Incredible India... My Yogesh

Wow, four months in this crazy country. I don't know where to begin so I will just ramble all my thoughts and feeling about India into this one blog so apologies in advance for some incomprehension and emotional babble.

My first experience of 'backpacking' was India and the country truly captured my heart. The alien smells, sights, sounds, culture and beautiful but cunning people engaged me in such a deep way that I just had to see more of the world and the people in it. My previous trip was for just over two weeks so everything I saw (and smelt) was constantly new and exciting. I was apprehensive about spending over four months in one country, especially a country like India when I didn't know if James was going to love it or hate it. And India is definitely like Marmite you either fall in love or count down the minutes until your departure time.

India defines a true backpacking sense of spirit and adventure with an unending amount of peaks and troughs experienced on an hourly basis! The country has so much to offer; a rich culture embedded into daily life, beautiful buildings, wonderful natural scenery, shopping to die for, delicious food and wonderful people. The people are what make the country really. Along the way we met people who were only out to make money from us and would attempt to con you and squeeze out every last rupee. This behaviour, to some extent is even acceptable to me, when you see the devastating poverty and the lack of government support it is understandable that Indians see 'rich' white foreigners and want to make as much money from us as possible. It was frustrating to meet other travellers, who obviously on a budget like us, were so stingy with just a few rupees that are almost worthless to us but to Indians can mean the difference between feeding their family or going hungry, get some perspective people!

Most of our experiences with Indians were positive, helping us to get somewhere, taking us around monuments (for a donation-ha!), introducing us to every member of their family and taking a lot of photos- 'single, single'! There was never a dull moment and we knew as soon as we stepped out of the hostel door we would more often than not encounter an exciting adventure some hilarious scenes or an interesting person.

India is chaotic, messy and exposed. That is something I liked about it, everything is out in the open, the poverty, the rubbish, the smell, the constant reminder that women remain a lower class citizen.India is a country in need and a bit of a mess but at least it is all out for everyone to see, it is an honest country baring all its delude and depravity for all to see.

Thankfully James (and M&D) embraced the Indian culture and loved it as much as I do. This blog has been the most enjoyable for me to write. I think it is because of the people and their culture is so different to home that every moment fascinates me. I could write for hours about how awesome India is but in the same breath I understand why it isn't everyone's 'cup of tea'!

Throughout our time travelling we have come across more than a few incorrect spellings (and probably a lot in this blog!). English is India's second language and thankfully for us most of the signs, information and menus are written in our language. However, we have found a few spelling faux pais that have kept us mildly amused along the way.

Brakefast

· Nuttrela pancake

· Cornflase and milk

· Pot of Biach coffee

· Pouched Egg

· Beecked Beence

And the winner for most misspelt breakfast item=Plain Porridge:

· Plane porge

· Palin Poridge

Launch

· Chiknees

· Gnoki

· Freiad Rice

· Chus

· Mashroom

· Hot & Shawer soup

· Veg Spirriing roll

· Mushroom Strognove

Sides

· Slide Salad

· Chipps this wasn't just a typo as we found it under every option that came with chips, the part that amused me the most was when we noticed under side orders it was no longer Chipps but Franch Fries!

Desert (as opposed to Dessert) found on a menu in the Desert!

In case you are watching your weight…Diet Cock

And a genius sign advertising a school; St Mary's School, teaching English too an Excalence standard