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India’s a difficult place to travel but also an incredible place to visit. A few tips can be the difference between starting your trip off with a lot of crazy or only a little crazy. After all, this is India – it will be crazy.

Men in line for a Hindu temple in Kanyakumari, India By Sonja Bjelland

1. Spend the first night in a nice hotel wherever you land. Jetlagged and tired you’ll be miserable sleeping on a wafer-thin mattress with bells waking you up before 6 a.m.

2. Research what you can. This is easier for Europeans than Americans because so many Europeans know someone who has been to India. Not so for Americans, but Yoga Journal has written extensively on the topic. British newspapers such as The Guardian’s travel section and European travel publications are also great spot to find information on traveling in India.

3. Headlamp. The power goes out all the time and they’re not easy to find in India.

4. Don’t over do it. Western bodies aren’t used to sitting cross-legged for hours or contorting ourselves the same way. Don’t let the teacher push you in to some pose you know will only mess up your back in a mean, mean way.

5. Do some yoga before you go. No, it’s not likely you’ll be able to fit 4 hours of yoga into your day before you head out on an Indian yoga vacation. But you won’t want to start off cold. It’ll just hurt that much more.

6. Take the big bottle of Advil. See No. 5.

The Taj Mahal at sunrise By Sonja Bjelland

7. Learn the names for a few basic poses in Sanskrit. It’s the language of yoga and it will be much easier to understand what the teacher wants you to do if you know your tadasana from your savasana.

8. Plan a few trips out of the ashram. Either before or after your yoga time, take the chance to see a bit outside those walls. Ashram life does teach a lot about India, but seeing it in person gives you more perspective on what you’re learning and challenges that yogic calm.

9. Keep tabs a little on the outside world. Security alerts from your home embassy and reading India news websites can let you know if you need to reroute your trip because of weather problems like I did or violence such as tonight’s bombing at an Aarti on the Ganges river.

10. Pack an open mind. India is far from the Western world and that much farther from American life. But it’s still incredible to witness.