This describes well my trip to India & Nepal in 2008 and 2010 (6 months total, mostly Himalaya + Andamans and a bit of western Thar desert). Just one fat LP boo

This describes well my trip to India & Nepal in 2008 and 2010 (6 months total, mostly Himalaya + Andamans and a bit of western Thar desert). Just one fat LP book for whole effin' India with list of hotels, sights and way to get to next place. Those few internet cafes were old virus-laden desktops, with internet connection often in bytes/second, where sending email back home took easily 30-60 minutes, especially if you wanted to send a single tiny picture. Connections frequently dropped of course. I didn't even take my basic phone with me, never regretting it. The thing is, if you have 3 months or more, you just don't care about the pace. You can't do similar backpacking in 2 weeks, people end up rushing around to see as much as possible. So many random meetings with strangers because we were clueless, ending up being invited into their homes for a dinner. Ending up on a 1km long beautiful empty beach in Goa, with like 2-3 other people on it. Seeing satellite photos now, its one bar next to the other. These days, even if I carry my phone with me, I have it turned off for days in a row. Mostly turn it to check airbnb or write something to my parents. Otherwise it just ruins the submersion into the experience a bit.