The Problem with India

What's the problem with India? Which is to say, why has a seasoned backpacker like myself never had the desire to visit this vast and colorful country? What is it about India that terrified me, and why have I visited such countries as Bulgaria and Serbia before finally making my way here? I've always felt India is a rite of passage for backpackers, but to make it part of our 2014 itinerary was due mainly to my wife Sara. Without her desire to see India, I might never have made it part of my travel plans. Why?

First, a bit of back story as to how we spent our time in India. We recently completed a 2 week adventure touring classic Rajasthan with Intrepid Travels, and all told spent a little more than 3 weeks in the country including stops on our own in Varanasi and Kerala. We rode on camels, and in jeeps, local buses, mini vans, local trains, overnight trains, tuk tuks, taxis, house boats, and airplanes. We slept in hotels, forts, castles, boats, tents, and even had a homestay. There were beaches, enormous cities, manageable cities, raucous festivals, remote lakes, holy rivers, quaint villages, and the impressive Taj Mahal. All of this is to say, we experienced a wide variety of cultural situations in a relatively short amount of time. And as my mind often does, it was working in overdrive to try and process it all.

So what's the problem with India, and why have I avoided it until now? 

THE CROWDS

I hate 'em and India is known for its massive crowds in just about every city. The crowds didn't disappoint. Granted, we arrived at the height of Diwali, their biggest holiday, which would have made for more people in the streets anyway, but even in being prepared for the crowds, you can never be prepared for the crowds of India. Small alleyways and streets were teeming with people, tuk tuks, and motorbikes. You constantly needed to keep your head on a swivel for your own safety. The Pushkar Camel Fair was the height of the crowd situation. The town itself is essentially a loop road around a holy lake, and when you crowd hundreds of thousands of people into those streets, it made for a situation where I actually feared being trampled.

THE NOISE

I don't really enjoy cities and am much more a person who enjoys the peace and quiet found in mountain retreat holidays. With a country of over 1 billion people, how could the noise not be overwhelming? Well it was, even in its silence. I distinctly remember thinking to myself during one evening of our homestay in Bundi, 'Man it's quiet." Not a cricket was chirping. It was eerie to the point I actually wanted noise. And forget about finding any peace and quiet during daylight hours. The incessant beeping of car horns was a constant presence. And when you didn't have car horns, there was blaring music, touts in your face trying to sell their goods, fireworks constantly going off, and little children asking you to take their photo. Often, all were occurring simultaneously. And when the sun finally retired for the night, our accommodation always provided us with ceiling fans and AC units which serenaded us with white noise until the day started anew.

THE GARBAGE

I don't usually make a point of going out of my way to visit a country known for massive amounts of garbage. You have never seen so much garbage in your life. There was garbage in dumpsters, garbage piled high in front of empty dumpsters, garbage in empty lots, and ankle deep garbage bordering many roads, being picked over by animals and humans alike. You even had locals defecating in piles of garbage where a few feet away another local was sifting through the garbage like it was a secondhand store. It was unavoidable in every respect. We'd be walking down the street and inevitably find a handful of people just leaving garbage in their wake. Often we'd be forced to the periphery of roads by crowds and vehicles and find ourselves in gutters filled with garbage. It was an unsightly eyesore found everywhere from back alleys to 5 star hotels.

TAJ MAHAL

This actually wasn't one of the problems, although the crowds on the grounds were a bit unruly. Visiting here was one of the highlights of the trip, and one of my most memorable travel experiences ever. The problem with the Taj Mahal is that outside of this Wonder of the World, I defy any of you to name more than 1 or 2 other places in India. I don't even think I could until we started planning this trip. So aside from wanting to sample their food and visit the Taj Mahal, I think I always felt there wasn't much else which piqued my interest enough to warrant visiting India. 

LOCATION

Let's face it. India ain't next door to the States and it ain't cheap to travel there either.

Having said all of this though, none of these things are what's actually wrong with India. The biggest problem with India is that most of us don't have enough time to experience its charm. For most people, taking more than 1 week vacation at a time is a relatively rare occurrence. With such limited time, why would you want to spend half of it on planes dealing with layovers and jet lag and the other half being annoyed by the crowds, noise, and garbage? You wouldn't. Which is why most people end up going to resorts or some other convenient destination.

India doesn't claim to be clean, quiet, and comfortable. It doesn't boast having 1 world class site after another, and it can't help where it's located. Of all the people I've ever met who've traveled to India, very few of them have ever stayed less than a month, which always baffled me. Why in the world would you want to stay in India for that long? After being there for close to a month I can confidently answer that question like this, "Because if you don't, you won't really appreciate it." If you don't give it that much time, India will swallow you whole. You'll spend your entire vacation consumed with the negatives and fail to see the positives. If you stay long enough though, all of the distractions become mostly background noise, you can more fully appreciate the spirit of the people and their everyday living, your meals will taste better, you won't feel suffocated, and you can literally and figuratively stop and smell the roses.

What's more, is that aside from the Taj Mahal, it's a country where the major sight IS the country itself. That's a tough sell for your average tourist. I don't think one of the cities we visited in India would be a city I'd recommend anyone visit. The Taj Mahal is a half day experience and none of the other cities have world class sites. Sure, they all have their temples, forts, castles, and tasty food, but you can find good Indian food close to home and none of those other sites are any better than what you'd find in Europe. It's even got the Himalayas and relaxing beaches. But again, why travel so far for scenic retreats we can find closer to home? 

What India can boast though is a country, maybe more so than any other, which truly is the sum of it's parts. In Varanasi you can witness people bathing in the Ganges River a few feet away from a bonfire burning a dead body to ashes. Truly a circle of life. The next day you can be at the Taj Mahal, then watch a Bollywood movie in a classic theater in Jaipur. Hop on a jeep and you can be at a remote lake or spend the night in a castle.  Share a local bus with dozens of your closest friends and end up at Udaipur to visit the Lake Palace made famous by 007 in Octopussy, and 24 hours later, play tug-of-war against locals at the Pushkar Camel Fair. One overnight train and a short plane ride later, you can escape the crowds, sleep on a house boat. and enjoy the calm back waters of Kerala. Throw in an ayurvedic massage, and you have quite the vacation. None of these activities themselves would warrant flying halfway around the world, but piece them all together, and you get an amazing experience unlike anywhere else I've ever visited.

So as it turns out, there really isn't any problem with India. Their negatives, while more visible and larger in scale, aren't unlike what you'd find in many other parts of the world, and quite possibly, even in your own hometown. The problem with India is perception and the fact that most people don't have nearly enough vacation days to devote to an itinerary which would warrant the time and money getting there. Everyone thinks they'll get diarrhea. Everyone thinks the crowds will be overwhelming. Garbage and noise induced headaches aren't luxury. No one wants to deal with public transportation nightmares. No one wants to see anything except the Taj Mahal. You might even be scared about trying unfamiliar food. Whatever the case may be, if you can keep an open mind and be open to plunging yourself wholeheartedly into this vibrant and colorful culture, it will be an experience you'll cherish forever, including the inevitable diarrhea. Cheers.