I was in India

13.11.11 – 17:05

Sounds are here. Pictures are here and here.

I returned from my several-weeks trip to India. Everything went fine.

When people ask me how it was I have to shrug. The trip was way to multifaceted to be put into easy words. One thing that is for sure is that it was not a holiday but an experience. And this is not meant in a spiritual sense but in broaden ones horizons by going through a challenging environment. I’ve found India to be a country that doesn’t make it easy to be liked. There were too many things problematic for me like high structural poverty, disfunct garbage disposal, dangerous traffic, trickery in business and a general lack of quality. I tried not to judge but only observe, but it became hard when being confronted with a big pile of things that just don’t make sense to me. I tried to understand and I’m sure I succeeded to a certain degree. Still it was a fierce realization that we probably do some things objectively better in the Western World.

We had not prepared the trip much. No big upfront investigations about the country, people, history or the route to take. We spoke to some friends who’ve been there before but mostly we just let India come at us. We decided on the spot where to go next and gathered information on the way like from our guide book, the internet or speaking to locals and other travelers.

As we went along our opinions swung free between being amazed and appalled. A great day turned into a nightmare within minutes and vice versa. We also switched often between “Real” and “Western Tourist” India. They felt fundamentally different, with the later supplying a level of infrastructure geared to tourist that was not existing in the former (like international food or western music).

During the trip I took a lot of pictures and audio recordings. I noticed is that in them India looks far better than in the memories I have of it. It is just way easier to record nice things but spare the bad.

You can listen to the audio recordings here and view pictures (with descriptions) here. Also, we kept track of our trip in the Lonely Planet’s Thron Tree Forum here (mirror here). It includes how we traveled, where we stayed and what we’ve seen in glorious detail. Of course I’m happy to talk more about the trip. Chat me up!

Update: I’ve added more pictures here