GETTING READY TO TRAVEL
Yes, there are things you can do to prepare for a trip overseas. You need a current passport, a plane ticket and money that you can get acces to through a debit card, and a change of clothes and a toothbrush. And you have to be reasonably careful about protecting your valuables.
But the reason you are going to a place that you know little about is that you are going to be immersed in a culture so different from your own that you can’t possibly be fully prepared. You are going to be clueless a good deal of the time. You can’t understand Hinduism or Indian politics or know what to order at the restaurant or how to catch a bus. You are going to have to relax and to go with the flow and to cheerfully correct mistakes. You can’t fit in by wearing the right clothes or by doing anything. The reason you are there is because you are trying to let go of your own culture for a while and to immerse yourself into a culture that is brand new to you.
In our own culture we know from experience how to get around. The reason you are going to another culture is to experience something new. It is experiencing something new that is stimulating. You are escaping your own culture just because at home everything is routine and so little is stimulating.
Let go, be observant of what people around you are doing, and have a great time.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 