Monday June 5, 2023:

Our flight wasn’t until the evening, so I spent most of the day packing. I was taking a large check in suitcase for myself, since the trip was planned to last about 6 weeks. In the afternoon, we left for the temple, and then for the airport, where my mom and I grabbed some tacos and then boarded our 2.5 hour flight to Vancouver. Funnily enough, it was in a domestic terminal instead of international; I joked that it’s because Canada is just North US. I was overall excited for the trip, but also nervous. I was going to miss the rest of my family and friends back home a lot, and wasn’t looking forward to the separation. We got on the flight in the evening, and a couple hours later, we were in Vancouver. I just curled up on the flight and read a new book on Kindle; Clytemenestra by Constaza Casati, which just came out. It was really good; I’m a huge fan of Greek mythology and the book had a really unique, excellent focus on Clytemnestra’s story while also mentioning her sisters, like the famous Helen of Troy. The Vancouver airport itself is cool, with some exhibits as you walk to immigration. Immigration was quick; we picked up our bags and then took a complimentary shuttle to the Best Western at Vancouver Airport, which was where we would stay for the next two nights. After a quick shower, I went to bed, excited for the next day.

Tuesday, June 6, 2023:

Today was my day in Vancouver. We woke up in the morning and after getting ready, used public transportation to get to our first stop: the Granville Island Public Market. Public transportation in Vancouver is rather easy; similar to the NYC subway station, you can use touch pay to tap onto the buses and pay a fixed fee to get where you need to go. Google Maps is really good at mapping it out for you. We rode the bus for about half an hour from the hotel and then got off and began to walk. The directions were confusing though; we accidentally went a bit too far walking on the pavement near the freeway and crossed Granville Island. We ended up asking a woman for directions, and turned around, eventually crossing the road and following a pair of tourists going to the same place down the bridge to the island. From there, the public market was close. The Granville Public Market was a really interesting place to visit; it had lots of different restaurants, chocolate shops, booths, and a farmers market as well. We would have bought more foods like salts and olive oils if we didn’t have a long trip ahead of us and no way to store the foods. My mom went to a Mediterranean stand to grab a falafel roll, and I got a spinach, mushroom, and feta crepe from a different stand. The crepe ended up being not that great and kind of flavorless, but my mom loved her roll. We also grabbed some dark chocolates that we ate from a stand, and got an affogato from a gelato shop, which was delicious. We headed back to to the hotel after spending the whole day there, including some souvenir shopping where I got a pair of cute boba earrings, and then headed back.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023:

Today was a day of travel. We woke up, packed our bags, and headed straight to the airport, where after check-in, we grabbed some breakfast. We managed to get an upgrade to business class, which was really nice because this was a 14-hour flight from Vancouver to New Dehli. I’ve only traveled business class with lie-down seats once before, and this was the second time; totally worth it. The flight was really long and the ability to really get comfortable and sleep was amazing. I spent the entire flight reading and finished my book on Clytemenstra before starting a new book, Babel. I slept, we ate food, and eventually, we made it to New Dehli.

Thursday, June 8, 2023:

New Dehli was just a stop on our way to Mumbai. There was a lot of travel! We grabbed our bags, went through immigration, checked the bags back in, went through security again, and made it to our new flight. Two hours later, we were in Mumbai, and after waiting for the driver for a bit (my mom has a friend who lives in Mumbai and knows a good driving service), we got to the hotel, a JW Marriot near the airport. My aunt met us there because she was going to spend the day with us before heading elsewhere. It was really nice to catch up, and the room was also great; it had a huge bathroom, a rain shower, and a bathtub. We all changed and freshened up, and then headed out to get dinner at like 10 PM. We stopped at this small Indochinese fusion place I can’t remember the name of that had excellent Sushi and a chocolate lava cake, and from there, took a stop at Amitab Bachan’s house to take photos outside of it. He’s a super famous Bollywood actor, in case you didn’t know. I don’t really watch Bollywood movies, but it was fun. My mom and aunt were definitely enjoying themselves! From there we got back to the hotel at midnight and absolutely conked out.

Friday, June 9, 2023:

I woke up in the morning to my mom and aunt taking baths, and after they were done and went down for breakfast, I took my turn with the bathtub and bath salts. I washed my hair, since it was grimy from a week of travel, and went down for breakfast. My mom’s friend from high school was there with us; we said goodbye to my aunt, who had to go on her flight and got breakfast. We talked for a bit, and I had some waffles and fruit for breakfast. After breakfast, we packed our bags, put them in the car, and headed to a temple called the Sishi Vinai temple. It’s really famous, so we went, paid a fee to skip the line since we were on a time crunch, and headed in with some offerings for the god Ganesh. It was good to visit the temple, but I hated how crowded it was. I don’t like being in stifling crowds where I keep bumping into strangers and I’m really short too, so I couldn’t see anything and it wasn’t the best experience in the world. Nevertheless, we did it, got out, and then got back in the car and headed to the airport. At the airport, we checked our bags in again and then went to the lounge for some lunch before our flight to Calicut, in Kerala. The entire time, because my mom has a Gold Membership with Star Alliance flights, we kept getting upgraded or allowed to use the lounges, which was really nice because the food was awesome and it was a great place to rest. After some food, including tiny bananas that didn’t taste like normal bananas, we got on the flight, and two hours later, we were in Calicut. From there, we got into a new car with a new driver and drove three hours to the institute where we were staying. The plan was to spend three weeks at an Ayurvedic medical retreat called Ayurved Yoga Villa in order to help with some of my skin issues, which had flared up in the last year. On the drive there, we stopped for some food at a restaurant called Copper Kitchen, and ate some roti and mango. We got to the Villa at 10 and settled into our new home for the next few weeks.

Panchkarma Experience in Kerala (June 10 – June 27)

I underwent a medical treatment for my eczema that is beyond anything Western medicine could imagine; a panchkarma. Panchkarma is an ayurvedic treatment originating in South India that focuses on cleansing the body via all-natural means. I did a lot of research on it, but none of it could prepare me for the actual experience. It was both better and more tiring than I would have expected. I stayed at a small hospital called the Ayurveda Yoga Villa in Kerala, India, about three hours north of Calicut. I met two doctors over there: one main doctor who I met weekly for the biggest check-ins, and one daily for the smaller check-ins. The goal of the treatment was a full body detox so that all my itching would stop, and I could see what was triggering my eczema and the redness on my body. My diet was strict: a big bowl of citrus fruits in the morning, pumpkin soup at lunch, and watermelon and 20 g flaxseeds for protein at dinner. All the food was served in large volumes to be filling, but they were mostly liquids so that my body could focus on expelling extra toxins and waste. If I was still hungry, they would make a dosa out of ragi or bamboo. In between meals and medicines, I would have green tea twice a day as well, and do yoga once a day. My treatments were twofold: one before breakfast but after morning yoga and morning celery juice, which was a basti (essentially an enema with ghee and essential oils) and second, a fully body massage with oil and then a bath of buttermilk and herbs in the afternoons to cool my skin and moisturize it. I didn’t use any other products after showers except for natural oils, including after a morning mud bath, made of natural mud from the forests. The mud came from termite hills, but once the termites died, snakes would move in. The mud is charged with a lot of nutrients that detox the body, and is cleansed in the program before being applied all over the skin and washed off after an hour. Every Sunday there was a feast of proper food laid out on a banana leaf, patterned to mimic the tongue’s taste buds and where they taste certain foods. My favorite part of the Sunday feast was the banana chips, which were truly delicious.

A week into the program I was incredibly tired and fatigued. The day before (June 17), I had burst into tears over nothing, my body’s emotional release of the stress of the program. It is not an easy medical treatment by any means, but I could already see my skin clearing up and my itching was nonexistent. I was having really strong food cravings, and near the end of the program, on June 22, I vomited out the castor oil I was taking every day as a natural diuretic and had to stop taking it until I left; even the thought made me nauseous and brought up phantom retches. One of the days, we went out to a nearby temple, and on the drive, we saw wild elephants and deer! I was my first time seeing a wild elephant, which I loved, since that was a bucket list item. They were gorgeous, though we had to be careful and keep our distance. The forest were were in supposedly had tiger, panthers, and bison as well, but even after my mom and some other people in the program went on a night drive to find them, they didn’t see any. Throughout it all, I was still participating in a virtual internship, since the place had wifi and we had our own router. The program participants came from all over: one woman was from Germany and being treated for cancer, and another for mental degradation. Many times, people come to these programs when Western medicine fails them, and these ayurvedic treatments actually have a high success rate for cancer patients. I also loved the Yoga Villa because it was all-natural: we were in little houses in the jungle, surrounded by nature and monkeys chirping in trees, rather than a more traditional hospital setting where some of these programs take place. It allowed me to really connect with nature and relax, not to mention that Kerala doesn’t have crazy hot summers like North India, and it was cool enough that I even wore a jacket one day! At the end of the program, my skin was clear and non-itchy, and I had slowly weaned back into more regular foods in the last days. Everything was cooked directly in the kitchen, so we could make any requests. It was quite literally farm to table as well: they had a herd of cows they got milk from, and grew all their own fruits and veggies on site.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023:

We left in the morning for Mysore, where we would stay a night, and resumed our daily travels after the Ayurved Yoga Villa. We had booked a taxi to drive with us for a few days all the way until we reached out final destination. We first stopped at the Eddakal Caves, a beautiful set of caves with ancient writings and engravings that were thousands of years old. It was a bit of a walk, but there were lots of stops along the way through the damp rocks in the middle of the forest, and it was gorgeous. On the walk, a leech somehow got into my mom’s shoes and cut her, leading to a bit of bleeding, but it was mostly uneventful. From there, we stopped at the Thrisinelli Shiva Temple since while at the Ayruved Yoga Villa, we had taken a daytrip to the matching Vishnu Temple. They are a matched set, and if you visit one, you have to visit the other. From there we drove to the Banasura Sagar Dam and took the short walk all the way up to the top. It gave us a beautiful view of the oceans and the rolling green farmland, and you could walk along the top of the dam. There were also activities to do there, but we did not have the time. The bathrooms were also quite dirty, only a hole in the ground. From there, it was a direct drive to Mysore. Once in Mysore, we stopped at a huge Shiva temple with a statue of Shivji that rose above the buildings to visit and pay our respects. My dad had, funnily enough, helped to navigate us there even though he was all the way in the US, via call and tracking our locations on Google Maps. After that we checked into the Radisson Blue Hotel, where we stayed in a nice business class room. The restaurant was beautifully set up, and after the stay, I was starving for proper food. The chef came from the kitchen and told me exactly what I could and could not eat based on my allergies. I still pretty much stuck to a strict plant based diet because I was easing myself into food, but to taste proper Indian food after some time was a relief. The room also was set up for my birthday! I suspect my mom had called ahead, but they had written Happy Birthday on the bed in rose petals, and our bedroom was separate from a lounge area and eating area. We had gotten a free upgrade from the hotel, which was quite nice.

Thursday, June 29, 2023:

I woke up in the morning after a comfortable sleep in the giant bed and went to breakfast, where the chef helped again tell me what I could eat. The food was stupendous, and I quite enjoyed myself. My mom was originally going to meet a friend of hers from Bangalore (the state Mysore is in) so he thought we were arriving on the 30th instead, so we had a free day. We first visited the Chamundi Temple, where Durga, a warrior form of the goddess Parvati, defeated a demon and gained the title of Chamundi. It was a break, however, so the temple was so unreasonably, crazily crowded that we could not even get in despite our best efforts, and we ended up just taking photos out front and leaving. We drove from there to the Sand Museum, which is quite a big attraction of Mysore. There are sculptures and artwork made entirely of sand there, and some other attractions, like an archery booth and a fish spa, both of which I tried out. From there we drove to the Mysore Palace, and the Tipu Summer Palace after that, and toured both. They are lavish, gorgeous palaces that are maintained and can be toured, and have a lot of history behind them. It was my first time in Bangalore, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Friday, June 30, 2023:

In the morning, we met my mom’s friend, and after doing some shopping at a pop-up, we went to a restaurant called Native for lunch. It was a delicious bohemian vegan food place where I had amazing Pav Bhaji made of sweet potato and sprouts, and I want to try making it on my own at home. After that we walked through different areas of Bangalore and looked around and did some shopping.

Saturday, July 1, 2023:

We grabbed lunch with a different friend today, who my mom knew all the way back when she was a kid and could be considered my uncle. The lunch was also with his younger son, who I played with a bit when he got bored. The food was a buffet, so we had to double check with the chefs on what I could eat, but I still really enjoyed the food. It was a very spicy restaurant though, and my spice tolerance is high, but not that high. After lunch we said our goodbyes, and my mother and I moved our bags to a different room so that the hotel could prepare the business suite. After a couple hours of rest, we drove to the airport and took our flight to Kolkata, where we were picked up by my uncle to stay at my grandparent’s on my dad’s side house.

Sunday, July 2 – Friday, July 7 (Kolkata)

We had a relaxed few days in Kolkata. I spent time with my family, who I had not seen in a long time, and ate very good home made food from my dadiji. At night on Sunday, my aunt, mom, and I, visited an outdoor market at night (it was still very hot) with handcrafted jewelry, shirts, and paintings, all for cheap since it was directly from the maker. Most of them spoke Bangla instead of Hindi, which I did not know any of, but I stayed mostly quiet since I knew that I had a strong American accent and I did not want the prices to go up for us. After our shopping we grabbed some juice from a nearby stall, freshly squeezed, but it’s culture in Kolkata to automatically but salt and spices in fresh fruit juice for flavor. I don’t understand it, but I had to request juice without the spices. I found it to be an interesting cultural difference. On Monday we drove to get my dad and sister from the airport, and after a month, it was nice to be reunited with them. We spent the next few days relaxing and going shopping for Indian clothes, and I found an amazing Chaat stand that washed their dishes to make sure there would be no cross-contamination and made me chaat from scratch. On Thursday my mom left early to visit her cousins, and we joined them at a small store called Aarvi, where we bought some nice new Indian clothes, and after stopping at Gupta Brothers and the Axis Mall Chaat Stand for food, we were back. Our last day in Kolkata, we went with my uncle to HinMotor, short for Hindustan Motors, a small factory colony that my parents grew up in that shut down a decade ago. It is where they met and got married, and it was a nice, nostalgic visit to see where they grew up and proposed and dated and married, and also where my grandparents worked to make money. The drive was a bit outside of Kolkata, but well worth it. Except for the temples, which were still maintained by law, the entire former colony was completely gronw over, with plants consuming most of the buildings and wild bulls grazing as they pleased. We ate at a Gupta Brothers restaurant for dinner and then headed back, stuff packed.

Saturday, July 8, 2023:

We took an early morning flight on Saturday to New Dehli. My mom has gold status, but it’s only her and she could only bring one person into the airline lounge with her. Since I went a bunch with my mom when it was just the two of us travelling, I let my sister go with her. The flight was relatively short, and afterwards, we loaded our luggage into our prebooked taxi, with half of our suitcases piled on top of the car under a tarp to protect from the rain. We stopped at a dhaba for lunch around three, and I ordered sandwiches and noodles since I was not in the mood for the dhaba’s traditional food, and then we continued to Vrindavan. Dhaba’s are like small roadstops on the long drive from New Dehli to the cities surrounding it like Vrindavan, which is about three hours away. Once in Vrindavan, we stayed in an ashram, the same place my naniji was staying. An ashram is essentially like a religious retreat? You don’t have to pay if you can’t afford it, though we obviously payed, it and does a lot of charity work and feeds the community around it. We had a nice room with AC and an apartment style set up in one of the newer buildings of the ashram, and after going down to the main dinner area and eating—on the ground on mats, as is tradition, and then washing our dishes afterwards—we went to bed.

Sunday, July 9, 2023:

My parents woke up early in the morning to go to the temple, but my sister and I slept in. Once we were up, we showered and went down for brunch with my family and naniji (mom’s mom). Unfortunately, I was unable to eat anything at the restaurant, Brijwasi, due to allergens and cross-contamination. Downtown Vrindavan was interesting though: there were monkeys and cows everywhere, almost nothing was written in English, and Radhe Radhe, a call out to the wife of Krishna, was written everywhere and could even be stamped on your face. Vrindavan is a very small religious town where it is said Krishna grew up, and much less industrialized than big cities like Kolkata or New Dehli. I was able to get a proper dinner at a pandit’s house; he was a friend of my naniji’s, and he made it all from scratch, including a delicious guava chutney. I also had some khichdi from the ashram, which was delicious, and after dinner at the pandit’s, I was able to pet and milk a cow. The cow was technically owned by my family, because in Hindu tradition, we were going to donate it to the pandit so that it could cross over into the Underworld and guide my dead nanaji across the river and to heaven. Milking a cow was quite odd; it was slippery and I had to squeeze very hard, almost digging my fingers in to get the milk out. Probably not an experience I would repeat again, but one I’m glad I tried.

Monday, July 10, 2023:

I woke up, and after getting ready, went to breakfast at the same pandit’s house. My parents had woken up much earlier to go through the cow donation ceremony, but I had no interest in waking up at 4 am personally. The rest of the day was relaxing, and my naniji, who was unfortunately not feeling well, stayed the night with us.

Tuesday, July 11 – Tuesday, July 18 (London)

After getting ready in the morning, we ensured that my mother’s flights were switched so that she could stay longer with my naniji, who was still not feeling well and had a small liquid IV at that point. The rest of us took the booked taxi back to New Dehli, stopping at another dhaba along the way for lunch, and then boarded our flight to London. It was shaky to say the least. I got incredibly nauseous from something I ate and got so dizzy I almost passed out at one point, but eventually fell asleep. I was feeling so unwell I barely noticed my sister next to me, who vomited six times after getting up, before passing out on the ground in the back, prompting the airline hostess to call a doctor on the plane for her. Both of us were happy to be on solid ground after the flight, and were a bit shaky for next couple days. My sister had to drink liquid IV for a few days as well, just to regain the fluids she lost on the plane. It was easily the worst flight I have ever been on, possibly because we were in the very back of the shaky plane. We still are not sure of the actual cause, however. We spent our time in London relaxing and spending time with our younger cousins; playing Mario Kart with them and the like. Our mother joined us after a couple days in London, once my naniji was feeling better. One of the days, we went out as a large group for tea at Roti and Chai, and then dinner at Bombay Palace. The first time I was stuck with the little kids mostly watching over them, but at the second restaurant, most of the younger ones had headed back, so I was able to enjoy my much more allergy-friendly food and have some proper conversation with the adults. Everyone else was 13 or younger except for my sister, which was a semi-babysitting experience. Eventually, we repacked and headed back.

This was overall the longest trip I have ever been on, but it was an amazing experience. I got to visit so many new places, see so many new sights, improve my Hindi, and spend time with family, which was really the most important part of the trip.