Travel. Pandemic. Mindful Traveling.
Rethinking Travel in the Pandemic
A look at why we travel.
I just came back from the Taj Mahal. It was a great break from living my life in the same place for a year now, but I couldn’t help but feel disheartened.
It was a VR visit. It was immersive enough, and I could see and hear other people there, but it was still rather boring. “What a disappointment”, I thought, and an overwhelming longing took over me.
In the VR, I did not feel the Agra sun's heat on my skin; I did not feel the exhilaration I had felt when I went to India just three years ago. The Taj was my number one favourite building, and seeing it in person was humbling; it burst my heart wide open.
I remember getting off the train in Agra. Someone from the hostel came to pick me up by a scooter, and I remember the incredible thrill I felt sitting on the back of the bike, looking at the lush gardens behind white walls in the curve we took. The air was sizzling and pregnant with the smell of dust, flowers and chlorine water from the fountains. I distinctly recall thinking to myself that I must look like someone straight out from a movie. My green bamboo scarf loosely wrapped around my head and shoulders, the wind in my hair, and my chest was bursting with the transcendence of great…
