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How not to travel in India (part 104).
Whenever I put up a blog post about our travels in India, I get comments that seem to fall into two categories.
- First there are the ones who ask if they can come next time. To you, I have to apologize and explain our travel companion criteria: you have to have seen me in my underwear 40+ years ago.
- Second are those who say they could never travel to India because it’s too… Too dirty/dangerous/big/crowded/scary/much. To you, I’d say you’re probably right not to come.
But for everyone in between who is considering the trip of a lifetime, I have a few suggestions about things we’ve learned to take in our stride over the past five years of travels around India. Here are my top ten that come to mind (today anyway):
- Distance: Distances are fluid. If you ask for directions, you will get them cheerfully and often clearly. What you won’t get is any idea of how long they’ll take because each comes with a breezy promise that it’s “just a little distant” [translation: “prepare to walk for blocks in blazing full sun”], or “quite close Madam” [“It’s probably multiple kilometers away, possibly in another city”], or “just along this thing...” [“I have no idea but it must be out there somewhere”].
- Ours is not to reason why: This is actually a corollary to #1.
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Time: IST (India Standard Time): If it’s time for whatever you’ve scheduled to start, that only means you could stop for chai tea, take a few selfies, check your messages, and you’ll still probably wait for things to begin.
- Plan: Planner or pantser? Actually, it doesn’t matter. You can plan for every aspect of your trip, and India will be closed/under construction/offline that day. You can navigate by the seat of your pants, and India will confuse/ confound/ countermand you. This has two predictable results.
- You conclude that your own home is better in every way and your only hope is to hole up in a McDonalds (not, of course, eating actual hamburgers but their veggie burgers are to die for) until it’s time for your flight home.
- OR you regard this as A Very Good Thing—often leading to one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that India provides on a regular basis.
- Yes or no?
- Smells: Both the worst and the best you’ve ever encountered.
- Noise: See #6
- Incredibly cheap. And oddly expensive:
- Selfies: Indians of all ages love them. I’ve seen a temple guide wearing only a dhoti whip out a mobile and snap a selfie. (And yes—that phone was stored exactly where you think it was…)
- Kindness of Indian Strangers: Most Indians LOVE to help you, and will go out of their way to do so. They will invite you into their homes, press gifts on you, and honestly seem to be thrilled by your very presence. Warning: this will almost always involve food, often enough to feed small armies. No matter how you try, you won’t be able to eat enough to escape a nagging suspicion that your hosts will burst into tears if you refuse anything. And it’s all soooooooo good!
Lucinda E Clarke said:
Barb we are leaving for a month in India on 12 Feb. your posts have come just in time. It will be our first visit.
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barbtaub said:
Lucky you! Where are you going in India?
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Lucinda E Clarke said:
Well I asked for an itinerary to see everything! But it’s a big place. Start in New Delhi then Pakistan border then red fort then Amritsar and down the middle bit for Tah Mahal and Goa and we leave from Mumbai. Not had time to study it all as with family in Perth Oz. A tiger reserve somewhere and a lot of towns I can hardly pronounce. Very excited though.
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barbtaub said:
Wow! That is a LOT of territory to cover. How long will you be there? Sounds incredible.
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Lucinda E Clarke said:
A month well 32 days to be precise as we had to buy a visa for a year as it was that or only 30 days.
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barbtaub said:
It’s a terrific itinerary and I know you’ll love all of it. Our first year, we tried to do it all in one month, and really covered almost everything on your list. Then we decided that India is just too big and amazing, so now we go for a month or so every year, and focus on a different state of India.
Are you reserving a car and driver or joining an organized tour?
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Lynette d'Arty-Cross said:
Great post! 🙂
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barbtaub said:
Why thank you!
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noelleg44 said:
Sounds like my kind of adventure, but the plane flight from the US would kill me.
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Lucinda E Clarke said:
I checked on the itinerary and it gors as follows: Delhi, Amritsar, Jodhpur, Jaisdalmer, Ranakpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Jaipur, Ranthambore, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Hyderabad, Bangalor, Hassan, Mysore, Goa, Mumbai. Do you think we’ll survive it – as wrinklies? We ar using the same compazny we used ofr our Far East tour 4 years ago. It will be just us and the driver and I think a guide and the luggage of course!!
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Naresh Shah said:
Bwahahaha….. point # 5 had me in splits! Gave a whole new meanings to the Indian nod. Cheers from India!
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