3. Culture Shock in India?
Everybody who travels to India, especially from the West, should expect to suffer through Culture Shock. With a Capital C.
First of all, there is the big East side of the world versus the West side of the world cultural divide. Then, even within the Asian region, India is an apple among oranges. You will never be adequately prepared to deal with the diverse region. Whatever “tips” you might have read may be applicable when visiting the Taj Mahal, but not when you are in the Rajesthan desert on a caravan or boating Keral backwaters or hiking the Himalayan mountains or visiting the temples in the south. But I do recommend some “Don’ts” and some “Do’s”. Ready ? Okay, here we go :
1. Advice one – never visit India on a shoe string budget. You will be miserable through out the trip. Comfort comes relatively expensive. If you travel on a lean budget, then you will have to lead a lean life. And a lean life in India is way leaner than than most places else. You will not be able to deal with it. Very few can – Commandos can 🙂 . I most definitely can’t.
2. Advise two – Either visit India for 5 days or a whole month, never visit on a 10 day trip. A 10 day trip is probably the worst kind of a trip – not recommended. A 5 day trip gives you enough time to visit few places, and you leave before the feeling of disorientation sets in. A one month plus trip will have you leave a well oriented, adjusted culturally and happy and allows you to cover diverse regions.
3. Advice three – Travel mode – recommend take flights and trains. Avoid bus trips more than 4 hours long. Also, travel by AC coach on trains – there is 3 tier, 2 tier and 1st class. Venture to non-AC 2 tier or 3 tier only in the winter time. If your trip covers more than one region (East/West/North/South/Central), take a flight to a major city in the region, and travel by trains within the region. (ps. – Most people are bothered by the heat. Its natural. The others who suffer the heat just are not able to afford the AC.)
4. Advice four – never be on a “tight schedule” India runs on “Indian Standard Time”. Always consider two scenarios – yeah, things are running on time (probability is lesser) as well as – cool, things are running late – let me eat a samosa, have some chai, read Hindustan times and wait 1 hr / 2hr/ half a day etc. etc., what ever is applicable to situation at hand. Some trains can run as much as 1 day late. There is a trick to choosing trains, which I can talk about some other time 🙂
5. Advice 5 – Expect to be Hounded by vendors in the Hot tourist spots. If you are not interested in buying what they are selling, just say so and then ignore them. Eeven if they continue to badger you. I can offer the reason (not a justification, mind you) why they do that. The reason they will hound you is two fold:
(a) First of all, all vendors are Type A :), agressive to the hilt. Okay, alright, ‘was a joke. Things is, every transaction is open to bargaining and negotiation. So, even when Indians are interested in buying stuff, an Indian will pretend that he is not interested. Its a bargaining tactic. So, you really have to show complete disinterest to convince vendors you are not interested.
(b) Secondly, they think that you are loaded, so if they convince you to spend some nickels on what they are selling, as far as they are concerned, you can throw what you just bought, they on the other hand have generated some income. They are poor enough to care about every nickel that comes their way.
Alrigght, enough of advice 🙂 I think you get it – India is a beautiful country to visit provided you do it the right way. Otherwise, its a visit to the Addam’s family !
Rupa