Travel: What worries an Indian Mind

Sharwari Kulkarni
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

Note for Non-Indians: Not many Indians travel as backpackers not because they travel luxury, it is just that they don’t know what backpacking is! This post is an humble attempt to capture reflections of Indian mind when they heard we are going to travel for 35 days. Indians generally don’t travel alone as travelling is looked as an opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, away from routine life.

Note for Indians: No offense to anyone! This post might help others to understand our lifestyle.

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We both (my husband and I) love travelling. We have been discussing it for a while now, it was time for action! Everyone around us was engrossed in celebrating Diwali but it wasn’t same for us. We were preparing for our upcoming travel in southeast Asia where we were planning to spend a month.

People around us were not very convinced about spending a month travelling as Indians look at travel differently. Travelling out of country is assumed as luxury in India hence when we disclosed our idea of backpacking mixed reactions were bound to come. Some reactions were like “not sure what will you do for a month there.” “Thailand for a month? you guys will get bored of beaches (assumptions is Thailand has nothing other than Krabi, Phuket and Koh Samui).” “Cambodia? for what? I heard it’s full of scam! (Assumption again)” Many asked us, “What is Laos? Is it a place in Thailand?” They haven’t heard of the country named Laos. Going there is obviously out of question!” Some even asked about travel package we have signed up for! “Don’t tell me you will figure out your stay arrangements after going there. Why don’t you guys book your hotels online?” It took us little extra effort to make them understand what backpacking is and what are we going to do for a month there.

I am pure vegetarian, eating meat or egg isn’t an option for me. Hence my mom and in-laws were concerned about how will I manage to have food while travelling. Oh yes, I was little worried too but google helped me to get over this concern saying there are plenty of vegetarian eating options in southeast Asia. Family members and friends suggested us to keep some achar, chutany, home-cooked food like chiwada, chakli, thepla etc for my convenience but backpacking with all “home cooked luggage” didn’t seem to be a feasible option.

Indians don’t travel leaving their jobs, they prefer travelling for a week or two taking leaves. Hence another question was if I am planning to work remotely while traveling. I wasn’t! This triggered another worry of managing expenses.

While reading this non-Indians might think why Indians are conservative about travelling. Guys, you don’t know our way of life. We are hard-workers, we generally don’t afford breaks from our jobs as we have too many liabilities in day to day life. Only reason why we could think of travelling while not on a job because fortunately my husband and I don’t have any liability right now. People prefer to travel with a tour companies which take care of all the aspects like commute, stay, food, sight seeing etc. so that they don’t have to worry about anything. They can enjoy being stress free at least for the duration of travel. Of course, working people might have to worry about managers bugging them occasionally on their holiday!

Usually a package tour in India to Thailand covering only Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket or Krabi costs around 1 – 1.2 Lac in Indian Rupee for two. That’s a lot for 5-6 days! No doubt people were surprised listening to our expenses for a month long trip for two covering three countries was equivalent to their week’s trip to Thailand covering destinations mentioned above. Now they are looking at us as achievers! Certainly, listening to our travel story has helped a bit to change our family and friend’s mind set and now they are little more open about travelling.

I hope the time will come when Indians can afford a stress free life and they can travel for experience and not leisure!

For our itinerary and travel experiences please visit Ajinkya’s (my husband’s) blog Binary Grey

Sharwari Kulkarni

Written by

Writer & Education Consultant. I write about people, places, thoughts and experiences

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