Solo Trip to Kumbakonam and Thanjavur: The Land of Temples, and a Peace I Can’t Explain
I booked two things for this trip. The ticket going. The ticket coming back. Everything in between was blank. No itinerary. No hotel list. No map with saved flags on it. I'm a man who plans a weekend in Excel, and I walked into Tamil Nadu with nothing — alone, into a region where I don't speak a single word of the language. Kumbakonam and Thanjavur. I came back with sunburn, a sore back, one conversation I can't stop thinking about, and a question about myself I still haven't answered. Why a Solo Trip With No Plan Changes What You See The only fixed points were leaving and returning. Which, now that I write it, is an unusually accurate description of a life. The moment the plan disappears, something switches on that usually stays off. You start paying attention. You read faces instead of reviews. You ask human beings where to eat instead of sorting by rating. A planned trip is a list you execute. An unplanned one is a day you're actually inside o...