WWOOFing in India?

July 18, 2010 9:44 AM

Can anyone recommend specific WWOOFing farms in India?

I'm WWOOFing in India from January to June with my friend, and we are just starting to contact farms that we'd like to stay at. We are planning on staying at 5-6 farms over the 6 months in order to experience life in different parts of the country and at different kinds of places. I was just wondering if anyone who has WWOOFed in India before could tell me about their experience, good or bad, or possibly recommend specific places.

Also, any advice that has to do with WWOOFing or even just travel in India would be much appreciated.

posted by comfortinsound to Travel & Transportation around India (2 answers total)

It sounds like you're already on top of this due to the length of your trip and the fact that you want to WWOOF around different parts of the country, but my main advice for general India travel is to say that the pace of life is slllloooowwwwwwwww. I remember in Varanasi it once took me an entire day to find an ATM that took my card. Mailing a package was a multi-step process that involved several different phases of waiting around.

Not such an issue for backpackers, but definitely a concern if you're staying with local families - never use your left hand to touch other people's things, hand something to someone, or to eat with. It's considered horribly rude, not to mention unhygienic.

Learning to eat with your hands is probably more of an inevitability than a suggestion. Though farms that regularly host WWOOFers will probably have forks and spoons - it's considered polite to eat with your hands as the locals do, though.

I'm guessing they will also have toilet paper on hand or know where you can get it. When I was there I got used to the Indian way of dealing with that, but most people don't (and in hindsight I'm kind of squicked about about how OK I was with it).
posted by Sara C. at 3:12 PM on July 18, 2010

A little late to the game, but I WWOOFed about in India several years ago, so I'd say it's gotta be kinda different now. Still, even though I went with intentions to work on farms I found it more enjoyable to travel about - it's really cheap and easy to get around and the couple of places I stayed at were run by non-Indians, so I felt a little bit isolated from the cultural life I wanted to be a part of and it wasn't quite as enlightening as I hoped. I WWOOFed in Auroville and also a place in Karnataka - but the name of the farm escapes me.

Good luck on your travels!
posted by ajarbaday at 4:52 PM on July 22, 2010