We had always planned on visiting India at some point, so the need to be out of Spain for some time this year brought it to the top of the pile. Timing wasn't ideal as it was a bit late into the spring and summer heat, but figured we could make it work as long as we kept things flexible. We landed into Mumbai as one of the 3 airports that Turkish airlines flew into so we could make an easy connection from Valencia. Once there we decided that the heat and humidity were tolerable and the forecast for further south down the coast were similar so we opted to get down to Goa and then, having checked forecasts again, on to Kerala. We flew both legs for speed and convenience to get there before the monsoon was expected to hit, and both had been on our vague to do/wishlist.
Goa was nicely chilled out as expected, and the food was unique and very good from the Portuguese influence - only place we found pork curry. The waterways of Kerala were also scenic although the houseboat was very disappointing and i would not recommend anyone to do it as a single night. Maybe longer trips would get you to more secluded overnight moorings where you could see more of the sunset, night sky and sunrise over the landscape - all i remember of the evening is 6 beefy bearded Indian guys dancing to bhangra in their underpants on the boat moored alongside us.
Having got those two ticked off we worked our way back up the country by road and rail trying to stay ahead of the monsoon. Someone in Goa recommended we see Ooty and Mysore so we managed to find transport to link those up, and an old copy of lonely planet suggested Hampi, so we factored that in.
This was our first real backpacking trip - we had our own vehicle for most of central and south america and only did a couple of bus journeys in Brazil. We didnt want to fly much or travel overnight so we could actually see the landscape, so trains and buses and it proved slow and tricky with some journeys taking 3 or 4 days with overnight hotel stops - every mode of transport in india is slow, and same day connections were really at your peril so after the first couple of late arrivals we tried to avoid them. Also, just because a train exists does not mean that you can book a place on it as a foreigner - we never worked out the rules but often we had to get very early or very late trains as the better timed ones could only be booked with payment through the indian banking system and not international cards. Random. Buses were a bit easier to book but many were sleeper services so uncomfortable to try and sit during the day, and often picking up and dropping off in locations that were not clearly defined or miles out of the towns we wanted to actually visit. Again, a bit random. And to anyone planning a short visit to India, don't underestimate the distances, and how slow and disconnected everything is.
And every stereotype of indian traffic you have seen on TV, film and comedy? Not even close to how chaotic, busy, constant and noisy it is. And cows. Buses going the wrong way up dual carriageway ramps for a mile to get their preferred services? No one bats an eyelid. We saw at least 2 mopeds under vehicles but then they are worse than pigeons. All a bit random
Ditto the bureaucracy - despite having an e-visa filled out and approved before arriving, immigration still took so long that our luggage was taken off the belt and delivered to the lost passenger office. Every hotel check in was its own variation on the theme how much useless, duplicated information do we need to send our government? State run attractions - we will pay security guards to check tickets and for someone to sit in the office telling you that you have to buy your ticket on line, but not to sell you one.
And there is always someone willing to help for a fee. Started referring to them as shitflies as they were as plentiful and hard to get rid of. You want taxi/tuktuk? After the 15th one in the row that you have said no to the 16th will still bother asking. And the lies - its not open today/ until this afternoon/too far to walk when you can see it just over their shoulder and people are going through the open gate......lost it a few times screaming at them to f off - didnt stop them but made me feel better.
After a month where we had some quite heavy showers - people died in flooding in Bangalore while we were there - we worked out that india is not a good place to be in the rain. Life is lived on the streets and there are very very few cafes, bars, restaurants or other places to sit out of the rain other than your hotel. In many places the only sit in restaurants were the hotels and even they were shut during the daytime. And the monsoon forecasts were getting closer and predicting that it was going to arrive earlier than average and be heavier. So we made the call to bring forward our flight back to Turkey by a couple of weeks to coincide with when the monsoon was predicted to hit Delhi at the end of June, and then plan the rest of the trip accordingly. We filled in a few other bits we had heard about from people as we went around, and then managed to get all the famous last bits in.
Other planned achievements - i did have 3 curries in a day a couple of times, but more often just ate breakfast and supper. And did see tigers before a curry breakfast. Failures - due to cloud cover we couldnt see the himalayas from Shimla, and couldnt book in advance to go on a narrow gauge hill railway. Didn't really miss anything out - if we still had another 2 weeks there we may have gone to Jodhpur and Mussorie, but it would have been for the sake of it rather than to see anything specific.
Will we be back? Probably but not for a few years. I think it is inherent with this kind of travel that you put up with wading through a lot of shit for a few nuggets, and at the moment, that is clouding the memory. When we were in south america we had similar issues with car problems, border crossings and crap accommodation and food, and were both pretty stressed out long before the trip ended. Now we think back and that stuff fades a bit and you remember why you went there a bit more clearly. Should we have done anything differently? Probably not - if we had planned and prebooked stuff it may have gone smoother, but more likely it would have been marred by bad decisions on where to go and what order to do things and we would have missed things like Hampi as we had just not seen in the tourist lists.
India - its all a bit random.
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