Unexpected journeys are the best! With Pandu Waskitha (@backpackertampan)
Unexpected journeys are the best!
With Pandu Waskitha (@backpackertampan)
Traveling with a low budget is not easy. I remember the time I visited one of my bucket list destinations, the Taj Mahal. However, although I made it to the location, I didn’t have enough money to pay for the entrance fee. So, I decided to write the following in my notebook in order to “convince” the officer:
Hello, I am Pandhu. I am a student from Indonesia. I am traveling through your beautiful country and made it to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which has been a dream of mine since my childhood. Unfortunately, I am traveling with a very tight budget and I don’t have enough money to buy a ticket. Is there any possibility that you can help me?
My good friend Vishwanath translated the text to Hindi so the officer could understand me…Nope, unsurprisingly that did not work. The officer did not let me in.
Eventually I gave up. However, when I was about to leave a tuk tuk driver approached me and said: “Do you still want to see the Taj Mahal? Come with me!”
He drove me to a park lying behind the Taj Mahal named Methab Bagh. I did not know that such view of the Taj Mahal existed, even if it was across the river.
"So when I got to see this magnificent structure for the very first time, I just cried of happiness."
Afterwards I wrote a simple quote in the same notebook I used to convince the officer. The quote said: “Thank you universe for this amazing journey.” Then I took a picture of the notebook and the Taj Mahal as a background.
After a month I went back to Indonesia. Surprisingly, the picture I took at the Taj Mahal went viral and people slowly started to follow my path through social media.
"This made me realize how powerful a picture can be."
But that was 4 years ago. Ever since I have been improving my photography. My goal, besides showing to my community the amazing places we have all around the world, is to inspire people to grab their backpacks and go outside to explore!
"Oh! By the way, last February I went back to India and made it into the Taj Mahal!"
