms and waking up with hangovers waiting for the first one to initiate the first beer of the day and then more and more people would join and more and more beers or old monk (the indian rum) would be consumed, with all respect of cause. (Drink responsibly guys). Then we would go to mango three bar, to meet more people and find some food, my favorite food snack what chicken 65, so good and for more food, paneer butter masala with cheese/garlic chapati, roti or naan bread, yum yum yum. And I ate a lot of raw onion and lime as this you got for every meal to manage the spiciness and also helps our westerns to not get a bad case of stomachaches.  

South Goa – Volunteer, Jungle living, Canacona, Kochi, Munnar, Indian train and Christmas

After a week of partying it was time to move on, time to go to South Goa. So I found a volunteer job on a Farm and stay in Sadolxem, Canacona, South Goa. A Yoga retreat in the middle of the jungle just 15 minutes drive from the town Canacona. Here I stayed for 3 weeks over Christmas, where I helped preparing the huts for people to stay and feel the same bliss of paradise we felt staying there and making art work, smashing down an old clay sofa to rebuild and make the place Nice again. I also got to help in the Indian kitchen as we had to make our food, so I would be blending everything that I was told to blend and then 2 hours later we would all meet up and eat together sitting on the bar table, very chill. In the day time we would cool down at the river, and at night we would well still be by the river but we would make a fire and sing and chill. And when we needed to get into society we took a bike taxi and would enjoy the beach there. 

While staying here I took a weekend trip with a 14 hours train ride from Canacona, South Goa to Kochi, Kerala in 3rd class. I have done long trips much like this but in Europe, which is much more spacey than Indian trains, where personnel space is not a thing, and you have feet everywhere, which for me is a struggle, cause I hate feels in my face and guys touching me randomly when they walk by because i’m white and being white in India is like being famous. But when you take this out of your mind, life in this train is a fun experience and for me a must when in India, so much is happening, some sleep, some eat, some laugh and play songs, because not many uses headphones no no that is insta reels on loud, so I finally got upgraded to second class, not knowing I could do that in the train by talking with the conductor and got my own bed to get at least 6 hours of sleep before landing in Kochi, with the frase “chicken biryani, veg biryani” in an Indian accent, oh what fun.    

In Kochi I met up with a local from Couchsurfer and we went to Munnar the land tea and saw some waterfalls, but no elephants and because of the election, lots of people on the street with music and statements to share but no alcohol anywhere because in Asia you can’t drink and vote, apparently they want you to make sure you make a sober decision. And for my Kochi trip I took a tuktuk around town, where I saw an old school washing place still in use, a place where the washing machine is a person standing in a booth with a bath and slamming the clothes and bedding onto a block, drying the clothes outside and then ironing with heavy irons. Very interesting to see and honestly I think the guy washing had fun doing it, gave me a little extra show for the camera. And then I went around a saw all the different churches and temples, because in india and especially Goa and Kerala, there is a lot of different believes as the dutch, Portuguese and british and other where there because it was a good trading route, which is also why going to south India or more specific Goa or Kerala is a good way to transition into the Asian lifestyle from Europe or USA as there is more restaurants and such for where you get cutlery and you can get western food, which is what they in india call Fine dining. But if you ask me this is not what I want, I want authentic, local and new.     

For Christmas we went and got Lebanese food after seeing the sunset from the hillside with a lot of other people, each having brought different instruments with them to play, one brought drums, one a trumpet. So an amazing chill vibe for the sun to come down to a perfect Christmas night. And then my days in India was about to end and I started saying goodbye to all things India and all the amazing people I was staying with here for it is time for new adventures, meeting up with friends from Copenhagen in Sri Lanka to celebrate New year.