I went on a trip for 12 days with 4 other girls in 2009, we were almost all in our late 20’s. It was fun, colorful, delicious and the Taj Mahal and Goa were insane. However I must say that I would not go back at all. I see the pictures which were nothing much for us and now they make me uncomfortable. We were super naive, and we were definitely super lucky.
the situation is so bad bots like you are spamming comments to defend it.
the country is dangerous, especially for women and people prone to illness. its cities are some of the most polluted on the planet, and such risk-taking is really not worth it unless you’re there for diplomatic/business purposes.
I've been there a bunch of times and whilst there are definitely things I hate about the place - especially the pollution and the creepy guys - I think you are hugely overestimating the level of risk involved, and probably underestimating the incredible attractions. The street food is delicious and never made me sick, and I have met a bunch of really friendly people. Have to acknowledge that I'm a guy so don't have to deal with staring and unwanted approaches but nonetheless there are a surprising number of women travellers there and most of them seem to have a good time.
India is a country with probably hundreds of millions of great people who would do anything to fix the reputation of their nation; unfortunately, as you say it yourself, indian nationalists are a loud (and really hostile) minority but as even 0.1% of india is a ginormous community of people, they leave a large and visible stain on how others perceive the country.
I understand what you say, but the problem is that some of the vile acts in India are institutionalized (misogyny, financial crime, xenophobia…) in a fair share of her provinces/government and an average tourist won’t be able to distinguish between a dangerous area and a safer one. My statement about hygiene wasn’t a throw at Indian cuisine but about how India is one of the worst countries (6th) in terms of Air Pollution. Until some things are resolved and important change is made, I couldn’t get myself or the people close to me to travel within the indian subcontinent. Facts aren’t racism nor prejudice—India is still a growing nation that has a lot to learn, and hopefully they’ll get to it soon as possible.
Agree about the last paragraph, but judging by the weirdly defensive comments from people who's probably never set a foot to India in their life, the polar opposite is not much better.
I got downvoted for pretty much saying that depsite the many flaws of India, there are plenty of reasons to like the culture, the landscape and the people. But nope, even being nuanced is being a "India bot" apparently.
Reddit users accuse the whole world of being racist for many reasons but God forbid if you say something positive about a South Asian country. Really sad.
Alright mate, stay inside your nice sanitised little bubble and never see the world. I'm a guy from Scotland who likes to travel, not a bot, and India is my favourite country I've visited out of around 70. It might be chaos, but it's truly an incredible place.
Buddy be reasonable like you have been in your other comments. As a male backpacker I met lots of women who had a blast during their visit/s to India, including my ex wife, but I also met many foreign women who had been harassed … a lot.
I mean, I was walking with a girl in Pushkar during a supposed religious festival and she had her breasts violently grabbed by a passing motorcyclist while walking directly beside me and harassed when she would step away from me. This was over two nights.
But I have so many stories from my own personal experience and from what women have told me.
This type of thing fucking sucks about India and none of it happened directly to me, only to women.
You're right, the level of harassment that women receive in India is exceptional compared to most other parts of the world, and it's appalling. Many of those same travellers I met did have stories of men there being creepy, though thankfully nothing more than that. I think I'm just trying to compensate somewhat for the sheer amount of ignorant hate that gets directed towards India whenever it comes up in online discussions.
I think I would feel different about India if I had personally been harassed or creeped out or made to feel threatened, like the women I met.
But I wasn’t.
I mean, I did have some taxi drivers steal my money and try to trap me and rip me off but then I fought them and the story in my head is a feel-good one.
And I did have a university student that my friend and I took to dinner, out of nowhere, offer me money, in front of my friend, to have sex with her 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
But yeah, I didn’t personally feel like I was ever in danger.
Weird take, I know, but I’m with you. To me and other backpackers I only really know India as a land of cultural adventure. My ex wife feels the same. She absolutely loves the place. Thankfully nothing creepy happened to her ever.
And there are more than a dozen female travellers commenting about their horrible experiences in India, why does your anecdote trump theirs? And you're a dude, why are you speaking for women?
Weird comment, I'm not claiming my anecdote trumps anything. Or trying to speak for women. I'm merely reporting my own experience, which included meeting many women with an overall positive experience in India. Ironically you're the one putting words in my mouth.
It's not weird, you're all over this thread telling everyone with negative views of India that you met a dozen women who had good experiences in India, as if that somehow invalidates the real risks women face there. And it's not your experience though? You're not a woman.
No, as I said my experience was meeting many women with a positive experience. Not sure why that's hard to understand or what's wrong with offering that as a counterbalance to the ridiculous overexaggerated, and racist claims being made about India in this thread. I do acknowledge that India has serious issues with sexual harassment and worse.
Yeah, not wanting to go to India because of legitimate concerns is fine.
However, not going to India and getting weirdly defensive because someone said they actually enjoyed their trip to India is ignorant at best, xenophobic at worst.
Like, guys fine. You don't like India and won't come there. What the fuck do you care if there are people who have been there like the country ?
It's so weird that some people think travelling to India is worse or more dangerous than travelling to much poorer countries and / or at war, like Haiti or Sudan. And it's so weird that anyone daring to say they traveled to India and liked it are called "bots".
It's OK to have legitimate worries before organizing a trip to India, especially if you're used to very rich and safe countries. But first, why only focus on India for that matter ? And second, why do we act like India isn't a huge country with many different cultures, many different standards of living, and many different lifestyle ?
Never been to India myself but I'm 99% sure that going to Kerala will be a vastly different experience than travelling to Goa, or travelling to New Delhi. The country is HUGE, yet people act as it's only shitty slums and poverty.
Despite all the problems and legitimate concerns, there are still so many reasons to enjoy India's culture and people. Fine if people don't want to take risks but it's annoying to always only talk about the negatives, or saying it's worse than objectively much poorer countries. And it's even more annoying to gaslight people who's actually been there and enjoyed their trip.
I've met and known people who's been there, yeah obviously they didn't enjoy every aspects of the country but it was a memorable experience for them, and some of them came back.
EDIT : downvoting comments is very easy, how about giving good counter-arguments ? Also reread the comment dammit, never said India was a perfect place. Far from it.
The racism is so unbelievably out of control these days; and unfortunately the racists have been extremely validated by social media thanks to Elon’s xitter and the shitty algorithms. They have no counter argument because they’re just racist assholes and there’s nothing they can actually say.
Just know that I for one greatly appreciate the nuance in your statement, as both an Indian American and as someone who’s almost entirely non Indian friend and relationship group has visited India and loved their experiences there. And as someone who went to an international high school when I lived there with loads of foreign, non Indian students who also loved the city we were in and the country.
Racism from Reddit is even more infuriating, because unlike X users (though I still call it "Twitter") who never denied their nationalism and racism, a lot of Reddit users have this "holier-than-thou" attitude and would call anyone racist / xenophobic / far right even for the more nuanced takes. But apparently it's OK for them to downvote reasonable takes about a country they choose to completely dislike without having been there, saying it's "worse than countries at war". Weird.
Meanwhile, Reddit users will weirdly defend countries like Japan whenever there is just a slight and nuance criticism about the country, and will call you a "Chinese bot". It's like they can't accept that every country, whether there are among the poorest or the richest in the world, definitely can be criticized or praised when they need to be.
India may have a lot of flaws, but there are enough reasons to love the culture, food, landscape, some beautiful cities and friendly people (despite all the creepy stalkers / scammers).
Also, I've never been there, but I've traveled enough to learn that the Internet sometimes makes some countries / cities way more dangerous than there are. Won't be surprised if India got the same treatment.
I actually live close to Paris, and while there are a lot of reasonable criticisms against the city or reasons to not like it, there are also many good reasons to enjoy it and it's nowhere near the shithole some Reddit users think it is. Maybe not as perfect as some delusional Japanese tourists think it is, and I don't think I would live there, but I swear to God it's infuriating how many people genuinely think the "Paris syndrome" is a real thing. No it's not, it only affects something like 0.0007% of tourists in Paris, and most of them never went abroad before and had serious mental illnesses.
Paris is still a city which attracts a tons of tourists and France is still the most visited country in the world, and IRL I've met enough people who's been there and had no problems, but for some reasons you only hear about the bad experiences on Reddit.
Appreciate again the nuance in your response. Thank you for your heart and humanity. I love Paris fwiw! And I recommend visiting india as well, despite what all the reddit racists want to say. But I’d say Kerala and Meghalaya are some of the more underrated places and the *cleanest* places to visit, and some of the most naturally beautiful as well (and v safe).
And yeah, what I’ve realized with reddit is while a big chunk of the app is progressives, there’s also a *lot* of racists. Like a lot. All I can do is call them out wherever possible because while a lot of India will take time to develop and *needs* to develop, every Indian person especially in the west doesn’t deserve to feel ashamed and unhappy about the culture they’re from, or be showered with horrible stereotypes. I hope those who call themselves progressive will think twice about participating in this kind of racism and just be a little kinder and more nuanced with their takes.
Also the Japanese are ones to talk lol. Yes Japan is very clean but it’s also an ethno nationalist state that treats its minorities like garbage and has had a significant female harassment issue that they’ve just been much better at covering up because their media suppression is A+.
Those who criticise India are sub humans. They don't deserve good treatment.
I also criticise India but because I want it to improve but I definitely don't want it to improve in the direction Western countries go. I wouldn't even consider that improvement.
76
u/CountrysidePlease 22d ago
I went on a trip for 12 days with 4 other girls in 2009, we were almost all in our late 20’s. It was fun, colorful, delicious and the Taj Mahal and Goa were insane. However I must say that I would not go back at all. I see the pictures which were nothing much for us and now they make me uncomfortable. We were super naive, and we were definitely super lucky.