India

"Incredible India", proclaimed a long-running and for once accurate tourism campaign: India is mind-blowing, in ways good and bad. From opulent luxury to abject misery, congested cities to tranquil countryside, dense jungles and coral reefs to desolate deserts and tall mountains, India truly has it all. This extends to people, culture, language and food, which can vary wildly in ways small and large. To give a very simple example, a taxi driver in Mumbai will without saying a word drop their meter flag and return the exact change, while in Delhi you have to tell the driver to use the meter and hope you get your change, and in other areas taxi drivers don't even have meters and have fixed the rates for even short distances, and you just pay the amount demanded; if you do get an honest driver, consider yourself lucky. India shows extreme variation in most things, and one needs patience and luck to find the best.