Home Sweet Home

It’s strange that we travel to far away and foreign places just to seek out the things that make us feel at home like a good room, good food and good friends.

I've been back in Dharamsala a week. The bus ride from Delhi turned out to be pretty good. No major complications, besides a flat tire (which I slept through) or weird men. And when I arrived, I was happily greeted by a wonderful and kind familiar face – my good friend Choedar. Coming back to Dharamsala felt like coming home. I went back to my old room in McLeod with the sweet Tibetan landlady and it was available! I couldn’t have felt luckier.

It’s so nice to be back. The weather is great. It’s sunny and warm during the day, rains a little bit in the evening and cool at night. Walking around the first couple of days I passed by and ran into so many familiar faces, but at the same time there’s a whole new crowd of travelers in town.

Traveling alone has been so intense and rewarding. I’ve had to confront (but yet to conquer) my deepest insecurities and fears, and I’ve been rewarded in countless ways. It’s hard to realize all of this during the hard or frustrating parts, but at the end of the day I feel so fortunate and grateful for this opportunity.

The other night I went out to grab dinner thinking it would be a quiet night. I ended up at Carpe Diem, a great after school hang out type of café run by two really nice, young Nepali guys. I walked in and it was packed full of people and the house band was just getting started on a jam session. Everyone was sitting at the tables in huge groups. At first I felt like, ‘damn, I don’t know anyone,” but let it go and relaxed into the scene. The band was great. They played everything from Pink Floyd to Coldplay to Indian pop to Bob Marley. Then the band opened the mic up to musicians in the café. A Danish couple went up and performed a few of their own songs. The entire restaurant was captivated by their songs. It was so beautiful and genuine. At one point everyone in the room was singing along with them. I ended up joining a table with about 20 people from all over – Norway, Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Israel, Zimbabwe, Belgium, Yemen, Holland, France, Japan, Korea… It was so beautiful to be there with so many travelers, most of them also traveling alone and in their twenties, listening to each other sing their hearts out, eating good food and having great time.

There’s an indescribable, fulfilling sense of friendship and humanity in traveling that I’ve fallen in love with.