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London: A British man who planned to walk to India to show you don't need money instead ended up proving you need to know French.
Mark Boyle, 28, planned to walk for two and a half years from Bristol, England, to Gandhi's birthplace in India without using any money, hoping to barter his friendship and labour for food and water along the way.
Crossing in to France with two friends, he reported on his blog earlier this week, he found his mission didn't translate.
"Not only did no one speak the language, they also saw us as a bunch of freeloading backpackers, which is the complete opposite of what the pilgrimage is really about," he wrote.
"That really scared us, and given that we now were pretty much out of food, hadn't slept in days and were really cold, we had to reassess the whole situation.
"We spoke to a few people who were willing to talk and they said that France would not go for this unless we could speak fluent French, which none of us could."
Boyle now plans to walk around Britain instead.
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