Social Travel: Volunteer and Explore 16+ cities in North India

My biggest advice would be to join a trusted travel company for a volunteering program. I joined through The Tarzan Way and I would definitely recommend them, but research and choose the one suitable to you.

I met quite a few travellers in India who had decided not to travel with any support and they faced quite a lot of problems, ranging from small issues, like having bad rooms, to bigger issues, like being cheated, etc.

If planning on travelling to India, make sure you have a trusted travel company with you. India is a very safe country, but having someone you trust and has your back makes all the difference. TTW allotted a coordinator to me in India who was always available on text or call and lived quite nearby, so I always felt secure.

My day would begin really early since the other girl I was sharing a room with was a fitness nut. So she would end up waking me up at like 5-6 AM for a morning job and fitness session.

Our breakfast would generally consist of Indian food (alu paranthas, which are heavenly - they have potato stuffed inside, curd, pickles, etc., was the general thing; there would be variations at time too, like poha which is basically indian cereal and so on).

After breakfast, on weekdays we would go for volunteering work. I was working with children and taking care of their sports activities, so I would mostly spend the entire day in the field handling class after class of over-energetic children. My roommate had a bit easier job of teaching the kids Maths in class, but she said that they were as energetic in class as in field.

Afternoons would generally be spent taking part in some activity that TTW arranged, such as cooking class, Hindi class, sightseeing trip, etc. We are provided the itinerary before we sign up and they have quite a lot of such activities included in the project during evening and weekends.

Evenings and nights would generally be spent resting after the tiring day, although we did often go out for shopping and dinner.

India is a country which does not have the best reputation when it comes to travellers and that is what scared me the most. How was a prepared to face such a chaotic country?

Truth be told, it is nothing like what people believe it to be. There are bad elements everywhere and that is what is shown everywhere else in the world, but Indians were actually one of the most helpful and kind-hearted people I have met out there.

The biggest change that I had happened in me because of this is that I no longer believe what is feeded to me by social media and news channels.

Travelling Abroad is a scary thing to do, specially if you are a young, solo, female traveller like me, but there is nothing to be scared of. Just put faith in yourself and take the leap. I can promise you that the memories you make and places you see will change you and your perspective about everything around you.

You are stronger than you think!

Mohamad Zaghloul from Egypt was one of the first international students that we hosted in India. Since this was when we had just started the company, I used to act as the local coordinator for the travellers we hosted.

Something really interesting that I noticed about this guy was that he would ask a million questions about everything he saw, holding conversations with anyone he met, irrespective of who they were, and often times the people he interacted with didn't even know English. He would then try to communicate with them using gestures and broken sentences (he even picked up quite of lot of Hindi slang words).

This habit of his had made him extremely knowledgable about a lot of things; in fact, by the time he returned home, he had extensive knowledge about the Indian mythology, religions, local dialects, food etc.

One story that portrays how quickly he adapted to India was when he asked us for an opportunity to guide the new set of participants who had arrived a few weeks after him. Looking at his enthusiasm, we asked him to lead the group while another coordinator of ours just accompanied the group for safety.

The way he hosted the new group was extremely surprising. No one would ever believe that this person had just landed in India a few weeks back. He showed the group around local streets, making them taste food from his favorite shops, helped them do shopping and actually bargained better than any other Indian could've. He even took them to a local temple telling them about each and every god whose idol was present their.

In fact, on getting this feedback from our coordinator who had accompanied the group, we asked him to stay back after the project and he ended up extending his stay in India by two months working as an Experience Captain (coordinator) and also helping us set up the groundwork for a lot of projects that we had planned to launch in the future.

The program that I would opt for would be the "Life of a Villager" travel experience. This is a really unique experience that I personally set up in a village in the lower Himalayan ranges.

This program enables the participant to live in a village in the homestay of a local villager. You'll really get to experience the beautiful culture and hospitality that is prevalent in the region. Along with this, you'll be getting the opportunity to participate in their daily activities like farming, taking care of cattle, fetching water from the stream, etc., which is very exciting and different from the kind of life that I have experienced so far.

The most amazing thing about this travel experience is not the culture or the beautiful scenery around the village, though. This program has been sent up with a local organization ensuring that through the travellers hosted in the program a regular stream of revenue in generated for the villagers helping them lead a better quality of life along with decreasing migration from villages to cities.

I believe our empathy towards travellers along with a mutual love for diversity in India makes us an amazing company for anyone who wants to travel or explore India.

Along with this the fact, we try to run all our experiences in the most sustainable way possible, having aligned most of them with the Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN is something to be really proud of.

The Customer (family for us). The most important factor for any successful company is the customer and his happiness, irrespective of what the company does. The company might be a travel company like us or a simple book store, but until and unless it tries to understand the customer and provide the best possible service, it'll never be a success.