Strange expectations

jyotirmoy

At LP TT I found one person looking for a place in India away from crowds & crazyness, accomodation in a forest where wild animals will come to the door step. Price is not a concern, this is a gift to his parents. I dont think Indian wild life is so obiliging as to come to the door step to say good morning.

Another artist wants to live 6 months in India painting. He is looking for a self catering cave.

cyberhippie

There are many strange expectations in the western mind about India, many come seeking something, the Goa of the 60s for instance ,free sex and chillums on the beach to the thump of a rock band, a country inhabited by a population of pious, spiritualy enlightened, sadhus willing and ready to take you on the path of realising the real you, abject poverty and ox carts, snappy dressed It engineers and pubs, a goverment anxious to woo tourists, a population needy of charity, Uber menschen such as Osho or Sai Baba!!

All available in some form or another but it's never quite what people are hoping for in their dreams.
Often shattered expectations brought about in their own daydreams leaves a bad taste in the mouth of tourists as they somehow feel duped!!

Of course the rich tapestry of India and her people that encompasses every facet of the "human condition" is even more rewarding, people often miss that whilst chasing a particular perfect scenario!!

I sometimes think this is where I fell lucky on my first visit to India, I wasn't looking for anything more than a country a bit different to my own..... I found it!!

jyotirmoy

CH,
You have summed it up very well.

iwanttogoback

PRIYA

Well African giraffes come to tree lodges and poke their faces in thru the open windows. I'm not sure about them saying good morning tho

What strange people on LP

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Happiness is for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. (Anon.)

gianni66

In an Italian travel forum about Maldives I have recently read a very disapponted message of a person hardly complaining with his tour operator because there were not so many fishes in front of the beach he was staying, and the ones he met escaped when he tried to get closer...

jyotirmoy

gianni66,
Animals have a more developped sixth sense which explains why the fish swam away!

PeakXV

Most animals are naturally curious and will come to investigate if they are in the vicinity. Food & other odors, dull noises, music playing etc. are all enticing lures for forest animals. Although their days are surely numbered with the growing population, I am sure there must be secluded pockets like that in India today. I remember having a great chat with a veteran employee of the Castle Jhoomar Baori near Ranthambhor who told me Leopards as recently as the early 1990's had been spotted running through the staircase of the hotel. .......

And that abode, although remote, is not too far of the beaten path. So seek and ye shall find ...... even if it means a fury forest seclusion in India.

Now the artist in the cave thing is a little over-the-top though ....

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We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Wolfpup

What is LP TT?

cyberhippie

Lonely planet also run a travel forum on India, it's called the Thorn Tree, hence LP TT

Wolfpup

thanks

Serena

I've always found strange some questions on the forums too.....
Live your experience, don't ask someone to live it for you....If you're looking for a cave (self catering? ) where you can paint, well I think is a very personal thing. If you are looking for an hotel, well I can give you advice

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http://namasteindia.blogspot.com/

cyberhippie

In fairness I think the "self catering cave" was done in jest

Wolfpup

i remember studing "the cave" in philosophy. I didn't understand it then.

proxyindian

I think that a person can't have at least some expectations about what will happen. For example, I stopped wanting to meet sadhus, but an now interested in meeting hijras which I've read about in Son of the Circus and have now seen on National Geographic's Taboo DVD. Oh, wouldn't that be interesting and unique? Would she like help in the kitchen? Maybe I could learn to dance? Maybe she'd be interested in hearing about my transgendered friends and I could learn in depth about an India which would totally wow my mom. Of course, the hijra dream will fade away just as the sadhu did. And other things will take its place....

And there are so many daydreams too, all fueled a lot by what I read at Indiamike. Like, will I really see half-wild dogs with no skin on their heads (as I read in another interesting post)? If I got a tatoo of aum on my arm would people kiss their fingers and touch it (which I read in another post)? Will I have to duck a lot going into rooms so as not to hit my head, and wouldn't it be funny if I laughed good-naturedly along with the onlookers? Will a begar actually do the bird poo on the foot scam, and wouldn't that be fun anyway? I think that if I went without any expectations, it would just be terribly hot and humid shopping trip. And if none of the expectations even occur to me while I'm busy actually being in India, so what? I would hope that I'd not be disappointed by what does happen.