Middle-aged Mom planning first solo trip

Hello Everyone!

I have been reading the forum voraciously for the last couple of weeks and thought it was time to introduce myself. I am a 50 yr old Mom planning my first overseas trip in, oh crap! 21 years! Lord that can't be true can it?? I have had a long standing desire to travel to India maybe since I was 10 years old.

When I graduated from College (late 80's)I applied to do a 2 year stint volunteering for the YMCA with the hopes of being sent to India. Got sent to Kenya instead. I spent 2 years working and wandering around Kenya and Tanzania and was able to visit Ghana for about 3 weeks as well.

When I returned, career and parenting a daughter solo impeded any international travel. But now watch out! Daughter is graduating HS next year (fingers crossed!) and Mama is about to take off! As a public school teacher I have a built in 8 week travel window every summer so of course my first trip is to India(June-July 2013). I feel a small guilt for this because I am way over due to visit friends and family in Kenya but..you know I am driven to get to India.

While I don't feel I am a novice to backpacking/traveling around solo, I am older and have a few small concerns. (most of my concerns have been assuaged by reading Drew60 thread here and checking out Daisy's blog and some other's linked here on the forum)

Things I dealt with/experienced while in Africa but I am assuming will be more intense just because of the huge difference in population:

Challenges:
Extreme poverty, beggars, open sewers, Touts, various scams, gastro-intestinal "issues" . Eastern style toilets, Transportation systems breaking down, inefficiant bureacracy, unreliable water and electric supply, extreme humidity (Ghana) Roads washing out because of rain. Monkeys! (All of which handled with the mantra "there is no hurry in Africa" and keeping sense of humour allways at the ready)

A few things that I think will be different (I would be interested if anyone has experience in both Africa and India to comment)

After reading some of the forums I think the issue with touts will be different. In Africa if you wanted to go somewhere just show up to a transport yard and a tout will direct you to the bus or Matatu that is heading in that direction. The drivers negotiated the price with you and they payed the tout for bringing you. Very helpful! You need to change money? Touts will bring you to the shopkeeper with the best rates. I have had touts walk me several KM to be sure I reached my destination ok. I am getting the sence that in India touts are to be avoided and hiring guides or getting your hotels assistance in arranging transportation is the way to go.

I also did quite a bit of hitchhiking..don't worry have no intention of being that adventuresome/stupid again!

Also I am assuming the Monsoon rains are more intense than say the rainy season in Kenya. Because I am a public school teacher I can only go during June July and part of August. I am thinking I will be ok becuase going for about 6 weeks I have some time built in for transportation disruptions caused by the Monsoons.

I am not sure of my route yet,though I am narrowing things down. Planning for a couple of weeks in the North and the South, avoiding the coastal areas. Will definetly go to Hyderabad as I have friends to meet there.

I have a lot of planning to do and am so excited..my biggest concern at this point is haveing a major house problem that could suck up my travel money and delay my trip to the next year.

I am nervous about traveling solo after all this time but, my only real fear is leaving my 18 year old daughter in charge of house, the dogs and the car for 6 weeks!

Welcome to IndiaMike, jjake!!

I'm so happy to hear that you've been reading my blog, I really hope it has been helpful.

To address some of the challenges you've listed -

Please don't worry about the eastern style toilets, they are a challenge the first time, but get easier.

The various scams - well, reading about them and being prepared is the best thing you can do, but I was still almost scammed. All I can say is (from one teacher to another) do your homework - and I can see that you are. You're here, after all.

Monkeys are best seen at a distance. I did get close to some in Jaipur, but was careful not to get scratched. You don't want to get rabies, so do be careful of all animals.

The extreme poverty, beggars, and touts are all things that you really can't do anything about. If you feel you would like to help out, giving to an organized charity or giving supplies to a school might be a good idea.

It is normal to feel nervous, but you are doing all the right things - you are preparing and learning about things you need to know. If I can help in any way, let me know. You can PM me after you've been here 10 days and after 10 posts. Enjoy India!

Thanks for the Welcome Daisy! I will have to start posting so I can earn my PMing priveleges!

Actually the challenges I mentioned were things I've already experienced/conquered while living and traveling around Africa. It was a long time ago though and I am imagining the scale to be more intense in India just because of the difference in Population density.

Eastern toilets..no worries except my arthritic knees, but I am already doing wall squats in preparation! Had also mastered the water no TP technique..I see no point in being squeemish about my own bum!

If I get scammed I will treat it as a learning experience. I will read up on the current ones before I go. Most likely the only thing that will happen is I pay more than I should for something.Easy conme easy go, right?

Extreme poverty..like I say saw it in Africa I just think it will be on a bigger scale. I always gave to NGO's that worked with the street children rather than the kids directly when I was in Kenya so I am on board with that philosophy.


Monkeys? Nasty aggressive creatures. Once the novelty wheres off they are a pain in the butt. I mostly kept hold of my stuff and ignored with one eye on them. (I still will be excited to see some again though!)

I am on summer break and researching like mad..once school starts I will have less time. I have my money saved already but I am still applying for a grant to help fund the trip. I teach High school geography and World History so I am applying for a teacher travel grant. Don't know if this is available everywhere in the US but it's worth checking out.

http://www.fundforteachers.org/

Oops, sorry, I misread that. I'm glad to know that you have had experience already with some of the things that do challenge tourists.

Thanks so much for the website! I'll be looking through it more closely and see if it applies to me.

I found that planning the trip was a lot of fun, so I hope you are enjoying that as well.

Of course, feel free to ask me, or anyone here, any questions you have in the forums. We are here to help, that's what we do. I'm really happy that you are going to India, I think you will love it.

Congratulations on your decision and preparations!

Depending on your tour circuit and mode of sight seeing, many of the issues that you are thinking of, might not happen. That said, you will have more issues with heat (I read Hyderabad in your trip)! You will find lot of western toilets to your surprise.

If you have your places of travel ready, perhaps some one can point out real concerns than the generic list for a better preparation.

Thanks! yes I am going to be all over the forum asking questions soon. Right now I am reading like crazy trying to zero in on an intinerary. And once I have a better idea of where I can start asking more specific questions.

I am also hoping one of my friends will join me, she's a teacher as well so is interested in applying for the grant with me. It is lots of fun to plan!

Jake, I think you'll be just fine. I've been wanting to answer you, but it would be a lengthy post or bust. So far it ain't happening.

This touts thing I think foreigners get a little overly worked up about it, in fact it works pretty much like what you describe from Africa. You can use them, or not, it's what most Indians will use them for and now of course having the obvious advantage of speaking the same language, but so anyway don't get yourself worked up about it. I don't personally get around there using guides or anything, it's very possible to do it yourself. Sure, ask your hotel desk, or that tout, or whatever; that to me includes "doing it yourself."

Well, cheers, maybe more later. I reckon with your backgrounds nothing much should surprise you there. It is a different place, of course, and different than Africa, and such, but, I'm sure you'll manage. It is in fact renowned for being relatively easy to get around in. Little real physical dangers, and such.

Pay a little more for the hotel room and get a Western toilet, then you only have to deal with the Asian toilets on the train or in cheap restaurants. The places I stayed for Rs600, a couple of years ago, all had sit-down toilets.

Thanks for the reassurance about the touts...I was really getting to think they played a different role in India! And yes I am not interested in pre-packaged tours, I want to the flexability to manage things myself and to arrange with the help of Touts or hotel staff guides when they are needed.

I am planing on the midrange for hotel accomodations so I am anticipating western toilets.
I think my budget will be about $50 a day (10 to 25 dollars for hotel) so the 600-1000 RS range for hotels is the comfort level I am expecting. It is really nice to be older and have money and credit enough to decide to upgrade if I'm sick or just needing take a break and have more creature comforts for a night or 2.

BTW anyone can explain how I can multiquote? do you hit multiquote buttons first or reply?

LOLS looks like I multiquoted but not sure how I did it! Also how can you go back in and edit posts? I want to fix some punctuation and spelling errors.

Click the 'Quote+' button on each post you wish to quote, then click 'Post Reply' (over on the bottom left of the screen) and then all the posts you wish to reply to will be lined up and you can insert your replies between them.

New members can't edit their posts. When you have been here a little longer you will get an 'Edit' button in the bottom right of your posts.

Welcome to Indiamike!

^^Thank you Julia!

Hyderabad temperature is comparable to Jaipur (Rajasthan), Pune (Maharashtra) or Delhi (Delhi state).

On the other hand Hyderabad is a great place to visit -

• very clean city
• warm and friendly people who try to speak your language (no 'gottilla' stuff)
• much easy to deal with auto-rickshaw
• yummy places to eat from Pesarattu to Hyderabadi dum Biryani to Haleem.
• the awesome 'Hussain Sagar Lake' with the enumerable gardens,
• NTR Park
• Ramoji Film City
• SalarJung Museum
• Golconda Fort
• Osman Sagar lake
• The watering holes in the Begumpet area are a must visit too.
• and the APTDC restaurant up in the Jubilee Hills overlooking Cyberabad is not to be missed.

Since she got friends, if planned well, they can all have a memorable trip.

Yes I am looking forward to Hyderabad! I am oddly enough a huge fan of Telugu movies so I am looking forward to Ramoji film city, Golkonda fort, the lake and other places I can recognise from the movies, and of course eating some Biryani!