Lying...A necessity of Travelling in India I am an absolutely terrible liar. Unfortunately lying is an essential skill for travelling in India, for two main situations: social, well-meaning interactions about your personal life and getting out of something or taken for a ride in some way, shape or form. Preparing for my trip to India, I read up on travelling alone, and particularly travelling as a woman alone. There is a lot you can do to minimise pote...

After a 4 hour sleep on arrival early in the morning from 24 hours of overland border crossings, I get up, put on my poorly made but tres fashionable salwar kameez, walk outside and here we are back into the thick of it again. I walk about 2 blocks looking for an internet cafe but falls into too hard basket and I duck into a completely western-looking cafe instead, and run into the American couple I crossed the border with. Have my banana honey oatmeal porrid...

The day all started with the 7 hour bus trip from Pokhara in Nepal to the town on the Indian border, where I was planning on taking another bus to Lumbini, Buddha's birthplace. 30 minutes out of Pokhara on a 6:30am bus, the bus breaks down. In attempt to fix bus, the conductor gets out a 2x4, a hose, and a bucket. No surprises that doesn't work. 15 minutes later the conductor has hopped a truck heading in the opposite direction back to Pokhara and that's ...