India Travel Pictures

The subcontinent being so large, and it's civilization so ancient, India offers a generous amount of sensational sights within very diverse climatic and geographic environments, numerous religions, cultures, languages, architectural styles and cuisines. The numerous times India was invaded and populated by other peoples produced quite a heterogeneous populace. That being said, I found life in the cities a bit of an uncomfortable free for all, with everyone fending for himself and tourists being considered fair game to extract the maximum amount of cash as possible from. I needed to double-check all bills and bargaining hard was the name of the game. Just walking away often worked wonders in bargaining situations. Since metering of taxis and auto-rickshaws is no longer official in a number of metros, I had to estimate and haggle over the price of each ride. Pesky, sticky locals wanted to know "where I was from" and offered all sorts of services I could do very well without. Despite India, especially Bangalore, being widely publicized as the outsourcing capital of the world, the way of life and infrastructure evident in the streets is severely lacking. All in all, India has a lot of upsides for travelers, so I'd say enjoy the ups, bring along enough patience to ignore the downs and you'll have a good time!