Traveling village to village, day by day..

Aloha.

Well its my first time coming to India,
and I was wondering about accomadations.

I plan on treking from village to village, day by day, just to explore the country, for a few months.

I was wondeirng now neccessary it is to book guest houses/hotels in advanced? It seems like, becasue India is a popular backpacker's destination, that travelers tend to wander from place to place, always finding a roof over thier heads. Is this just a misperception?

Also,
I plan on spending atleast $10US a day on a decent place to sleep.. my own room, etc.. So are places like this readily availible, for travelers like me?
Seems like there is so much talk about guest houses, and villagers who rent a room out for a few days to any tourist. I just want to know what to expect, and how much planning to do.

All replies and help is greately appreciated

i cannot give you any advice for your query but love the idea of roaming from village to village in exploration. please keep us updated on your travels. it sounds exciting.

The one thing I wonder is if you will find a place nice enough to cost 400+rupees ($10) in small villages. My guess is that availability depends on where you're going. Locals are most likely to be renting in those areas where renting to tourists is prevalent (Kerala, starting to catch on in parts of Rajastan too). The basic problem of going off the beaten path is that you might not find all the normal tourist destination amenities. Unless it's a festival season or something I would say there is generally no need to reserve, but do make sure your destination at least has some kind of hotel or guesthouse before you head out.

Not really. There is very little tourist infrastructure in India in general, and precious little outside the cities. There is not really a network of travelers' guest houses or lodges. Plus there are, what, 70,000 villages in India? Village life is not difficult to experience, even if you don't spend the night. It's easy enough to stay in a hotel in a mid-size town and visit villages during the day and evening. You'll make friends.

Most towns will have a least one hotel. Villages won't have anything at all--that's why they are villages.

Under-counted the number, that's about the number which dont have electricity. :-)

agree with the rest

Ah--thanks for the correction. I know I had seen that number somewhere!

It seems the total is in the neighborhood of 600,000.

Thank you all for the replies so far

Perhaps it would be best to stick to towns like mentioned above..
Then just venture off the beaten path during the day.

One thing is for sure, I will bring something to sleep in, incase I gota sleep on the dirt.
There seems to be many little hiking trails everywhere, throughout India, and I hear Kerala is really nice for hiking

any other experiences and advice?

just say no.

To drugs, I mean. :-)

@wazen - HI. and welcome to India..

Kerala is nice for hiking.. but I prefer the Himalays esp.. Himachal Pradesh more.. Everywhere I go hiking in Kerala leeches follow me..

In Himachal you can go walking thru places and in most places you will find accomodation as well as beautiful locales to explore.. First decide on a starting point.. and you will begin to get relevant inputs to plan ur itinerary..

Not likely. The thing that is hard to get your mind around, if you have never been to India before, is that there is almost no place without a human being. People are everywhere, everywhere. Sleeping on the ground is for drunks and derelicts. You will always have human company and the famous Indian hospitality that goes with it.

ya . . . day treks are the best way to go, especially your first time. And Dec is NOT good for the Himalayas.
Oh, the things you'll see!!!

I read a book some years ago written by a foreigner who walked the length of the Ganges.

Can't remember the details or even find it now on google but he wandered into villages and was inevitably fed and housed by the locals as a guest. I imagine he must have spoken some basic Hindi to explain what he was doing.

His journey was not like an outing of the ramblers association though, and he experienced fevers, sunstroke, attacks by packs of village dogs, and arrived at the end of his journey in the Himalayas in an emaciated state. IMO only for the very brave or extremely foolhardy.

Welcome to IM!

Looks like your plans are fluid right now, but if you do end up doing this village-based trip, will you keep this board posted? I have always wanted to do a trip like this. I've thought that working my way up or down a river might be a way to make it possible (i.e. boat as source of accomodation and to haul around supplies), but it's never been more than a fantasy.

So, let us know how you make it work if you do this, will you?

By the way, your Hawaii is a special place on earth - lucky you to live there. Not much aloha spirit in India, but a different kind of warmth that you kind of have to dig for . . . Fair warning.

Cheers - GM

hi Wazen
a guy called Ben bachelor from hawai has done it within USD 5 a day.
So why cannt you?This is incredible India.
and if u wana know more abt him.go to digihitch.com
or hospitalityclub.org (ben is the nik) for his travelouge.

Hmmm, Alan_D, you may be right, but . . . My dad did a walking tour of West Bengal villages for six weeks in the early 1960s, as a young man in his early 20s. Had a great time and tells (and re-tells, and re-tells) the many stories from that trip. Slept on the porches of nice folk as he went.

My grandfather worked as a tax auditor's clerk for the Brits. He walked from village to village on multiple lengthy tours, many times a year. Also, he did a trip from Rangoon to Dhaka on foot one year. He carried everything he needed (tarp, dal, rice, salt, oil) in this really cool compartmental wooden chest for his journeys.

Rabindranath Tagore writes lyrically of a lengthy journey through village Bengal in one of his books. Being the aristocrat he was, he used a comfortable boat, both for transport and lodging. I'm sure he had his staff with him.

None of these gentlemen were accustomed to undo hardship -- as in, sunstroke, emaciation, dog attacks, etc. So, I'm guessing that this kind of trip remains very possible, with enough time and energy to invest. It's just not part of the tourist trail blazed by Westerners in the 1960s and early 70s, and by imperial travelers before them. So, one would have to be creative, maybe gathering intelligence from local folks day-by-day, as one went along.

But, I could be wrong. Hey, I'm sitting here in New Jersey, staring out at twelve lanes of traffic. Need to be cautious when musing about village India.

GM