India is a large fascinating country filled with historic sites and culture. Each of the major cities and regions I visited had their own distinct character.
As I have written about the countries I have visited so far I have tried to be honest about cultural differences that may challenge someone who is traveling from the United States. I have been struggling about how to write about those challenges when it comes to India, because I want to be fair and accepting of cultural gaps.
My approach to the journey I am on is to live as close to the lifestyle of the average person - in each country I visit - as possible. So my perspective is shaped by the fact that I have not been staying in the best hotels sequestered from real life. I agree it is possible to visit India and have a five star experience, but that is not what I did and I would say that would not really be India as most Indians live it every day.
First my itinerary. I was in India for almost a full month. I wanted to enter from Nepal through Darjeeling, but the pre-arrival research I did suggested that was not an option for me. So rather than risk a major travel delay I entered through the capital city of Delhi.
After Delhi I traveled to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, Jaipur which is home to a number of historically significant forts and other architecture, Varanasi - the center of spiritual life in India, Kolkata(Calcutta), Darjeeling, Mumbai(Bombay) and finally Goa where I spent about five days recuperating at a yoga retreat on the beach.
I say recuperating, because travel in India was a challenge for me. It began on the first night when I chose to eat dinner at my hostel in Delhi and got sick. I suspect it may have been the filtered water. I was assured it was safe, but I just had a feeling it wasn't as it was going down. It didn't taste right.
It took me 36 hours to recover, but within another 24 hours I became ill again because of something I ate in what I was told was a "clean restaurant." And it appeared to be clean. I even posted a photo of my lunch that day on Instagram and thought it was delicious, but by that evening I was sick. This time it took me almost a week to recover fully. I had to resort to eating toast and fruit and I didn't feel I could truly eat normally until I reached Goa - the last five days of my trip.
Above: The Red Fort in Delhi in an early morning haze. And the Amber Fort near Jaipur.
I go into this detail, because I want to be clear that my entire Indian experience was colored by the fact that I was not feeling well most of the time. This no doubt has an effect on your impressions of a place. I developed a system of venturing out for two or three hours at a time and then retreating to my hotel to regain my strength. Despite illness - I found almost every place I visited in the country to be interesting, enlightening and worth the trouble.
Please visit India, but do so with your eyes open.
It is hard to categorize India as either a developed or a developing country. It is both. It is the world's largest democracy. It is sophisticated enough to have a space program. It is fully integrated into the economy of advanced technology.
But India also has one of the largest populations of people living in poverty in all the world. It is one of the most polluted countries in the world and by most standards it is dirty and unsanitary. Indians themselves recognize these problems and some are trying to change things. The prime minister launched a "clean India" campaign five years ago. Others have tied the importance of a clean country to public health which is an obvious connection.
My most direct experience with sanitary conditions in India came through my choice of places to stay. I made the wrong choices. For most of this globe spanning trip I have been staying in hostels and for most of the trip the experience has been positive. In most cases it was difficult for me to tell the difference between a hotel stay and a hostel stay. In Bangkok, my stay in an Old City hostel was completely enjoyable and satisfying.
In India - none of my hostel stays were adequate or clean. Bathrooms were especially bad. I felt that almost every single hostel or hotel I stayed in (with the exception of the yoga retreat) oversold itself and used photographs that were misleading in describing the property.
My take-away: If you are going to travel to India invest in only the best hotels. I mean five-star, because life on the streets will be challenging enough, you need a comfortable place to return to at the end of the day. In every city I visited there were high-end hotel options, but in keeping with the nature of this multi-country trip I mistakenly took a less expensive option and paid for it in other ways.
The confusing thing about India is - Indians understand the desire for clean spaces to eat and live. They can offer such space if they want, but they often appear to choose not to bother.
When visiting the city of Agra, where the Taj Mahal is located, I had a driver* and a guide for the Taj itself. After I toured the Taj Mahal, which does not disappoint, my guides took me to lunch. They went out of their way to find me what they called "a clean restaurant." I did not ask them to do this, they did it on their own. Once inside, they left me alone and proceeded to eat lunch at a restaurant where Indians typically eat. Presumably it was not as clean.
A few days later I was discussing this issue with my driver and I asked why all restaurants don't present themselves as clean. "It's healthier to eat food prepared in a clean kitchen," I said. He just shrugged and said clean restaurants are too expensive. I think my lunch that day cost me less than ten dollars, but that is a lot of money for most people in India.
Above: Traffic in Delhi, headlines reporting on air pollution in Delhi, government workers sleeping in a public Delhi park, Kolkata traffic, Mumbai.
Public spaces are another issue. In almost every part of the country I visited air pollution is a major problem. Delhi being the worst. In almost every part of the country I visited basic garbage removal is an issue. Streets are strewn with trash. You will often see men urinating in full public view even though there are "comfort stations" available for use. Stray dogs are everywhere and cows roam freely. In Varanasi I saw one cow walk straight into an accountant's office. The accountant obligingly gave him something to eat.
Street food is very big in popular culture right now. It is portrayed on television and in magazines as cool and hip. Street food can be good. I have eaten a lot of street food during this trip, but understand that the garbage covered streets of many Indian cities are the kitchen your food is coming from when you eat street food in India.
Of the cities I visited, Mumbai was the closest to an American or European city when it comes to standards of modernity. But even in Mumbai there is a confusing mix of stock brokers and lawyers living a modern lifestyle and many others who appear to be scraping by at subsistence levels selling goods and services on the street. Mumbai is also home to some of the largest slums in the world which unfortunately have become tourist attractions in their own right.
As a photographer, I generally do not like to take pictures of people who are disadvantaged or suffering unless there is some larger point to be made. In Mumbai I was offered a slum tour, but I turned it down.
I want to get to all that is good about India, but feel I need to warn you about one other cultural difference that may seem off-putting as a traveler from outside the country.
The public behavior of some Indian people can at times seem rude to non-Indians. I am being careful here in an attempt to be sensitive, but there is no doubt I was pushed and shoved in India more than anywhere else in my travels. The behavior I'm describing is not the minor bumping of strangers getting too close in crowded places. It's deliberate pushing and shoving.
For close to a month I was patient with this and accepted it as a cultural difference, but by the end of the trip it became annoying and something I couldn't wait to escape. In two instances I had to verbally and physically make clear that my space was being violated and told two different men to "back off." They obliged and they were not surprised by my protest, because they knew they were attempting to take advantage.
In Kolkata I was scammed for small amounts of American cash by two different cab drivers. I realized it was happening as it was happening but I played along because the sums of money involved were so small it didn't even compare with what I would have paid for a similar cab or Uber ride in the United States.
The scam involved asking for American cash to help pay for some fictional need a poor Indian cab driver can't afford otherwise. The second cab driver was very aggressive and was demanding that I give him $100 in American currency to help pay for his "sister's wedding." I told him there was no way that was happening and after a few minutes of haggling he finally released my luggage that he was holding hostage in his trunk.
I have been open about the uncomfortable parts of visiting India, perhaps too open for some, but I stand by my observations which are backed up by reporting by news outlets in India and elsewhere.
So why go?
Because India is a place that carries with it thousands of years of history. A place that despite its modern day challenges has managed to play an important role in human civilization both in the past and present day. Whether it be the spiritual experience of Varanasi, the tea plantations of Darjeeling, or the major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi - India is a teeming mass of humanity with lessons to be learned around every corner.
The hardship, the act of forcing yourself to accept the huge differences in lifestyle, is part of the experience that I believe enhances the quality of your life. Perhaps not as it is happening, but later on as you consider how you survived it.
My visit to the Ganges River was the most moving for me. I witnessed the Hindu faithful wash themselves in the river beginning at four in the morning, watched them celebrate life at sunset in an Aarti ceremony, and watched them cremate their dead in the middle of a hot afternoon.
In Darjeeling, I was able to escape the city life for a few days to experience an entirely different aspect of Indian culture - one that is heavily influenced by Nepal and Tibet. The rudeness I mentioned is absent in Darjeeling. The one consistency with the rest of the country however is the disconnect between modern society and the ways of the past.
Above: Scenes from Mumbai. The bottom photo is interesting for two reasons. A group of men have chosen to have lunch served by a street vendor directly outside a nice restaurant. The man glaring at the camera is very typical in India. He is not angry he is just curious. It's an Indian habit when someone is seen using a camera in public to stare.
Mumbai, my second to last stop, was the first place I felt I could breathe without inhaling large amounts of noxious air.** The city is on the coast and the skies were relatively clear when compared with Delhi, Kolkata and even Darjeeling. Except for the numerous slums, Mumbai feels like a proper city where traffic is under control, the streets feel safe and public cleanliness is less of an issue. But it is still an issue.
I have tried on this trip to avoid the travel habit of finding a safe hotel or resort to settle into where I never have to see how the native population actually lives, but by the time I got to Goa - in the south of India - I was ready to hide.
Once you reach the coast of the Arabian Sea you feel as if you are in a different world, but don't be fooled the real India is just a half a mile or so inland. In case you need a reminder, stray dogs and herds of cattle roam the beach and local women are a constant presence attempting to sell hand-made jewelry. But other than that - my retreat was a retreat. The food was clean and safe. The rooms (grass covered huts) were spacious and clean. The showers were hot. This was the one place in India that delivered on its marketing promise.
Above: The beach at my yoga retreat in Goa. The clean air offered a much needed break from the pollution of the north. The retreat setting also allowed me to reflect on everything I had experienced in the rest of the country.
During my stay in Goa I realized I had developed a cough from inhaling polluted air. Although the pollution in India was the worst of my trip (to this point) the bad air really began to be a daily fact of life two months ago when I landed in Vietnam. My cough finally cleared about five days into my time in Spain.
It is more than possible to travel India and have a wonderful time that is enriching and rewarding in a number of ways. I only advise that if you do go - unless you are seeking a very raw experience as I was - that you spend the extra money to make your comfort a top priority.
Indians themselves, and the Indian government, have acknowledged publicly that their country does not meet the public health standards of much of the rest of the world. It is a fact you need to be prepared to deal with if you travel there.
* The Indian train system is considered to be highly reliable and efficient. They even have a few modern high speed trains. If you decide to use the train make sure you book your tickets online at least a day in advance. It is true that tickets are set aside for same day purchase for foreign tourists, but it is a mistake to rely on that service. That's how I ended up with a driver - which is another good option. You can book a driver and many other services through the Indian government's tourist office which is a public-private partnership.
** Anticipating bad air pollution in Delhi I bought two different styles of face masks before I left Nepal. I used both at different times during my first two days in India, but found them to be ineffective. Most Indians do not use face masks, but in Vietnam, Nepal, Thailand and Cambodia they are common.
Credits:
© Dean Pagani 2019