india – Simple Guy Goes For A Journey

Good afternoon people that read this blog. It has been a while since I last posted an update on my journeys across the Atlantic Ocean from the lovely United States. Truthfully I have been busy and also tired. India worn me out with it’s freakish ways. I had to go back on my last post to see where I even left off and looks like just the start of the journey through India in the city of Jaipur. Well a lot of shit happened and to write it all would be a bear but I will sum it up for you.

The experience I had in India was an experience. India is a country that is very poor as we all know, but to actually be submerse in their life style can change how you think about the world that you came from and how lucky you are. When I was India everyday I had homeless children come up to me and beg over an over for money. Mucus seeming from their nose and t-shirts that seemed to be formed from handkerchiefs. Dirt cover their arms and legs and their hair was knotted up like spanish moss. They were just trying to survive and get what they can by hustling. Crowds of people were everywhere yelling and laughing and talking, it was like overload for the mind walking into the city. Traffic seemed to have no rules and no hospitality. People were screaming and beeping to get out of the way and what not. You would see cows shitting in the middle of the road and monkeys hoping from the overhead buildings and wires. Hecklers would grab you and draw your attention to the stuff you couldn’t care less about and you constantly had to say no no no. Your nose would fill up with countless amount of smells from the spices on the corners of the road to static piss that’s been heated from the sun and brewed. Very tiring this all was when you experienced it everyday for three weeks. But with all this traumatic events going on at light speed, there is a certain energy and flow that makes India unique and I can see how that draws people to it.

The Route I took in India was from Jaipur to Udaipur to Jodhpur to Jaislamer to Agra and then to Delhi. My favorite place that I went to was Udaipur. It was very laid back on the water looking over a fancy castle/hotel built in the middle of this lake. The only problem that I had was the prayer call was loud as fuck and started at 5am in the morning everyday. There was also the blue city of Jodhpur that ironically is turning less blue every year. There was Jaislamer which was on the border of Pakistan where I went to ride camels and spend the night on the sand out in the desert. Agra of course to see the Taj Mahal, other than that wonder there is not much to do there. Last was Delhi for Holliday and that was pretty fun in itself. So with all that my experience in each city was the same. I saw cool shit and I saw weird shit. I met trippy people in the hostels that seem like again they were trying to find themselves and open up their third eye and India seemed like the place to do that. I met regulars like me that would just look at stuff and say thats odd or neat. Food was excellent but the same everywhere. It was just really excellent curry with some bread that looked kind of like tortillas but fucking amazing tasting. That was my diet for three weeks, that’s pretty much all I ate. There was other stuff like fried spice balls and potato based foods. India is the place to be for vegans, 80 percent of population is probably a vegetarian. One thing I miss deeply about India was waking up to 65 degree weather with a nice glass of chai tea. My god this stuff was good. It was like I was drinking ginger spice milk tea that tasted like it had a hint of the best fruity pebbles ever. That’s the best way I can describe the taste. The region that I went to was all desert so it would be pretty cold in the morning and then by 12 o clock it would be 90 degrees outside.

I’ve been to a lot of places for the past three months and seen countless of different cultures. I’ve learned a long time ago (okay two years ago) that no matter where you go people are people. Meaning everyone is like everyone from back home. Mostly nice and willing to help people with warm hearts that love. People that stay in one spot are so sheltered and have misperceptions of the outside world and believe everyone is hostel and out to get you. I’ll tell you what that is not the case at all. I recommend anyone to travel because then it not only opens up your mind but opens up your heart as well. It will make you cast away from prejudice and look inside of people that are from a completely different world than you. Because in the end were not different, we are all human beings with a passion to love, to care, and to be kind. I honestly don’t know what else to say about India. Just if you go there it’s an experience that you probably will enjoy.

I am now in Australia. After Holliday, which is where they spray colors everywhere in the streets in India, I was just dead. I laid in bed for two days basically and just binged Netflix. I flew to Thailand and then again Binged Netflix for a day. I flew to Australia and then for a day again Binged Netflix. I was pooped and didn’t want to think about anything. I just wanted to relax and watch Lost all day. In Australia I am trying to get a job and go exploring at the same time. For the past two weeks I have been trying to get a job in Laboring but so far I haven’t got any offers. I will most likely buy a camper van when I do get a job and live a life on the edge of the woods sleeping in my car for a few months. Saving up money for the next big trip. South America.

Here’s some pictures of the rest of my journey, enjoy:

The City of Udaipur:

Indian Convenience Store:

Sunrise in Jodhpur:

Castle In Jodhpur:

Blue City of Jodhpur

Lady In A Door Way:

Beetle In Jaislamer:

Taj Mahal:

Australia:

It has been well over two months and pushing three in another part of the world besides the United States. I am happy to find out that my visa has been approved and I will start my job searching in Australia in the beginning of March. My journey has been an incredible experience that I will cherish forever. I have two weeks left till my flight leaves out of Bangkok and I have decided to spend those two weeks in North India. I will see the Taj Mahal and be there for Holli day. Before this trip I was in Malaysia for five days to check out the city Kuala Lumpur.

I’ll be honest with you we didn’t really check out any of Malaysia. We basically just saw the Petronas Towers and went to shopping markets. Why is this? Because honestly we were tired of always being on the move and just wanted to relax, lay back, and have some brews. A vacation in a vacation. It amazes me how when you travel for a while and are on vacation, shit starts to get real tiring real quick. Someone’s reading this and is probably like, give me a fucking break, I’m working 40 plus hours a week and your complaining about traveling. Trust me I know, and I try to tell myself that every day. Take in the moment because soon you will be working again wishing that you were traveling. But man I’ve been to a lot of places in less than three months. I’ve been 9 cities in Thailand, 3 cities in Laos, 10 cities in Vietnam, 1 city in Singapore, and 1 city in Malaysia. That’s a lot of shit in 2 and half months man. So like I was saying, we decided to do nothing for five days in Kuala Lumpur, rent an air bnb, and just drink. We deserved it.

I liked Kuala Lumpur from what I saw. The city felt like it was a mix of Thailand’s craziness with Singapore’s infrastructure. Had the same kind of mix culture vibe with people from every corner of the world. Felt like a real melting pot. The bars were really cool. Very modern like the U.S. with a little bit of a middle east vibe. People were friendly and outgoing, and everyone knew how to speak english. The food was the bomb, and if you don’t like SE Asian food they had really good western food. I ate a lot of western food here to fatten me up for India. Plus you get really sick of Asian food after months. At least I think so. Again I’m just an average american traveling Asia for a good bit. Opening up my mind and seeing what these places are really like and trying new things like the food (but it gets old). Getting out of my comfort zone and exploring the unknown. But I’m not a hippie. Probably a bad term to say and I have no problem with hippies, but I didn’t come to Asia for enlightenment. I didn’t think this trip was going to change me to a spiritual being that sees a whole new way of life. Fuck that would have been great but I know myself, and I am not like that. I looked at this trip as time to clear my mind and figure out what I want to do, and do a path that most people don’t usually take in the U.S. I read some people’s blogs about traveling and I’m just like fucking hell they thought everything was magical as hell and life’s never been so perfect and there’s fairy dust everywhere. For some parts of this trip I feel them and I have wrote some blogs about certain magical times in my trip like biking through Vietnam through these amazing mountain ranges. The whole adventure though I’m just saying isn’t so magical. It gets to a point where your just like oh that’s pretty cool. Or that’s neat. Or even like this is shitty. However every 3 or so days you see something that just stimulates the fuck out of your mind and you’re like hell yeah! that’s so cool! It sucks to think this way, but I am just telling you it is the truth. Thing’s just start becoming the norm when everything is not normal. It’s a weird concept but I’m just letting the mind flow. People hype shit up. Sorry for going on a tangent. I was just talking about food and went completely another way with that. Oh well.

Anyways so back to Malaysia. We had a super sick condo right on drinking street. Basically drank almost every night, met amazing people with the same idea, and had a break from seeing the world. Pictures below are the Petronas Towers:

Now I’m chilling in India. I’ve been here for about five days now. I remember being in college and one of my friends wanted to go to India and teach kids how to speak english. I told the man that he’s fucking crazy and India seems just like a shit hole with too many people running around and acting weird and shit. I said I would never go to India and I have no desire. Well traveling has opened my mind a little bit and now I’m eating crow. My buddies have convince to come to India to explore the cities Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Agra to see the Taj Mahal, and New Delhi for holli day. I said, “you know what why the fuck not?” If I don’t like it I’ll never come back but I won’t know unless I go, so here I am.

India I kind of like. It’s a weird chaotic place that kind of is a shit hole with uncleanliness, but there’s something about it. Everywhere you look there’s something that interest you. Like a cow blocking a 3 lane highway and everyone is waiting for this cow to move because it’s sacred. Traffic is chaotic, and outside the traffic there’s hecklers doing business and people performing weird tasks like crushing up weird shit that you don’t know why he’s crushing it up, putting some liquid on it, and then throwing it into a fire, then thinking why the fuck did he do all that just to throw it in the fire? Buildings are pretty and old. Never seen building like these. They look like what I would see in Aladdin and that’s probably a horrible reference because I’m thinking Aladdin is probably somewhere completely different than India. The people for the most part are nice if they aren’t trying to get money out of you. The colors are vivid here. I see these women in the most gorgeous colors that make them full of light and they glow. Maybe that’s what I like the most so far? The colors. They all express themselves through colors that captures the eye. Foods great here too. I thought I was going to starve because everyone said Indian food is worse than Thai food but boy are they wrong.

The craziest thing I have done so far in India is met a gypsy that was my tuk tuk driver and go to his house in the slums to met his family after his shift at night. This was in Jaipur in the poorest slums. There was barely a roof that they lived under and there was 15 people living in this building that had to be less than 20 foot by 20 foot upstairs and downstairs. I was mind blown. However he told me it’s not about the money it is about if you are happy, and that is the most important part. I told him you hit it right on the nail bubba. He and his family played music to me all night and his little boys were singing and dancing with the biggest smiles on their face. It does amaze me how people can be so happy in the worst places, but they were and are truly happy.

I am now in Jodhpur. I took a 8 hour bus from Udaipur that was cramped and had no A/C. This city is called the blue city and it’s all blue. Other than that I don’t know what to do here then see the blue city. What I am looking forward to is riding a camel in the desert and camping out, seeing the Taj Mahal, and celebrating the end of my Asia trip with Holli day. These experiences are what I am looking forward to, and hopefully they will be amazing. Down here is some of the pictures I have taken so far while being here: