Top 5 Things That Surprised Me About India
India has always been on my travel bucket list. Everyone I know who has visited came back in love with the country. When we got our invitation to our friends’ wedding in Ahmedabad India, I knew this was a once in a life time opportunity. Before the wedding we visited New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Udaipur. Every city was so beautiful and an incredible experience. India surprised me in so many different ways and was different then what I expected. Here are the top 5 things that surprised me on our trip.
1. Accessibility
India is probably one of the most accessible countries I’ve visited. There were ramps to every place we visited. Inside there would be ramps so that people with mobility aids could explore 70-80% of the attraction. The bathrooms all had accessible stalls and the doors didn’t have lips to enter. For a long time I had heard that historical places in the US and Europe couldn’t be accessible to people with mobility aids because it was too difficult, costly, or not doable because when they were built mobility aids weren’t a thing. Well India showed me that that’s all a lie. If the Taj Mahal can be accessible so can a 100-year-old home.
2. Concern For the Environment
All of the yellow and green tuktuks are powered by natural gas.
In the US we hear so much about how other countries, like India and China, are the real drivers of climate change and that they aren’t doing much when it comes to helping stop it. That seemed pretty far from the truth in India. Speaking with our guides it was pretty clear that India was actually putting in place policy and then following through on it. The sale of new diesel gasoline cars has already been banned, no gasoline powered cars are to be sold after 2030, and most tuktuks have been transitioned to natural gas. You can distinguish the tuktuks based on their colors. Red tuktuks are petrol (regular gas), yellow and green are natural gas, and blue are electric. I think we saw maybe 5 petrol tuktuks the entire time we were there. All of the gas stations that we saw had ev charging stations. The surrounding 2km of the Taj Mahal was an electric vehicle only zone to help prevent haze and damaging acid rains.
They exclusively used paper straws. Even the straws that come with juice boxes were paper.
Recycling was limited. We were constantly being given plastic water bottles and most of them went into the garbage. There were very few places that had designated recycling.
3. We Were People’s Photo Attraction
Peter and I were frequently asked to have our pictures taken. I had heard before how groups of men would want pictures with single women to then photoshop them to become lewd images. But I found it was mostly families who were interested in us. Mostly women and their children wanted pictures with me. A couple groups of men wanted pictures with just Peter. They were all very nice and ask for a photo or a selfie. We made sure to keep our valuables close to us but never had any issues. We also saw a BUNCH of people trying to take stealthy pictures and videos of us. It was pretty funny. So be ready for a photo op when you’re out on the town.
4. We Did Not Get Delhi Belly
Somehow we managed not get Delhi Belly (travelers diarrhea) while we were there. All of my friends who had previously travelled to India had told me to bring Imodium because even if you were born in India you will get Delhi Belly. We made sure we were only drinking bottled water, and none of our drinks had ice in them. They did not serve any drinks with ice anyways. When we were out touring our guides would take us to places that they said were “sanitary”. Peter managed to only get sick once we were home. He ate at the KFC in the Delhi airport. He says it was absolutely delicious, he would eat it again, and recommends it. He did need the mobile urgent care to give him an IV and intravenous zofran so you be the judge if you want to follow down his path.
I actually had the opposite problem to Delhi belly. Just make sure to bring some Metamucil and you’ll be fine.
5. Attention to Food Allergies
Every time we ate we were asked if we had any food allergies. All of the menus had at least 5 common allergen symbols listed to all of menu items. Some had up to 14 listed. I had zero problems with my allergies (sulphites, and sodium phosphate) but one of them may be banned there (it is in Europe). I’d be interested to hear from someone with a nut allergy who has been to India before. If that’s you leave a comment below!
India was an absolute blast! I’m trying to think of away to go back.
