u/plumppurple

I went to Alleppey for the first time a few months ago and I still think about it randomly during the day.

Not because something crazy happened there. It’s just one of those places that quietly gets stuck in your head.

I remember reaching there tired as hell after a long journey and the first thing I noticed was how slow everything felt. Boats moving lazily, tiny shops near the water, old uncles sitting outside their houses doing absolutely nothing. Nobody seemed to be in a rush and weirdly, that started affecting me too.

I spent most of my time doing the simplest things. Eating fish curry meals at small places near the road, getting lost in narrow lanes, sitting near the backwaters for hours without even touching my phone much. One guy running a tea stall spoke to me for twenty minutes like we already knew each other.

There was this one evening when it started raining lightly near the lake and the whole place somehow became even prettier. The water, the sound of boats, people casually carrying on with their day. I just stood there completely still for a bit.

As someone who’s still new to travelling, Alleppey felt very different from the usual “tourist place” experience I had imagined in my head. It didn’t try too hard to impress me.

It just felt real.

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Funny how all the “please reduce spending, avoid unnecessary foreign travel, conserve fuel, save the economy” messaging started showing up right after elections.

Before elections, everything was:

India booming.

Economy unstoppable.

Middle class thriving.

Global superpower.

Fastest growing nation on earth.

Then votes are counted and suddenly citizens are being told to tighten belts, travel less, spend less foreign exchange and prepare for “global uncertainty.”

It’s honestly exhausting how every crisis in this country gets repackaged as a moral responsibility for ordinary people. Oil prices go up? Citizens must sacrifice. Currency weakens? Citizens must sacrifice. Inflation rises? Citizens must be patriotic harder.

Meanwhile the same political class, industrialists and influencers preaching restraint will continue flying internationally, hosting destination weddings and posting luxury Europe itineraries without skipping a beat.

The timing is what gets me. If things were this fragile, why does the truth only appear after elections are safely over?

That one time when I ended up in Shoja because I missed a bus.

No fancy cafés selling 300 rupee coffee. No people screaming over Bluetooth speakers. Just pine trees, fog, old Himachali homes, and silence so loud it almost makes you uncomfortable.

Stayed at this tiny homestay where the owner kept feeding me rajma chawal like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. It was raining outside, everyone was sitting near the kitchen heater, and nobody was trying to impress anybody.

Just existing.

I went for a walk the next morning with just stray dogs following me around like unpaid guides and clouds moving through the forest like smoke.

And somewhere during that trip, I realized how exhausted I’d become without noticing.

Not physically. Mentally.

Like every day in the city had turned into this constant pressure to become more. More successful. More productive. More interesting. Even rest started feeling guilty.

Shoja didn’t magically fix my life or help me “find myself.” I still came back to the same problems.

But it reminded me that softness still exists.

There are still places in the world where nobody cares what you do, how much money you make, or whether you’re “doing enough.”

And honestly, I think a small part of me never left that village.

Dont get me wrong, I understand the heritage and importance of pilgrimage but i'm strictly against using animals to complete the trip. Pilgrimages are a form of surrendering the materialistic things and if youre looking for comfort in that too, then it sucks bro...

Dont be using horses/other animals to make you reach the destination.

Heyy, so i'm planning a budget trip to pondi and places around and i needed some insight about good lowkey places to go with friends.

That travel is just a socially acceptable identity crisis.

Like you save up money, leave your life behind, fly 3,000 km, and suddenly you’re like “I’m a beach person now” or “I wake up at 5am for sunrises” -no you don’t😭

You just paid ₹40,000 to cosplay a better version of yourself.

And the weirdest part? It works.

Also why does getting lost in a random lane in a new city feel like a spiritual awakening, but getting lost in your own city feels like a personal failure?

Travel really is like: same person, different location, dramatically improved personality.