The Travellist Issue 2 March 2015 | Page 67

Michael Marzahn • Searching for Breakfast I am often asked why I travel to India and what I like the most about this country. My answer is always the same. It’s the friendly people everywhere; the stunning natural experiences like the many diverse landscapes from the beaches of Goa or Kerala up to the more than 8,000 m high Himalayan mountains in the north; or seeing some of the last Asiatic lions, tigers and rhinos; or immersing myself in the different cultural and religious sites like the Taj Mahal or the Ghats in Varanasi. For me there are only two things about India: you either hate it or you love it, there’s nothing in between. There are so many different things you have to handle in India. It’s noisy, dusty, smelly and most of the time very chaotic. It definitely touches and claims all your senses. But once you’ve learned to cope with it, it’s so fascinating because it’s the complete opposite to our regulated lives in Europe. Another fact is the enormous size of the Indian subcontinent. It’s so huge that even I who have travelled to “Mother India” nine times now have seen so little of the country. March 2015 65