My first trip outside Europe was to India - at the age of 23, I just wanted to see a totally different country than Holland! Three months time I had, in the middle of winter. This was possible as my study was concentrated more around summer fieldwork that year.

I was invited to stay my first two weeks at friends of my parents, in the centre of South India. This was at the small town of Guledgudd, Karnataka, where they worked at a leprosy hospital. I walked and cycled a lot around in the countryside, and I could not have had a better introduction to the rural life of India. Also, they took me out to some Dravidian temples nearby.

From there I slowly went along the West coast (Goa to Mangalore) and up in the Nilgiris, down to the backwaters of Kerala. Then I crossed over to Tamil Nadu. I stayed some time in Pondicherry, where I met with several Westerners. With one month to go, I took the train from Madras to Agra in Northern India. Then I went along Delhi (Republic Day) to the lower Himalayas, including a stay at the university campus of Chandigarh.