Work Travel Volunteer

The bad bits - poverty is rife, squalor and dirt is present under everybody's fingernails and Delhi belly is lurking around the next corner.

But...the cosmopolitan mix of religions, the temples,the mountains, the trekking, the holy waters, the spices, the energy, the tigers, the ashrams, the people.

India is the granddaddy of the backpacker haunts and still shouts it proudly. The monuments such as the Taj Mahal still draw huge amounts of tourists and rightly so. You want hardcore climbing. You cannot beat Nepal.

The North of India contains mountainous regions and more Buddhist followers, the middle arid highlands and more conservative Muslim believers and the South, lush, green tropical areas such as Goa and Kerala. Christian faith is dominant here.

What else can I do apart from travel?

Work opportunities are minimal, allow not impossible. Volunteering efforts are huge here - humanitarian work is extremely popular (and worthwhile)

Also a big draw are the number of alternative therapy courses such as meditation (including the hardcore Vipassana where you don't speak aloud for one week), tai-chi and Buddhism. Rishikesh is a yoga follower's highlight in India and Dharamsala and Kathmandu for more meditative practices.

What to expect from India

• Friendly, over inquisitive people
• Much head shaking
• Cricket mania
  
• Divine chappitis, Indian sweets, curries and thalis
• No privacy
• Lots of hand shaking/reading
• Many, many hawkers

Highlights of India and Nepal

• See the icon of India at sunset - the Taj Mahal
• Discover Rajasthan's palaces, forts and maharajahs
• Get bendy at an ashram
• Work as an extra in Mumbai as a bollywood extra
• Go horseriding in jodphurs in Jodphur!
• Become a hippy in Goa
• Kathmandu, the backpacker's mecca
• Trek the Annapurna circuit in Nepal

Tell us about your highlights. Email us and we'll print the best.

Don't forget to search our directory which contains hundreds of opportunities through India and Nepal. Whether you want to work, travel or volunteer, we have the organisations to help you.