The island where the dead don’t stay buried
To those outside the community, it seems macabre. “For them, passed on members live in their midst. The ceremony is a way of bringing them back and celebrating with them.”
To Mohammad Anas (@TravelWithAK), 26, who first heard about it three years ago, it was a cultural celebration he knew he simply had to see.
“Death does not mean the person is excluded from the family,” says the travel vlogger from Mumbai.
Even before war broke out in Iran, not too many Indians visited. The Iranians love to party. “The people are open-minded, uninhibited, and modern. There are no clubs, no bars in the Islamic republic, so they host parties at home – live music, cigarettes, families and all. The people were celebrating Shab-e Yalda, the winter solstice and longest night of the year at the home of Zamyar’s childhood friend. “The kids were eating sweets and dancing, the youngsters were enjoying drinks and live music, older uncles were chilling and smoking shisha. Benin is tiny. The West-African nation is about the size of Telangana, with only half the population of the south Indian state. Temperatures there drop to below freezing, the wind makes it feel colder. They took him to Kabul’s popular restaurant, Ziyafat, which had traditional open spaces for groups of men and families to dine together. The restaurant, delighted to have an Indian guest, gave him a tour of the kitchen. “I don’t think I had seen so much food in front of me before. “Countries like Afghanistan don’t see too many tourists, so when people do come, their hospitality is unmatched. The route runs through the Horn of Africa – forests, mountains, frankincense valleys, limestone valleys, pristine beaches. But it cuts through three separate governance systems, has passport controls, even currencies change along the way. “Foreigners rarely get permission to travel through all the areas on that route. Remarkably, the bus waited all this time. The passengers spent the night on board, in the middle of the desert. Bakshi reached her destination, and had a friend wire her enough money to get back to India. “I can return to the comfort of my home. But this is real life for them. That’s quite humbling.”
Fewer than 10,000 Indian nationals would go there to study, work, or go on pilgrimage. All non-essential travel has been halted this year, which makes Pulkit Chaudhary’s memories of his December 2025 visit even more fond. The 26-year-old from Rajasthan (@TheTallTrotter) has posted YouTube videos, offering glimpses of everyday life in the capital Tehran, and the smaller cities of Rasht, Qazvin and Beheshti island. Chaudhary’s Couchsurfing host, Maryam Zamyar, took him to one epic gathering in the Kerman province, 975 kilometres from Tehran. It was a 24 hour drive, with a stop at Isfahan, but it was worth it, he says. Barely 90 Indian or Indian-owned companies operate there, dealing in automobiles, textiles, and food processing. Vishnu Saha (@TheWanderingManiac), 27, knew he was going to be very far from his home, Hyderabad, when he visited Afghanistan in January this year. That meal must have cost at least ₹ 10,000 but his hosts refused to let him pay.
“Contrary to what we are told, the culture is very European,” he says. But the locals, he says, were surprisingly warm. “We had Kabuli pulao, Afghan naan, mutton karahi, grilled chicken, kebabs and dishes I can’t even remember,” Saha recalls. “You travel through the bush in local buses which do not stop, except for a 30-minute lunch and toilet break,” says the 27-year-old who documents her trips on @WanderingWithPaint. She says she booked her ride specifically to see how locals do it.
