There’s good and there’s bad

Despite recent media coverage in Melbourne about the harassment Western women can face from the local men in India – I’m pleased to report the majority of my experience has been smooth sailing.

My six weeks' travel started in the south and ends in the north.  I was warned to expect an onslaught of unwanted attention in the north but I’ve been here nearly two weeks and have noticed no difference between the two.

Perhaps the words of my old work mate, Tom, who is an Australian Trade Commissioner in Delhi, describe it best.  During a rickshaw ride in Old Delhi, I made the observation to Tom that I’d found the trip much easier than I’d expected.  Tom simply said in reply: “It’s a state of mind, Caz.”

I’ve met some wonderful people who have played an important part in making my journey that much easier.

Such as the waiter who returned my wallet after I’d inadvertently dropped it outside the popular cafe in Goa. He handed it to me with full contents – my coveted US green card, my only credit card, and the equivalent of $200 Australian dollars in rupees. 

There was Syam, the London-raised businessman, who I met on the tarmac in Kochi in Kerala after a plane trip from Bangalore. I had turned to the closest Indian person walking alongside me and asked whether I should worry about malaria in the south (apparently not).  

At the baggage terminal, I asked Syam if he could recommend any budget accommodation given I hadn’t booked anywhere and it was getting on in the evening.

Syam called a hotel he regularly refers his London guests to and secured the best rate for me that included breakfast.  He then suggested I share his taxi as the hotel was on the way to his home.

During the ride I established Syam was unmarried with no children, but I was able to avoid any awkwardness by saying I was engaged (refer Hampi post) which made it easy to accept Syam's dinner invitation.

Syam took me to a swish hotel and we ate steak and drank South African wine.  He wrote down the places I should visit in Kerala, paid for our meal, and dropped me back at my hotel. 

Up until Kochi I had been encumbered with three travel bags and for the most part was paying considerably more to hire personal drivers to make it easier to travel with the extra weight.  The most I had paid for a driver was $200 Australian dollars covering a seven hour trip from Hampi to Bangalore airport.  To put this in perspective, a local train ride the same distance would have put me back $2.  Thus I was relieved to finally ditch the added luggage in the hotel’s storage and continue further down south with a lighter load.

I have seldom felt more alive than sitting up the front of a local Indian bus watching the driver skilfully navigate through a mass of activity abound – people going about their business on the street, wandering cows, goats, dogs, rickshaw drivers, bicycles and of course cars, buses, trucks and motorbikes - all the while zooming ahead with impressive speed.

I had a particularly sweet bus driver on the 4.5 hour journey from the hill station Munnar back to Kochi.  The driver had cheekily grabbed my cowboy hat from my seat and put it on his head - chuffed by the attention he received by people as he drove on. 

What an act of kindness he displayed when on one of his short driving breaks he initiated a call to my hotel in Kochi to determine the best bus stop for me to get off!

I experienced a similar goodwill gesture from the hotel staff in Jaipur who sent a personal driver to Pushkar – a four hour journey – to return my credit card that one of their staff had been remiss to hand back to me after I’d signed the bill. 

There are other stories like this – and yes, there are dodgy ones – but the better far outweigh the bad.

Sure I think the blonde hair, big smile and tall stature have played their part in the reception I’ve received.  But overall, I think Tom has nailed it.

 

Getting around India involves a sturdy pair of hiking boots (for the puddles in the potholes and cow dung in the streets) and the right ‘state of mind’.  And true to its spiritual leanings, India serves up its fair share of karma.

Like today in Jodhpur when I shared a ride in a tuk tuk with an Indian woman.  I noticed once she’d got out that she’d accidentally left a top behind.  I asked the driver to wait while I chased after her to return it.

As I waded through the narrow alleyway she had disappeared into I passed a group of local men hanging out in a shop. One called after me (the usual catchcry I hear): “Hello, come into my shop...” and I replied as I ran past, “I can’t, I have to catch that lady, I have her top, she left it in the tuk tuk.”  

I heard him call after me: “Give it to me, I will make sure she gets it.” 

But I carried on and eventually caught her. She gratefully took the top and I made my way back to the tuk tuk.  As I passed the men I smiled at them and said: “Thank-you, thank-you, I found her, she got her top back.”

And one of them quickly darted back:  “No...thank-you for being here.”

Photo - local bus driver wearing my cowboy hat on part of the journey from Munnar to Kochi (South India).