For this reason it should be the best place to study tourism and it is so. While exposing to Indian culture in the streets and through home stay, I found the opportunity to interface people from other countries.

Before this adventure I was not an experienced traveller - I had not even been abroad at all. But in 6 months it was like a crash course on the art of travelling. I went to India overland and I flew back to Turkey via Dubai. Thus I have visited 4 countries and used almost every means of transport (plane, train, bus, pick-up, van, rickshaw, taxi etc.) except sea which was my plan to hop on a freighter vessel to Dubai but I could not arrange it in a very short time. And also I have experienced different types of accommodation which includes hotels, hostels, guesthouses, paying guest and sleeping on the floor in trains. I dealt with passport and visa regulations and changing money. If I would have done these courses in my home country, these things would not be my daily life in a six months period.

This way he enlightened me on the new openings of aviation and also stood as an example inspiring me to teach one day. When I learned about cargo I realised one more time that it was wise to go to India, because cargo courses were not even available in Turkey then. For instance a few days before while I was leafing through the job listings of a newspaper I saw an advertisement that says one school has launched cargo courses for the first time in Turkey. Probably I am still the only one who has attended cargo courses independently. By studying both I learnt the difference between carrying cargo and people. Although they might be both dangerous, when I read about people facing absurd difficulties at the airports, I feel sorry for those who mark and label certain nationalities in mind as “dangerous bads”! Probably because there are lots of culture differences in India, people display very kind and helpful attitude to others and attention to foreigners makes you feel on the stage and keeps your spirit always up.

Particularly, Bombay is a genuine area of tourism training where you can see different types of people from all parts of India. For example in my place we were 6 Indians and 1 Turkish-but mother tongues of each of us were different. Although backpackers like me outnumber others, hippies, shoppers, 5 star cruisers, lonesome cowboys, enlightenment seekers, philanthropists always wander around. Every restaurant is like a world map in which each table stands for a country. My daily life was also quite colourful for me. In the morning, I can visit a cathedral then attend my class, have lunch with other tourists whom I have just met. Again class in the afternoon and I can see the ritual at a Hindu temple and in the evening after dinner with Sudani friends. Night is young, spicy but delicious Indian food invigorates and makes me want to dance with locals at the street wedding ceremony of Indians whom I do not know again. This should saturate one culture wise for one day. Or when my teacher says “open the Thailand chapter of your book” Thailand is no more a far country for me because just the night before I was learning lots of things about Thailand from a Thai girl with whom I was at a “Bollywood shooting”, which is another fantastic issue on Bombay experience of foreigners.

I met celebrities of Bollywood and I became one! Well, almost! It is nice to be recognised when you go into a shop and shopkeeper says “weren't you on TV last night?”, “just for a few minutes but yes I was”. Costumes, make up, dance, music and all, just like a dream. 

I should not forget the colourful festivals of course where you can witness truly unique Indian activities - some are really stunning yet frantic! In a sentence each and every day of these 6 months was worth remembering. That should be living life to the fullest. Isn't it the case about what we worry when on holiday, that too, I was not on holiday!

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