Replied by Liz Deacle thru Quora Blogger at www.itsadrama.com
India?
We are going to India? For six weeks?
WHY?
My 13-year-old daughter when I broke the news to her that we would be donning our rucksacks to backpack the world for a year, and our third port of call would be India. Where we would stay for 6 weeks.
Why do we even have to go travelling to Asia? It's weird. Why can't we just go to Los Angeles or Disney land Paris like other families?
Hmm. I answered her in my best grown up voice:
Because my strumpet, mummy is 47 and has waited all her bloody life to visit India. She wants to pretend that she's Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. She wants to take off her bra and wear wooden bangles and get a henna tattoo.
She can't do that in Disneyland Paris. They'd arrest her. Anyway, they only sell Turkey legs at Disneyland and they're fattening.
Here are 8 things I didn't expect when I visited India for the first time.
1. The streets are pretty clean.
If I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times; ‘India is full of rubbish. India is the dustbin of the world.’
By the time we were due to fly to India we had convinced ourselves that we would need to buy a pair of knee-length fisherman's boots so as to wade through the mounds of rubbish that lined the streets. White Wellington boots that would protect our delicate New Zealand feet from becoming infected with typhoid, or malaria or worse still, foot diarrhoea.
Wrong.
Yes, there are places in India that are dirty and stinky, of course there are, but on the whole, we only found this to be the case in one or two major cities and even then, only certain parts. Let's not get overdramatic and carried away with the whole India is full of rubbish and has open sewers story. It's just not true.
Pity really. I reckon I would have suited a pair of white rubber boots.
2. How gorgeous India is.
People couldn't wait to tell me about how India was crawling with rats and that Indian men might use the gutter as a toilet.
Not on my shift.
The only time I saw an Indian man's bum was when the wind blew his sarong up in the street and he wasn't wearing any underwear. He was far more embarrassed than I was, let me tell you.
The mention of rats was what I was panicking about. I am terrified of rodents. Luckily, the only rat I encountered was in Gokarna in Karnataka. It lived on the roof of our beach hut. We came nose to nose one morning but when I told him about my secret desire to wear white rubber boots, he ran off to the hills screaming. I never saw him again.
India is gorgeous. The light, the smells, the colours, the air. Everything. Just beautiful.
3. India is nothing like 'that film’.
Although it's a fabulous movie, Slumdog Millionaire didn’t do India any favours. I live in New Zealand, another megamovie location. Although slightly different, we have a similar problem. People step off the plane looking for Bilbo Baggins and fields full of Anchor butter and gold rings. They go to cafes and get annoyed when they are offered a flat white coffee with a swirly chocolate design on top instead of a rusty tin mug filled with honey mead served by a goblin.
India was the same. Only we were not looking for little elves in hobbit holes, we were looking for thieves and robbers and open street sewers. And we never found them, because…
4. India Feels Safe
The whole time I was in India I never once felt threatened. I felt grubby but never threatened. I felt slightly conned sometimes - ripped off for paying too much for a pair of rubber boots, but I never felt unsafe.
5. Indian People Are Nosey.
I love finding out about other peoples lives. I reckon I should have been a chat show host or something. I like to call myself an inquisitive listener. Other people like to call me a nosey old bag.
Whether they mean to be or not, Indian people are nosey. Almost everyone you meet -if they can speak English then you’d better be ready to answer some personal questions. On average, we were asked about twenty-seven times a day:
Where do you live?
How much is your mortgage?
What job do you have?
Why are you wearing those hideous white boots and
Does your son want to marry my daughter?
Ok. I made that last bit up, but seriously, I have never been faced with such upfront questioning in all of my life.
It was wonderful. Like going on holiday with Jimmy Fallon.
6. Indian People Are Hygenic.
I didn’t expect there to be seperate hand washing facilities in every restaurant. It appears to be the norm in all the eateries in India. Even the street sellers will offer you a bottle of water to pour over your hands before you eat.
Meaning that…
7. You don’t always get ill.
We’ve all heard the stories of the famous Delhi belly and leaving India four stone lighter than when you arrive. No, and annoyingly, no.
I've had worse food poisoning eating oysters that I purchased from a posh supermarket in the U.K than I ever suffered while in India. The whole time I was there I didn't get ill once. Maybe a little loose around the bowels occasionally, but nothing that a Flagyl couldn’t sort out. Sorry. That was rather unladylike. And that's the other thing.
8. You Don’t Need A Prescription To Buy Antibiotics.
Pharmaceutical stands are everywhere in India, and they are cheap. Incredibly cheap. Meaning that even if there is anything wrong with your stomach , you can whizz it past Google to see what you need, and then be out of your bed, down the street to the medicine seller and back under the mosquito net again clutching the medicine in your clammy little hands, quicker than you can say 'can I make an appointment to see the doctor please'.
So, there you have it. Lots of things that I wasn't expecting from the wonderful country that is India.
I loved India. Every single minute of it. Even my daughter coped.
My 16 year old son also made a video of how he saw India. You can view that below.
Until then, safe travels
Liz x
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