India? Tim? Or both?

This blog post is a collection of random and not so random thoughts. It’s gonna be long one, so apologies in advance. At the outset of this trip, I really wanted to understand how India had changed since my first experiences in 2007, whether for the better or the worse. I wanted to use those experiences as a yardstick to understand how I’d changed, how different my attitudes were and my approaches to travelling. Along the way, and recognising that change is the only constant, I’ve found myself asking whether something feels different because India has changed, because I’ve changed, or perhaps a little bit of both. What follows documents some of my thinking. Those of you that know me well will know that it might get a bit chaotic.

Expense
India remains an incredibly economical place for western walleted travellers. Back in 2007, I had a budget of £30 per day, which included my accommodation. Places to stay tended to average about £10 per night. A little more in some places, a little less in others. £20 comfortably covered my other expenses. I typically ate twice per day, and spent roughly £1 - £2 on each meal. A beer outside of the bigger cities was around £1. A rickshaw driver for the day was never more than £3-£4.

In 2025, my budget is substantially higher. Picking apart whether that’s India or me needs a little analysis, and as most of you will know - I LOVE that shit. 17 years is a lot of inflation to factor in, and we’ve had a global pandemic in the meantime which has done all sorts of crazy things to global commodity prices. I’m also staying in *slightly* more luxurious accommodation. Not massively though. Clean and comfortable remain the two most important things I look for in a guesthouse, and they don’t come at a particular premium. My average accommodation bill on this trip is £40 per night, but that includes a couple of weeks in the middle in Goa where Vicki is joining me, and we are, as a result, staying in slightly fancier accommodation. Without Goa included, the average is £26.

Eating and drinking remains great value. My Kathi kebab in Delhi on day 1 was £1.50, and remains one of the tastiest things I’ve eaten on the entire trip. Agra, I barely ate anything, so that was incredibly cheap. In Lucknow, a very good feed could be had for perhaps £3. Beers were around £1.50. In Goa, pick your poison. A delicious curry can be had for maybe £3, but you can equally feed yourself on the most incredible fresh BBQ fish for £8 per head.

Conclusion : India has not really changed, but I have - just a little.

Road Safety
The roads remain lethal. Whilst many of the cars on the roads are newer, and hopefully therefore more likely to protect their passengers in case of a crash, the likelihood of that crash occurring feels as a great as ever. I *think* the quality of driving is a little higher in Goa, where the pace of westernisation is perhaps at its greatest in India. It’s marginal though. They’re still fucking lunatics.

Conclusion : India has not changed. I have not changed - in that I still value my life, and wish I didn’t have to travel on Indian roads to get around.

Food
It’s impossible not to notice the new prevalence of western fast-food outlets in almost every town of any real size. I barely (if at all) saw these in 2007, but now they’re everywhere. There are still incredible food options wherever you go, and I’m always going to be the type to find them if I can. My disappointment, if that’s the right word, is that I believe it indicates a gradual detachment of the youth culture of India with their traditional regional cuisine. I suspect (but can’t prove) that most young people in India eat traditionally when with their families, but less so when with their friends. Most of the restaurants at which I eat traditional, regional food feature diners in their middle age and upwards, while the fast-food outlets heave with young people.

When you do find regional cuisine being served, it is sensational. In the UK, we’ve distilled ‘Indian’ cuisine down into familiar curry-house favourites - dopiazas, jalfrezis, baltis, rogan josh. Great dishes though these may be, they represent a fraction of the sublime food that is served across India on a daily basis. Each state or region has its own food traditions, styles and ingredients. I’m at my happiest when eating in a local, traditional restaurant, and can simply ask the waiter to bring whatever is their favourite. My cookery class in Goa has reminded me that beyond the restaurant staples, there also exists a powerfully enticing repertoire of home cooked food, much of which I’ll attempt to recreate at home. I will, I will, I WILL figure out how to make the perfect dhal…

Conclusion : India is changing, and I’m not sure where it’ll end up. I have not changed.

Traveller Types
I saw a lot more western travellers in 2007. I suspect India’s popularity as the de facto traveller destination for so many was starting to wane by then, but it remained highly popular place for travellers. Lucknow was entirely bereft of travellers, and in Delhi I saw none (albeit only there for a few hours). Goa was an exception, for sure. Pench, I think western travellers made up perhaps 2% of journey makers, and Maharashtra perhaps even fewer. I think this indicates a couple of things.

Firstly, that India has become less popular with a certain type of traveller. Backpackers are fewer and further between than they once were. I saw some young backpackers in Agra, which shouldn’t be surprising as I was staying at a hostel. Compared to 2007 though, the number and proportion was much much lower. Are kids today even going backpacking? A bit of research suggest that fewer and fewer aspire to this kind of trip. It’s presumably not Instagrammable enough. I think more to the point is that travellers are looking for more of a balance between value and comfort.

I think of Felix and my experience in Thailand and Cambodia in mid 2024. We encountered tons of back-packers, all of whom were staying in accommodation that I would class as a cut-above the standard most often found in India, and at similar prices it has to be said. Cambodia is a great example - we spent an average of £25 per night on accommodation, and stayed in some fairly luxurious and comfortable places. I don’t think that budget in India necessarily gets you the same level of cleanliness and sophistication. I think India runs the risk of missing out on the next generation of travellers who simply won’t put up with poor toilet facilities, dirty rooms and very basic facilities.

What there are more of than my first visit are package trips, whether to beaches in Goa, or to cultural sites such as those found in the Golden Triangle. These have increased massively in popularity in recent years, and provide a ‘safe’ way for intrepid explorers to experience many of the wonders of India, without some of the tricky downsides. My own Auntie Eileen and cousin Rebecca took such a trip in October 2024, and loved it.

Conclusion : India hasn’t really changed, but perhaps it should… I have not changed.

Security
India feels safer to me than it did in 2007. For a start, I didn’t get mugged in Delhi, so that’s an immediate improvement. Interestingly, reading back my journal from 2007, I wrote the following about Taj Ganj in Agra:

"At night, it’s seedy, and reminiscent of the slum in Blade Runner. Tendrils of smoke and steam emanate from street-side shacks. There’s a menacing glare from the people loitering in the alleyways. Fortunately, I’m about six inches taller, and several stone heavier than the vast majority of Indians, and I have a menacing glare of my own. Walking around this part of town is an edgy experience, and I daren’t take out my camera to capture any of it. As is my wont to push things, I venture down one of the alleyways into the grimness of the backstreets. The streets clearly double as toilets, so strong is the stench of piss and shit. The place is keen deep is in squalor. I’m hooked. I wander around for 20 minutes or so, until I decide it’s probably safer to head back to the main street."

Now, aside from the artistry of the prose, this describes a pretty sketchy place. It was only as I arrived at my hostel in Agra that I truly realised that it’s in Taj Ganj. The place is unrecognisable. Yes, it’s still busy and chaotic, but the menacing edge to this part of town has gone completely. Waking around at night (when I was fit enough to do so) was a breeze. It no longer smells like satan’s urinal.

India definitely still fits into the ‘don’t be a dick’ category when it comes to security. Don’t hang a camera around your neck as you wander down the street, don’t wear ostentatious jewellery, don’t…

You get the picture. But that’s true of everywhere I’ve traveled over the past 18 months, whether the sub-continent, South East Asia, Africa, South and North America or Europe. Why do people persist in being dicks?

Conclusion : India has changed a little bit, for the better.

Social Openness
Wasn’t quite sure how to label this one, and it might take some explanation. One of the things I adored about my first trip to India was the friendliness, openness and warmth of pretty much everyone with whom I came into contact. Whether it was people running guesthouses, restaurant/bar workers, drivers, fellow train passengers - I spent most of my time in these environments embroiled in conversation, and making friends. I have experienced far less of that on this trip, and very much want to understand why. Ok - so not that much explanation needed after all…

I think there are several factors here which combine to explain the dramatic change in behaviour. First up social digitisation. In 2007, I had a mobile phone, and it could (just about) access the internet over a shaky GPRS connection. It was WICKEDLY expensive to do so though, so I just didn’t. Facebook was a thing, but a pretty new one - I’d joined in Feb 2007. No Twitter (I refuse to call it X), no Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat. You could check your email or Facebook, but really only by going to an internet café, which I did once every few days at most. No WiFi, no streamable TV. I read. I read a LOT. I think I went through 17 books in the first part of my trip - about one every couple of days. When I wasn’t reading, I was meeting people - domestic tourists, other travellers, local hospitality workers. I revelled in it. I’d never quite experienced a style of travel quite like it. I was hooked.

Fast forward 18 years, and the ubiquity of smartphones and cheap data / readily access WiFi means that this form of travel is getting lost. In Agra, I was part amazed / part disappointed when a group of 6 youngish French travellers arrived at The Hippie Café, spoke to each other for all of 5 minutes, then spent the next 3 hours doom-scrolling. They seemed to have nothing to say to each other, or to the other travellers congregated there. This feels to me to be a huge shame, as I think it can be amongst the most rewarding parts of travel. I love that these kids are still throwing clothes in a backpack, and heading off for adventure, but a part of me wishes they had the opportunity and ambition to have a simpler and more open experience. Christ, that makes me sound old…

The same is true of local folks. Noses are buried in smartphones the majority of the time. In Goa in 2007, I met a few local workers who I hung out with during my stay. Kao, the Nepalese manager of Banyan Tree on Palolem Beach is a good example. I even ended up DJing at his bar one night, as he’d heard a couple of my discs, and really liked them. I just don’t think that would happen today. The digital obsession is closing off society in a way that I think is sadly irretrievable. Am I innocent in this? No - of course not. There have been times on this trip when I’ve been head down in my MacBook, writing this blog, and have doubtless missed opportunities to interact and engage. I’ve made a conscious effort though to limit screen time on my iPhone, which has unfortunately just given me more time to watch other people buried in theirs.

Conclusion : India has changed, but it’s not India’s fault.

Clusterfucks
Things are going to go wrong in India. The degree to which they go wrong can almost never be predicted. It could be transport issues, plumbing problems, power outages, misleading directions, health issues, language miscommunication… The list is long and distinguished.

My sense (entirely unscientific) is that broadly the same number of things went wrong on this trip as my last month long extravaganza. My reaction to them was definitely different though. In 2007, I breezed through the challenges I faced along the way. Even my mugging in Delhi I took with what I thought was pretty graceful acquiescence. In 2025, train delays irked me more, getting sick had a greater impact on me and my mood, my patience definitely wore thinner than it once would have. Part of this is doubtless on me - since 2007, I have developed quite the anxiety disorder, and while the medication I take daily helps keep it in check, it doesn’t remove it entirely. My ability to subsume stress and uncertainty has absolutely been diminished. I’ve not had a panic attack in years, but there’s a slow burn of underlying anxiety that never leaves me, and India has some characteristics that exacerbate it, moreso than anywhere else I’ve travelled in the past 18 months.

The curveball for me when considering this is that the lack of internet connection in 2007 was actually a help, not a hindrance. Having immediate access to data about things like train times, delays etc etc, particularly when that data proves to be inaccurate, makes life harder, not easier. I had a few train delays in 2007, one of which I think was around 4 hours. I just sat on the platform with my book and a couple of beers, and asked as each train came in whether it was mine. Contrast that with me experience at Kalyan Junction, when the ‘data’ provided IRCTC disagreed with what the folks at the station were telling me, and I nearly got on the wrong train. I’d have been better off without a smartphone…

AND FINALLY…
My overall conclusion is that I might be done with this form of trip, to this country. I’ll absolutely visit India again, but likely in a more targeted way - to specific cities or states, or for particular events. I came back to India in part because I craved that social travel experience I had in 2007, but I’m just not sure it exists anymore. Whilst my trips of the past 18 months have all been incredible in their own ways, I’m conscious that my travelling experience has been a different one. I’ll absolutely still throw some clothes in a rucksack, and hit the road, but I think it’ll be outside of India, and with a different expectation of what I’ll find…Leer más