What am I taking from India and Nepal?

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So what did I think about India? Well I struggle to make my point clearly in everyday life due to the fact that I have trouble peicing together even the most simple things sometimes. How then can I collect all my thoughts from over 3months spent in India and Nepal covering a huge range of distances, landscapes and diversity of cultures? Well I can't. No way. Not even close.

I can however write down a collection of random thoughts that I can remember or took away from India and Nepal with me at the last minute in the hope it will be interesting to read in the future when no doubt my opinions will have changed again.

First up India.

Wow. So much. So much.

Every day my opinions on this place changed. One day I would think that they are great people who always carry a sense of humour and work hard without complaining in often dire conditions. Other days I would think they are self centred ignorant, lazy and corrupt bastards!

The truth is I suppose that all of the above and a whole lot more that I've failed to mention is true.

They do always have a sense of humour though sometimes you must scratch under the surface to find it. I remember the most recent example for me was walking past one of the shops in Jaisalmer while I was waiting for someone else and began to get heckled by the shop vendors. I had time so I stopped to talk to them. First impressions were of relentless money orientated businessmen who cared little for tourists or their happiness. This I would still say was true but within a minute of talking to them honestly and frankly I was sat down with about 5 of them sharing their Chai and my biscuits joking about girls. They had no alterior motive other than to have a laugh for a few minutes and dropped the normally relentless act of trying to sell things.

They do work hard and are determined people but at the same time don't normally work very long and are lazy in everything they do taking shortcuts at every opportunity possible. Everything in their society seems to be based around personal gain and when you talk to them while they are trying to reason something you will find it is always based around 'what am I going to gain out of this?'. Even karma is all a points system aimed at promoting yourself further.

They are a dynamic people keen to adopt new ideas (for personal gain of course) and much is always changing within the country. At the same time they are ignorant and always think they know what is right, refusing to listen to logic a lot of the time. Trying to reason with them about their atrocious rubbish habits will soon reveal this but it applies to many other things as well.

They are all proud people and believe completely in the greatness of their country. Everything that is their own they keep neat and tidy - so they sweep the dirt, shit and rubbish a few feet away from their door each morning and then rinse the space with water.

They admire England massively and speaking English has become an important tool for communicating amongst themselves sometimes even when no other language will work. Speaking English or rather your ability to is partly a symbol of status and you often here them talking in English when there is no need. They have even developed their own clearly defined version of it where all the grammar and sounds of the words is mixed up.

The differences in culture are truly vast and it seems insane that so much could all be bagged into one country. I remember most fondly the people of the far North East. I visited only a small part of Assam and Meghalaya but met people from other nearby states and really want to go back someday to explore all the region has to offer.

The differences in Landscape are also huge with a little bit of everything to see. It's often heavily scarred and sadly the rubbish creeps into even the most beautiful of the national parks with huge piles of it collecting below view points etc.

I'll always remember India, as most people do, as a very very busy place. There are peole everywhere and personal space or piece and quiet are truly foreign concepts to them. If there is something going on, even a small thing, everyone that notices HAS TO get involved and put their two cents in. When queing at the ticket counters in the train station you'll see a vague que which will look like it has had a pile up at the front. There will sometimes be crazy amounts of people crowded around the booth all listening intently to what is going on as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. There is also the motivation to get your form in as soon as possible so there is normally a frenzy of forms being waved around in the air too. If you look hard though you can find small pockets of tranquility and you soon learn to be comfortable in a crowd so it never bothered me too much.

That said I'm incredibly glad to now be in Australia and away from the chaos that was India. I love the place and could have stayed there but when it comes up to leaving you start to realise how much you're looking forward to being in another country, any country, which will inevitably be slightly less of an assault on the senses.


Next up Nepal.

An amazing country which I would love to return to someday, perhaps with family, to see the Himalayas again. Nepal, perhaps because I came from India, can be described as an easy country with genuine and kind people. The political instability only served to make my time there more enjoyable. Tourism is so important to the country and has been so badly damaged that everywhere you go you feel like a valuble commodity and people, in general of course, go out of their way to make sure you're OK. Even without this though the people are warm and inquisitive which is bound to make any journey pleasurable. The people showed themselves to be tolerant and hardworking but very reserved in public especially about sensitive issues - even apart from the obvious political applications.

I spent most of my time in Nepal in the mountains where of course the Tibetan influence was very strong. Everywhere I went both in Nepal and in India the Tibetan influence has been a positive thing and this has strengthened my resolve to one day visit Tibet.

My memories of Nepal will be of spectacular (and cold) scenery with kind, honest and gracious people who are never without happiness no matter what their situation. The greatest act of kindness I have experienced so far on my travels was in Nepal and was in the form of a letter, only later deciphered, to the maoist rebels if I ever met them.

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