Is it just me, or others as well, who after one trip, have become obsessed with India? I was  there two years ago, for little more than month, and have since been to China and Russia, and yet I cannot seem to escape from the pull of India. The memory of walking into a hot Bombay night at 2am, feeling the whole city waiting for the rains to come, the sight of cows in downtown Bombay and elephants on Delhi streets, the Taj, conversations on trains, the heat, the rain, all seem to haunt me.  I am desperate to go back, and have volunteered to teach there,  in the hope that I can recapture these feelings. Is this possible? Is it normal? Will I ever cease to be such an Indophile? I am like one of those teenagers who can never hear enough about my beloved.  Help me, I'm in your hands people. Paul I hear you, man. Most of my friends here have traveled all about; Central America, China, Russia, etc, but I'm the only one who's been to India. They stopped talking about their trips long ago, but I've been back for two years and I still can't shut up about it. There's no cure, and it's no madness, just a peculiar form of xenophilia. It's nice to know there's others, though... Michael 'The India bug' is completely different from the traditional 'travel bug'. When my friends ask me: 'Why India? What's so special?', I can only answer that it is the maddest place I've ever been to, it is like another planet. The many other countries I've been to seem to other mesh with our way of thinking and fit into our system. You will never comprehend India and its people. What amazes me most is that when you think you REALLY experienced something special, the next day you face an even more amazing and crazy situation.  It just never ends, every day is unbelievable. I remember EVERYTHING about India. I mean, I can close my eyes any time (like now at work) and I will immediately feel, see, smell and taste India. I remember  the lights, the colors, the faces like I never did in any other country. What is it? Don't you think it gets into your blood somehow?  I never missed any country so much, looking at pictures and knowing I won't be there for a while (but only for a while!) causes unbearable pain. Thanks to all of you, see you there. Hodee After college I backpacked all over Europe and loved it.  Then I went to India last year and realize what a waste of time Europe was!  (I just didn't know it at the time.)  I wish I could take back  those months I wasted in Europe and spend them in India.  I literally can't get India out of my mind.  I constantly yearn to be back there.  Europe was a "nice" vacation; but India changed me forever.  I wish I was there right now...  Wayne

When I was sitting on the Ghats in Varanasi, it felt to me like the scene I was viewing was the same as from that spot a 1000 years ago and will be the same in another 1000 years. India feels like another planet. I was barely conscious of the existence of the rest of the world while I was there. The madness and the feeling that you never ever know what's going to happen next is so appealing. Words fail... J-P India's like a drug, after I've been there for a few months I can't wait to get away ... but as soon as I'm on the plane & it's taking off, I desperately want to get off & go back again! And I do keep going back ... I expect I will for the rest of my life! M I've observed that there is something special about India as opposed to other countries. For example: Do you know many people who go back to Thailand, Indonesia or Europe a 5th or 6th time? I don't. But there a plenty of them in India. Hreese I' ve been to India twice, and hope to be back there soon. When people ask me what I liked and didn't like about India, I never have problems finding horror stories, but seem to be incapable of explaining why I love this place. Odd, isn't it? Now, I didn't have any kind of "spiritual awakening" over there, I didn't find my true self, I didn't even suffer that much (I like to have an attached bathroom), I was just there, being alive and enjoying myself, being proud when I got from point A to B on a rickshaw without stopping at a shop on the way, and wondering how I could have reacted better when I got lured by a shopkeeper. Go figure. Anita

I think what I feel in love with was the "timelessness" but also the sense that, however much India changes, it will always be India. And also the people; I think I liked everyone I met, even the people who were trying to rip me off  were so nice about it, I could not help but like them. I hope to see some of you people in India when I get there again (probably June/July next year). Paul Just the thought of those two months I spent in India two yrs ago is enough to send me to a high. I loved the place, the people, the experience, the everything!! I will definitely go back in the near future. Hold on India - I'm coming!! Sonya I know the feelings all too well. I meet up with the people I met out there and we do nothing but rant on and on about it, then have vivid dreams for the following week. India is fab and I’m dying to go back A.C. I have travelled to lots of other places, but have saved India for this year. A friend said to Me "I went for six weeks, stayed a year", when I asked him if he loves it that much, He said "Sometimes I loved it, Sometimes I hated it, It's India". I  already sense what he means, but very soon I'll KNOW. Daniel I've been 'home' almost 3 weeks. Any mention of India and my eyes will glaze over as I remember the sheer joy of having no choice but to dance in the universal flux. Thanks for this topic, helps to keep my day dreams alive. Toogood India blew my head off and put it back on all strange and beautiful. I will never get enough of the place. I was to spend eight weeks, and did eight months instead. I  lived and worked (peace corps) in Africa for a year and it too is extraordinary, but more secretive and difficult to know- but India was a traveler's dream. The opportunities via the astoundingly generous and sound Indian people to participate in the culture abound, and are so full and genuine that you cannot but be changed by them. The place is truly a lesson in suspension of disbelief and destruction of former views. Love it! Smitten

In 1994 as a naive young thing, something made me decide to go to India. I had a wonderful boyfriend who I adored in London and possibilities of promotion at work, a job I was lucky enough to love! But something made me buy that fateful ticket and I left it all behind, never to be retreived. I travelled for eight months, mostly alone, yet never felt the loneliness and paranoia that I have experienced whilst trudging solo round Europe. To cut a long story short, having returned from my second trip I started a degree in Hindi and the history of South Asia. I'm going back this Summer to study for a year and I'm so excited about being able to really converse with people who aren't part of the tourist scene. So Paul, you're not alone! The best of luck to you in returning to India. Susan Well..after these readings I'm really looking forward to leaving once again...and it will be the fourth time!!! matthew Have just spent ages reading through all of your messages and getting very nostalgic about my last visit to India. The whole experience was a constant assault on the senses and a huge adventure with surprises around every corner. Can't wait to go back for more........and am doing so in June. Joseph I have travelled through Europe and the Americas. Unlike all these places, you will hate India at the beginning. You will hate the pollution, the overcrowded streets and many other things. But once you stay for a week, India will be the most fascinating thing that has happened to you. I have been there twice last year. I will visit India every year.....I have chosen my vacation spot for life ..... MeToo When I first arrived in India i felt that the place was unreal, after 6 months I felt the western world was unreal. I couldn’t imagine going back to Europe. Nobody understands you when you just sit there with a smile and a distant look in your eyes.  I have given up explaining India; If you haven't been there you don't understand anyway.  People think you are insane when you go on and on about India...We know better.... Lisette

I first went to India in 1984. Had an appalling time and said I'd never go back. I went again in 1987! Now I visit India just about every year and even ended up running trips there! I still can't explain it all.  The most common reaction I find from people who go for the first time is they were happy to leave, but once off the airport tarmac, they can't wait to get back! Christopher There are a few people in my life who went to India and came back changed, and I never could understand why or how that would be. I always thought, it couldn't really be that different from traveling to South America, Indonesia or wherever...or could it? This slightly envious feeling, like "There MUST be something very different about this place - sucks people in, shakes them thoroughly, gives them a different spin and spits them out. Damn, I wish I knew." For some reason India is the one country that I always kept telling myself "you need TIME for this when you go". Seems like I will. And I don't mind at all. But I've also always felt a bit uneasy whenever I thought about going there - like it could really affect me personally when I go. DianaD Reading all the above contributions simply makes me feel all at home once again. I have been travelling around Asia at an almost intensive rate for the last 3 years. Yet there has never been another country that arouses my yearnings. I know that many were there hoping to rub off some of the mystique or to fulfill a spiritual belonging. But in the end it is an understanding that we can never entirely slip into the whole culture. We can only be thankful that it had allowed us a glimpse and an opportunity to feel. rdburman I think the great thing about India is that it has everything from deserts to beaches, mountains to ghats and variety of dialects, cultures and so on. I mean visiting India is like visiting many different countries at once. Saul

I was in india for a year and I just got back in Febuary and already I'm heading back at the end of the month. I can totally relate to what you're saying man, it's a drug that you can't get enough of. Sometimes you have got to stop thinking about stuff and just get on and do it. Just think, the land of extremes awaits you. From the monsoon to the heat. There is just something really special about being on a clapped out bus on the way up to the mountains or seeing real India on the trains, riding on an autorickshaw through Delhi with a driver with a death wish. India is so diverse that's why I like it. You've got to give in to your craving man! Brentb Well after six and a half years of travel in this continent I have learnt what it means to be different …from north to south and east to west, I have learned that the people are different, the languages are different, the customs are different, the country is different. Everyone who has come across this country has had in some way or the other an assault on his or her senses yet a year later they will be hankering to get back. Yes ! I am heading on for more... Bazzle I had a dream of going to India ever since my absent-minded professor of a father returned from there when I was 12. He was there for an academic conference, not some hippy dippy quest to find himself, but even then, I could see how it had changed him. And he too had been all over the world. I finally made it there when I was 24. I couldn't think of any other place that is more different in every single aspect from the (first) world that I come from. I'm sure he's not the first one who said it, but my dad told me that India is proof that there is a God - how else could such a place exist otherwise? lia

I'm sitting at work reading this page and I'm nearly in tears. Brings back so many memories. I have felt everything that is written in this page. I'll probably head back in December. There is no other place in the world I'd rather be when the New year hits. I want to be somewhere on a mountainside in the Himalayas drinking a cup of chai and listening to some Sanskrit chanted by some Hindu priest. And smell the woodfires in the early morning North Indian fog. Suzie It was great reading these contributions . . . There is,to me, really something magical and uplifting (but not always!) about  India.  I haven't a clue why, and have thought about it for over 20 years.  I first went in 1974, and have only returned twice, but constantly look in libraries and bookshops for books of other people's experiences, all of which I really enjoy and relate to. I've taken my parents and wife back since, and my dad, who thoroughly disapproved of my first  jaunt, but became as obsessed with the country as I was. I never, ever, really met 'dreadful' scoundrels - sure some are after your money but in the sort of way that you can always understand and never fail to forgive - I often mistrusted people when I shouldn't have! - the architecture is amazing - the shops are absolutely incredible - the food . . . . - the scenery - wonderful and so variant - the trains (and the train stations and the food you can get there) - the travellers - both Indian and non-Indian - my impression that time seems to be different and the quality of being "in the moment" is acute (that sounds good/bullshit - but seems to me to be true) All I can say is if you haven't been there, “Go!” and if you have, you probably want to go back anyway. Enjoy and grow. Michael I feel that the indian   travel experience is almost like Yin and yang...let me explain in a list... 07:00am - Gritting my teeth,and seconds away from killing that B******D rickshaw driver 08:00am - Watching a cremation at the burning ghats in Kashi,with echoes of devotional hindu music drifting in the distance..and the sun rising... 09:00am - Standing in a queue (what!) in the train station for 15 minutes,get to the window, and an arrogant C***T pushes in with his "Just quickly quickly, I am wanting information on this or that train" (AAAaaaarghhh!!!) 10:00am - A troop of holy cows with rich adornments marches through the narrow winding alleyways with bells and tabla drums beating in a rythhm. Is this the TAO of India??....just my theory,that for example,in Thailand everything went absoloutely fine and THAT was the problem....i feel that its the combination of bad experiences and good experiences that make our trips to India BALANCED and healthy!!!,and make us long to go back.... Mmmmm??....what do you feel?..... Anonymous

One thing's for sure, either you just love India or you just hate it. There are no other in-between or wishy-washy feelings that visitors get for India. Your feelings for the country are intense and contradictary, just like India herself. Some people love and hate India at the same time! I think I am one of them. I never understood why some travellers felt India was like no other country, until I did some travelling around Asia and Europe myself. India has so much to offer in terms of sights, history, and plain madness. You are right above, when you say that one just does not know what will happen to you, the next minute in India. It is truly a mad country, and some say the 'cradle of civilization'. Dill The following thought which I read in "Sacred India" by LP neatly sums it up - "India is a harsh mistress, yet she has never had a shortage of lovers". Bart I spent 3 months travelling in South America (Peru, Bolivia and Brasil mostly) and I loved South America but it just didn't get under my skin the way India did and I wasn't alone in this opinion. Other travellers I met in South America who'd been to India said the same thing. I'm still trying to figure out why. Lot's of places have ancient history, fascinating cultures, fabulous landscapes etc. Yet India still feels different. Maybe it's purely emotional and resists logical analysis. Doctor Kimble When I was a little child, there was a movie on telly about India during its independence period. I remember myself praying with all my childish heart that a time-machine would be invented and I would see the country like it used to be. 15 years later, I visited India (twice) and realized that my childhood dream came true. The most amazing thing about India for me was the travel in time, not in geography. As if time stood still. And I learnt to accept life as it is with the patient look I saw in Indian’s eyes. I consider myself a lucky girl since I know lots of people who say once and never about the country, and since there are lots more who want to but can't go there. I know in my heart that I'll go there again and again. Hope to see you along the way! Anonymous

Definitely love, but not at first sight. Last country I wanted to go to. Didn't want to go all that way and spend all that money just to be depressed...that was my thinking. When I got there I loved it (and hated it). Left early,couldn't wait to get away,  but on the plane home I was already planning my next trip to India! Been back 6 times since and will undoubtedly be back again. I'm hooked. Like others I find it hard to explain the attraction. Why is it, that with the sound of the All-Indian Throat Clearing exercise that occurs at 5am, I break into an inane grin that takes an hour to get off my face? The closest I've got to explaining the appeal is that it's like living on the set of Fawlty Towers. You can always depend on off beat things happening. A cow walks into your restaurant and eats the menu off the table. Having to help push start the public bus. Sitting silently with a sadhu who is wearing nothing but ashes and a loin cloth in the snow. Neither of you speak but it doesn't matter because your eyes speak the same language. Marsvenus India ..... a great thread on this site but a mere shadow of the amazing (un)reality that is India. I went in 1995 for 3 months and had the time of my life. It shook me up, turned me around, and spit me back out the other side and my first thought on returning to the UK was, “when I am going back?” Three subsequent visits have only confirmed what I already know, I can't get enough! North, South, East, West wherever you choose to explore, India will reward you. sexi taxi I agree, India is very precious. I went in 1997 for 100 days. I was in the north. I lost 18 pounds, never to be regained (!) and I took more responsibility in my life, more commitment, more understanding Why Am I Here. I miss it. I love it. I need it. The Eye Liner Been floating around this amazing country since february 2000 ... would never change all the hardness for anything - reward is the beauty & simplicity.  India has my heart Rach01 I have only been 'home' for 5 months but everyday without fail I dream about India... at work, talking to friends, at college or wherever I may be I cannot help but think of my time in India. I feel like a troublesome teenager and find it infuriationg that it seems, "NOBODY UNDERSTANDS"!!  Reading this branch has assured me that I'm not alone.  I'm booking my tickets tomorrow - this branch has brought tears to my eyes and a grin to my face... and changed my direction, the beautiful words you use to describe India.  It must be fate!  I NEED ANOTHER FIX!!! J.B.'s ghost

I too, shed tears as I read and remember all the special things that flood into my mind, whenever someone mentions the magic word India. Tomorrow,I fly back to greet her again for the umpteenth time.Many things have changed, since that unforgettable day in 1978,when I first landed in Delhi and was instantly (and hopelessly) smitten. Any hopes I might have harboured for a "normal" life evaporated then and there. India was just too powerful to resist and I've happily embraced her ever since. Anonymous

Whenever I  talk about India I always get the feeling that others think my obsession must be due to a quirk of my personality; and that India really isn't as astonishing as I claim.  "I'm sure India is interesting, but he just goes overboard with it." Then I found this thread on the L.P. website.  The guy who made the first entry posed a question; and it was followed by dozens of responses that resonated so well with everything I've always said about India.  Many of the entries are from people who are very well traveled and they all seem to agree; India is THE most amazing country of all.  So you see, it's not just my warped perception, India really does affect travelers like no other country in the world.  I've never found people talking about any other country with such genuine excitement.

back to travelogues