Solo travelling often leads to unexpected experiences and memorable stories. Here are three from my own journeys.   The Long Walk and the Holy Man In December of 2018, I was in Gokarna for a couple of days, a small beach town in Karnataka. I reached Gokarna at 3.30 AM after boarding a bus from Pune the previous evening. The bus dropped me off in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. My hostel in Gokarna was 15 kilometres away. Taking an auto to the hostel would have cost ₹500, but I was keen on saving money as I was no longer working and wanted to continue travelling for as long as I could. So, I decided to the walk the entire length with only my google maps for company. It was pitch black outside and there didn’t seem to be a soul in sight. I could hear the sound of some creatures moving in the dark, so I said some prayers, turned on my phone’s flashlight and started walking. I kept walking and after about 8 kilometres I stopped in a small tea shop to have breakfast. After a few more kilometres, I decided to rest at a bus station. By that time, it was early morning and the sun had risen. While I was seated in the bus stand, a sadhu (holy man) approached me and asked If I could buy him some biscuits, I readily agreed. He spoke excellent English and had an accent like Sadhguru and I was impressed by how fluent he was. I enquired more about his background and he told me told me he ran away from home in Uttarakhand when he was 17 and decided to live as a sadhu. Since then, he had been travelling across India, moving from place to place. We chatted for around 15 minutes, and I decided it was time to get moving again. Before we parted ways, he placed his head on my hand and gave me his blessings. As I resumed walking, I thought to myself, if I had just taken an auto and headed directly to the hostel, I sure would have missed out on this interesting encounter with the sadhu.   A Three-Hour Breakfast Last year I was solo travelled to Kolkata. It was a place that I had been wanting to go for quite some time. On a Sunday morning, I headed to popular restaurant in town called Flurry’s to have breakfast. One of the staff members outside the restaurant informed me that the place was full, so I decided to wait and read something on my phone. A few minutes later a girl came and joined the queue. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her glancing at me. I always enjoy meeting and talking to new people, so I turned to her and asked if she was travelling or whether she was from Kolkata. She told me she was from town and seemed pleased to know that I was from Kerala. But before we could talk any further, the restaurant staff informed me that my table was ready and called me in. Once I was seated, I was considering whether to ask her if she would like to join me, but I thought that it would be too presumptuous of me as we had only talked for a couple of minutes. Imagine my surprise when I saw her coming towards my table and asked if it was okay if she joined. So what would have probably been a 20-minute breakfast turned out to be a three-hour long conversation. She was just a few years older than me and worked as dance teacher at a school. We had an interesting conversation and touched upon all sorts of topics. I got a deeper insight into the Bengali culture and I discovered we shared similar interests like solo travelling and meditation. She was also a theatre artist and spoke about an upcoming play that she was acting in. I asked her for recommendations on places to visit in town, and she insisted I shouldn't miss the South Park Street Cemetery (Scottish Cemetery). The cemetery was just a kilometre way from our café, and she accompanied me there once we stepped out. The cemetery was beautiful and was unlike any cemetery I had seen before. Ironically being at the cemetery filled me with peace and positive energy. We parted ways after that—but later that night, we met again and had some interesting conversations over dinner.
Both of us at South Park Cemetery Tales from Gypsy House   In October 2018, I was travelling through Himachal Pradesh. After spending a few days in McLeodganj and Bir, I made my way to Kasol. During the two days I spent in Kasol I felt lonely. I couldn’t connect with anyone in my hostel and was starting to feel frustrated that my trip was not unfolding as I had hoped. I decided to head to Kalga, (a small mountain village around 45 minutes from Kasol) and I got my own room and stayed in a nice guest house for just Rs 250. One morning, while wandering through the village, I happened to meet Ismail—a Malayali from Kozhikode. He was running a backpacker hostel in Kalga called Gypsy House. He invited me to his hostel, which was buzzing with people, and handed me a cup of tea and snacks and made me feel completely at ease. I met a lot of friendly people out there and a couple of days later, I packed up and moved from my guest house into Gypsy House. With Alan right outside Gypsy House. We have met several since times since then and have become good friends. Ismail would often play Qawwali music at the hostel and his girlfriend introduced me to a genre called Dream Pop. I fell in love with both.  One evening, curled up in a cozy common room in the hostel a group of us were watching a Japanese movie, and in the middle of it, I had a realisation: just a few days ago, I didn’t know any of these people and I was feeling lonely and frustrated. Now, here I was—completely in sync with strangers-turned-friends, laughing, sharing stories, and watching a Japanese film in a Himalayan village. Solo travelling isn’t always smooth. There’s often discomfort and uncertainty. But then, just like that, something shifts. It could be the people you meet, the conversations you have or the music you discover which makes all the discomfort and disappointments more than worth it. To receive simple and practical tips to live better and be happier, enter your email below to join the mailing list. Listen to The Soul Jam Podcast  on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts   and   Amazon Music . Episodes are brief, to-the-point, thought provoking and packed with practical tips to help you live better and be happier. Check it out here . Don't Miss 10 Lessons I learned from Solo Travelling Around India For 3 Months ​ How I Found What I Love And How You Can Do The Same ​ How One Man Brainwashed Humanity To Be Mindless Consumers Check out the Best Articles from the site here .