Easy and difficult in India

Travelling in India is an experience and if you just look at it based on how an Indian street looks like, it seems to be really difficult – as it is so extremely chaotic! But the thing is – you get used to it really quickly.

The overwhelming chaos of cycle rickshaws, taxis, motor rickshaws, cows, bicycles, hand-drawn carts, dogs and lots of people going helter-skelter in the streets is pretty fast manageable. Everybody drive slowly and has a long experience to fend off all the obstacles, so in some strange way, the traffic flows and it does not feel like there is a big risk to get hit.

You just have to not stop moving, just keep on walking in the same brisk pace over the streets to adapt to all of it. Dealing with all the sounds and smells of the streets is another thing that initially seems severe and is something that could easily contribute to a slight headache. However, this is also something you soon get used to, it’s just the most annoying hornes that make you turn around.

Something that we think would be easy, but has proven to be really difficult is to withdraw money from an ATM. There seems to be no system for which cards can be used in which machines and there is no logic in how everything works. Fortunately, we have many different bank cards with us, both from our bank but also from ICA and Coop (supermarkets in Sweden). This has helped us to never be completely without money, one of our cards has always worked. We also have some US dollars to use if no ATMs will work.

It is really easy to find good food in India! So far we have only tried a fraction of all the dishes available on the menus. The problem is that many of the dishes sound the same and once you sit at the restaurant you have suddenly forgotten what a particular vegetable is called or the name of your favorite sauce.

But as the Indian food is really inexpensive it is simply to try a lot of different dishes and try to remember most of them – so far everything we have eaten has been tasty. We have started on a long translation list of dishes but it will probably take a while before it is complete. But there is no rush, we will eat many Indian meals before our trip is over – we have time enough to try almost everything.

We thought it would be really easy to get stomach problems in India but it does not seem to be that way. Now we have been here almost 3 weeks and none of us have felt a shred of gastroenteritis, except a little stomach ache when we stopped eating the healthy food in our Yoga Retreat and started to eat real Indian food again.

It is difficult to queue in India if you come from a country like Sweden, where a queue actually is a queue – a line of people standing in a particular order. In India, the rules for a queue only works for a little while, then people start to move forward and it’s important to keep your elbows out if you want to keep your place in the line. The funny thing is that this is something that everyone does, even old ladies and children. Though the worst ones are those who slide into the queue from the side, especially if this happens way ahead of you in the queue, not much you can do. To stand in line at a counter in a cafe or a kiosk is also exciting. You have to learn to have long arms and talk loudly because if you do not, you will definitely be overrun by all Indian people.

Despite the very uneven roads with unexpected obstacles such as cow dung and sleeping dogs, it is unexpectedly easy to move around in a pair of flip-flops in India.

My old black flip-flops, certainly five years old and purchased at Stadium in Sweden of about $ 60 (7 Euros) has now survived a three-week trip to India, a trip that has included about 200,000 steps. Now I keep my fingers crossed that they will survive the entire trip.