
Pakistani travel creator Muskaan has logged journeys across more than 20 countries. Yet her eyes remain fixed on India. In a public dispatch shared with her followers on Instagram at @muskaan.travels, the Germany-based vlogger announced that India sits at the absolute summit of her travel ambitions. She pledged to board a flight to New Delhi the moment her German passport arrives.
The passport dictates everything.
Muskaan traced her yearning back to childhood hours spent watching Hindi cinema, imagining the monuments and landscapes projected across the screen. But her agenda skips superficial pitstops. Instead, she plans to immerse herself in local sacred traditions, regional festivals, and distinct ecological wonders.
While I'm Pakistani, my heart belongs to Delhi.
Her itinerary opens with northern cultural anchors. She plans to catch the sunrise at Agra's Taj Mahal, watching early dawn break over the white marble facade. Delhi commands special weight for Muskaan because of her Bahá'í faith. She earmarked the Lotus Temple for quiet personal reflection, treating the capital stop as a spiritual homecoming rather than an ordinary tourist photo call.
Further east in Uttar Pradesh, Muskaan intends to hire a riverboat on the Ganga in Varanasi. She plans to observe the evening Ganga Aarti directly from the water, listening to the temple bells and vocal chants echoing across the stone steps as priests swing brass fire lamps.
And wellness follows ritual. She picked Rishikesh for an extended reset, scheduling sunrise yoga retreats and meditation sessions directly beside the riverbanks.
| Destination | Location | Planned Travel Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Taj Mahal | Agra, Uttar Pradesh | Sunrise viewing of white marble |
| Lotus Temple | New Delhi | Bahá'í prayer and personal reflection |
| Ganga Ghats | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh | Evening Ganga Aarti from a wooden riverboat |
| Yoga Retreat | Rishikesh, Uttarakhand | Meditation along the Ganga riverbanks |
| Holi Festival |
Muskaan also bypassed conventional golden-triangle limits by routing her plan through the Northeast. She picked Nagaland's annual Hornbill Festival to study indigenous tribal traditions, regional cuisine, folk music, and handcrafts that standard international itineraries regularly ignore.
The architecture stunned her in Meghalaya. She zeroed in on the living root bridges—structural crossings shaped over decades by indigenous communities guiding the aerial roots of rubber fig trees across raging streams. Muskaan noted her astonishment at how centuries-old bio-engineering produced functional infrastructure from living wood.
Her journey circles west toward Rajasthan's desert outposts. She slated an overnight expedition into the Thar Desert outside Jaisalmer, planning to camp directly on the sand dunes beneath an open night sky.
Muskaan continues to document international expeditions from Germany while her naturalization paperwork processes, keeping her cross-border itinerary locked as her definitive first landing.
| Pan-India |
| Street celebrations with colored powders and music |
| Hornbill Festival | Nagaland | Indigenous tribal dance, music, and craft exhibitions |
| Living Root Bridges | Meghalaya | Hiking rubber fig tree root crossings |
| Thar Desert | Jaisalmer, Rajasthan | Overnight camping under stars on sand dunes |