Welcome back to This is India! I always have funny/weird stories about India to share with friends or family when I talk to them. This is just meant to be an honest portrayal about my life in India through short anecdotes. I also share here what I’ve been up to online outside Hippie in Heels.
What I was up to other than here:
- I finished [easyazon_link identifier=”1594633665″ locale=”US” tag=”Hipinhee-20″]Girl on the Train[/easyazon_link] and it was SO good! I stayed up until 3 am to see how it ended. Highly recommend it if you like mysteries or if you liked the book Gone Girl.
- This week I’m planning a trip to Sri Lanka for Ben’s birthday (and his visa run). So between catching up on work and planning that, I haven’t gotten outside much which is a bummer. I lost all my tan in Turkey because 1. it was freezing 2. I went to a couple spas, and they scrub you so much in Turkey. So, now I”m super pale and the locals are going to treat me like a tourist because they’ll think ooo she’s super white, she must have just got here!
- I contributed to a couple articles, along with other bloggers, about solo female travel. You can see them here: Flipkey & When Woman Travels
Now your story,
There is ALWAYS something burning in India. Whether it’s corpses on the Ghats which go all day long, trash on the side of the road, or even entire fields as they prepare for the following season.
This is just my front yard…
They set the fire to burn the brush that was getting out of control over there. At the same time the lady across the street the other way was burning her trash. We have gotten used to running around closing all the windows.
I honestly don’t know where the trash goes in India and why people DRIVE into villages to dump their trash. I think they have to pay for someone to pick it up and they don’t want to, at least I know restaurants have to pay. Someone takes ours, so it must be included in our rent. We live in a complex.
The food should be left out for strays, but unfortunately no one takes the time to take it out of the plastic so the cows and dogs eat everything in their extreme hunger. It’s too sad. There are signs near my house for “no dumping trash” which trash piled up the sign post and all around it.
At the end of season, the field next to my house is completely lit on fire as they burn it completely to chars each year. I guess it gets the soil ready for another harvest. I’m not science geek, but know enough to know all the burning can’t be good in a country that has such pollution already.
This is India!
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Hey Rachel! I reached out to you a few months ago (I’m Delaine, a friend of Travis and Bre!). Can you help me with a quick domestic travel question? I was wondering, how would you go about booking a flight from Delhi to Pune? Is there a special way foreigners should do it? Can we book once we’re in country?
Delaine… use Make My Trip, it’s quick, painless and verrrry inexpensive!
Hi Deliane! You can book online. I use cleartrip for my flight bookings within India. Usually they offer a discount code on the homepage as well. They will email you your e-ticket and it’s really just the same as booking on priceline or something in the US! Email me if you have any problems :)
You can make flight booking from outside India as well. Other than MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip, you also have Yatra.com, Musafir.com, etc. Or you could visit the airline websites to make the booking directly. Some popular ones are Indigo airlines, Spicejet, Jet Airways and Air India (government-owned, so not the best choice).
Delaine, you could also try goibibo.com. A clean site with the only details you’d require. You can easily compare number of flight, pricing, durations etc.. Have a look!
Thank you so much everyone!!!
May I ask another question? We are going from Delhi to Agra/Taj Mahal. Is there a certain way to book the round-trip train and do we reserve “tickets” to see the Taj Mahal in advanced? Should we go early in the morning?
And lastly, We are going from Mumbai to Goa and then flying back home from Goa. How do I find trains to Goa from Mumbai? How early in advanced should I book these?
Thanks again for any help!
Delaine,
Yes go very early to see the TAJ! Most people have their hotel just set up a driver for them- it’s about 4 hours there and 4 back. You can also go by tourist bus and get tickets at an agency. You don’t need Taj tickets in advance.
You’ll want to book your train very early to Goa (I use cleatrip.com) but you need to set up an account with a foreign card which doesn’t work for some people so in that case when you are in India book it at an agent office (they are EVERYWHERE) or at a train station. If you want 2AC or 3AC you need to book early, which you’ll want!
That’s true – there IS always something burning in India!! I remember visiting Delhi in October with my parents, and it must be burning season or something, because the whole city was covered in smoke – and not just the usual smog that hangs there.
Yeah, I can imagine. I kind of avoid Delhi :/ but it’s crazy how when you get in from jsut running a quick errand how dirty one can be!
I find Rachel post an interesting and disheartened truth . Of course people in India have very less time to see the things that counts. One should pay attention to small things that worth a lot. Improper guidance and poor source of knowledge is one of the reason. I wish Rachel could have initiated with some good alternatives to the locals like feeding the strays instead dumping food in trash. The field is set to fire for another quick harvest. There are plenty of options available for a good harvest instead of going for a fire, like organic fertilizers can be used. Bitter truth: Time and economy matters more than Ecology. Still a source of knowledge to the locals can be a joy for Rachel. For a better sustainable Environment, i hope if Rachel reads my review she would reach out for the next step.
India the country of versality has many features n lots of type of languages . People may visit here if they really want to live the life seriously. Now a days persons of india Are not using echofriendly and degradable goods like plastic etc. so lots of pets getting injured due to following persons fault which affects the nature as well as surroundings . India has many types of languages ,foodings , water , talking excents, discrimities and dissimilarities in peoples after all we can say that the person who didn´t visited india his life is nothing interesting n cant be said complete at all visit india n its requst to all persons of india for not to disturb the nature and natural beauty and its humble request to save india and save atmosphere of india the king for tourism by using objects echofriendly and benefitial for india and indian tourism
India is a grand country. It is the seventh largest country in the world and the second most populated country in the world. Many see India as a sub-continent rather than a country. There exist in different parts of India, different cultures, languages, manners as well as different historical backgrounds and influences of the same historical events.
Theculture of Indiais the way of living of the people ofIndia. India’slanguages,religions,dance,music,architecture,food, and customs differs from place to place within the country. The Indian culture, often labeled as an amalgamation of several cultures, spans across theIndian subcontinentand has been influenced by a historythat is several millennia old.