Cultureshock? No, I'm Fine Thanks

On the flight over (with Virgin Atlantic – excellent) I re-read a piece about dealing with culture shock. India supposedly has a high level of this for Westerners, so I was prepared for the worst. This mindset helped a lot, because it didn't hit me hard at all. I knew what to expect.

Our hostel was just off the main bazar in New Delhi. For those of you reading from Buttevant, it's like Cahirmee Fair times a hundred (and no horses), a long narrow street, mostly pedestrianized (because rubble and mounds of earth are strewn across it – rubble is left everywhere in Indian cities), with shops and merchants on both sides selling anything and everything (except swimming trunks – though I know now that shorts in general aren't worn around here).

From Dehli

“No, I'm fine, thanks” comes out of my mouth more often than carbon dioxide when wandering the bazar (and most other streets in Delhi too). We'll see how long I can keep up that level of politeness.

The hostel itself was adequate. A room with three beds and a toilet/shower – that's all we need. Dorm rooms aren't the norm over here. In fact the word hostel doesn't seem to exist at all, technically we'll be staying in hotels, but the cheapest ones.

Ready, Steady, Delhi!

Where do I begin? Well, for those of you who were wondering whether we made it to India at all, I can assure you we're very much here. We're here, and we've already made good progress into northern India, with two cities down already. The first, our arrival port, and by far the biggest city we'll visit in India, was Delhi.

Circumstances meant I had a large amount of euro on me (€220) that I was unable to lodge before I flighted from Ireland, so I thought it'd be a good idea to get that changed into Indian rupees at the airport. I asked the cashier for “a few” small notes. I ended up getting a stack of notes thicker than the bible. Feeling like a millionaire (and a pickpocket's dream), I re-joined my fellow backpackers (John and Gearóid – you'll be hearing those names quite a bit) and we made for the city centre.

We arrived in India on Republic Day – one of two secular national holidays here – which was a big mistake. Not because everything was closed (enough was open to get by), but because we missed out on the huge parade through Delhi in the morning that has everything from elephants to nuclear missiles on show. It also meant our airport pick-up driver from the hostel was not in a good mood (no festivities for him either). He got us there in one piece though, and gave us our first thrilling impression of Indian driving. More on that in a later post..

Table of Contents

I've repeated this information about a thousand times during the 50 or so going away parties/drinks I barely survived before the big day. But here it is again, for the few that I didn't get to say goodbye to in person.

Travel Itinerary
India (3 weeks)
Nepal (4 weeks)
China (5 weeks)
Vietnam (3 weeks)
Cambodia (3 weeks)
Laos (3 weeks)
Thailand (3 weeks)
Australia (a lot longer)

We're flying into India (well, we've flown actually), and we're flying from Nepal to China, and of course we're flying to Australia, but other than that it's all on the ground. This is an important aspect of our plan, avoiding flights wherever possible. Flying effectively removes you from whatever country you're in, if you see photos inside an aircraft can you tell in which country, nay, which continent, the picture was taken?

Flexibility is another important aspect – we need to be in Kathmandu on a certain date for our flight to China, and we need to be done with Vietnam before our visa there expires (if we stay longer than the five weeks in China it'll eat into our 'nam time). Other than that, we can go where we want, when we want. Our time in Asia isn't capped as of yet either – we haven't even booked our flights to Australia yet!

The most specific version of our planned route can be found here. I'm hoping to record our actual route too, I doubt our planned route will be anywhere near it.

When This Milk Goes Off, I'll Be In India

I meant to write my second entry well before I departed. Alas, leaving Ireland turned out to be much more work than I thought it would be, I simply didn't have time. So you'll have to make do with this retrospective version.

The title of this entry relates to the first time in my mind when this fantasy that I was abandoning my cozy Cork life to travel started to become a reality. When I was young, I used to feel a tinge of excitement when the fresh milk carton had the letters “Dec 25th” printed on it. Seeing the date on a milk carton meant it was time to get really excited. So you could say that some of my feelings in the final couple of weeks before departure were akin to my feelings at Christmas as a child.

Coupled with this huge excitement were feelings that can best be described as mild terror. “What the hell am I doing? Six months of dirty hostels, filthy clothes, poor personal hygiene and impenetrable languages? Who's idea was this?”. For months the trip had been abstract, the thought of it made me smile. But now I was actually doing it, introducing apprehension and anxiety I hadn't felt since I left my home town of 19 years to move to Cork. But that change turned out very well in the end. I think this one will too.

Procrastination Liberation

I can put it off no longer. I decided to write this blog months ago, around the same time I decided not to buy shorts for the summer ahead (a wise decision). Yet here I am, 12 days to departure, taking my first baby steps into the blogosphere (this is my very first blog). And what is it that has made me belatedly join the blogging bandwagon? Well, to be honest, I don't think I had anything worth writing about. Until now...