On 5th May 2017, the day our journey started. It included a trip of 42 days exploring 8 states of our country. For every group, explorer comes with various experience and expectations. Nevertheless our group was a bit different than others because our group had a girl with two boys. As much difficult as it seems, it had its perks, like sophistication, hygiene and a little bit of discipline! Also it taught us boys that how sometimes, we can’t have all we want and how we’d have to sacrifice some things because of other members of group or family. There were instances when we were duped, when we felt scared of the roads, when we were threatened by Cobra bearing beggars!
Our journey started from Delhi, with spices and delicacies as our theme. We planned to gather and explore North Indian spices in Mussoorie. It was all a delight seeing nature from a height. The waterfalls, lakes, mountains and curvy road trips made it all overwhelmed to us. After few days there, we travelled to the east part of our India, to explore some of the hottest chillies world has. We were extremely fortunate to find our auto driver to be a person who can understand Hindi. It was of great help as the rural farmers weren’t able to understand what we wanted to say. After a few days attempting to eat the famous Ghost chillies, we went to Shillong. There we scouted for the special Lokadong Turmeric and Long Pepper. Shillong was a tourist spot with sky high rates for all commodities. We toured there for two days including Cherrapunjee and Dawki. We witnessed clear lakes and rivers along with clouds over our heads and Bangladesh border. Our tour to eastern India ended in Guwahati by visiting the one and only Kamakhya temple. We left for South the next day. It was our privilege to have our ticket in the famous Vivek express, the longest train of India. However it turned a nightmare to be in that train for 2 and a half days in the scorching heat of South India. We reached Visakhapatnam and toured beaches, submarine museum and Kailasgiri. We left for Guntur after a couple of days and saw the market of the famous Andhra Chillies(Guntur Mirchi). Our main stop was Kerala where we resided for 12 days. There we toured seeing many spices like black pepper, clove, vanilla and many more. With the onset of monsoon, we were amazed experiencing heavy rains in God’s own country. Also, the clouds and temperature along with the combination of rainforests in Kumily was all we needed to chill. We left for Goa, our last destination and. It was heavily raining there and sunny days were seldom. The famed Spice Plantation of Goa was closed due to heavy rains as were the water sports. The pools and seas called us every time the water touched our feet but the rain kept us locked in our rooms for most of the time.
This was such an amazing journey, filled with surprises and difficulties at every turn. But through these experiences, we got a different perception for the country and the people living in it.
