This was originally posted on blogger. I owe a blog post.

I’ve been in India since May 25th. Aside from Auroville, which I wrote about, I also stayed at Pondicherry. Pondicherry was a nice experience. It was my first time solo traveling in India. I stayed at a hostel that was about 5 USD a night (the facilities were commiserate with the price). I met some nice people there, all guys. The hostel manager was a 21-year-old fitness coach-in-training, who actually wants to be a movie script writer, but is biding his time. There was a South Korean guy (28 years old) who had been living in Egypt for 4 whole months, where he studied to become a free-diving instructor, but then he decided free diving wasn’t his passion and moved on to India (he says he doesn’t know how long he’ll be in India, but his visa lasts a year). There was a guy from another city in Tamil Nadu who lived in Singapore before; he kinda talked too much and didn’t want to go outside in the heat; but he won my sympathies when he told us how he got into a motorcycle accident (going too fast over a speed bump), cracked a rib, and went into a coma for a few days, and had to rest for 4 months – since then, he’s been taking life at a slooow pace.

This time in India is also the first time I’ve taken the bus, train, and planned travels on my own. I know that sounds spoiled, but when I’m here I’m typically chaperoned by my mom, dad and other relatives who take care of me. Being exposed to other dimensions of Indian society (eg. the railway) makes me feel less intimidated by India. Previously, my sheltering from India gave it a special status in my mind. I felt it was dangerous to eat street food, or that public toliets should be avoided at all costs. Well, doing such things certainly has its downsides, but I’d say I could do it if I really have to.

I’ve also gotten closer to my family here, which has been really nice. My family in Chennai and Bangalore is really tight-knit and kind. I feel very much at home whenever I’m in this neck of the woods. People invite themselves over without a second thought, and drop in on neighbors’ houses and say hi. The sense of community is not as strong in the US, I think.

My friend Leon flew from SF to Chennai, and stayed with me, my aunt and uncle there for a few days. A foreigner is a rare sight in Chennai, so many people were curious about Leon. But since Leon is Asian-looking, and there are many people from the northeast of India in Chennai, he didn’t attract so many stares as I have received before in Taiwan. Leon had many questions about India and my uncle was happy to regale us with his perspectives. Being curious about a place is a good thing. It’s fun for the localites, too, who get to explain their world to someone else.

Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m in Mumbai at a hostel. I’ve heard a lot about Mumbai – it’s the financial capital of India, the home of Bollywood, has many slums and vast inequality. My impressions so far have been that it’s rather nice. South Mumbai has so many beautiful English-style buildings that remind me of London. The cloudy skies of double decker buses add to that impression. That’s always been one nice thing about India, how it shares cultural attributes (like a love of tea, and driving on the left) with the UK.

Some people ask me if I would live in India. I wouldn’t say no… But it’s a tough sell. Salaries, compared to a respective job in the US, are like 5-10 times lower. Most cities don’t have public transportation (if they do like in Bangalore, it’s intensely crowded at all times). The sidewalks and traffic are rather chaotic, there’s more air pollution than the densest cities in the West. The other thing is that many, many young people are looking to move out of India. I see ads all over the place, “get placed at a US university” “study for TOCFL, GMAT” “hotel staff placed in US”. Moving to the US is a continuation of upward mobility in the US. So why move back? For others, its to take care of parents. Maybe to be closer to family. Maybe to join Auroville or something like it. I’m not sure.

That’s India so far. After Mumbai is Bangkok for 3 nights, then Kunming, China.