From the first day I started mentioning to people that I may be going to India, I received words of warning, caution, and looks like I must be crazy to consider going (and even more so to consider it a good thing). I was warned of the danger of traveling alone, traveling as a woman (I still feel like I’m too young to be called a woman), the water, the food, the cows in the street, etc, etc. Colleagues at work would ask if I had even been to India with this knowing look in their eyes, like this naive girl (yes girl!) has no idea what she is getting herself into. I felt I had no choice time and time again but to argue this idea of my naivety and explain that I have in fact traveled quite a bit (back in the day…). I would start a brief explanation of my time in London, European travels, and my around the world trip. Vietnam, China, I’ve been places people, I get it. And I went to those places as a backpacker, at least sort of. I did have a back pack, I did stay in hostels some of the time, and I did have a budget. Admittedly, that budget was significantly higher than other backpackers I had encountered (while I did rush back one night to a hostel in NZ for a dinner of free soup and bread, I was not struggling.

Anyway, I had done parts of Asia and knew what to expect. I thought at least. Or were these knowing looks telling me that India was different from anything I had ever experienced? Plus, traveling for work in fancy hotels, cars booked to and from the office each day, and having a significantly larger travel budget these days (and a correspondingly growing fondness of nice hotels), I figured I would be fine.

One thing I realized is that I had no way of really figuring out if I would be fine. There was no one to tell me the truth. People at the office, in both countries, wanted me to be extra careful, what sort of message would it send to my less traveled colleagues, who will need to come in the future, if something somewhat unfortunate were to happen on my trip. And the people I had just met who were in charge of the project, suddenly felt responsible for me my whole stay in India. Then you have the extremely doting staff at the very nice hotels where I was staying. I figured they would know if I really was going to be unsafe, but of course, they wouldn't take the risk of suggesting I do something as daring as walking down the street alone. Plus, who knows, I may be the first woman to ask such questions (you mean you want a taxi, not the hotel Mercedes??)

In Vietnam, I had quickly learned about a whole new level of traffic

So I promised that I would be careful. I think I will be back in India next year again for work, so I thought there would be no harm in playing it extra safe this time. And with ‘real feel’ temperatures still at 105+ even late at night, I wasn't going to argue too much at the idea of being driven around.

Flip Flops & Passports