My Seven Myths of India

This October, I  had the opportunity to joint my colleague from UK and visited my PMO team members in India. I was very excited but also nervous through the whole month before my trip. I was nervous because I remembered that almost every colleague of my from Australia who used to visit India can get sick on the first day, then stay in the hotel most of time and came back at the end of one week.
On the other hand, I was keen to see the country and experience myself what the country is like. Here is a summary of my personal Myth about India. I landed at New Delhi and visited our Gurgan and Kolkata offices.
It was an exciting opportunity for team building. India is so big geographically, so some my of local colleagues even haven’t seen each other for four years and took the opportunity to catch up while I was there.
One the very last day on Saturday, my UK colleague and I went to Taj Mahal to end our trip.

There are some of my personal Myth I would like to share.

Myth #1- Brush your teeth with bottle water and never drink tap water

Before the trip: I never brush my teeth with bottle water in my life before. I was so worry what if I rinse my teeth during shower incidentally? Will I get sick?
My colleague to me just don’t think about it but just make sure I use the bottle water.
So before my trip, I worked out that I shall wash my face before having shower. In this way, it will reduce my chance of rinsing my teeth with tap water. But… what about when I need to wash my hair?
During my trip: Wow, the hotel room has a Toto bidet toilet system! I missed the bidet system so much after relocating from Tokyo to London! Wait! The tap water looks very clean to me! It was even more clear  than the water in London. The bathtub was so lovely and it was much better than the one in my flat back in London. ​
But there is also a bottle of water right next to the toilet basin. I suppose its common for the guest to use the bottle of water for brushing their teeth. 
My first intuition when I arrived is that I want my tummy to get use to the local water. Therefore I risk a bit by putting tap water to the boiler and made myself a cup of tea. I was fine afterwards.

Myth #2- Toilets hygiene may be a concern
During my trip: I noticed when I arrived at the air port, although the toliet was not new, there was a cleaner who even wiped toilet floor under the basin.
The hotel toilets were clean excepted that I did complaint about the hotel  bathroom in Kolkata was not clean unto my standard when I first check in.

In our office, similarly, the toilet was clean because there is always someone doing the cleaning job. However, the toilet system used yellowish recycle water to flash the toilet. 

During my trip on Saturday, we sticked to tourist spot and used the petrol stop toilets. They were still acceptable comparing with other places I had been such as Malaysia. We survived with a four hours one way journey from Gurgaon to Taj Mahal with several toilet breaks in between.

Myth #3- only eat cooked food and never eat ice. Most of food are spicy if its dark colour

Before the trip: I was thinking I need to give up ice cream and mango lassie

During the trip: My local colleague took me to try India dessert.
My eyes were wide open. There are so many selections such as addo, Gulab jamun (deep fired ball), buffi, and Kulfi (ice cream)
I worked it out most of them are made by flour and milk with different taste. I had to try a bite each. 
I was not a big fan of Gulab jamun, but  I loved pista barfi (with ground pistachios) very much! I also like India ice cream, Kulfi, which I can taste the condense milk. I ignored the advise I got from the nurse in UK, I tasted all kinds of desserts and shared  with my local colleagues.

I also loved yogurt very much especially in Gurgaon. I was told that yogurt tasted better in the north where as dessert tasted better in Kolkata. It was very true.
In Kolkata, we tried lamb dish. It looks very dark to me, but actually it was not spicy at all. Its alway important to follow India’s wisdom by having a colourful after meal refresher called Mukhwas and a leave covered snack called Pan. They would help with digesting the food after a heavy meal.
Pan might be a bit overwhelming when you first try, but it tasted fine after second time.

Myth #4- Food  and cloth are very cheap in India. 
The first morning after we landed in New Delhi, we checked in the hotel for a short break and moved to the office straight away. I tried the food at our canteen. The price of each dish was around 70-120 India Rupee. To me this is kind of similar to the lunch box costed in Taiwan. However, the rest of the week, I also tried the company subsided canteen food; it cost only 40  and 20 India Rupee per dish in our Gurgoun office and  Kolkata office respectively.

PS. My tummy did feel a bit funny after the next day when I had canteen food. Especially on Saturday after almost a week. I was ok when I sat in the car but felt painful  in my tummy through the morning whenever I am walking.

As for street shopping, if you go for tourist spots even with bargaining, I didn’t feel it was cheap enough comparing with Taiwan. Even my local colleagues
were trying to help me to bargain in New Delhi.  But is a fun to expereince the bargaining.
The goods were more reasonable priced when my colleague took me to local shopping mall in Kolkata. There are some fixed priced shops where I can get quality cotton made table cloth and india style clothes without the need to bargain. I was also very attempted to buy Saris but the shop did not accept credit card payment over 35 pounds. Therefore I decide to leave it as I hate to borrow cash from my colleague and I would hardly have the chance to wear it anyway.

Myth #5- traffic jam and noisy street is common
Before the trip: my colleague told me always buffer sufficient time for your travel as traffic jam part of daily life even the travel distance may look short. My son also learned from the internet that its not easy to go across the street just like being in China.
During the trip: when I first arrived, I was so shocked with the driver that they use horn all the time. Even there are 5 lanes one way, the drivers will use it like 7-10 lanes. But the second day I got used to the noise anyway.

We tried to do two U-turns in Gurgaon and it took 15-20 minutes at least each time. This is such a stressful thing to drive in this country. I can never do it. 

My goodness, there is no seatbelt at the back seat of Uber even for premier Uber cars. Therefore, its highly recommended to rent hotel car with a driver when we plan our personal trip on Saturday.

As for going across the street, it was a big challenge for me. My colleague recommended me that I shall drop by Victoria Memorial in Kolkata before checking out the hotel on Friday morning. I dropped by the garden area and it was very pleasant as he told me. I then thought I want to walk to St Paul across the road before going back to the hotel. Believe it or not it took me 15-20 mins just trying to get to the other side of the street. There are people jump in and out of the bus plus loads of cars passing by to block your view. By the way, the local tourists not only liked to take selfies, they loved to ask foreigners to take photo with them.


Myth #6- You can afford helpers if you live in India
My local colleague has three helper at home so its true if you are a professional and live in India you can offer this too. His wife has a doctor in economics degree and is also working. Therefore they hired three helpers- one as a chaifur for driving, one  as a maid for cooking and cleaning and  one as a nanny for looking after the kids. Sounds very similar to the life style in Indonesia to me!


Myth #7: Taj Mahal is the must visited place in India as its one of the world’s
Seven wonder .
To go or not to go that was the question.
As we were staying in Gurgaon, it was easier to take a private car with driver to Taj Mahal than taking the train.
Between my colleague and myself we paid 17000 India Rupee for a private day trip to Agra with a local tour guide. It you go by taxi its only around 3800 one way. But I wanted the flexibility to wake up 6:30am in the morning for breakfast and to stop when ever we felt like. If its not because we had a long day and can’t get back to hotel till after 9pm on Friday, it would be nice to travel to Taj Mahal on Friday night and stay over to see sun rise the next morning.

The tour guide spent a lot of time to explain the decorative element of the Taj. You can see marble screen with an inlaid chrysanthemum, floral sprays carved on the marble, inlaid calligraphy in black marble and different flowers such as the tulips, lily, iris poppy and narcissus  as sparer or in arabesques patterns. I love the Pietra Dura carved floral designs inlaid with precious stones over the white marble surface. It reminds me Chinese traditional furniture back to my childhood in Taiwan.

We also stopped by Agra Fort. Its imposing red sandstone ramparts from a present along the river front. The structure was so grand that my camera was not able to take the whole are into the picture.

I am glad to end our trip with one of the seven wonder of the world!