If you are a civilized European-style traveler, don't waste your time and go to the nearest travel agency offering cheap tours to India, and you will be led by the hand through all of Asia in air-conditioned transport, treated to European cuisine, and even lodged in a monastery where you can temporarily feel like a Buddhist for your own money. The last path is correct and comfortable, but the author of these lines chose the tiresome, unpredictable, and incredibly interesting option number one.
The visa will be issued at the Indian embassy without any problems: we state the purpose of the route – tourism, pay $40, and in a day we get a visa for one to six months. A month-long trip will cost $1,000, including airfare. In principle, you can spend three times less, but that is already extreme. If you travel overland through post-Soviet Central Asia, the road will be cheaper, but it will be long and boring, unless, of course, you belong to the sect of hitchhikers.
Many airlines fly from Kyiv to Delhi. The cheapest is Turkmenistan Airlines ($497 round trip with airport taxes). Uzbekistan Airlines costs $2 more, but the connection is not very convenient: on the way back you will have to spend a day at the airport or check into a hotel. But you will be able to wander around Tashkent, especially since there is a visa-free regime between our countries. The Turkmen will keep you at the transit airport for about six hours, but you will have the pleasure of viewing dozens of portraits of the Great Turkmenbashi, which causes uncontrollable amusement for a visitor.
There is no fuss at Delhi airport. At the counter you buy a taxi ticket, and for $4-5 a cab resembling a mini-Pobeda will take you to a guesthouse. Tips are not obligatory, but welcome. You can present a pack of cigarettes or a trinket, which I strongly recommend you stock up on.
Main Bazar is the place in Delhi most suited for a foreign tourist not demanding special comfort. Main Bazar is cafes and small shops with souvenirs, vegetables and fruits, national clothing, music stores, and stalls selling fruit fresh juices (three or four glasses per dollar). For $20-30 a day, you can easily find a hotel with all the amenities you can imagine. For those who want exoticism and care about their wallet, I give a tip: Hare Krishna Guest House, 1572-73, Main Bazar, Pahar Ganj, New Delhi-110055. Here we found shelter in a four-bed room for 300 rupees a day (about $2 per person). With air conditioning it will be more expensive, but two ceiling fans are quite enough for sleeping. On the roof there is a cheap, as everything in India, and very cozy restaurant.
Evening relaxation is guaranteed here. In this area, bazaar vendors are almost half mixed with tourists who stay on Main Bazar in anticipation of exoticism, so cheap guesthouses and more expensive hotels are on every corner. Tourists are represented in all diversity – from teenagers to pensioners, of all races and religions. Many are not here for the first time. I met people who travel around India for months, even years.
Comrade, be vigilant! Do not follow the lead of merchants who persistently push a drum for $5 or nice chess for $2. Friends left in Ukraine will surely be glad of Indian presents, but you will irreparably ruin your vacation: the trip will be overshadowed by a backpack considerably heavier from souvenirs. Therefore, all offers to buy something cheap (the price can drop four to five times) are strictly ignored. Shopping on the day before departure – and that's it!
Haven't you worked out your travel route in advance? No problem! For this, there is the wonderful publishing house Lonely Planet. Don't begrudge $40 for the book (there is a chance to buy the Russian version in Moscow). In India you can find a used one for half price. Everything is described in detail there. If you don't have the book, go to the first travel agency you come across and listen to their offers. After that, either buy a tour or go along that route yourself – it is cheaper and more unpredictable. However, travel agency services are cheap: renting a car with air conditioning that will drive you all day around Delhi is $15.
Perhaps you, like 90% of tourists, dream of seeing the Taj Mahal? Well, if you are willing to pay $15 for admission plus about ten dollars for an eight-hour journey, a day will suffice. Many go to Goa – mainstream, but with plenty of hashish, relaxation, beaches, and hippie vibes. Getting there by train takes more than a day.
We headed towards Nepal. Less than a day by bus to Varanasi, then to the border with Nepal. When setting off on a long bus journey, I recommend stocking up on whiskey (in India, alcohol is sold in rare specialized stores). Local whiskey is cheap (about $6 per liter), somewhat reminiscent of liqueur, but quite drinkable. Washing it down with cold Coke, which is sold on every corner, you will not only while away the difficult journey but also see India from a different angle.
Varanasi is strongly recommended for visiting. A sacred city on the banks of the Ganges, where, by renting a boat with a guide, you will see unforgettable scenes of night pujas, the bathing-worship of Hindus in the sacred Ganges (more correctly, the Ganga). Here you will also witness the traditional cremation ceremony: old people come to Varanasi from all over India to die happily – from here the shortest path to heaven.
Nepal is already a Buddhist culture. The country is much poorer than India and incomparably cleaner. The capital, Kathmandu, is a must-visit. You should stay in the hip tourist area of Thamel. Prices are even lower than in India due to the decline of the tourist boom. The guerrilla Maoists are to blame for everything. Signs of war are on every corner, but there is a most-favored-nation regime for tourists here: no danger. Nevertheless, I recommend going to the mountains with a guide, in particular so as not to get lost in the jungles. Nepalese are as intelligent, relaxed, good-natured, and honest as the Indians.
The most common recreation here is trekking in the mountains, mainly around majestic Everest (you'll have to spend on a flight – $100 from Kathmandu) and the no less scenic Annapurna (buses run).
We chose the second route. For lack of time, we went to Pokhara, situated on the lake shore, and set off on a three-day trek around the area. On the second overnight stop we stayed in a remote mountain village of Panchasi, where there is no electricity, about 50 inhabitants, and partisans in the forest. We were indescribably delighted by the beauty and inexplicable holiness of this place and cancelled the trip to Northern India, where the residence of the Dalai Lama is located.
On the way back to Delhi, I decided to stop in Rishikesh – the world center for the study of Hinduism, which the great Beatles 'consecrated' with their visit. Near Rishikesh is the sacred city of Haridwar. There are four such cities in India. The coolest Indian gathering – Kumbh Mela – is held in them in turn every three years. Indian yogis – Babas – come here in huge numbers. This year there were 10 million of them. And a few years ago 50 million gathered – the whole of Ukraine in one city! At the gathering, which lasts a month, perfect order is maintained thanks to a mass of volunteers, and yogis perform miracles that are impossible to believe.
And finally. The Indian and Nepalese peoples are very tolerant, but still you should not walk in shorts (buy very light and comfortable pants for $3 at a local shop), do not expose your body without need, do not swim in just swimming trunks where locals do not swim. Drinking in public places is also undesirable, although foreigners are not forbidden to do so. Do not shout or swear, in general leave aggression at home. Bargain. You should be wary of fraudsters, but without paranoia: Indians are much more honest than Turks – they fear spoiling their karma.
To avoid catching dysentery, get used to the local cuisine and water, which is served in cafes in jugs, gradually – in that case, after a week or two you will be able to eat all the same things as the Indians in the unsanitary, at first glance, eateries. Just take an example from the locals and wash your hands more often, and spices will help in the fight against infection.
Finally, the main thing: cut down your tour program so that there is time to simply sit on Indian streets, watch how people live there and rejoice in life without any reason (in our opinion, of course). Perhaps then you will come to understand that the way of life that Uncle Sam is imposing all over the world is not the only truth. Just like our native Ukrainian way of life and our bleak perception of reality. It turns out that to be happy you don't need that much. For example, to visit India or Nepal.