Nobody is selling you on going there. People don’t touch cow dung on streets and don’t wear outside shoes inside homes, so they have a hygiene system that works fine. Dry dung is used as fuel and isn’t unhygienic and people who work with dung know how to handle it.
It looks like the Letsrun crowd doesn't get out much.
I've been to India 3 times. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Mussorie in Uttarakhand to study Hindi at the famous Landour Language school.
Send me a p.m. via Coach JS, if you need more info. You can find him on Facebook. Sorry I don't use FB, but coach will relay.
Big fan of the time I've spent in Mussoorie. A lot of travel to get there, but worth it! Cooler temps than the valley and ~7000 ft up. I would always get out early on Tehri road and never had any issue with traffic. Only thing was the monkeys and stray dogs, but they'll leave you alone as soon as you grab a rock.
The monkeys are fun. Sometimes they steal your food and you just laugh it off, but otherwise they won’t bother you if you don’t mess with them. Stray dogs know how to live peacefully with people and don’t attack people because people give them food if they behave nicely. There’s of course a small chance that one of them on rare occasions goes crazy, just like humans or pets anywhere.
Why spend a month in a country with a billion people who are so used to unhygienic living conditions that they are OK with cow dung laying around all over the place. Yikes!
People don’t touch cow dung on streets, so they have a hygiene system that works fine.
That's the problem. Someone should pick up the cow dung and dispose of it. The fact that Indian people think it's no big deal to have cow dung just laying there is crazy.
On the other hand, hundreds of millions of Indians poop out in the open all over the place, and the cows don't complain. So at least it's even.
People don’t touch cow dung on streets, so they have a hygiene system that works fine.
That's the problem. Someone should pick up the cow dung and dispose of it. The fact that Indian people think it's no big deal to have cow dung just laying there is crazy.
On the other hand, hundreds of millions of Indians poop out in the open all over the place, and the cows don't complain. So at least it's even.
I see that you are desperate enough to misquote me to defend your xenophobia.
That's the problem. Someone should pick up the cow dung and dispose of it. The fact that Indian people think it's no big deal to have cow dung just laying there is crazy.
On the other hand, hundreds of millions of Indians poop out in the open all over the place, and the cows don't complain. So at least it's even.
I see that you are desperate enough to misquote me to defend your xenophobia.
Xenophobia? Give me a break. You make no sense. I'm talking about hygiene. You said they don't pick up the cow dung from the streets. I'm saying that someone SHOULD pick it up.
How can you pretend that leaving cow dung laying around the streets is OK? It's not OK. It's unhealthy.
If there was cow dung all over YOUR street, there is a 100% chance that you wouldn't be happy about that. Does that mean you're Xenophobic?
You should stop defending things that are unhealthy.
I lived in India for 4 years. Like someone else said, it's exhausting. There is no personal hygiene. You have to eat prepackaged food OR stay at a 5 star Western hotel like the Imperial in Delhi.
People defecating in alleys while someone else washes their goat next to then is not uncommon.
You will be harassed. Every. Single. Person. Tries. To. Scam. You. Because. You're. White.
Hotel drivers are safer than public transportation, but you have no idea what that driver does outside of work. Most people who live near the 5 star hotels are in indentured servitude to the hotel. We're talking abject poverty. You don't want to be someone's first opportunity to get ahead.
It's a very conservative country outside of the big cities. A white lady running with shorts could be considered indecent. Your best bet, for running, is to do it in city parks. Cubbon Park in Bangalore for example. Rural areas tend to stick to old traditions and that could mean different things based on the religion...none put women in good place.
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Lara Logan reports from Tahrir square, v2 further east
Solotraveling in India for a month…what am I in for?
Don't let that unmistakable SF smell trick you when you step off the plane. You are in India now. It might smell the same, but the humidity is a dead giveaway.
I lived in India for 4 years. Like someone else said, it's exhausting. There is no personal hygiene. You have to eat prepackaged food OR stay at a 5 star Western hotel like the Imperial in Delhi.
People defecating in alleys while someone else washes their goat next to then is not uncommon.
You will be harassed. Every. Single. Person. Tries. To. Scam. You. Because. You're. White.
Hotel drivers are safer than public transportation, but you have no idea what that driver does outside of work. Most people who live near the 5 star hotels are in indentured servitude to the hotel. We're talking abject poverty. You don't want to be someone's first opportunity to get ahead.
Beautiful country though. Go with a tour group.
Probably the best response to the original question so far.
India is a great place to visit because its historical sites are incredible. People constantly talk of the Taj Mahal but there are hundreds of others that are frankly equally stunning but much less advertised and harder to get to. For example the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu has some amazing temples.
Now having said all this, India is JUST NOT SAFE for a single white woman to travel thru. Poverty is endemic and literally everyone, man, woman and child will be out to make a penny from you. Fraudsters are everywhere.
It is quite unsafe to be anywhere alone, not just for white women but women in general. You wont see Indian women on the streets once the sun goes down.
As for food and water, there are a few very simple rules for foreigners. Don't under any circumstances eat street food. And when you do it, don't go cheap, stick to high end restaurants, they are still extremely cheap. And their water is safe too.
Lastly, I go to India almost every year, and while many people do poop in the open, Ive never once stepped in it, not even close.
I lived in India for 4 years. Like someone else said, it's exhausting. There is no personal hygiene. You have to eat prepackaged food OR stay at a 5 star Western hotel like the Imperial in Delhi.
People defecating in alleys while someone else washes their goat next to then is not uncommon.
You will be harassed. Every. Single. Person. Tries. To. Scam. You. Because. You're. White.
Hotel drivers are safer than public transportation, but you have no idea what that driver does outside of work. Most people who live near the 5 star hotels are in indentured servitude to the hotel. We're talking abject poverty. You don't want to be someone's first opportunity to get ahead.
Beautiful country though. Go with a tour group.
Probably the best response to the original question so far.
India is a great place to visit because its historical sites are incredible. People constantly talk of the Taj Mahal but there are hundreds of others that are frankly equally stunning but much less advertised and harder to get to. For example the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu has some amazing temples.
Now having said all this, India is JUST NOT SAFE for a single white woman to travel thru. Poverty is endemic and literally everyone, man, woman and child will be out to make a penny from you. Fraudsters are everywhere.
It is quite unsafe to be anywhere alone, not just for white women but women in general. You wont see Indian women on the streets once the sun goes down.
As for food and water, there are a few very simple rules for foreigners. Don't under any circumstances eat street food. And when you do it, don't go cheap, stick to high end restaurants, they are still extremely cheap. And their water is safe too.
Lastly, I go to India almost every year, and while many people do poop in the open, Ive never once stepped in it, not even close.
tl;dr (for the OP)
India is JUST NOT SAFE
Poverty is endemic
Fraudsters are everywhere.
It is quite unsafe to be anywhere alone
Don't under any circumstances eat street food.
Many people do poop in the open
.
Hey OP, maybe you should choose a different country.
I see that you are desperate enough to misquote me to defend your xenophobia.
Xenophobia? Give me a break. You make no sense. I'm talking about hygiene. You said they don't pick up the cow dung from the streets. I'm saying that someone SHOULD pick it up.
How can you pretend that leaving cow dung laying around the streets is OK? It's not OK. It's unhealthy.
If there was cow dung all over YOUR street, there is a 100% chance that you wouldn't be happy about that. Does that mean you're Xenophobic?
You should stop defending things that are unhealthy.
They don’t care what you think they should do. Neither do I. I am very happy to visit that country and have no hygiene concerns.
The monkeys are fun. Sometimes they steal your food
You have a different idea of fun than many other people.
Maybe. You clipped the rest of my sentence. I have zero problems with some animal stealing some of my food. I have plenty. It’s so rare anyway and fun to watch when it happens.
OP with a 9/10 bait job. Obviously you're a dude, and you're not going to India.
Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Dude was obviously hoping for a sh!t on India thread and I guess he got it.
I go to India quite frequently for business and enjoy it, but it's obviously very different for non-business/luxury travel.
OP is You Cant Handle The Truth and probably got outshone by some hardworking Indian person at school or work and decided to take revenge by shîtposting here.
It’s pretty telling when someone is so out of their way desperate to berate a foreign country.
I was a guy in a bigger city (Hyderabad) and probably the first white guy half of them had seen.
Dude, there have been Caucasian people wandering around India since the 1500's not to mention being under British rule from 1858 until 1947. You are definitely NOT the first white guy they have seen.
Was there 10 days and there were more Indians who wanted to take their picture with me than there were other white people. Most of the white people were at the airport, hotel or occasionally at the more touristy spots, but even then pretty rare.
I did get ‘scammed’ a couple times. A rickshaw driver offered me a ride for 10 rupees and I quickly agreed, then he said each. I ended up paying him 20 rupees. Probably could have gotten it for 5, but honestly I didn’t care. So yeah, probably got scammed out of $0.20 by that guy.
Another guy pretended to be an employee at a palace and got me tickets and gave me a tour for like $7… Tickets were only about $1.50 each so he scammed me out of $4 for like an hour long tour.
Actually saw very few beggars. I think that was mostly at busy markets.
Lots of people commenting have obviously never been there. Most people were extremely nice. A few definitely resented me, but that was a pretty rare exception.
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