Here's the problem then and in some places it might not have changed much.
Here are some of the problems of camping out:
Like for example, in California you have to think about bears, Mountain lions, raccoons, Porcupines and skunks, and of course Rattlesnakes almost everywhere in California depending upon where you are, you also have to consider other things while camping out in India.
The biggest thing almost anywhere in India is the monkeys. Some of the monkeys if they are alone are adorable and friendly and won't usually bite you unless they have already been mistreated by someone.
But, you have to really be careful of monkeys in a family group because they easily can be fatal or maiming to a human (man, woman or child). This is especially a problem in Hindu Churches dedicated to Hanuman (the Monkey God) where often men with 6 foot long bamboo sticks hit the monkeys so they don't bite visitors to the Hindu temple. The monkeys are after food offerings left by believers and you as humans are considered competition for that food.
The other thing is that most places in India do NOT have dog catchers so getting rabies from wild packs of dogs while camping out or just walking around in India is a very real threat. In fact, my best friend's girlfriend was bitten by a pack of wild dogs about 2 years ago now in India and had to have rabies treatments of a long needle into her stomach area while there in India.
Next, there are Tigers and cobras in parts of India so how would you like to wake up in your sleeping bag outside to a cobra in your sleeping bag? or a Tiger looking at you hungrily?
Then there are always uneducated people who have mostly never been to school a day in their lives. So, as you sleep they gather around you like you are a teacher or their guru during the night and stand there staring at you as you wake up. They likely won't wake you up because they are polite that way but there is no inclination to not gather around you staring at you because averting your gaze from people often doesn't happen there in India (for thousands of years). Also, homeless people might want some of your food or help from you or to get you to take them to America with you or to do literally anything for you for money so they don't starve that day.
So, unless you want all these things potentially to happen to you camping outside anywhere in India is not usually a very good idea. (At least this was true in 1985 and 1986 when I was there with my family.
Could things have changed for the better or the worse many places. Of Course. But I haven't been there since then to really be sure of what is going on there now.
Also, when I was there in India a Rupee (their monetary unit) was about 10 cents so I could get 10 rupees for a dollar which meant that it wasn't very expensive for me to travel in India then.
Now the unit of exchange is .011 or a teeny bit more than 1 penny so now you could likely get almost 100 Rupees for a dollar there. So, it would be relatively or extremely inexpensive likely to find an inexpensive place to rent a room rather than camping out. So, we did take backpacks up into the Himalayas but we found it safer to rent a room somewhere either at powerless hotels with lamps or a room in someone's
home that they would rent to us and often they would feed us too while trekking in the Himalayas.
Also, it can get pretty cold in the Himalayas especially between october and about April of any year at night (even though you might find bananas growing up to 9000 feet in some valleys more exposed to the sun than others which I was very surprised to find. also, my first Fireflies (since I didn't grow up on the East Coast) I saw were while Trekking in the Himalayas which was very surprising to me at the time then too.
No comments:
Post a Comment