I started off this year with a bunch of goals. Not sure if this is just me slowly entering my quarter-life crisis, but I’ve been trying to (re)discover hobbies, find out things about myself and just do some soul-searching in general. While I might’ve given up on a bunch of these (RIP the dusty guitar in the corner of my room), the one goal I can say that I’m satisfied with has been one to travel. I believe I’ve been to more places this year than any other year of my life.

While the year started off travelling with friends old and new (see: trippin’), it ended with me discovering my love for solo trips. That being said, this post will basically just be a travelogue (and a place for me to photo dump). Also included will be me yapping about walking and how much I enjoy taking random long walks through the city. At the risk of sounding bourgeois (spelled it right!), I came across a fancy word recently that I’d like to describe myself with.

flâneur: a man who saunters around observing society.

hyderabad

No better place to start than home. I feel like people have the tendency to put off traveling to the places closest to them. Golconda Fort, a major tourist attraction within walking distance from where I live took me a year to finally get around to. In an effort to change that, I’ve been slowly crossing off touristy places as well as random low-key places I find online. Places aside, I also try to experience the vibes of the city, and for me personally, an evening journey solely to sample some authentic biryani in the old city topped off with a stop for some amazing ice-cream is the epitome of the Hyderabad experience.

mumbai

The city of dreams is a place I’ve always wanted to see and experience for myself, and it did not disappoint. This was the first (somewhat) solo trip I ever took and it was great. Just walking around the city petting random cats(so many cats😭), turning into any alley that catches my fancy was liberating beyond words. I had plenty of fun travelling around on the cute little kaali-peelis and the mumbai local, getting lost with a dead phone (fun in retrospect). Exploring the city with a random local, getting a history lesson from a stranger on the bus and ending the day with some crisp vada pav by the beach at sunset is a whole vibe I could never imagine elsewhere. Truly a city to fall in love with (if only I could afford it😔).

jaipur

The pink city was my first foray to the north of India, and I’ll admit I had my reservations going here solo. However, this turned out to be such an amazing experience that really set the tone for this entire post, which started out in the common room of the hostel I was staying at, after one of the best days I’d had in a while. My initial impression of the city was that it was a bit of a tourist trap with big crowds everywhere, but one of the benefits of just messing around by yourself is that you somehow end up finding some really pretty places off the beaten path. Don’t get me wrong, the touristy places were all gorgeous, but the crowds really take away the serenity of these places for me. Late night chai breaks, conversations with so many interesting strangers at the hostel and the amazing people of Jaipur Reads have got to be the highlights of this trip.

delhi

While I ended up in the capital for the KubeCon 2024 conference, I stayed back for a couple days exploring all the interesting bits of Delhi and also (finally) made my way to the Taj Mahal. Delhi has been by far the most accessible city I’ve been to with the amazing Delhi Metro (always a fan of well planned public transit!). Walking around in the cold weather was also so much fun (imagine being able to wear two jackets😭), until I caught a fever and discovered (by sheer force of will) the limits of how much I can walk while sick.

~

While this post only covers my solo travels, this year also involved fun trips with friends to Pondicherry, Goa, Chirala and numerous other mini-trips around Hyderabad. I leave 2024 having learnt a lot about finding my own happiness and growing ever so slightly closer to the adult I thought I’d be as a kid. Here’s to an even better 2025!