Lost in a Foreign Country

I have been lost many times over the years, travelling, hiking and even out running. Generally, it has never been too much of a problem, even in the old days without mobile phones. I think usually, if I was travelling alone I had a much higher state of alertness and more planning was involved around everything, so it was easier to just backtrack the way I had just come.

Though there was this one time that threw me a bit. It was back in 1991 while I was backpacking through India. Over confidence may have played a part as I had just spent a month or so travelling through South East Asia. We had just bussed it down, overload from Nepal into India.

My travelling companion at the time was on the way home to Europe after a trip to Australia and New Zealand and was running low on funds. I was pretty much just starting off on my travels but was also keen to do things as cheaply as possible, as I was hoping to be away for a while. My friend had also been to India before and was happy to show me the ropes.

So one morning while in Agra we decided to visit the Taj Mahal and the Ganges River. Usually I am actively involved with all the organising but this day my friend took the lead and haggled endlessly with multiple rickshaw drivers to get the cheapest price. It sounded and felt like we were getting a great deal. I can not really remember all details and prices but it was great cruising along and exploring this fascinating and wonderful part of the world.

Until I started to get the feeling that we were not going the right way. Communications with the diver were not the best. Eventually, he stops after we continuously question him and he says we have to go to a carpet shop and buy a carpet because the fare is too low. He will organise us a good deal. We get off the rickshaw and after some heated words he rides off leaving us stranded in some unknown part of town.

I would have had my Lonely Planet guidebook for India with me but I am sure it would have been no help with the level of detail we needed wherever we were.

I am pretty sure we just started backtracking the way we came but on this rare occasion, I had not really been paying too much attention to all the different surroundings.

We were probably not that far away from anything or in any danger but all of a sudden I do remember getting a sinking feeling that I had no idea where we were or which way to go.

We headed towards where things look busy and we might be able to get another rickshaw or bus. While trying to get a bus one crashed into the back of me! LOL. Luckily there was no damage but it almost knocked me over! The bus incident caused a bit of an scene. It seems it was bad luck to injure a tourist. People came over to see if I was all right and instead of feeling alone and lost, some of the bystanders help us translate and organise another rickshaw to the Taj Mahal so we were able to continue our adventuring.

A bit of a lesson learnt that the cheapest way is not always the best!

The photos are my own of Varanasi from that trip back in 1991 but may not have been from the day we got lost.