The kind of traveler I am

As much as I’ve loved my trip, I have to admit that I didn’t really do India the way I should have. I spent two weeks visiting Rajasthan when I first got to India, lived and volunteered in Delhi for ten weeks, and then traveled what seems like the entire country in my final seven weeks. I visited Mumbai, Goa, numerous places in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and then went north to see Kolkata, Darjeeling, Varanasi and Rishikesh. At some point I liked the idea of criss-crossing the entire subcontinent.

I realize now that I just tried to see and do too damn much. I get bored easily and so insisted on doing something almost every day and visiting every damn site that the guidebook says you should see. But it also exhausted me. And when you don’t sit in a hotel or café and linger and read for a few days, you also don’t meet other travelers to see and do the stuff with. I think learning to be independent is important, but the highlights of my trip still involved seeing and doing things with other people. I don’t think I had nearly as much fun as other backpackers.

The other mistake I made was just being too cheap (it feels like blasphemy to say that, but it’s true). I spent $40 on a 30-hour AC train instead of $150 on a two-hour flight. If I was traveling for months, maybe that makes sense, but I had just seven weeks. I think we can agree that I might have lost a bit of perspective there.

If I did it all again—if only there were a time machine!—I’d see less, do less, move less, spend more, and soak it all in better.