20. The 10-Rupees-Heaven
At every streets corner, you’ll find at least one of those mini markets which always have the same products.
For backpackers on a budget, they are absolute heaven, as you can get all essentials for 10 rupees (12 cts). Chocolate, toothbrushes, toothpaste, drinks, milk, biscuits, washing powder- you get everything for the same price.
Sure, on long term it might be economically more intelligent to buy a single big pack once in a while.
But as a backpacker you simply don’t have the place to carry around a kilo of washing powder with you.
You’ll easily be tempted to start buying a 10-rupees-package of biscuits (good-day, parle-g) to feed the indian street dogs. It’s fun, cheap and you think you’d help- but the opposite is true. Dogs shouldn’t eat so many biscuits, they get dog diabetes or something like that. Rather get them dog food, chapati, milk or something and buy the cookies for the street kids.
19. Traffic
The indian roads might seem like a huge uncoordinated mess to you, and hell on earth if you wanna cross them. But don’t worry, after some time you’ll realize that the chaos actually has a system, that everyone know what they are doing. I experienced Indian roads as quite safe, which is due to the factor that vehicles RARELY go over 50km/h, even on many parts of the highways. In cities, the fastest vehicles are scooters- so you can imagine that the traffic goes very slow. Even if it looks scary, I never felt in danger, even when crossing a super busy 6 lane city street.
18. Don’t believe everything you hear
This one is obvious, but for India it can’t hurt to remind you. The Indians often talk Poppycock. Often about India itself: India has the worlds longest beach, India has the best democracy in the world, Gilgit-Baltistan is in India, India has the oldest city on earth, India has the highest this, longest that, greatest of this kind, etc.
And even more poppycock about people from other states: people in bihar are dangerous and bad, people in north-east are all illiterate and underdeveloped, the people from kerala are all wild criminals, the north lives from the money produced in south, muslims are dangerous and hate hindus, etc.
Anyways, mostly you’ll be able to figure out what are stereotypes and what the truth.
It becomes difficult when it’s about official informations: is this state open, which documents are required to enter here, where do you go to get this form, etc. - google is mostly completely useless to provide any information on that, and after 1 year in india i can tell: nobody else knows either. Get advice, but don’t believe anyone blindly, always check for yourself.
17. Say Goodbye to the Beautiful Blue Sky
One thing which bothers me every day in India is the sky. I haven’t seen a normal, healthy horizon since over one year now. All over mainland India, the air is dusty, grey, full of fog, smoke, pollution and smog. You often can’t even look 2 kilometers far. The reasons for that are the dusty roads, the factories, the millions of farmers still burning their plants, and of course the pointless burning of rubbish (yes, including plastic) EVERYWHERE.
Also don’t waste your time on visiting sunset points: I’ve seen maybe 10 beautiful sunsets in India. Often the sun just disappears as an orange ball in the dust and doesn’t touch the horizon. The only places with a nice clear sky are remote north-eastern areas or higher mountain regions. Same goes for viewpoints: if you are looking down in a valley, you’re mostly just looking at a grey wall. So before going to India, have a last long look at a normal sky - you’ll miss it.
16. Go for the Indian habits, but know the limits
Drinking Chai at the local Tea Stall is the essence of the Indian life and you’ll quickly fall in love with it. “Ek Chai, Uncle”, finding your favourite place, talking to hundreds of people. You’ll easily start drinking 10 chais a day, but beware: it really stains your teeth yellow. Same with the Indian leaf cigarettes, Bidis. At first, you’d be amazed that India has ecological cigarettes for only 10 Rupees (12cts) for 20. But don’t believe it when the Indians tell you that they are more healthy and free of Chemicals- the opposite is true. Very quickly, you will notice how bad for your health they are.
Furthermore, the Indian street food is incredible and ridiculously cheap. Especially if you’re in a budget, you’ll start eating a lot of Street Food- but remember to have a big healthy meal at least once a day, a Thali for example. Street or Fast Food might be filling, but in the end, you’ll start losing a lot of weight and your health.
15. Fuck the Cops
The Indian policemen are no different from any other part of the world. Most of them are stupid corrupt assholes who don’t want to help you in any way- on the contrary, many seem to be quite resentful against foreigners. If a cop asks you something, either ignore him or answer in short words, don’t be nice. Be careful, you can’t insult the cops (like you can for example in Pakistan) as they have more power in India. If a cop wants to fine you for something, just ignore it unless he can’t prove that you have to, by law. If they have a problem with you or don’t want to let you pass somewhere, just wait and have patience, after some time they will.
If you need help, strictly avoid asking the police (anywhere in the world). Just ask anybody in the street. The Indians LOVE to help and will move mountains in order to solve your problem.
14. Don’t worry too much
Whatever situation you’re in, eventually everything will always turn out well. You’ll always find a place to stay in the end, you’ll always reach your aim in the end, etc. etc. Also, take precautions regarding your personal items and items of value (for example always have your passport and bankcard, your two essentials, near to you), but also don’t worry too much: concerning your property, I found the Indian people to be extremely trustworthy. You can forget your iPhone charging in a local Restaurant and it will still be there when you come to pick it up later (fully charged though, haha). You can drop 500 Rupees and a beggar will give them back to you instead of taking them (please reward him though, if that happens). You can even forget a pack of cigarettes in a table of a street food shop and when you come back after two days, the shop owner will still wait for you to get them back, without one single missing. Once I met a guy who lent 2000 Rupees and had to leave his hometown suddenly. He didn’t return for 12 years, but the first thing he did after coming back after 12 years was paying back his debts to the shop owner who had long forgotten him.
So yea, in India take everything how it comes, be shanti shanti.
13. Street arguments in India are normal
The Indians love their drama. They love to be involved in everyone’s business, they love arguments in the street and shout at each other. Almost every day, you can witness some Indians shouting at each other in the Street like Maniacs. No need to worry, they just seem to love it. They often seem to think they themselves are actors in a Dramatic Bollywood Soap Opera, in which everything is dramatic and important. The whole neighborhood is mostly around and watching what’s going on. Big cinema! Once you come in, they might even stop and ask you some friendly questions, just to rebegin fighting as soon as you leave.
In the indian trains (a must!) you can witness hundred fights regarding who has which seat - although everyone has a ticket on which the seat number is written.
Although all this might look worrying for you if you’re new to the country, no need to worry: very rarely, these fights get violent. In general, I haven’t seen much violence in the streets of India. And if those fights ever get violent , they are just slapping each other on the cheeks, not actually hurting each other. Furthermore, a very low percentage of Indians owns a gun. So if you see those fights, no need to worry, just let them fight in peace. If it amuses you, you can watch for a while. Better than any Bollywood cinema.
12. Staying
In major tourist spots like Goa, Rajasthan, Varanasi, Himachal, Rishikesh, etc. you’ll easily find very cheap hostels, starting from around 1€.
But once you travel off the beaten path, more east than Varanasi for example, you’ll probably have difficulties to find a cheap place to stay. Hotels can be very expensive and even worse, in many places nobody accepts foreigners.
I found Couchsurfing to be of little to no use in India. 95% of the accounts are inactive, and the few who have references mostly are out of the city themselves or often don’t even answer. I didn’t experience the same Couchsurfing spirit as for example in Pakistan. Make sure you request a stay early enough. Also, don’t expect to see a lot of Indian homes: it takes a lot of trust and time that an Indian family opens their home for you.
So when you travel off the beaten path, try to find a cheap place to stay beforehand online. Always phone them first to confirm if they actually exist, and always double-check if the location on Google Maps or the booking website is correct. It mostly isn’t.
11. Don’t assume India is a poor and underdeveloped country
On the contrary, India has a surprisingly huge Middle Class, many cities have very fancy and modern parts, which don’t fit into your stereotypical view of India. Many young educated people are as progressive and open-minded as in Europe - if not even more- and will change India a lot in the coming 50 years. It’s a country of huge possibilities.
In India, you’ll experience wealth as well as poverty, which you both weren’t able to imagine. The problem is the unequal distribution of goods.
Furthermore, please be aware of your privilege when traveling india. i’m sure your travel story is pretty extraordinary and everything, but after all you’ve been born with a white face, a good passport and into a country with good education. Many young indians work twice as hard as you probably did, but will never be able to travel abroad like you do easily, as the visa policies of western countries are extremely unfair towards development countries. Try to treat everyone, whether rich or poor, with exactly the same respect.
10. Educate
India is obviously not your country and you’re just a guest there. But still, you have all rights and also the
responsibility to speak up if something bothers you. For example, many indians admire or love Hitler, if you’re from Germany you’ll hear that quite a lot. Take a few minutes time and explain them
why they are wrong (it’s also a good exercise for argumentation skills). In india, you’ll also notice a disgusting amount of islamophobia, which goes hand in hand with India’s PM Modi’s and his
party BJP’s right-wing politics. Don’t just accept this bullshit.
But the most urgent issue you need to educate Indians about is trash. In cities, don’t mind that people are throwing everything in the streets- it gets cleaned every morning. But in trains, in the countryside or in the nature, never get tired of telling the indians to bring their trash to the next bin. Once i asked someone why indians always throw the trash out of the running train, if they hate their country or what. His answer was seriously: the railway has staff which cleans along all the railway tracks of the country. I couldn’t believe it!
Don’t be angry at them, often they simply don’t know any better, or aren’t aware. That’s why it’s so important that you speak up and educate.
Just because it’s their country, it doesn’t mean it’s not your planet. You have the responsibility to spread progressive values.
9. Learn a few words of Hindi
It will help you in countless situations. The indians love to hear foreigners speak Hindi, it makes them extremely happy. You can speak with the kids, what makes everyone even happier. In remote areas, you won’t get far with English. India has around 500 languages/ dialects, but a very large percentage knows at least the basics of Hindi.
Main benefit of knowing some words in Hindi is that you won’t get ripped off so easily. If you ask right away “Kedna, Uncle?” instead of “Sorry, how much does it cost?” the sellers will notice that you must be quite some time in India already and that you might know the Indian prices by now.
But if you do get ripped off, what happens sometimes, sure, protest against it, try to pay the right price, but sometimes they have no shame and let you wait until you pay what they say (ESPECIALLY if you forgot to ask beforehand for the price- NEVER forget!). And before you get really angry about being ripped of, think about if it’s really necessary to waste your life energy on a price which is 1€ too high.
8. Power of an Indian number
I mostly try to travel without a SIM card, in my eyes it takes a lot of the fun away: having constantly internet makes you be on your phone while exploring, having no internet forces you to speak to locals in order to get informations.
But in india, travelling without a SIM card is a challenge. Forget writing a mail, forget visiting a place personally, in india, true power lies only in having an indian number. EVERYTHING works over calling. Without a SIM, you can’t get your fucking corona test results, you can’t get through some police checkpoints, you can’t book tickets, you can’t download most indian apps, you can’t even call an ola taxi (Indian uber) or get a food delivery.
On the other hand, calling ALWAYS works. If you are waiting for your bus, you call the bus agency and 5 minutes later, you have the number of the actual bus driver. You can call anyone and get all the informations you want. The calling system looks like a mess, but it actually works perfectly. That’s why the indians seem to call minimum a thousand persons a day.
As a foreigner, easiest for you is to get an airtel SIM card. Jio is apparently better, but they sometimes don’t sell to foreigners. 3 months with 1.5GB a day will cost you under 9€, after that your SIM gets blocked and you have to buy a new one.
7. Privacy
An often mentioned topic is that in India you have no privacy. That’s not true. You can easily have moments alone in which nobody’s bothering you, different than in Pakistan. Still, in public places, you’ll get stared at as if you were an alien. Many people will ask you for a selfie - or they just take it without asking (which is NOT ok!). On the toilet while pissing people will just start to talk to you as if you were in a restaurant. But after all, the disrespect for your physical privacy is not as crazy as everyone says.
Which is crazy though is the disrespect for your privacy of your personal informations. 582 times a day, strangers will come up to you and shout in your face where you are going right now. In India, you’ll often get asked completely inappropriate questions by completely random strangers, for example if you are fucking your girlfriend, how long your dick is, what’s your relation to your parents, if the person you’re traveling with is “available”, if you can hook them up with one of your friends at home, etc etc.
Indians are extremely curious and don’t really have a sense for when a question is too personal or too inappropriate. Important to know: You don’t have to answer, you don’t have to be nice to everyone. You can either ignore them, get angry or what always works is making a joke. When they ask you where you’re going, you can basically always say “to Pakistan”, they love it. Or if they don’t, they go away and leave you in peace.
Unfortunately, that’s one of the most annoying things in India: nobody can mind his own business. Indians LOVE gossip. Whenever something is happening, they think they are immediately involved in it and that they have to know everything.
6. Don’t mind their rudeness
One of the biggest culture shocks for me in India was how impolite the Indians are. Words like “thank you”, “please” and “sorry” don’t exist. It took me almost 3 months to find out what’s the Hindi word for please: “Krepea” - and I never ever heard anyone use it. If you tap someone on the shoulder and say sorry to pass by, often the Indians will say “It’s okay”, as if you were actually apologizing. In the street, people will often shout at you things like “Eyyyy” or simply don’t know how to behave. In short: all things that you would get angry for in Europe, the Indians do them. After a while, you’ll understand that they don’t mean to be rude. Just imagine India like a huge family (everyone is literally always calling each other Brother (Bhaia), Sister (Didi), Uncle/ Chacha and Auntie- and the Indians think that saying thank you and please among family members and friends is rude. You might even piss them off if you say thank you too much. I once got into a fight with a friend because he thought I was making fun of him by always saying “thank you very much”. The Indians are very informal and have other ways to say Thank you.
5. Getting Around
Hitchhiking
I’ve often heard hitchhiking is quite tricky in India. That’s not my experience- I even think that this is one of the easiest countries for hitchhiking, even though most Indians themselves don’t know it.
a) When you’re standing on a street, try to be as far from any crowded junction or shops as possible. Anyways, after around 10 minutes, a large crowd will start to gather around you. Many persons will tell you that you won’t “get a lift” (that’s how they call it here), but don’t believe them. You ALWAYS get one, even if it’s in the middle of the night in the most remote area.
b) If you put the route into Google Maps and 500km apparently turn out to take 15+ hours, it’s not a mistake. It probably might take even longer. So take your time and search for places to stay along the road in case you don’t reach your destination.
c) if you are traveling with a girl, ALWAYS let the girl take the seat in the back.
Trains and Sleeper Bus
Indian Trains is one of the best things existing in the world. Experience it for yourself. If you wanna be brave, try General Class without ticket one time - but trust me, not over night. Just take Sleeper and never leave your luggage unattended.
Sleeper Bus is also an option, but avoid the seats over the wheels while booking and don’t take the cheapest option available.
Flights
Don’t you dare to take domestic flights to get around in India. Not only will you miss everything in between, there’s also no reason to pollute the country even more just because you’re too comfortable.
4. Be careful with electricity sockets
One advice I really wished somebody would have told me before coming to India. Same goes for electronic cooking panels.
If the socket or cooking panel looks dodgy already (and 90% of them do), be careful. One precaution you can take is never too tuch a socket if you don’t wear any sockwear. If someone would have explained that to me earlier, I could have avoided the 100 electricity shocks I got here in India which probably shortened my heart’s life by one year.
3. Wash your hands
Even if there wasn’t Corona, just do it. It might look funny, but bring your own soap wherever you go- there is basically soap nowhere in India. I’m being serious by saying that you would wash your hands at least (!!) 10 times a day. Especially if you have the habit of biting your fingernails or touching your face often. Nevertheless, be prepared to have diarrhea regularly anyways.
Furthermore, avoid drinking the tap water immediately after your arrival in India. In mountain regions it is completely safe, don’t worry. But for cities etc., don’t start earlier than after 2-3 months in India. Best would be if you avoid it completely. And beware: the free water on tables in restaurants is most of the time also tap water!
2. Avoid drinking alcohol with persons who don’t speak English well.
Listen: I really don’t want to sound elitist and I am really sorry I have to write it like this, but I’m just sharing my experiences and this is one of the most precious advices I would have wished someone would have given me before.
The Indians love their drinks (pags), especially their Whiskey. I had many amazing drinking sessions with many amazing people. But when a person is rather less educated- and doesn’t speak English well- be very careful if you gonna have a drink with him. ESPECIALLY if you are a female traveller or traveling with a female traveller. Sure, there are also cases in which everything was fine, but tbh, looking back, all bad or dangerous experiences I had in India all came from drinking with socially lower situated people. Even if they seem very nice first, as soon as they start getting drunk, they completely lose control of themselves. They literally turn into animals.
1. Forget your plans
In India, as soon as you make a plan, you’ll end up somewhere completely else. Stay flexible. If you’re not flexible and spontaneous already, don’t worry, India will teach you.
Most important: Talk to as many people as possible, enjoy life without rules and enjoy your journey in India. Everyone should visit India at least one time in their life - even if it’s just for the sake of redefining your definition of “Normal”. Cause there is no “Normal”.
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