Is India a good travel destination?
I'll give my perspective on traveling in India as an American backpacker. I traveled solo in Northwest India for 10 weeks in late 2013.
I spent most of my time in Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Mumbai. India is enormous and I barely skimmed the surface. Also, I'll admit that I spent a lot of time in traveler heavy spots vs. getting off the beaten track.
Loving Leh
I'll talk about the rewarding and challenging parts of traveling in India from my perspective.
I've also traveled/lived in Latin America (16 months total) and traveled around New Zealand (4 months). I realize those are entirely different places but I can't help but draw comparisons between traveling there vs. traveling in India.
TLDR:
India is an incredibly diverse, interesting, and affordable place to backpack around. Most Indians are very welcoming and helpful. It's quite cheap to be there and you'll practically never run out of things to do/see.
However, India can be extremely challenging for many travelers. Most travelers will have to deal with many hassles, annoyances, sicknesses, and cultural differences. India is definitely not for everyone(and perhaps not for most).
The rewarding parts of traveling in India
India is alive
Here's the way I will try to describe India if someone asked me. Imagine your senses are a bunch of analog volume knobs. Volume is used to describe sound but let's imagine you have volume knobs for your other senses as well.
India turns the volume up on all of them. I feel that could help someone understand what it feels like to be there. The smells, the density of people, the stares, the rickshaws, the saris/turbans/burqas, the flavors, the honking, the bells, the animals, the crazy driving, the temples, the smiles, the monkeys...everything is on full blast. Imagine full blast in your head phones, then transfer that to your other senses.
I just got back from my trip and I was in Seattle on a cold December day. I'm left wondering 'Where is everybody?! Who turned the volume down? Where did the animals go? The vendors? The honking? The garbage? The shouting and smiling?' I'm not going to hate on Seattle (too easy) but it just feels so white, organized, lonely, and quiet compared to India.
Morning visitors
I have this urge to walk around with a boombox held above my head blasting salsa music just to wake everyone up and to feel alive again.
India's sensory volume can be very overwhelming (in a negative way) but it's often exhilarating and fascinating.
Extreme Diversity
India is roughly 30% the size of the US but has 1.2 billion people who speak nearly 1600 languages in that land area. Around 30 of those are spoken by at least a million people. A majority are Hindu by religion but there is also a large number of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, and a couple others.
India has 20000+ ft mountains ranges next to Jungles, coastlines, and deserts. As you travel through it, the terrain changes fast. Many regions of India have their own distinct cuisine as well.
Coming from Washington State, I felt home in many parts of Kashmir
It's very hard to say the phrase "Indian Culture". The singular "culture" doesn't do India justice. I feel you could maybe get away with "Mexican culture" or "French culture" and generalize ok. In India, much less so. We should say "cultures". There are entire swaths of people who don't speak a common language. Hindi is probably the only language most non-Indians know about and they're often surprised when I tell them that only 41% of Indians speak it as their native language. In addition to the language differences, there are people are living so drastically different from one another that it's hard to say they have the same culture.
Golden Temple
As a traveler, you can sometimes feel like you're entering a new country when you take a 12-15 hour bus ride between places. This opens up new places to see, new words to learn, new foods to try, new terrain, flora/fauna, etc.
When I'd talk to other travelers there, it'd blow my mind how many things there were left to see. X caves here, Y temple or fort there, this swimming hole, this beach, that festival, and so on. You're never done in India.
Cheap
Traveling in India is very affordable. Granted, in 2013 when I traveled, the rupee was quite low at approximately 60 to the dollar. But even when it was at 45 ish to the dollar, India was cheap. India is simply very affordable for most UK/US/EUR/AUS/CAN travelers.
Here are some costs of things (in USD) in late 2013:
Delicious Potato Paratha on the street (my breakfast in Mcleod Ganj) = 30 cents
Chai (tea) on the street = 10 - 15 cents
Decent Room with my own bathroom in touristy Udaipur = $4
16 hour train ride = $7
Meal in a clean healthy restaurant = $2 - $4
Bollywood Film in fancy theatre = $2 - $3
Starting fare on a rickshaw ride in Mumbai = 25 cents
30 minute cab ride in traffic in Mumbai = $2 - $2.50
2L of Water = 50 cents
Mountain Bike ride down world's highest pass. $16.
Haircut and Shave. $1.20
Food, Water, Lodging, and Transportation are the bulk of your costs when traveling. You can travel quite easily in India on $500 per month. You could push this down to $300 if you ate more street food, avoided touristy spots, and shared rooms with others.
What the fun?
People usually think of SE Asia when they think of cheap travel. Thailand and Vietnam would be considered expensive compared to India. From what I've heard from other travelers and looking on Hostel Booking sites, a dorm bed in many parts of Thailand goes for around $9-$12. In India, you'll get your own room for 30%-50% of that.
I haven't heard of any other popular backpacking destination that's as cheap as India. Tell me if there is one.
Food
I loved it and found most travelers felt the same. There's so many delicious things to try. There are a plethora of plates, breads, beverages, and snacks that we don't get in Indian food in the US. I would try dishes at random on the menu in many restaurants and like them almost every time.
Perhaps the best Dosa I'll ever have
The majority of my very limited Hindi describes food. I don't like much spice and I rarely found the food to be too hot. I ate meat only a handful of times in those 10 weeks.
Learning how to make some of it
There is too much sugar, fat, and starch in some dishes. I almost always had to remember to tell restaurants to put less or no sugar in my tea. The sweets in India (imo) are gut bombs of sugar and fat. Indians eat a lot of carbs/sugar and not a lot of protein. Also, the portions can be quite small.
Those are minor gripes though. Most of the food is delicious, nutritious, cheap and vegetarian by default.
Helpfulness of average people
Many Indians believe that "guest is god". It constantly surprised me just how helpful average Indians would be to travelers in their country. If I got stuck somewhere or was confused doing something, average people would really take their time to really help me. I thought no one could beat Latin hospitality but Indians just might have.
Man with kind beautiful smile who helped me with Mumbai trains
I told my dad about times where average working class people would take me on impromptu tours for 30 minutes - 2 hours and he was like "Really? And they didn't want anything?" If they aren't in the tourism business, they don't. They truly just want to be helpful. Experiencing this made me ashamed for how little I've done for tourists in the US. I've taken a couple couchsurfers around and made some people's days, but I've never just seen a backpacker on the street in Seattle or San Francisco and been like "Hey stranger, I'm going to take you around for the next 2 hours to make sure you have an excellent time here."
Rickshaw driver who saved me my ass when I rolled in Chandigarh sick as a dog and almost every hotel was full.
I knew of other travelers who got invited to stay with people in their villages or homes. The people who were extending this hospitality were mostly of limited means. It's nice to be welcomed and taken care of. Especially when you're traveling by yourself and overwhelmed by India.
Very cool travelers
India attracts a certain type of traveler and I liked most of them. They tend to usually be a little older and more experienced in life than many of the travelers I meet in Mexico(though I like them too). They are often open to a certain type of adventure, personal growth, and occasional difficulty. Some are there specifically for yoga or meditation. Many are the types of people you'd meet at Burning Man or hippie-esque music festivals.
Astrophysics students who like to dance in hotel rooms
They are educated and interesting with strong spiritual and liberal roots. You do find a some of the holier than thou hippies as well, but most were very down to earth. Though I also like the early 20s travelers, it was nice to be a slightly older crowd. I heard travelers in their 30s say they felt a little more comfortable in India vs. SE Asia (because of age).
So many fun nights and conversations with these ladies
You don't get the drug/prostitution travelers that you sometimes get in Colombia or the child prostitution travelers you hear of in Thailand/Costa Rica. Outside of Goa or Mumbia, India isn't much of a party destination so you don't get the party travelers either (though I ain't hatin').
I met many interesting cool travelers in India. We had great conversations in restaurants and on rooftops. I wish I could have known them longer.
Friends made on night out in Mumbai
Little physical violence
Compared to Mexico and Colombia, you're very safe from physical violence in India. The people who rob you in India do it smiling and shaking your hand. In many parts of Latin America, you have to legitimately worry about getting mugged or beaten up. In India, many tourists walk around with their expensive DSLRs dangling from their necks. I never thought twice about having my debit card or iPhone on me. In many parts of Latin America, you'd be really asking for it by doing that. I'm sure muggings happen but I didn't hear of it happening to any travelers I met.
I also worried less about pickpockets and bags getting ripped off in India. I never heard of a tourist/traveler getting their bag simply ripped off while they were sitting in a rickshaw (for example). If they had rickshaws in (more of) Latin America, you'd hear of a lot of bags being ripped off in traffic. They'd nab your stuff and bolt the other way. It was nice not having to sweat this so much in India. I hardly ever looked over my shoulder.
English Speaking
You can get by quite easily with just English. Enough people speak it fluently or ok enough to get your necessities taken care of. This makes it harder to learn a local language but more convenient to get around.
Very easy to get off the beaten track
Outside of a few popular areas, it's very easy to find places in India with few tourists. I've never felt burdened by being around other tourists in Mexico or Colombia but I've heard travelers in Thailand sometimes feel overwhelmed. In India, it's very easy to find that 'authentic' locals-only experience that some travelers really covet.
It's very different than the US
With the right attitude, India is intensely interesting. It's just so dang different to where I'm from. What a cool thing it is to witness (a bit of) the other side of the world. I caught myself sometimes checking the moon and sun and thinking "Ok, same planet."
Same planet
I'd never seen a movie where people break into song and dance routines every 20 minutes. Or camped next to families whose goats are their livelihood. Or ate on the floor with a Muslim family. Or hung out with a couple thousand Sikhs. Or had a group of monkeys run by me when I'm having my morning meditation on the hotel roof.
His goat got attacked by a bear and had to be put down
It was only 10 weeks and this list goes on.
I left with a richer understanding of what the world is up to.
It's one thing to read or hear about India. It's something else to take it in with your own senses.
The challenging parts of traveling in India
Unreliability
A lot of things don't work how they're supposed to work in India. You can have your bus get cancelled at the last second or have your hotel owner switch something up on you. You'll find your door doesn't close, your bathroom smells like sewage, your bus breaks down the middle of nowhere or your food doesn't come with what you agreed on. India has extremely variable quality in many things. You can't trust in much there.
Visas and Vaccinations
Getting an Indian visa can be quite time/energy consuming. In the US, they've contracted visas out to a firm that isn't handling them well. I had to go to the office 5 times to get my visa. I heard of many people having to change or miss flights because they didn't get theirs in time.
Thankfully, in 2014, many countries will now get visas on arrival.
You need to get many vaccinations for India. Mine cost around $240 total. This is an added expense and hassle.
Noise
India's sensual volume can be thrilling and interesting but it can also be tiring. It's hard to find quiet and solitude in India. There aren't many negative spaces (in the design sense) where you can recharge and rest your nerves. You're often being looked at or sold to. The sidewalks and parks are full of activity. India can be extremely overwhelming and exhausting. Sometimes you just want all the noise to stop for a second so you can catch your breath.
It's pretty normal to get woken up in the night by dogs, cows, horns, fireworks or sometimes prayer calls.
Love me a good mosque but could do without the 5am prayer call
You somehow get used to it.
Scams
I haven't heard or been to a place with as many scams as India. In most places I've heard of, there are a scam or two. You'll know a friend of a friend of a friend whose dad got scammed in X country.
In India, it seemed like 30-50% of travelers got scammed in some form.
The hardest scam is the one that gets you when you've just gotten to the country. Many fly into Delhi. You grab a cab at the airport at 1-2am and then the cabbie takes you close to where your hotel is. On your way to your hotel, the driver either "calls the hotel" (his friend), tells you they're full, or says the street is closed or something is blocking the street. They are so good at what they do and you'll actually be convinced the guy is on your side. Then they take you to a different hotel that costs between $75-$150 dollars a night (when your hotel cost $10-$15). They also find interesting ways to strong arm you into booking their tours by lying to you or scaring you about booking things on your own.
Welcome to India!!!
What a terrible way to treat newcomers. This didn't just happen to the friend of friend of friend. This happened to so many people when they come into India.
The other common scam are the 'Incredible India" tour offices that operate around the backpacker spots. You'll find people everywhere who will tell you trains or busses are full or unsafe. They'll tell you anything to get you into their tour office (to book a package). You're jetlagged, confused, scared, overheating, and many of the guys are very good about seeming trustworthy. Only later do you realize that you've been had. I met so many people later who were laughing/crying about how well they'd been had.
In case they read
I fell for the Srinagar scam(long story). In Srinagar, after you realized you've been had, you'd run into other travelers and you laugh "you too?!" "Yeah, they got me too, hahaaha!" You'd laugh and just try to roll with it. What are you going to do at that point but laugh?
I heard other stories of people taking tours and then have the bus driver refuse to drive them to places until they spent a certain amount at each stop.
Ok, enough scam stories. The scams really don't cost you THAT much. I got scammed for a couple hundred bucks. Oh well. Most people don't lose much.
But scams do suck because they undermine your trust in everything in India. You stop trusting people who might just be trying to be helpful (as per my point in the previous section). It takes longer to get from A to B or book tours because you're constantly on the look out for scams.
Touts
Touts are people who are aggressively trying to sell you stuff in India (is that a UK or Indian word?) In some places, they are everywhere and they stop after you've basically said no 5 times and walked off.
It's especially frustrating when you can't tell the difference between a tout and an Indian who just wants to hang out. It makes you distrustful and limits your ability to connect. You'll get these guys who are hanging out for a bit with you and then drop their sales pitch out of nowhere.
Mostly it's just plain annoying and exhausting to not be able to walk in peace. You're almost always getting sold to.
I resorted to interesting measures to ward off touts. I started just not saying anything to them while making strong eye contact as I walked by (basically saying "Shut your face, motherfucker..."). Other times, I would just start shouting gibberish as I walked by to get them to stop. Sometimes I would shake my head and face around like a rabid deranged dog as a confusion tactic. My thinking was "Either laugh and have fun with this or be annoyed". You're not harassing me if I harass you back.
Tout proof
A Dutch girl said a bow with hands in prayer position worked well too but I prefer gettin crazy.
Staring
The Indian stare is intense. They don't do the non-chalant glance. It's a long stare that is held. You can stare right back and they won't look away. They don't get that it's annoying. Colombians stare at foreigners as well but they'll usually back down when you meet their eye contact.
Most of the time, it's fine. You get used to it. If you act natural and don't stand in the middle of empty spaces, it calms down. Most Indians are extremely friendly and curious and just want to know where you're from.
But it's wild when you get a group of people 15-25 deep staring at you and taking pictures. If you sit in a public area in a place that's not used to tourists, people will come up and take your picture from 3 feet away without asking. A crowd of papparazi will form and you'll have to move on.
Papparazi rolling deep
It's worth pointing out that while India has 1.2 billion people, it only has 6.5 million tourists per year. By comparison, China has 1.4 billion people and 57.7 million tourists. Thailand has a population of 66 million and has 22 million tourists(in 16% of the land area of India). Most Indians aren't used to seeing foreigners.
It's challenging for foreigners because we do want to be friendly. We don't mind posing for the occasional photo. But after you've done 15 photos in an hour, you're spent. It's too much. You just want to relax in peace.
Wild eyed mountain kids
When I was at the Golden Temple (awesome Sikh holy place), my travelmate and I would stake out a spot where we weren't visible. We could relax and take in the scene. But in 20 minutes, tops, we'd be discovered. People would show up and start wanting photos. "They're here, covers blown, " one of us would say. We'd pose for a bit and then move onto a new hiding spot.
I can tell it's not done with ill intent. When you see people post the pics they took with celebrities on Reddit, it's not done with malice. They're just stoked because "hey, I saw Bill Murray!"
Sometimes it's fun to be talked to and treated like a celebrity. But when you want to explore or be out in peace, it's really exhausting.
Bad Service
Sorry. I can't pull punches on this one. Indian service, by US standards, is mostly horrible.
You'll order something in a restaurant and get it 40 minutes later (after asking 3-4 times). Hotel owners treat you like you're a complete nuisance. People don't listen when you ask for something to be done in a specific way. Guys will walk into your dorm and starting cleaning out the bed at 8am. Bus station attendants don't even try to help you out when you're obviously confused by Indian's byzantine bus system. Waiters regularly do your bill wrong (to get more). Hotels will claim you didn't pay for a night you did. Ticket booking agents hang out on Facebook while you wait and watch.
How hotel owners look at you when you try to pay
If average Indian people are about as helpful as can be, the people who's job it is to help are as unhelpful as can be.
There are exceptions to this but Indian service is often laughably bad. If you don't laugh, you'll start crying. I've never seen so many foreigners tearing their hair out.
You learn to roll with it or let it ruin your day.
It's worth realizing that there isn't much tipping and the service is often getting paid 3-6 dollars per day. There just isn't the education or incentive to provide good service (my guess).
Health and sanitation issues
India doesn't mess around when it comes to bacterias and viruses. Most travelers have to get several hundred dollars in vaccines done before going there. Most travelers will get sick, sometimes seriously so. I heard of people getting Hepatitis B or Typhoid. Some travelers forgo malaria meds (their fault) and get that.
People tell you that "You'll get sick once for a couple days and then you'll be immune." I didn't see that. I heard about people getting sick for a week at a time. I had bad Diarrhea for 25% of my trip. There were common stories of the good ol 2 exit evacuation sicknesses and people getting sick all over their hotel rooms. There were stories of people being sick for the entire duration of their trips.
One sick tired lonely mofo
Many Indians don't understand proper sanitation (and they are using their hand in lieu of toilet paper). I watched people wash their hands in various places and I've only ever seen 1 Indian use soap. In restaurants I was eating in, I'd commonly watch employees just coughing and reaming all the mucus out of their nose right into the sink people use to wash their hands. And then not wash.
Antibiotics are so overprescribed in India that many of the basic ones no longer work. So you could catch a bug that's more resistant to antibiotics that your bugs back home.
I'm not trying to scare people but I do think it's worth being honest about. Most travelers get quite sick in India. This does make it challenging to travel by yourself.
No hostels
There are very few backpacker hostels in India. I only went to a small part of the country but I'm relying on other traveler's accounts. You stay in cheap hotels or guesthouses. Overall, this is fine. My only gripe is that it's harder to meet other travelers this way. The common areas and kitchens in hostels is usually where you do this. In India, it can be tricky to find the hub for connecting with other travelers. This made for some lonely days in new places until I found the meeting spots.
No talking with the local women
In the other places I've traveled, you can often chat or flirt with local women. This is fun and makes for quick language learning. In most parts of India, you just don't talk to the women. It doesn't feel appropriate to. You don't see them out and about very often.
In the 10 weeks I was in India, I spoke with Indian women for around 15-20 combined minutes. If someone asked me what Indian women are like, I'd shrug. If I had spent more time in the more liberal metro areas like Mumbai and Bangalore, perhaps this would have been different. Maybe I read it wrong or navigated it wrong. Hey, it's all good. I didn't go there for that.
Didn't want to talk to you either, Deepika!
Foreign women will definitely get talked to by local guys. Often more than they care to.
Sexual Harassment
I won't dig into this too much since I didn't directly experience it. I talked to several women who experienced some form of sexual harassment. Pinching and groping of foreign women happens fairly often in crowded areas. I heard of women who woke up on sleeper trains with guys fondling them. One woman said that a man on the lower bunk was reaching up and grabbing her indiscriminately.
One woman had a guy say to her "It seems like your root chakra is blocked. Would you like it opened with some divine sex?" I know sexual harassment shouldn't be funny but it's hard for me not to laugh at that one.
Some women who got a massage from a renowned Masseur in Udaipur had him ask them when was the last time they had sex while he was sitting on their legs working on their bare ass.
A straight guy with a lip ring got a dozen or so propositions for sex from Indian gay guys. The lip ring must mean something different there.
Sexuality and expressions of it work pretty differently in India. I sense there's a lot of confusion around sex (well, more than in the US). Some (too many) Indian men have very distorted or misguided ideas for what's acceptable to say or do to Western women. Most of the women seemed annoyed with it but weren't letting it ruin their trips.
Crowds and Availability
As a backpacker, I often travel on a whim. I decide where I'm going to go at the last minute. It's freeing to rock up to a bus station with 3 options in your mind and go with the one you're feeling at that moment.
It's hard to travel spontaneously in India. You often need to book things in advance, especially in popular areas like Goa or Rajasthan. There are tens of millions of people traveling in peak season and things fill up easily.
Full
It's not the end of the world but it does make your trip feel less free. You do need to book ahead in many parts.
Driving
It's a different level of crazy. You basically play a lot of chicken with the oncoming traffic. You'll see a lot of near misses (and some crashes).
Most Indian drivers don't care at all about pedestrians. They'll zoom right by you and miss you by 6-12 inches. Motorcyclists are even worse.
You get a bit used to it but it's still unnerving.
Pollution
You'll breath in a lot of dust and smoke in India. In most towns I was in, they simply burn their garbage, plastic and all. You rarely get a clear view of mountains or surrounding areas because of all the smoke everywhere.
You'll see rivers that have turned black and soupy with pollution in many places.
Most people just throw their garbage out wherever they please. Hiking high in the Himalayas I'd still find plastic out in the middle of the woods.
This is profoundly depressing to see.
Finding lodging information
When you travel in Mexico, Colombia or Thailand (I've heard), it's very easy to figure out which hostel to go thanks to the hostel booking sites. It's quite easy to find where the gems are. In India, you need to talk to other travelers to figure out where to stay. Trip Advisor and other review sites don't know about the good cheap places. Wikitravel and Lonely Planet often don't either. This took getting used to but once you know, you start taking good notes from other travelers.
Winter was coming in Leh
India is a very interesting place to travel if you have the right attitude and resourcefulness to deal with some extreme challenges.
I'm very glad I traveled there (in the end) but there were some very challenging moments.
Next time, I want to do more treks in Kashmir, party more in Mumbai, and chill out in Kerala.
dededos
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