Only in India

19 hours of travelling, countless car horns, mosquito bites, cousins, a 3-day wedding, prayers at 5am, a disco on the street, smuggling alcohol in the car bonnet, popped tyres in the middle of nowhere, this may sound a bit crazy to the average Brit, but this is perfectly normal in India.

After 8 years of not seeing half of my family it was time to make the 19 hour journey over to India. We chose to fly with Etihad Airways who were quite good, the plane was comfortable and provided enough entertainment, and their home airport in Abu Dhabi is very swank. After queueing to have our bags checked pointlessly yet again by the staff at Mumbai airport we were reunited with our uncle and cousin who drove us back to our home for the next month, 6 hours away in Navsari, Gujurat.

It's hard to explain the impact of the culture shock you get after leaving the airport. The way everyone drives is at most times crazy, the roads aren't the smoothest and everyone's sense of each other relies on continuos use of the car horn, so it can get quite noisy. After 13 hours flying I still struggled to sleep in the car, not being able to take my eye off the traffic and regretting sitting on a seat that had no belt.

If you like Indian food, it's no secret that India won't let you down. We got to try a lot of different fruit and vegetables that we'd never come across before, as well as some dishes that although were hot on the tongue, had an extra punch. After a couple of weeks I did start to miss a good burger but the new Domino's Pizza helped!

Fruit market

We were also lucky enough to be there to attend a cousins wedding. Indian weddings involve a lot of traditions and rituals and sometimes stretch over a week. Our cousins wedding lasted 3 days, which involved a 5am prayer and a disco in the street the night before the actual big day. There is a lot of waiting around and the food can be quite repetitive but parts of it are fun to watch and participate in and for us it was a first time.

Another thing I found hard to ignore was how 'in-your-face' religion was. I got the impression religion is taken very seriously by most people. Some take it too far that it actually restrains them from living a fun life, but it brings out the good in some. They don't have much else to turn to when their work is simple compared to the Western world. Where we may use our time to go shopping in town or playing with our smartphones, they may be at the temple.

Religion always lingering in the background

Perhaps the most frustrating thing was the government. There's many people suffering and hardly any help exists from the government of a country whose economy seems to be booming. For example, just to bring some alcohol home from a trip to Mount Abu, some had to be hidden under the bonnet of the car, as alcohol is banned in the state where our family lives. As we crossed the border the car was given a full search including all our luggage in the boot. We were caught out and threatened to be taken to court over one can of Fosters. After a little negotiation we were fined a few thousand rupees, but the most laughable thing was that they gave the alcohol back.

It's very difficult to summarise my experience and knowledge in one blog post, but it just shows how important it is to experience other cultures and know there is a whole world out there to be discovered. It's also easy to ignore poverty when you don't stare it in the face everyday. Living in the Western world it's easy to forget about the rest of the world as we get caught up in our busy lives. 

Despite the frustrations and the lack of a decent burger, it was all worth it for the eye-opening experience that can only be found in India.