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Global Travel Planning
Essential Tips for Your First Journey to India with Travel Expert Mariellen Ward
Mariellen Ward, an award-winning Canadian travel writer and co-founder of the tour company India for Beginners, shares her transformative 20-year journey through India and how she now helps first-time visitors experience this vibrant country with confidence.
• Mariellen's first six-month Indian adventure arose from an inexplicable calling while battling grief and depression
• The feeling of "coming home" in Delhi sparked two decades of travel, writing, and eventually founding a custom tour company
• Common misconceptions about India include exaggerated safety concerns and assumptions about poverty
• Scammers targeting tourists present a greater challenge than violent crime
• Preparation is crucial – research clothing norms, health precautions, and cultural expectations before arrival
• Consider homestays over hotels for a more authentic, grounded experience
• Explore beyond the Golden Triangle – regions like Kerala and Madhya Pradesh offer rich experiences with fewer tourists
• Cultural sensitivity is essential – dress modestly, respect religious customs, remove shoes in homes and temples
• Time your visit according to weather patterns – each region has optimal seasons
• Plan around major festivals like Diwali when travel can become challenging
To learn more about experiencing India through custom tours designed for first-time visitors, especially women travellers, visit breathedreamgo.com or indiaforbeginners.com.
Guest - Mariellen Ward from breathedreamgo.com and indiaforbeginners.com.
Show notes - Episode 63
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India is vibrant, intense and unforgettable. This week, travel writer Mariellen Ward shares her journey and how she helps first-time visitors explore the country with confidence. Hi and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, tracey Collins, who, with my expert guests, will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hello and welcome to the Global Travel Planner Podcast.
Speaker 1:This week, we're heading to one of the most captivating, colourful and complex countries in the world India. After my own six-week trip last week, I completely fell in love with India's people, culture and spirit, but I also saw how overwhelming it can be for first-time visitors. That's why I'm so excited to be joined by Mariellen Ward, an award-winning Canadian travel writer, creator of the travel blog Breathe Dream, breathe Dream Go and co-founder of India for Beginners, a custom tour company that helps first-time visitors explore India with confidence. Mariellen has spent 20 years traveling, living in and writing about India. Today, we'll talk about her incredible personal journey, the realities and myths of traveling in India, practical tips for first-timers, and how her company is helping travelers, especially women, experience India safely and meaningfully. I started by asking Mary Ellen to introduce herself and share what first drew her to India.
Speaker 2:Well, hi Tracy, thank you so much for having me on your wonderful podcast. So my name is Mary Ellen Ward and I am a Canadian travel writer. I'm from Toronto and 20 years ago 20 years ago this year I went to India for the first time and I did a six month journey of discovery across the length and breadth of India and that, just you know, completely changed my life and from there I became that's when I became a travel writer. I became a travel blogger later and then, and then, much later than that, I started a tour company. And now I'm back and forth between Canada and India running my blog, running my tour company and, just you know, doing, doing what I love.
Speaker 1:So you've had an amazing journey over the last 20 years, and I think it was 2005. Was it the first time that you actually experienced India? And, and tell us about that, that first time that you went? In fact, why did you choose India? Because I know I did read a bit about the fact that you hadn't traveled a huge amount before, so India is an interesting destination to choose as your kind of first jumping off point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like jumping into the deep end of the pool, but that's not how I thought of it. There's a famous saying that India chooses you. It sounds a bit woo woo, but I actually think that is true in my case. I was doing yoga teacher training 21 years ago in Toronto and I was partially taking that training to overcome depression and grief. I had a tremendous amount of grief over the death of my parents and about my separation from my fiance, who canceled our wedding, and a few other things as well, and I was really struggling and I decided to throw myself into yoga teacher training. And it was while I was in yoga teacher training that I got this sudden you know, unexplainable compulsion to go to India, and I just heard this voice inside. You know that I needed to go to India and it was something I just couldn't ignore. It was something I just couldn't ignore and I spent about 11 months planning and saving and finally, in December of 2005, I got the courage to get on that plane and go to India for the first time and I had a ticket dated six months later and I literally didn't know, you know, whether I would live through it. I didn't know what would happen. I just knew I was kind of fighting for my life and I just had to go and trust the process.
Speaker 2:Now, as it turned out, the attitude I went with, as I found out later, was the attitude of a seeker. What that means is that I just felt that everything I experienced was what was meant to happen and that I was meant to learn from it and um, so I was very open to the experience. I didn't have any preconceived ideas, I didn't have any goals of how things should be and, uh, I wish I could take credit for it, but it just just sort of happened the way it happened. And it turned out that that's an absolutely great attitude to take to India. And the first day I was in Delhi, I went for a walk in a park in South Delhi, a beautiful park, and I had this uncanny feeling that I'm home and it just came out of the blue. I never expected it.
Speaker 2:It's still quite a mystery to me to this day, but that's what happened. And I have to tell you that, looking back on my life, of course, when you look back, it's easier to connect dots and I can see so many times in my life going way, way back, I mean, when I was a teenager, my girlfriend and I we went to see Ravi Shankar perform. You know, other people were going to rock bands and we went to Ravi Shankar. When I was even a child, I remember seeing pictures of George Harrison in Rishikesh and feeling very drawn to him and to those pictures, the sunlight and just how golden the pictures are, because the sun in India is very yellow. And I realized going back, you know what I always wanted to go to India.
Speaker 1:It's like you were on that journey, marie-hélène, and it was kind of a journey that you had really no control of. It was kind of taking you through and you are where you're meant to be and doing what you're meant to do, and we'll talk a little bit about the fact that you so you've got it you started a travel blog and you now have a tour company that you co-own as well, I believe. So talk a little bit about how that kind of developed as well. I'm interested to kind of just your kind of journey from starting the travel writing to then developing it. Where you've got your own, you actually welcome visitors to India.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a really good question because it's not obvious that it would go in that direction. My background is journalism communications. I've always my whole life, been really only ever interested in being a communicator, a writer. I have a degree in journalism and then I worked as a freelance writer. I've worked in communications, all of those things.
Speaker 2:So when I originally went to India, I got the idea of doing a travel blog. Now that seems sort of a normal idea today, but in 2005, there were no travel blogs. I had to take a page out on a site called travelblogorg because there was almost no, you know, freestanding travel blogs back then. So it started like that. It started casually. I just started travel blogging on travelblogorg for my first three trips to India because after that first six-month trip I was hooked and I wanted to go back, I wanted to keep traveling, I wanted to keep writing, and it wasn't until 2009 that I started publishing Breathe Dream Go, which is my professional travel blog.
Speaker 2:And if you look at the OG travel bloggers, most of them started around 2008, 2009. That seems to be when travel blogging as a profession just began. Those are the very, very early days. So that's what I did. So then I just got very active online, you know, and as each new. This was before social media, by the way, but as the social media platform started to come up Facebook, twitter, eventually Instagram I grabbed the Breathe Dream Go handle, you know, on every new platform. And because I was active online and I was like very early, don't forget I remember clearly thinking I have no competition at that time because there was no other foreigners who was writing a travel blog about India. I was, I was it At one time, I was literally it. So so I became quite well known.
Speaker 2:I got interviewed a lot and people got to know me and then they started coming to me with questions what do you recommend? As you can imagine, right, yeah, and yeah, and it was really. It was really from there that the idea germinated for doing tours and, but they, but that idea never, never, really took root until I met my. I got very lucky.
Speaker 2:I met my business partner his name's anjani and he's a great guy, um and he was a youngish, youngish, early 30s. When I met him, um, guy, who had worked in the travel industry in delhi and had just started his own company with a small team, an excellent team, but a small team, a small team, and I was lucky to meet him and we launched the idea of doing India for Beginners. Initially we did a couple of group tours, realized it wasn't really a scalable model and then hit on this idea of doing custom tours, and that was in 2019. And the company was successful almost from the very beginning. And that's that was in 2019. And and the company was um successful almost from the very beginning and that's amazing.
Speaker 1:And we're six years on and obviously, uh, you offer a variety of tours and we'll talk about, uh, about how, what sort of tours that you, you do offer, how you, how people can get in touch with you as well. Um, because I must admit, I've had a look and I went, oh, that'd be great, that sounds amazing, the fact that you can.
Speaker 2:Exactly, If I can intercept just for a second, I wanted to say that one of the reasons that I think the company was successful from the beginning was because we met a gap in the market People who want especially women who want to go to India and they feel nervous and they need somebody to hold their hand. And that's kind of the main thing that we do we solve that pain point, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's important we talked about earlier, before we actually started the podcast, and we were just chatting about the fact that I went to India for the first time last year for six weeks. But I was very lucky in that I have family who live in Bangalore, so I was able to kind of bookend my trip with a week with family and at the end with a week with family, because India and I've traveled extensively throughout the world, but India is like nowhere I have been before, nowhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone says that, everybody says that.
Speaker 1:And I loved it. It just there's something so special about india and I, the people, the color, the sounds, just I I can't even put it into words, really I can't. I just think there's just something that just speaks to your soul, really really genuinely do. And I think there are a lot of kind of common misconceptions about traveling to India and I must admit, when I was, when I figured out was gonna go to visit, visit my brother and sister-in-law in India, I was a bit like, okay, right, I can spend some time with them, but I need to then plan the rest of the trip. And there's me, I'm gonna go solo. How am I gonna do this? So I did. I did rope a couple of girlfriends in as well, but what do you think some of those common misconceptions are that people have?
Speaker 2:And how do you address them through your tours? Basically, it's a really good question, and just before I answer it, I do want to say, I want to comment that I think probably one of the reasons you had such a great trip was because you were grounded, you had that family experience. You landed in Bangalore and you had your family members there and having that kind of safe, grounded, especially initial experience I think that's what happened to me as well, by the way, when I first got there in 2005. I was staying with a friend of a friend in their family home in Delhi, and I also had a gentle landing, a soft landing, and I also think that's the reason I had such a great trip, because I felt that grounded safety, that kind of safety net, and this is exactly what we're trying to do with India for Beginners. We're trying to offer people that experience, and so I think that's actually a very important part of traveling in India is to have somebody there that you can trust. But that's a good segue also into this.
Speaker 2:Misconceptions Now, I think the biggest misconception about India is that it's dangerous. Now, I think the biggest misconception about India is that it's dangerous. I personally, I've spent 10 years in India. I think it's a very challenging destination. I think you have to be cautious. I agree with all of that. However, the media foreign media, the global media seems to have painted it in a way that has made people very afraid to go there. I don't. I feel there's a big. I have cognitive dissonance about that, because my experience being on the ground in India is that people are very warm and friendly and that most of the time, I have never felt anything more than just uncomfortable. I have never felt anything more than just uncomfortable. I've rarely felt unsafe or threatened or anything almost maybe once or twice in 10 years like honestly so I feel that's a huge misconception.
Speaker 2:Another big misconception is that India is poor. Yes, there are poor people, but India is actually a very wealthy nation. It has a huge GDP and there's lots of very, very, very rich people, lots of very posh, posh areas, beautiful airports. You know gorgeous new trains. The Vandabhar train is like a European train. You know there's there's a wealth distribution problem in India. It's not that they're, it's not a rich country, it's that they have this extreme wealth distribution issues. But even the poor people at the poor end of the scale have been lifted up a lot in the last 10 or 15 years. So the entire population, I think almost the entire population has been lifted up. So I think the abject poverty you might have seen in the past is probably less.
Speaker 2:I've seen some statistics on this, but I don't have them off the top of my head. So to me those are two huge misconceptions. Misconceptions, but I do have to say though with a caveat, um that there's one, one so-called danger, one issue that tourists face that I that I don't think actually gets enough air time which is that there's a lot of scammers and con artists in india. So everybody's afraid to go to india because they think there's going to be violent crime. And actually there's not that much violent crime against tourists from what I've seen, from the statistics I've seen. But there is a lot of scammers and con artists and people who are going to try to rip you off, and this, I think, is underplayed in terms of the problems tourists face oh, those are interesting, those are.
Speaker 1:Those are exactly, I guess, the two, the two misconceptions that I had, because that's what you hear, that it's, uh, it's extremely poor. They're just going to see a lot of poverty everywhere. Yes, I did see some, but, but, as you say that there's a lot of very, very wealthy, uh, people in india, uh, as well, and um, the other one was the fact that it was going to be dangerous and that was my biggest fear and my husband was like I don't want to go in there on your own, blah, blah, blah, it's not safe. I, I, I was there for six weeks on a, you know, I know it's only a short, short, little time, but I, I could not believe how friendly everyone was there, just there, the amount of times that people came up to me and said where have you come from? Why did you choose?
Speaker 1:Well, why did you just decide to come to india? We're so happy that you came and like, what have you seen? Where have you been? You know, and I remember, actually, at bangalore airport, when I was leaving and a young girl came up to me and she was with, um, her maybe, I think, was leaving, and a young girl came up to me and she was with her. Maybe I think it was her grandparents, and they wanted to speak to me. But she came to me first to ask if it was OK, and then we had a big conversation and they were just saying we're so happy that you chose to come to India. Can we have a photo with you? Which happens a lot, but it was just so lovely right from the minute I set foot in India that the sheer welcome that you feel is. It's just absolutely fabulous it really was.
Speaker 2:I many, many, many people I talked to, many women especially say they were so nervous to go and then they went there and they, their whole perception of India changed. It wasn't what they thought. It was wealthier, more modern and kinder and friendlier than they ever anticipated, which just goes to show you that the global media has really, really done a number on India. But I will say that the scam artists are a problem and it's a very big reason why I started my company.
Speaker 2:India for beginners is like, if you travel with us, you are protected from the scammers. Um, they're mostly in the hospitality industry, travel, fake, uh, fraudulent travel companies, tour operators, um, and also in um, in terms of the market, you, you know people selling fakes, fake rugs, fake pashminas, fake jewelry and things like that. So one of our big selling points although this is hard to express this to people Like, we've had people go on tour with us and go, hey, india wasn't that bad, everything went really smoothly. And it's like I want to say, well, yeah, that's because you were with us. You know Exactly, exactly. But it's hard if you haven't gone to India and experienced the incredible shrewdness and creativity of the scammers, you know, honestly, if there was an Olympic event, I think India would get the gold.
Speaker 1:I think that's such an excellent point that you're making there, mary-ellen. In fact, you know, I had a wonderful, wonderful time when I was in India, but again, I was with a company that were protecting me from scammers, from those issues. So there was always somebody between us and people who were trying to do that, as in negotiating and making sure that everything was above board and that that wasn't going to happen. And you're right, it was probably more than I expected to see that those kind of opportunities people would try to get in to perhaps you know, scam you out of your money and you know that sort of thing. So if somebody's arriving and decided that they're going to go to India and they're flying into Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore for the first time, what would be your advice that you would give them to help them acclimate to actually arriving into India?
Speaker 2:Well, just before we jump into arriving into India, let's talk a little. Can we talk a little bit about preparation? Because I think, yeah, prepare, preparing for your um journey is very, very important and it's a really big thing we do. Myself as a blogger and also as a tour operator, a really big thing that I do, um and we do as a company is to help people prepare for India.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's a really good point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, like we always send a very extensive email. I'm in a wonderful situation where I have all these blog posts I've written, so I send people this long email with links to all different blog posts and they can read up on. I've got one, for instance, how to avoid getting sick in India, with lots of tips. I've got one on what to pack, what to wear, so we go into clothing, we go into. I've got one about money, how do you pay for things, and tipping like what's the tipping culture?
Speaker 2:Like you know, I think doing research upfront it goes a long way for in a place like like India, and if you're not traveling with a company that helps you with your itinerary, then definitely making sure that you develop a really good itinerary, anything you can do to prepare yourself and researching before you go, is going to, it's really going to help you. That's not true for many, you know every country, but it's it's really true for India. So I think if you come, it's an interesting combination. Try to come open, like open to the country without a lot of preconceived ideas but at the same time, having done some basic research so you know the ropes a little bit. That combination, I think is the best combination for arriving in India.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1:I don't even I can't even believe that I missed that question out, because I'm all about planning, yeah about making sure that you're uh, you're planned for it and, and I know, when I was planning it, those kind of basic questions like, um, just even about money, like how do I access money, um, what do I wear, was a huge, huge question. That that we all were talking to each other about. What do we wear, what do we pack, what is okay? And I asked a lot for my sister-in-law, I mean, I was like what, you know what, what, what is okay for me? Where is this going to be all right? What should I avoid? Um, and it's actually some a lot of. It was actually what shouldn't I do as well, what do I need to not, yeah, because I think that's also important to to kind of be aware of that. You don't want to do the you know things that are wrong right from the second second that you set foot in a country as well.
Speaker 1:Um so, yes, I know you've got all those. You've got all those articles on your website which are really helpful and just to prepare you before you actually get on the plane to arrive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very much so. So then when you arrive, I mean I think you do have to be alert for scammers, but at the same time, you know, I can tell from my personal experience, and probably you too, that being as open as you can, with as few judgments and preconceptions as you can, and just being open to the experience Okay, india, what do you got, you know, like you know, is definitely the best way to arrive. But in terms of on the practical side, I definitely recommend a reliable pickup at the airport. I think that's when you first get there, it's India's overwhelming and even if you don't buy into all the fear mongering and you're not afraid which is good you shouldn't be, but you still it's very overwhelming and, like I say, there's a lot of scam artists who are going to be standing at the airport looking for the people with have that deer in the headlights look. So, having a reliable pickup at the airport and I I'm a huge homestay fan I totally recommend staying at a homestay, like I have my homestay in Delhi.
Speaker 2:I'm quite well known for staying at Prakash Kutir in South Delhi and I always recommend South Delhi. It's a more residential neighborhood, it's got a homier feeling, so you get that like what we were talking about earlier. When you stay in a homestay you get that grounded, family, safe feeling and I personally feel safer in a homestay than I do in a hotel. That's me personally. I know some people don't feel that way, but I know at Prakash Kutir they lock that gate at night and I can tell you nobody is getting by Mrs Gupta. You know I'm Mrs Gupta's on the ground floor. I'm upstairs. Nobody is getting by Mrs Gupta. I feel completely safe under her wing. I've been staying in that homestay on and off over about nine years and it's been a wonderful experience.
Speaker 2:I'm a member of the family now, but even if you stayed there for a couple days, you'd be a member of the family. Like that's what it's like, you know. So I think those two things go a really, really long way. And then, for the first day in Delhi, I always recommend going to Central Delhi, which is the area that was built by the British. It's very leafy, it's very green, it's very posh and there's a beautiful park there, lodi Garden. There's a beautiful UNESCO heritage site. Humayun's Tomb Khan Market is a great market, for it's the expat market. Basically, there's lots of great cafes there and they're all in the same area and you can sort of get the taste of Delhi without diving into the craziness of old Delhi. You can do that on the second day.
Speaker 1:I think those are good tips. Delhi is a place I didn't spend a huge amount of time in. I think it was kind of like after the first tour and then after, when we got back there, I was just so exhausted by that point I just thought I need to give Delhi my full attention. So it's definitely I'd like to spend far longer and a lot of places that I went to last time that I kind of fell in love with and was like I need to come back and experience more of this, and there are such. There are so many destinations, so many places to choose from in India and there's such, there's such difference as you travel around the country as well. So so how do you recommend, like when first-time travelers are trying to choose where to go? Do you have any particular regions or experiences? You go. These will be, you know, great things to include.
Speaker 2:You know, we run a custom tour company, so we always try to customize the itinerary as per the person's travel style, their interests. So there's not anywhere set place that I recommend. But because my company is called India for Beginners, so that means mostly we're getting first timers to India. Most people want to see the Taj Mahal. I understand why they want to see the Taj Mahal. But I have to tell you, when I first came to India, I traveled for six months and I didn't go see the Taj Mahal. But I have to tell you, when I first came to India, I traveled for six months and I didn't go see the Taj Mahal until month number four. I didn't go directly to see the Taj Mahal. You don't have to. I mean, there's lots of amazing things to see. You don't have to go to the Taj Mahal, although, like I said, when people say they want to go, I respect that. I don't try to talk them out of it, believe me. So going to the Taj, flying into Delhi and going to the Taj Mahal means you're probably doing the golden triangle, which is, you know, delhi, agra and the Taj Mahal, and then Jaipur, and these these cities are in a triangle. They're about five hours drive between each one. So most first timers do the golden triangle. That's just the way it is. I'm not going to be able to change that in my lifetime, I don't think, unless there's a lot of more creative marketing that comes along. So what we do is we try to weave in some interesting offbeat experiences or offbeat destinations within that itinerary, because we're going to be definitely following that for a lot of people. Sanctuary near Agra, so we'll take people there so that you know the money it costs to go there funds their wonderful resources. Or we'll take people to a place like Dera Amir. It's a beautiful wilderness camp where you can just go. You don't have to stay overnight, if you don't want to, you can just go for the day, and they also have rescued elephants, um, you can see, I like elephants. Yeah, elephants and tigers are my two favorite animals, and so we this. This is what we try, what we try to do now.
Speaker 2:For for some people, though, don't feel that way, they don't need to go to the taj mahal, um, some people want to go to south india. So we will recommend kerala over goa. I think goa is just too touristy, um, but kerala is an amazing destination that retains its culture and it's fascinating. It's also a soft landing and there's a lot of different experiences you can have in kerala. But for myself, if somebody just comes to me and says okay and believe me, this almost never happens. But if somebody came to me and said, okay, you put the itinerary together, I'll go wherever you say, I would take them to madhya pradesh.
Speaker 2:Madhya pradesh, which is in the center of india. It's the, it's literally they call it the heart of india. It's right in the middle. It's one of my favorite states and it doesn't get a huge amount of foreign tourists, but it's an absolutely amazing place. You have historic sites like there's an abandoned city called Mandu. It's unbelievable. It should be so much more famous. There's these beautiful tiny little small towns that have these ancient structures and temples, like Orchha, which is incredible. You have the best tiger reserves in India, for sure. Kanna Tiger Reserve is number one in my opinion. And then you have a place like Maheshwar, which is literally magical, and I love Maheshwar. I mean, you have to see it to believe, you have to experience it to believe it. And so many of these places are just, they're just not marketed. They're people you know, they're just not marketed, so people don't know about them. But if they knew about them, believe me, they would want to go.
Speaker 1:Well, I tell you I want to go. You're just talking about it. I'm like, yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm up for that, I want to go, I want to see, I just want to, I want to explore and see more. It's really funny because that you say. But I saw the taj mahal, obviously, when I was over, and absolutely respect everybody who wants to see it. It's, it's high on my. My husband would love to to see it. Um, but for me, kerala was fabulous. It's just so beautiful. It it really is. You can't, you can't put that into words actually as well, because, well, because it's just, it's so peaceful, so beautiful. You know, I don't know, it was very special. And the other place that I absolutely fell in love with and I'm probably going to say the name wrong, so you're going to have to help me out here a little bit Marie-Ellen is Jaisalmer.
Speaker 2:Jaisalmer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Jaisalmer.
Speaker 2:I loved it. Jaisalmer it's a fairy tale. It's a sand castle. Jaisalmer is one of my favorite places in India. It's literally magical.
Speaker 1:I totally fell in love with it. And then going out to the Thar Desert as well. We actually slept in the Thar Desert, which was just fabulous. But there was just something about Jaisalmer that I just and I'd already by that point I think this was maybe week three I'd done a couple of weeks in southern India and then flown up to do from that kind of golden triangle, but with extras. But Jaisalmer was just, it's the one place. When I said to my husband when we're going to plan to go back, I said we're definitely, definitely going to go there.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I live in Rajasthan. I get it. I moved to Rajasthan. Jaipur, where I live, is the capital of Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a fairy tale. It's a storybook. It's beautiful. I mean, it is one of the more highly touristed parts of India, but it still retains its original culture. It hasn't been, culture hasn't been ruined in any way. And there culture, it hasn't been, culture hasn't been ruined in any way. Um, and it's, it's. There's a reason people go there. It's, it's magnificently beautiful.
Speaker 1:You know, like it's beautiful and desert and the medieval forts and the yeah, no yeah, I just, I love color, so I, I just love the vibrancy around me, and that's the first thing I think about when I think of j Jyotsana. There just seemed to be so much color everywhere. Everywhere just was just so vibrant. And the smells, again, india really feeds your senses. It really really does, and that's the thing I think that you'll. It's the sounds and the smells and the sights and all of those, everything will become, will be heightened and be alive, I think, with that.
Speaker 2:And you can get addicted to that yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Oh, I can easily see how that can happen easily. Uh, 100 percent, uh. And yeah, I can't wait to return, honestly, but I want to, I want to spend longer, I want to go long. I mean, I was there six weeks last time, which is not a bad amount of time, but but I want to spend longer there, definitely, um, now we're talking a little bit about, you know, cultural sensitivity I did talk a little bit about. We were prepared, or we were thinking about, you know what? What should we wear? What should we not wear? Um, so so what would you? What would you say? That people should be aware of um, so that they, you know, they ensure that they have respectful interactions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm so glad you're asking about cultural sensitivity. It's a big topic with me. I'm I feel, very, very serious about it because India is an extremely fast changing place. Like, I've been going 20 years and it's like, in some ways, a different country, but in some ways it's not at all. I mean, it's a traditional culture. Underneath, when you scratch the surface, it's still a very traditional culture and I think people need to understand that. You can look at Bollywood movies or maybe go to one of the big metros, mumbai especially, and it can fool you a little bit into thinking that India is very modern and westernized and it is in many ways. But as a foreigner visiting India, I personally this is something I feel very strongly about.
Speaker 2:I think it behooves you to err on the side of caution and show respect for the culture. Read the room, you know. You know I live there, but I still wear very modest clothing. I I dress dress completely differently here in toronto when I'm in india. I wear very modest clothing, very flowy, long flowy things, you know, and um, I also think that, um, I think we have to be aware that the genders relate differently and that there is a social hierarchy and learning about these things and you may not like it, but it's. It's really not not your place to judge it or to try to change it. I think being respectful of those things is important. It's a shoes off nation, so shoes off when you go to people's houses, shoes off at temples. So, again, just be aware of that and be respectful of that.
Speaker 2:I think one of the most important things is to be very respectful of religion. There's many religions in India. The predominant one is Hinduism, but there's many religions and being very respectful of the religion, of the gods of temples If they say don't take photos, don't take photos. I mean, I've seen a lot of photos of the burning gods in Varanasi on social media and that is just a huge cultural taboo. You are not supposed to take pictures of burning bodies and it really saddens me to see that this is happening.
Speaker 2:Pure veg vegetarianism is a wonderful thing in India. It's also a serious thing in India. So if you're in an ashram or if you're in a pure veg environment, please be pure veg. Don't bring eggs or meat or anything. That's when you're in a sacred space. Please observe that. And the very last thing I would say is, like all of Asia, it's very important to not lose, not lose patience, to not show anger. In Asia it's it's a taboo to you know, to put people in a situation where they lose face, and this is true in India as well. So, just you know, to put people in a situation where they lose face, and this is true in India as well. So, just you know, be polite and firm, but polite, and you know, just try to always treat people with respect.
Speaker 1:I think that's. Those are absolutely perfect examples of you know how to be in India. You are when you, you are there, when you're experiencing it. One question I wanted to ask because it happened a lot to me, um is that I was asked to have a lot of photos. Everybody was very respectful, very respectful and, um, I was happy to have loads of pictures with, uh, women, with families, and just the amount of.
Speaker 1:In fact, the first time was actually outside Bangalore Airport and a man came up to me and said my wife would like to have a photo with you, and I was a bit OK, and then I got used to it throughout the whole trip. It just happened constantly. So that was one thing, so kind of that wasn't a problem. But then I also wanted to have photographs with a lot of the beautiful women that I saw and just so beautifully dressed. So I asked Often it would be they'd ask first if they want a picture with me and then, well, can I have a picture with you? But there were times where I just wanted to and I just went up to women and just said, can we have a photo together? And I was never sure if that was OK to do, so I thought I'm going to ask you now.
Speaker 2:It's OK to do if you ask.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I would never do it without asking yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, as long as you ask, absolutely for sure. But I think women and children especially are a little bit shy, you know, about having their photos taken. So, yeah, you have to be very respectful of that and not putting photos of children online, obviously.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just, I think you know Indians are very easygoing overall and quite fluid, you know, and they don't take offense. You know the way Westerners could take offense at things. You know they're not like that mostly. I think. That's my experience anyway. So I think if you just if you just ask and they say no and just respect that, yeah, it's fine. You know, and if people want to take your photo and you want to say no, that's fine. Also, you're allowed to say no, and I do all the time. I won't get my photo taken with men or boys, I will only get my photo taken with families or children or women, and that's one of my personal rules and I don't bend that, and so I just say no okay, no, that's fair enough.
Speaker 1:I I think there must be there must be thousands of photos of me now in India, because it felt it felt like there was a lot of photos that I have got blonde hair and I don't know if that was also part of the part of the attraction, because I've got very fair hair, which did gain a little bit of attention, and you also do as well, marie-ellen, so I guess that that also may have been one of the reasons. Now I know your company, india for Beginners. It kind of emphasizes sustainable and authentic travel experiences, so so how do they incorporate those values into your tours?
Speaker 2:um, well, we do it a number of ways. I would say the number one way that we we, we do this um is to, uh, we patronize local businesses, like we book people into locally owned homestays and guest houses, for example, and just wherever we can, we'll use a local business. We try not to patronize global multinational hotel chains and things like that. And wherever we can, we hire women. There's not that many women working in tourism, but we always try to hire women guides. We have women guides for the Taj Mahal, and going to the Taj Mahal with a woman guide is different than going with a male guide. It is a different experience. I can tell you this for sure. You get a whole different take on things, and so, also, we're always trying to incorporate local experiences. Like we live there. I mean, I've lived in Delhi for a long time. I live in Jaipur, my team all lives in Delhi. We know people, so like you can do a Bollywood dance class with my business partner's sister, for example, or our friends we have the team has friends that run a homestay in Jaipur. They live in a very authentic medieval structure across from the city palace and they invite our guests to go there for a cooking demo and dinner, and you're right there with the family. They've got two little girls who are super bright and really fun. So you're right there with the family.
Speaker 2:And I mentioned Wildlife SOS. We also. There's certain worthwhile organizations that we really like, wildlife SOS being a perfect example that we just try to patronize and we try to support them and take. If people say to us, oh, I want to, you know, see an elephant or whatever, well, we'd rather take them to an elephant rescue center than to a place that you know treats them badly like, lets you ride them or something. There's no elephant riding. We don't allow any elephant riding on our tours and we also get to know specialty tour companies like the Blue Yonder and Kochi are doing an amazing job with local experiences.
Speaker 2:There's a wonderful guy in Jaipur. His company is called Seagull Jaunt and he is a character and he'll take you in the back alleys and he'll show you places even people from Jaipur have never seen. I work with a wonderful company called the Folk Tales and Gaurav is very well-known for supporting especially up in northeast India. He supports local storytellers and local homestay owners. So always trying to build this network of people who are doing this. You know kind of grassroots, you know alternative forms of tourism, and that's something we're always working on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think it's so important and you've got you know, you've got the the ground in there, you've got those connections there so you can, you can build on that and you get to know people and you know, I think that is invaluable. It really is that you're not, you know, you're based there for most of the year and you know you have those contacts, those contacts which, honestly, it really is. It's something that I do for my UK travel. It's having those local connections and you know people trust that because you, you have things, that you have access that they can't, they can't do and um, and it's just say you, can you make sure that things are, you know, ethical and they are. I was a bit shocked, I have to say, when I think it was a red fort, when I saw that people were riding elephants. I was like, no, what? Yeah, so it, yeah, that that it's. It's so good that you know all of those things.
Speaker 2:You, you, you check everything, you make sure everything is absolutely yeah, yeah, you have to live in the destination and you have to live there. And I've been there over the past 20 years and you know I've got solo female travelers who I've done itineraries for and they're literally going from my friend's guest house to my friend's tour, to my friend's. You know, they're going from my friend to my friend to my friend to my friend my friend's ashram, and then I just WhatsApp the owner. All these people are my friends, I watch them. Hey, how's she doing? You know they have no idea that we're. You know that they're enveloped in this kind of circle of care.
Speaker 1:So that's priceless Marianne.
Speaker 2:It's priceless. It is priceless. Thank you for saying that, I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I'm going to ask you. I usually put people on the spot with this one, but I did prepare you a bit because I know this might be easy for you, might be hard, but how can you encapsulate India in three words, can you?
Speaker 2:No, it's impossible. I mean, I became a blogger because I literally have written millions, literally millions of words, trying to capture the experience of what it was like for me to go to India and how it just blew open my life. You know, it just changed me in every way and it was India was my muse, you know, as a, as a creative person. So to put it down into three words of course is is crazy, but I did come up with three words.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 1:So, uh, for what it's worth, magical yeah, I agree, and it's overwhelming in a wonderful way as well sometimes, I think so I think, yeah, uh, I think, I must admit, I remember delhi thinking this is, it's very noisy, very, very noisy, but again, it's that that the senses. So I think you have to expect it. But I think, uh, so I think you have to expect it, but I think, magical, absolutely, it just totally is, and it's, yes, exactly. I think you've hit the nail. I know it was very difficult, but I think you've hit the nail on the head for those, those three words. Now I know you've, you've guided many people, whether it's through your website, through you, obviously, through your writings and through your tours.
Speaker 2:But is there a particular story or piece of feedback from a traveler that stands out. There's been some wonderful, of course, experiences that I've had, getting to know our guests, but there's two, actually, that I want to mention. One of them was and both of these women have become friends, by the way One is an American lady named Leslie who came on our Holi tour. We had a very transformative experience together. We played Holi, the group played Holi in Rishikesh. We got covered in color in Rishikesh. We played it privately in an ashram, so it was safe, but we got completely drenched in color.
Speaker 2:And when we got back to our hotel, which was right on the Ganga, right on the Holy River Ganges, which is really called the Ganga, I invited them to have a dip in the Ganga, and this is something that we do in Rishikesh. I lived in Rishikesh for four years and it's something that we do. You just dive in with your colors on. And only one person out of the group of women came in the river with me and that was Leslie. And the Gunga is famous for being a very holy river, a healing river, and she had a spontaneous outpouring of grief over her son's death and I think she got rid of. I don't know. I mean, something happened to her. She had a very transformative experience and she later she wrote a blog post for us actually it's on the India for Beginners website and she said that when she got back home to US, people said to her that she had changed and that she was radiated, looked radiant, and that she had changed, and that's how she felt.
Speaker 1:She's come back to India twice since then, by the way, I'm not surprised it draws you back in and, having such an amazing experience on her first trip, you can understand.
Speaker 2:It was a big experience for me too, just to see, to see her go through that. That was very meaningful for me. And another one was Colleen. And Colleen is from Canada she's from Victoria actually and she told me that if she hadn't found my site you know Canadian-owned tour company that she probably wouldn't have gone to India. But she always wanted to go to India and she also.
Speaker 2:I saw her at the beginning in Delhi, prakash Kutir, and I saw her at the end again in Prakash Kutir and she had changed. She was a different person. Her face had changed, she had changed from her tours around India and I think she traveled for six weeks or something like that and she actually went back. She just went back last month for her second time and this time she brought her niece and I saw her. I was just leaving for Canada the next day, the day after she arrived, but I got a chance to see her and her niece and we went shopping together and it was a wonderful experience to see her again and again, a person who'd been transformed. So that's my goal, my lofty goal, is for Pete Mark, our guest, to be transformed.
Speaker 1:I think that's a wonderful goal and, um, I think india, india and combined with with your tours, are gonna are gonna create that, that uh transformation for people. Do you genuinely believe that now? Uh, what would be one tip? I always end the podcast. I'm really sad to end the podcast because I think I could talk to you for hours, mariellen, and maybe we'll you're going to come on again and we'll maybe talk about some some of the. I'm really sad to end the podcast because I think I could talk to you for hours, marie-hélène, and maybe you're going to come on again and we'll maybe talk about some of the different destinations in India as well. That would be really cool. But what would be the one tip that you'd share with anybody planning to visit India for the first time?
Speaker 2:I think the most important thing is to plan your trip based on the weather. The weather in India is extreme. So, for just an example, october and November and February to April is perfect for North India, but December and January in North India is cold and foggy and smoggy. It's not nice. So you need to know that November to March for South India is perfect. The whole winter is perfect for South India, it's perfect. The whole winter is perfect for South India. But it's not nice in the summer, unless you want to do monsoon travel. Like, if you specifically want to do monsoon travel in July and August, that can be planned, but knowing that you're going in the monsoon, it's a different mindset. And then, if you want to go to the mountains, ideally I would go March to May, for example, because it's much cooler up there and so when it gets really hot in the plains you can go up into the mountains, the hill stations.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of hill stations and mountainous areas. Of course, the Himalaya range runs right down the side of India. So, yeah, pay attention to the weather. My second tip would be to pay attention to festivals, because you know festivals like Diwali especially. I would say figure out when Diwali is and and plan accordingly, you can't really move around for a couple of days. During Diwali in North India, traffic is at a standstill. During Diwali in North India, traffic is at a standstill. So find a nice homestay and enjoy Diwali and don't move around during Diwali. So there's just these big forces in India that you would be wise to pay attention to.
Speaker 1:It's been absolutely fantastic to talk to you this week, mariel, and I've been looking forward to chatting to you for such a long time, since I met you a few years ago at a TBEX conference in Thailand, so I was so chuffed when you agreed to come on and share your love for India. I will share links to your company and to your website as well, but it's been fabulous chatting to you and I hope to be able to do so again soon.
Speaker 2:And it's been wonderful to be here. Thank to be able to do so again soon, and it's been wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for having me, and I'd like to end our podcast with a quote by Tracy Collins, who said India isn't a destination, it's a journey.
Speaker 1:Let it change you. A huge thank you to Mariellen once again for sharing her story and such thoughtful insights into travelling through India. If you're considering a trip and want expert help planning it, you'll find all the links to Breathe, dream, go and India for Beginners in the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Forward slash, episode 64. But until next time, as always from me, happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.