It's better to travel

I was 21 when I traveled alone to a foreign country for the first time in my life. The destination was the Indian subcontinent. 

My Air India flight arrived in New Delhi well after midnight, at like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Back then, I was young and reckless and didn't do any preparation for the two-month journey. I didn't even reserve a hotel room for the first night. I didn't need to, though. As soon as I stepped out of the airport, I was surrounded by dozens of taxi drivers and whisked away by one of them to a hotel of his choice, which would give him a commission. The drive to the hotel was probably the scariest 30 minutes of my life. I was in the pitch-black darkness in a car with a total stranger whom I didn't know if I could trust. I even thought, "What if he is a kidnapper?" It turned out, however, that he was just a hard-working taxi driver as I arrived at a rather decent hotel in a clean, quiet neighborhood of New Delhi.

A week or so into the journey, I met, at the Bombay airport, a middle-aged German woman who was also traveling alone. We were both waiting for a flight to the southern city of Cochin and after some chatting, decided to travel together. I think we were both starting to feel lonely. A few days later, we met an Italian hippie guy and a gentlemanly elderly Englishman who, just like me and the German woman, Elizabeth, met each other in the course of their journeys. I traveled with this strange mix of Europeans for the next several days. Coming from different countries and very different backgrounds, they were all fun people to be with, but I especially remember how Elizabeth was a warm-hearted, motherly person. I still keep the towel she gave me one night when she found out I didn't have anything in my bag except the passport, a spare T-shirt and underwear, a Walkman, and a little money barely enough to get by for the rest of the journey.

After a hilarious time together with them in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, I parted ways with them, first with the Italian guy and the Englishman and a few days later with Elizabeth. I was alone again. After the day Elizabeth left for home, I often found myself singing to "Breakout," a tune in Swing Out Sister's "It's Better to Travel" album. Whenever I felt lonely dining alone, couldn't sleep at night, and got homesick, I played the song, which encouraged me to go on my journey with lyrics like "The time has come to make or break. Move on. Don't hesitate. Break out." The journey to India is and always will be the best and most memorable travel I've had in my life and I owe the once-in-a-lifetime experience to the great musical companion.