The India confusion

whatsilliness

firstly, i wanted to say this was a great great post and i have just printed it out with various additional comments and websites/articles..
and thank you, beach truly.

i have a question, however:
Do all the spots in the LP count as the most popular tourist spots?
as an india-virgin would you consider it more interesting to do the top-spots as opposed to the off the beaten path locations?
s'panks.

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beach

Do all the spots in the LP count as the most popular tourist spots?
No.They fall in the regular tourist catogary, obviously with the 'famous and popular' toping the list.

...top-spots as opposed to the off the beaten path locations?
Depends on your taste. If you are a regular tourist, the standard list (the golden triangle or whatever...) should satisfy the curiosity. Having said that, there are many tourists who have had exciting time in India without visiting the Taj....


Scuffle & shuffle the itinerary (more like what people do with a menu card in an alien restaurant)…. you would come up with something sketchy. Post it @ IM for our ‘experts & specialists’ to comment about. And finally something fine evolves…..

(And once you are in India,if she confronts with your list …throw away all these things. Let your instinct do the autopilot’s job , that’s what is popularly called off beaten trail tour )

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steven_ber

Just to reinforce beach's point about the Taj.

I still have not been to the Taj, yet I've been to Delhi twice, Jaipur twice and Agra once.

It took me a few days to get over the initial culture shock, but I'd only been in India for 1 week when I realised that I would return many, many times, so seeing a particular place didn't seem so important, there's always another time.

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Indojingai

Thinking I knew all of it already, I never read the whole OP until today. But there really is a lot of insight in it that I knew but didnt recongnize that I knew.

Great writing beach!!

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phantom

There are couple of other beautiful posts by beach, now buried somewhere in IndiaMike. There was one on Indian Marriages... Steven are you listening .. why not find them and make them also sticky.

aholic_2907

fantastic post buddy.this post is not only for foreign tourists but for indians as well.its even for the new generation indians(living in india as well as NRI's) to realise and accept india as it is and not expect it to become westernized in every way.we could be developed but neednt be westernized.we are our own india and we need to value it in our own way.u need to really bring out this post in public and make every1 realise wht we are all about.extremely interesting!

hfot2

When I asked the question below in another thread, I was sent here.

Would that I had found this before my first trip to India.

Thanks Beach!

jivan

Good thread beach. As a fellow indian & somebody who thinks of himself as somebody who has travelled a bit of India. Also feel Himalayas to be the best place to be whether it's for trekking,romance or the big sleep. Good for making people at home.

Lugubert

On my first visit to the subcontiment, it was a few days in Delhi, a month in Mussoorie and almost another week in Dehli. No Taj. Next time, it's 3-4 weeks in Delhi, hopefully several days in Lahore, and then a number of places where Kipling's Kim went. If I don't just stay, the following time would feature a dozen of Buddhist sites, and perhaps some courses of Hindi or Urdu and/or Sanskrit.

Unless I'm then into a university programme making me want to pursue Sikh studies. Amritsar, here I come. Heck, I'm just 63 years old. Mother is close to celebrating her 90th birthday, so I'm looking forward to many more trips to India. Jai genes!

barrie

I have only been to Goa as a tourist, but have fallen in love with the place and the people, especially the people. My wife and me are returning to Goa in Jan 2007, and this time we are taking 3 other members of our family with us. As you can see, we are doing our very best to infect others with the "India disease"

Sama

when I first started to research India about mid-2004, for my first trip in September 2005, this was one of the first things I read. I loved it then, but I totally get it now...and now I've been to India twice.....

ro-anD

Excellent post beach!
I'm Indian, but reading it made so much sense to me. have lived here for the majority of my life i take so much for granted. Your write up really made me sit up.

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The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes "sight-seeing." ~Daniel J. Boorstin

migyero

Thanks for all this important informations...

Dave&Jewel

Why India???

Great post Beach, you've given the answers to the 'Why India' thread above started by Conner M. India for us was a very humbling experience.

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mercurie

Beach

Your post is simply great. If presented in form of a book, it will surely grab an award. Very informative, true and helpful.

The write-up is excellent and makes perfect sense.

Mercurie

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