It’s not as easy as you think

As some of you may know, this time last year, I was backpacking across Asia with my partner. Having never left Europe, we thought we would go head first and start our journey in India. We landed in Mumbai to the biggest culture shocks of our lives.

The Slums of Mumbai as we land

Before we left, I had a very romantic view of India. Rising early to practice yoga and embracing a free-spirit lifestyle whilst eating all the vegetarian food my body would allow (I haven’t eaten anything with a face for 15 years so this particularly excited me). However in reality, we slummed it on the floor of a train next to the (leaking) toilet for 14 hours, we were stranded in the Himalayas due to a political assassination and we spent 5 days locked in a hotel room due to partner’s severe case of Delhi belly. Not quite the travelling experience I had imagined.

So why were my expectations so unrealistic? Well, I am ashamed to admit that… I didn’t do my research. I didn’t know where the yoga retreats were. I didn’t know that May is possibly the hottest time of the year in India. I didn’t know that my bank card would not be recognised by the Indian Railway services (without naming names, I thought they were the worlds local bank?!) and to be honest, I was living in a bit of a dream world.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my Indian adventure, I loved it and I fell in love with Darjeeling,  it was just very very different to what I imagined.

Tea Fields in Darjeeling

So why am I telling you this little story? Well, I love telling anyone who’ll listen but mainly because I speak to so many people who say to me they want their website to rank number 1. Unfortunately, so does everyone else so it may not be as easy as you initially think. Tom wrote a fantastic blog post last August that I wanted to remind you of: Will I be number 1 in the search engines?

In summary though, you can always learn from my travelling experience:

1. Do your research
2. Have a bank card that works (Pay per click allows you to set your own budget)
3. Be realistic about what you hope to achieve

Namaste!