It's time for a proper India travel thread on /trv/. Come here to discuss your travel plans and experiences in the world's most memorable country. All travelers and prospective travelers welcome. Political discussion not pertaining to travel belongs on >>/pol/.
Looks can be deceiving; the hotel at the end of this ugly alley is the best one I've stayed at in the country.
The ₹1000 ($12) room at this lodge on a back street of Khopoli was also great, apart from the lack of WiFi. A/C, hot water, etc. Rural India is full of hidden gems, but they know their worth and never throw themselves at you. Even on Google Maps you have to zoom in close to spot them.
>>2847688>apart from the lack of WiFi. A/C, hot water, etc>Rural India is full of hidden gems
>>2847685I want to go next month so fucking bad
>>2847688>$12>lack of WiFi. A/C, hot water, etc>hidden gem
>>2847711Punctuation, retards. The room had no WiFi, but it did have A/C, hot water, a chair, and so on. However, SEA water heaters are far superior to Indian ones. Here, they preheat a small 1 L or 3 L reservoir to scalding hot, which rapidly declines in temp after the tap is opened and cold water flows into the reservoir. Best to empty the hot water into the bucket, add cold water as needed, and ladle it over your head with the provided cup. Whereas Thai water heaters heat the water as it flows through and have a fully adjustable temp control.I found an abandoned British estate in Matheran, carefully boarded up. So many little trails in the countryside, you never know where they will take you. It feels like true adventure.
Villagers are more shy than curious and don't try to engage with me on my walks. My presence does not seem to disturb them either. Every day in India will bring you at least one pleasant surprise, and at least one frustrating or stressful episode as well. Got back to my room and the keycard quit working, with nobody present at reception. Evidently it must be reprogrammed every day. India is full of needless hassles like this. People waiting in line at a closed ticket window for 90 minutes just to be first when it opens a mere 45 minutes before train departure.
Traditional India still thrives in the villages, even with ten-story condos being built all around. 19 km of walking on my afternoon loop excursion today - it should've been 14 km, but I got impatient and walked out of the train station just before the train arrived. Annoyingly, the digital display boards on each platform do not show ETA for delayed trains. On the way up the mountain I met a pair of friendly young forest guardians, one female and the other non-binary. Everyone seems worried that some robbery or mishap will befall me while tramping around alone in the hills with no guide. They warn me that many bad characters live in the mountain villages, and there's no way to tell good from bad at first glance. Carrying around six months' worth of farm labor earnings in cash is a burden that far outweighs the little wad of notes in my pocket. If unsavory characters approach me, I respond with stubborn aggression that makes it clear they're not getting anything without a fight. I did not come to this country to drink ₹100 bottles of strong beer and languish safely in my room all day. I came to explore, and India has limitless opportunities for exploration on foot. Centuries-old trails carefully built over difficult terrain belie the whole notion that Indians couldn't care less about their environment. Same with the surprisingly clean villages, where nary a car is to be found. (Less than 4% of rural Indian households own a car.)
Thakurwadi is the name my OsmAnd map gives for this abandoned settlement high up on a mountain tableland covered in open savanna forest. A motorcycle trail leads up to some sort of monastic retreat tucked away in the forest. It was a struggle to find the overgrown trail continuing on into Thakurwadi and from there down a steep mountainside into Katkurwadi, a twenty-household farming village in a well-watered cove at the base of the ridge. Thankfully, the trail did not split up or disappear in the tall grass, but became more pronounced as the descent steepened. It finally reached level ground after descending a natural staircase hewn into a basalt outcropping, skirted some fields, crossed a mostly dry creek and popped out on somebody's front porch. A father relaxing with his children nearby asked me in good English where I was going and helpfully pointed the way toward the highway, which started off as a mere footpath before widening to a rickshaw track and finally a single-lane rural road big enough for a truck to pass. Interestingly, the area was inhabited by Indian Muslims, and the young schoolgirls gave me the most bold and curious stares...attention not much appreciated by their uncles and fathers, kek.
Smartphone maps have been the single biggest revolution for solo travelers. No longer do you need a local guide to go exploring off the beaten path; you can go anywhere by yourself and chart your own route, blithely ignoring all suggestions from locals that are contrary to your intentions. A scared lost puppy started accompanying me as I trudged back to Vangani with my flashlight along the dark busy highway, but I lost him when I slipped past a stopped car idling on the roadside with headlights blazing. He chickened out, went into the weeds, and would not continue past the car. After some time I noticed he was no longer shadowing me, looked back and saw him standing indecisively on the roadside. Should've walked back the hundred meters and encouraged him to continue the remaining 2 km to the village with me, but tired and annoyed I kept going and left him in the middle of nowhere. Poor thing...
Hiking in India>No rain or bad weather in December...every day is sunshine and 30 C>No pest insects in the dry season, except for slow flying mosquitoes at dusk>Soulful old trails that are fun to figure out as you go along>Quirky shrines, hidden retreats, rustic villages, interesting ruins>Lots of wildlife to see>No noise pollution, no crowds, minimal litter on the less visited trails>Beautiful old trees>Easy access without a car - there are always auto rickshaws available for trips to village trailheads if you don't want to walk the village roads>Probably not safe for solo white women in sports bra and booty shorts - younger village women always walk with a companion
Anyone been to Goa? Even people from northern India suggested it to me. Also INDIA, not Bharat
>it's nice!>except for the rape, annoying bullshit every day, trash, and feral animals
>>2847899Indians love Goa, they're the main tourist group there now. From the stories of old, it seems like a shell of what it once was, but it's still nice to visit and do some hippie stuff. Ecstatic dance, contact improv, 12 hour raves, etc. I took the strongest acid I've ever had there and danced all night. Was great. In Arambol everyone hits the beach at sundown and it's a great vibe
>>2847956Your only valid point is the trash. Indian street dogs are gentle and well-socialized. Indian criminals are lazy lowlifes who are easily dissuaded by a little toughness; it's hard to even perceive them as a threat. Indian Muslim women need to completely cover their faces and bodies to prevent rape, but Hindu women don't. Laundry service here is a PITA. They insist on shipping my clothes 20 km to a larger city to get them cleaned at a professional laundry service for the steep price of ₹550, even though everyone here is walking around in clean clothes which they obviously wash at home. I should've asked a random neighbor to wash them for me. Room in picrel costs ₹1200 or $13.50 per night. I plan on staying a while. The train trip to Mumbai is 1 hour 40 minutes, with trains leaving every 20 minutes. I'd like to visit the city tomorrow as a daytrip destination, see if it's really the modern futuristic Indian metropolis they make it out to be.
>>2848068That room is fucking grim, though. :/ £13.50 seems like a scam.
>>2848091If you slummed it more, you'd consider it the lap of luxury. No noise, good WiFi, and the softest bed I've enjoyed yet on this trip. It has a large bathroom and small third-floor balcony looking out on some trees. Interior temp stays 22 C without A/C. The other rooms I stayed in at that price point in India did not have a desk or a chair; this one has both. Took a daytrip to Kalyan on a jam-packed local train, had ₹270 mutton biryani at a classy A/C restaurant & bar, visited the town's beautiful lake park. Some ladies behind me panicked thinking they wouldn't make it onto the train - halt times are very short for the massive number of passengers using each station - but it wasn't until Ambernath that the car became a human sardine can. You can't walk from one car to the next on Indian trains, so they sometimes fill up very unevenly.
The fashion district is always a brightly lit shitshow of traffic, with secondhand items sold on the street and designer goods in the shops. I went for the in-between route and bought a serviceable pair of blue jeans for ₹750 ($8) at an unglamorous alleyway shop. Not the ultra-bargain steal I was hoping for, but the price seems fair.
In case you were wondering about the alcohol prices in upscale restaurants...At the alcohol shops, which are reasonably plentiful in Maharashtra, a bottle of beer sells for ₹100 - 160.These alcohol prices on the menu are set by the Kalyan "hotel" bar & restaurant owner's association. (Hotel restaurants are the business class of dining out in India.) Standardized prices are a great thing about buying things in India. The MRP (maximum retail price) is printed on most goods for sale. This way you know that every liter bottle of water you buy will cost ₹20, for instance. If someone tries to charge you more, you can call them out and insist that they honor the MRP. Only in Matheran did an extra ₹5 charge get tacked on to most items for the expense of transporting goods up to the hill station.
The pedestrian skybridges radiating out from Kalyan railway station are a wonderful idea to alleviate congestion on the narrow market streets below, and need to be replicated all across India. However, the quality of construction is appalling. Just like the stacks of bricks you see being used for walls in apartment buildings, cracked and crumbling into dirt. The tropic-dweller culture of taking shortcuts to minimize effort and cost is the root of the trash problem as well. Why collect and haul trash to a landfill when you can throw it out your window into the field below?
>>2848068>Indian street dogs are gentle and well-socializedYou absolute buffoon. You sincerely deserve to get bitten by a stray pack that's suddenly went apeshit for no discernible reason. You'll have to suffer through a full set of PEP vaccines, but at least you won't die of dog bite induced rabies like twenty fucking thousand Indians do per year. Jesus Christ.
Where can I find ganja and bhang dudes
>>2848068>Indian street dogs are gentle and well-socialized.Why are you lying?
Still haven't gotten the runs yet, though eating food of questionable quality & cleanliness does produce soft reeking poop that makes strange noises as it traverses a bloated irritated colon. It's very important not to overeat in India, even if your belly doesn't feel full. Indian food takes a long time to digest, and if you hurry the process along, that's how you're gonna shart your pants. Mosquito borne illnesses are also a concern, as many hotel rooms are not mosquito-proofed. They can come in through the gaps under doors, for instance. And like all Asian mosquitoes, man do they love white people blood.>>2848169Odisha, West Bengal, Sikkim and the northeast are the biggest ganja growing states in India. Recently some kids from Odisha were busted with a 22 kg rucksack of ganja on the outskirts of Mumbai. Bhang is a sacred drink, and Hindus get easily butthurt by perceived disrespect to their religion, so I'd be careful trying to buy it for recreational purposes as a non-believing foreigner.>>2848167Nigga, I've been walking the streets of Asia for 20+ months now. I know how to read and respond to dog behavior, and I'm telling you, Indian street dogs are timid creatures who avoid conflict with adult humans. Here in Maharashtra, they are all well-fed and lazy. >>2848183Ten thousand pedestrians pass by the average Indian street dog every day. They're barely even going to react to your presence or your smell (their noses are basically burned out by the barrage of odors on the typical Indian street). You're far, far more likely to be attacked by stray dogs in rural Thailand or Laos, where somebody trudging around on foot sticks out like a sore thumb because the locals never walk.
Most people's negative perception of India travel stems from feeling physically ill after some time here. You may be extra careful about what you eat/drink for the first week and feel pretty good, but then you get more careless and take more risks. Sticking to premium restaurants in no way guarantees your safety. The fancy restaurant offered me a glass and ice for my bottled water. I accepted, but then noticed some bacterial scum floating in the water glass after the ice melted. Already drank most of it. Shit. Power outage and water outage both hit today. Laundry still hasn't returned after 33 hours...but without water I can't shower and put on fresh clothes, so the delay doesn't matter. I was told to sit in my room and wait for it to be delivered at some unknown time. "Sit and wait"...a very common refrain when you try to get anything done in India. To counter the mosquito problem I resorted to jamming up the gap under the balcony door with the spare bedspread. Indian solutions for Indian problems.
>>2848390>Sticking to premium restaurants in no way guarantees your safetyThen what does? Are there any guidelines for what's safe to eat and drink?I don't really mind pissing liquid shit out of my ass, just not to be sick.
>>2847685Don't forgete to rate Bharate, even if it is not so greate
>>2848414Anything that is served piping hot like the stir-fry in picrel can be assumed to be bacteria-free. Scratch-made dipping sauces are suspect, but man are they delicious with fried snacks. Only drink bottled beverages at restaurants, and decline the offered glass/ice. If you want to buy fried stuff, ask them to refry it before serving them to you. If they don't have a hot fryer going, don't buy. Samosas sell out quickly due to their cheapness, so they are usually safe to eat from the display case.I've opened the water pitchers to see dead bugs and all sorts of crud floating inside. You don't even want to look at the insides of one of those public drinking water dispensers. And let's not get started on the appalling dishwashing setups that many street vendors have. Many stalls don't have any running water supply, so they reuse the same filthy washwater again and again. Overall, a lot depends on how much your gut has built up a tolerance to contaminated food over your past travels. If your immune response kicks in shortly after eating something bad, that's a good sign that your body recognizes a threat and is dealing with it. Eating immune-boosting fruits like oranges and pomegranates is a great idea as well. Four small pomegranates cost about $1, and three display-quality oranges cost about 50 cents.
>>2848425>Anything that is served piping hot like the stir-fry in picrel can be assumed to be bacteria-freeBut not parasite-free?>Eating immune-boosting fruits like oranges and pomegranates is a great idea as wellInteresting, though I was told to be careful with fruits over there. But I guess if it's something you can peel there's a lesser chance of poisoning of some sort.How dangerous is it if I'm not vaccinated for anything? Have you taken any vaccines?
>>2848427No vaccines except tetanusHotels are prime taxation targets in the new India, which is why rates are high and continuing to rise even though quality is bad as ever (new water heaters the only upgrade for most rooms...many budget rooms have the TV missing, sold off during covid I suspect). Picrel is what I got for ₹1100 in Neral. Filthy as can be with zero furniture. Busy market street right outside with honking, arguments, train horns, PA announcements, etc. Cooking fumes rising from the restaurant below. I had to fold the joke of a mattress pad over lengthwise to get a little padding. Non A/C room was ₹800, but the building trapped heat even in the cool December weather. One plus of Indian hotels, check-in is usually 11 AM, so you don't have to wait for hours to get your room like in most other countries.>>2848427I'd definitely skin apples before I'd even think of eating them...though without a knife, that's easier said than done. Probably better to avoid them, and the fresh squeezed juice as well (flies love the juicing presses, even when the vendors burn incense to dissuade them).
>>2848428What's the most fucked up thing you've seen or that happened to you in India?
It is 0546 hrs, here in South India, Hyderabad. I am trying to leave India for my sanity and clean thoughts. Once I get my PhD acceptance from Norway. I am no way near to India. . I took the hits, Soutg India was extremely painful
>>2848429Nothing major yet, only goddamn mosquitoes sneaking into my room through the tiniest door cracks despite my best attempts to block them. Why I'm wide awake at 3 am. They're so goddamn clever and good at hiding after you swat at them, really tough to kill. Plus they love biting again and again and again. India's little torture machines, bred in a filthy cesspit right out back. Water currently out, power and WiFi also glitching out all the time, laundry lost in some goddamn facility three cities away. Living the dream travel life, lmao>>2848450So many rich people are leaving India. They're tired of paying so much in taxes to the corrupt incompetent government and seeing their earnings all disappear down the black hole of a steadily devaluing currency. But you'll soon see that the West has its own plentiful share of societal problems. Humanity really is a lost cause.
>>2848479>Plus they love biting again and again and againIsn't there some repellent shit you put on your skin so they leave you?
Is there any place that's fairly easy to access that lets you see the Himalayas from a decently close distance? It seems like most places require a treacherous all day bus journey. A city accessible by plane or ideally train would be better.Also, are most of the cool historical places just in north India? Outside of Hampi, I can't seem to find much in south India that would be comparable to, say, Rajasthan with all its forts and old buildings.
>>2848514Non-noobs do not check into rooms that aren't mosquito-proofed. The second step is Odomos repellent cream, available at all pharmacies, superior to repellent spray. The third step is to accept the bites as part of life, just like you have to accept the honking and the rotten smell.
>>2848514Yeah I saw it in the shops, only ₹34 for a tube containing 10% of some chemical.>>2848579Beggars can't be choosers. With so many hotels in India refusing foreign guests, you're stuck with whichever establishment accepts you.>mosquito copeTurned on the ceiling fan so I couldn't hear them whine and finally crashed out from 4 am to 10 am. It's their sound that drives me crazy; the bites themselves cannot be felt, and using repellent cream isn't gonna stop the buggers from sneaking in through the little gap around the balcony door hinges and harassing me all night.BTW if you choose hotels away from through roads (and even go so far as only staying in places where quiet hotels are available), you can in fact avoid hearing the honking in your room. 50 hours and my laundry hasn't returned. Now he says wait one hour and took off on his motorbike, so it must be ready at last.
>>2848546With the smog situation in the north, you could be five miles from the mountains and not see shit. Only when you gain elevation by climbing into the foothills do you escape the filthy pall.
>>2847845>>2847850strangely cozy pics
>>2848479>So many rich people are leaving India.where are they going?
2 pm and I haven't done anything yet besides wait wait wait. I asked for a new room after I gather my things and reception staff agrees, then ten minutes later they've disappeared on their motorbike, like "fuck that guy, he's not getting a new room". No wonder Indian people are incessantly yelling rapid-fire into their phones. Indian staff completely lack the intuitive, predictive approach to customer service you see in Thailand, so customers are repeatedly having to call people up for the umpteenth time and forcefully insist that business get done, even when it has already been paid for and agreed on. They kiss up to their boss "yes sir right away sir", diligently clean his office and the reception area every day, but the customer is a nobody to them. He can sleep on filthy sheets and get bit up by a thousand mosquitoes, they couldn't care less.Those cheap midnight flights to Bangkok are starting to look awfully tempting...
>>2848605everywhere else, any western or eastern european country is better than india
>>2848610>Those cheap midnight flights to Bangkok are starting to look awfully tempting...>goes to India >struggle to last a week
>>2848546I know Tamil Nadu has some pretty cool medieval temples. Some of them are quite big too. If I ever go back to India thats where I'd probably go.
>>2848630As long as problems happen serially, reckon I can handle them. Getting urgent sharty diarrhea with six pairs of spare undies instead of zero doesn't feel as apocalyptic. The hotelkeeper, anxious to keep me staying longer, let me move into a larger non A/C room with a bit of street noise, but no mosquitoes. Nightly rate went down to ₹1000 ($11) as well. Water supply in Mumbai metro is very unreliable with major repairs underway. Unfortunately, the hotel's reservoir is not hooked up to my old room's taps, so they kept running dry. I had to hand wash the slimy diarrhea off my ass with a small pitcher of water. Talk about going native...I really need to buy some proper asswipe. Sitting on a hillside behind the old Vangani village watching the sunset behind the descending jetliners and hearing the drumbeat of some Hindu ritual was a good way to round out the day, though some warning squirt noises signalled that returning to toilet proximity was a good idea.
Two weeks expenses: ₹25615 ($284, or $20.30/day)Lodging: 67.2% of total - ₹17237 ($191.50 or $13.68/night)Food: 20.2% of total - ₹5172 ($57.50 or $4.10/day)Transport: ₹656 (₹435 of that being the Matheran Railway excursion train)Misc: ₹2550 (₹950 for two measly laundry loads, ₹750 blue jeans, ₹530 dress shirt, ₹150 haircut & shave, ₹90 cheap-ass socks, ₹20 38g tube of Colgate, ₹10 toothbrush, etc.)>Towns visited: 7>Distance covered: negligible
>>2848671Why are you so obsessed with money?
>>2848684Lots of people insist on proclaiming that travel costs a lot more than it used to, when it absolutely doesn't (in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars). What's changed are people's expectations. The 1995 backpacker to Southeast Asia expected to go native, i.e. sleep on a hard bed without A/C and hot water, ride local buses around the country, eat whatever cheap slop was being served. He paid $3 per night for a budget room, because that was the only option that was available in a country like Vietnam with a GDP per capita of $285 in 1995. >whoa my god, so cheap!Today, the same bare-bones fan room costs $7 or $8 per night, roughly the same price in terms of 1995 dollars, but foreign travelers in 2025 turn up their nose at anything less than a luxury three-star hotel or globohomo-tier airbnb apartment. And then they try to convince us that Asia is not dirt-cheap like it used to be. Liar liar.
$11 per night for this room is a sweet deal. WiFi in India is surprisingly fast, much better than in cheap SEA hotels (except when the power goes out, which happens several times a day). No rangebans either. Might stay here a while. What's the hurry when you have 180 days in-country? The owner really wants me to stick around. Food selection sucks in Vangani, but I can always take the train to the next town for 5 or 10 rupees.
>>2848878>1995 backpacker to Southeast AsiaEntirely different people. Now it's mostly incels shuffling around and passportbros making asses of themselves.
>>2848906So many 18-35 year old guys don't get laid on any regular or even occasional basis in India (thanks to its traditional culture) that the term "incel" is meaningless here. Thanks to a tipoff from Google Maps I finally located the popular local dining spot, hidden in the back of a sweets & snacks shopfront. Very little English spoken and every table was occupied, but the staffer was happy to see me stop by. I ordered the ₹130 lunch special and it was deliciously filling. Plenty of rice, three chapati, dahl, two veg entrees, three sides, and two desserts. Sadly the waiter misunderstood me and had everything packed up to-go in little plastic bags and newsprint wrappings. Just what India needs, another sack of waste...the hotel owner opened the side door and had me toss it out in his smelly rubbish yard, which was strewn with trash.>anti-diarrhea medicineEasiest thing in the world to buy here. ₹25 for 10 doses. I recommend using it sparingly...only before travel, or after the noxious food has been expelled and your butthole is only spurting brown water.
>>2848922Grim. The street shitting gets the most press for obvious reasons but the endemic attitude towards refuse with Indians is probably the worst part of the country
An English-fluent fruit lady at the train station tried to double-charge me for her pomegranates. I paid her ₹50 for a half kg pomegranates, then decided to buy some oranges as well (for ₹50). However, when I handed her ₹100 for the oranges, she said that the total was ₹50 for the half kg pomegranates and ₹40 for the half kg of oranges. Thus, ₹10 back. I insisted that I had already paid ₹50 for the pomegranates, and was only paying for the half kg of oranges. Therefore I expected ₹50 back in change for the oranges. A circle of schoolchildren had silently materialized to listen in, so she relented and handed me ₹50 back. All the same I kinda feel bad because she did give me quite a bit more than half a kg for a price much lower than the shops charge...but in that case, why not get an accurate weight and charge me ₹60 or ₹70 upfront? Maybe she lost all her 100 g weights, IDK.
Exactly how long are you gonna be in India? Are you just staying in cheap rural villages around Mumbai or do you plan to go anywhere else?
>>2848878>>Today, the same bare-bones fan room costs $7 or $8 per night, roughly the same price in terms of 1995 dollarsExcept my income is lower than in '95.
>>2848957We'll see what the weather does. For now it's much more pleasant in Maharashtra than Bangkok or HCMC for a whitey. I hate having to listen to a goddamn A/C running all night. Currently 59° F here at 11 PM, perfect for a brisk evening walk and a hot bowl of spicy garlic & ginger noodle soup. Each bowl only ₹50 at a clean new restaurant near some high-rise complexes. Those eateries, while still not pristinely clean, sure beat the squalid filthy shacks around the market area. Some bored village boys kept cruising past aimlessly on their motorbikes, but I'm 6'1" and a manual laborer by profession, so they look away when they pass and eventually quit thinking about the money in my pocket.>I've never seen American dollars before, can you show them to me? Not gonna fall for it, sorry. I told them I pull rupees from ATMs for all my expenses (which is true, the USD wad is for emergencies only).>>2848958My pay rose 150% between 2013 and 2024, principally due to relocating to a labor-scarce town in the western US that has been seeing a huge influx of moneyed residents. And I didn't have to give up my travel freedom either. Rising tide floats all boats, that kind of thing.
>>2848684I was like that too when I went to India as an unexperienced traveler, it's the culture shock, being seen as a walking wallet, constantly having to make diplomatic manoeuvres and negotiations, haggling, India is disconcerting even by third world standards, the crowds are insane and talkative. Unlike in most of SEA countries, a huge proportion of people assume they share a language with you, will find it interesting that you're here, and will want to establish contact if given the opportunity. That's one thing you can't deny these folks, they're enthusiastic and optimistic (all the smiling and head-bobbing is not just social programming). Once you're finally able to rest alone with your thoughts for a while, away from this unconsented socializing, you go back to what few positives the day had, good food, relative comfort, the money you saved, and you're exhausted enough from all the noise and smells and people to accept this as your new personality, the guy who counts his rupees, his mosquito bites, and the number of times he shat.
If I ever go to India, I'll probably stick to Kerala as a first experience. Seems to be the most developed part of the country aside from city-provinces like Goa.
>>2848610Congrast you just met that Izzat thing that is currently being memed everywhere.
>>2849009>>My pay rose 150% between 2013 and 2024Ok, what do you do and how do I move there and do that?
>>2849032>implying Kerala isn't still very much jeetland and Malayalis don't compensate their lack of pickpocketing instinct with being louder and drunkerIndia can be fucking great, but if you're afraid of smells, trash, poverty, just don't go. Kerala is a great place with beautiful green hills and beaches, the heart of the spice trade for the past 3000 years, the land of coconuts, and looking at the statistics your might think that it's better, it's no Varanasi but you'll still be inside the jeethive. They're like 50% non-hindu and they eat cows so there's less of those in the streets, the roads are slightly better maintained, there are more police to tell you that you can't smoke on the street, but you'll still be in India, with all that this entails.
My hotel keeps having water outages. It's so fucking annoying. Can't shower, flush the toilet, wash my hands, use the bidet. No matter how many apologies they offer, I'm gonna check out tomorrow and go somewhere else. >>2849091Yes, Kerala has a higher population density than the India average, so it's definitely not some pristine unpopulated natural wonderland. I've heard that hotels for tourists in Goa and Kerala are significantly pricier than in other parts of India. There are cheap guesthouses in Kochi that can be reserved on booking platforms, but by now I know that most of them won't accept foreign guests.>>2849045That's something you'll have to figure out on your own. There's no way I could've predicted the results when I cold-called the business and left a message asking for a job back in April 2019.>>2849024The head-bobble indicates satisfaction with a transaction. Smiles are pretty rare here in Maharashtra, where most people see business as drudgery and take payment impassively, without a word.>unconsented socializing, being seen as a walking walletThis seems to be more common when you are markedly more handsome than the average local. Most Indians don't stare at my face for longer than a second because it is not a face worth staring at, kek. Also, I walk the slum streets like I've walked such streets my entire life. The traffic behaviors that other foreigners call stressful or chaotic seem intuitive to me. Everything flowing along like water in a stream. Many times people at businesses talk to me in Marathi or Hindi, and I have to say "sorry I only speak English". They seem disappointed, even mildly offended by my linguistic ineptitude.
I just booked my flight to New Delhi for next month, so there's no going back now.Where should I keep my passport and money? Never really been in a country where I had a genuine concern for theft. I'm worried about pickpockets in the street and the hotel staff, although I'm only going to stay at high end places (around 90$ a night) so Idk. I've got like a thin neck pouch you can put the passport and some money in and it goes under your shirt, also the same thing only for your leg and it goes under the pants.
>tfw everyone's going to walk around India except me
>>2849176Indians will try to scam you all day but they won't rob you. I just kept my phone and wallet in my side pocket and never had someone try to snatch them. I think one guy tried to grab my ass though.
>>2849182>Indians will try to scam you all dayLike how?
>>2849176Don't wear pants with loose open pockets. You never know when you will be in a crowd crush.Me with fellow Bharatposters IRL
>>2849114>That's something you'll have to figure out on your own. There's no way I could've predicted the results when I cold-called the business and left a message asking for a job back in April 2019.Which business? What job? Daddy's business and bullshit job most likely.
>>2849204Why don't they just wash?
>>2849207The only way to bathe in warm water is to heat a kettle on the stove and pour it into a bucket. Cold showers are no fun on 57° F mornings. Tried some Odisha ganja yesterday. It was brick weed, like the ultra-cheap crap that used to be smuggled up from Mexico. Very low THC content, smokes harsh. The bros invited me to join a seven-day religious pilgrimage which starts in Mumbai on 1 January. I'll give it some thought.
>>2849204>wandering around bumfuck India>random guy has a Seattle shirtMakes sense, really.
In case you're wondering, an unfurnished 18th floor one-bedroom apartment in a new high-rise cluster located in a dystopian industrial zone on the fringes of the Mumbai metro costs ₹6000/month to rent, plus security deposit. That's about $70 USD.
>>2849274>Tried some Odisha ganja yesterday. It was brick weed, like the ultra-cheap crap that used to be smuggled up from Mexico. Very low THC content, smokes harsh. The bros invited me to join a seven-day religious pilgrimage which starts in Mumbai on 1 January. I'll give it some thought.So they can grow and develop top tier teas but somehow basic weed cultivation is beyond them? I don't believe it.
>>2848425Half insane post. If your body treats something as a threat it's not a good thing, it's because it's effectively poisoning you and your body will evacuate that shit ASAP. Fruit isn't magic and won't do anything to help. If anything a lot of fructose can fuck you up.If you can slowly build tolerance to eating harmful substances then you will be able to eat certain toxins. For example, you can build up tolerance to certain venoms. But many actual poisons just compound damage to your organs.
>>2849344You're gonna have to process the food no matter what. Many Indians have bloated guts from the chronic inflammatory response. I got some moist yellow breads for breakfast from a fly-proof display, but my gut has felt a little queasy ever since eating them this morning. At least I found a hotel without too much trouble, and an unexpected train took me to Lonavala when the one I was supposed to travel on was delayed four hours.
>>2849326The good shit is absurdly expensive here, ₹1500 per gram. There's some dirty packs of feral-looking humans (of all ages) roaming around Lonavala. Are they pilgrims or just town bums? Such a contrast to the affluent vacation crowd and glamorous shops lining the boulevards. My room here cost ₹1200, with hot water WiFi and desk but no A/C. WiFi has the first rangeban I encountered yet, so I'm pirating a resort's WiFi which I got the password for "to make a reservation here". Not a word about the dreaded C Form at my place. What a relief.
Karjat was a nice stopover. I got a new large backpack for only ₹600. They were happy to do business. Same with Lonavala, nobody is curt here. I paid a barber ₹70 to trim up my beard short, so that could also be garnering a more positive response. Last night was a bit of a shitshow. 11 hours I was out with some guy I just met and his various friends. He wants me to come by and hang out again on Sunday. IDK. He paid for about ₹300 worth of food and drinks, and I helped him a little with moving his tweaker friend's belongings into his father's little shack, which tweakerbro will use to detox. Got a nice bruise on my arm when the lazy-ass moving guys didn't pick up the far end of a bedframe we were pulling out, and it fell off the back of the truck. Roll with whatever happens, or else say no and sit in your room all day. Which do you choose?
>>2849280That's crazy. Why doesn't everyone just move to India then?
Really good thread anon, been to India twice and makes me wanna go back
Picrel is what you get for $6.50 USD. If you take your time making a choice, the shops will often offer you a discount. Main downsides of the pack, the shoulder straps kept slipping and had to be knotted. Also, no small pouches, only large ones. >>2849363India is seeing fewer foreigners in 2025 than before COVID. Lonavala would be FULL of fucking dorkers if it were in Thailand, but I haven't seen a single gymrat coomer or basedface remote worker here. Nor are there any white roasties. WiFi is very fast here in India, even when you're standing on the street outside the hotel compound. Much better than the worthless slow WiFi in Southeast Asia. Step out at 12:30 pm and instead of a sweltering 34°, it's a lovely dry 26° with a breeze.
No, Indians don't shit on the street (outside the hellhole northern states, where there is no other place to shit). Public bathrooms are everywhere in Maharashtra, though the flushless urinals always have an evil odor.
Simple hot & freshly made breakfast for ₹40 (less than 50¢ US). Yes, every restaurant I have patronized has provided cutlery without asking. Here in Maharashtra, most people use spoons when dining out.
Lonavala has a lot of rich kids driving like assholes in cars they didn't have to work for. Otherwise, it's a tranquil place with plentiful large trees and many quiet streets. I will be leaving for the weekend, as every hotel here hikes their rates. The town is served by the Pune Suburban Railway, so trains to and from Pune and points in between are plentiful. The railway station here is very new and clean. A great first impression for the town.
There are some really neat hikes on the edge of the plateau toward Khandala, where the river plunges into a deep gorge. Maybe I will return on Monday and continue exploring.
My room is very clean, and by Indian standards the streets are very clean here as well. Fences discourage people from throwing rubbish in the creeks as they drive across the bridge, but some people just aim higher.
Typical restaurant near the bazaar. Much cleaner than the average Indian village eatery.
Hindu temples are very plentiful, but they're not open to tourists like Buddhist temples. In the countryside they are humble and half-hidden by greenery. Always fun to find random motorcycle paths leading into the forest and see where they go. In Thailand I never could explore like I do in India; everything off the road is walled/gated/fenced.
The arched structure is a flood control dam. Caught a lovely sunset over the mostly dry lakebed. I haven't seen a single fleck of cloud in the sky since arriving here.
>>2849186Like everything you can come up with. Skin-based price gouging, shortchanging, lying about their offer, lying about some place/situation in hopes of selling you something, attempts at mid-service extortion. The usual thirdie stuff, just that it happens almost every single time with every single person. Whenever an Indian opens his mouth, you need to assume only bullshit will spew forth or they'll rob you blind.
>>2849551How are you supposed to counter that behaviour?As a general rule I try to minimize contact with other people while travelling (this may be the only life I'll ever get to live and I want to make sure I experience it as full of hatred and alienated from my fellow man as possible) so stuff like flights and hotels I prepay on booking.com, but I'll still be exposed to: intercity taxis, restaurants and supermarkets, entering tourist sites that require payment, and talented women.Some advice is obvious, like pay the taxi driver only on arrival to destination so he doesn't stop midway and extort you for more money. Also have small notes so they won't fuck you over the change. But what are the fair prices to pay for stuff like meals, entering palaces or whatever, or taking a taxi from New Delhi to Jaipur which is around 300 kilometres?
>>2849569>I try to minimize contact with other people while travellingThen don't go to India. It's literally impossible to avoid interacting with a bunch of random people unless you're rich enough to hire a private driver to chauffeur you everywhere.
>>2849574How so? Whenever someone approaches me while travelling I just yell "FUCK OFF!!!!" and then keep going. And from what anons here say these "people" may seem scary but as soon as you show them just a tiny bit of confidence they'll run away like the rats they are.
>>2849357>The good shitI would go there just to try open defecation for myself to see if it really is superior to the Western way.
>>2849575Indians are very prideful and will just snap. I would not advise that. For example, after several years in East Asia, I'm used to people bumping into me accidentally and nobody even thinks about it. In Mumbai, a guy was talking to a friend and stretched his arm out. His arm gently bumped into my chest while I was walking past him. The guy said something but I kept walking. I interpreted it as an apology or something at that moment, but then he started shouting. I turned around and realized he was following me and he looked absolutely fucking pissed. I started jogging at this point and the guy did the same while yelling at me and looking like he wanted to kill me. This went on for about 5 minutes with me running across streets of major traffic, nearly getting hit by a car that slammed on its brakes and barely avoided me by mere inches. I was particularly paranoid about this because I'd seen news about some people getting into arguments and stabbing each other in Mumbai earlier that week. Just earlier that day, I also saw two groups of people bump into each other and a man and his friends beating the shit out of a woman who bumped into him.At another place, in a fairly isolated area, I tried to negotiate a little too hard for a tuktuk ride. I got rejected. I damaged that guy's pride and whenever another tuktuk pulled in, that guy immediately told everyone else to reject me. I walked about an hour until a tuktuk pulled up from the opposite direction and I ended up paying more than the other guy that I offended offered to drive me for.You can tell people to fuck off in some countries, but Indians are like wasps. You never know who will snap and attack, and you never know who else will join in against you.
Strange things you find in a random abandoned building as you walk to get breakfast. India sometimes feels like a treasure hunt.>>2849631Anon found out Mumbai isn't a GTA style free-for-all; rather, it is a surprisingly well-mannered city. Hitting or smacking is a grave offense there, and random passersby will flock to every confrontation or disagreement that occurs. Pushing past somebody's back is okay if you put a hand on their shoulder first. People always move aside when they're blocking my way and I say "excuse me". A loud "excuse me!" works for queue cutters as well. >verbal harassmentDefinitely not the norm here, but it does happen. A few youths, probably drunk, yelled at me from passing vehicles while I was walking on the edge of Lonavala. One even swerved extra close to yell at me. I'm not a sensitive Susan, so such petty annoyances don't bother me unless they cross the line (surrounding me, poking me, etc.) My aura can be very intimidating, so I don't have to raise my voice or use profanity for people to understand not to fuck with me.Auto drivers can fuck themselves. I refuse to use their services.
People talk about scams and overcharging, but I get freebies and discounts on a daily basis. This eatery gave me a free ₹70 buttermilk for doing a video review. Only one take, thankfully. In fact, India is one of the least scammy countries at its level because of the printed MRP (Maximum Retail Price) requirement for all retail goods. Still, you will encounter the occasional short-change or overcharging scam. As an experienced traveler, I know to always confirm the price before agreeing to the sale, a standard practice with any honest businessman here, and then count the change in front of everyone before putting it away. Witnesses are a huge help if you have to dispute something. Always explain the issue in detail for their benefit. Repeat it several times, because Indians don't always understand foreign English well. Don't get abusive, profane or threatening. You are in the right, right?
>>2849575Having a mental breakdown and screeching at people is the complete opposite of showing confidence, anon.>>2849569Amazing how many businesses struggle to make change for a ₹500 (worth all of $5.50).>intercity taxisUse an app. >supermarketsThe fuck is a supermarket? Haven't seen one yet here.>>2849551Many poorer people are honest and proud of it, but yes, many Indians will string you along or say whatever they think will clinch the deal. CYA culture is extremely strong here, so problems will always be resolved right away even when they won't be. My intuition is spot-on, so I can say "yeah yeah sure okay" while not believing a word. Most importantly, know when to say "good day" in a firm tone and walk away. Don't engage with people who talk to your back.
>>2849642See >>2849511Did you even see a woman anywhere?
>>2849631>I turned around and realized he was following meEither pull out a knife, or go look for a cop. Or go to the nearest police station and see if that faggot follows you there.>>2849642>Having a mental breakdown and screeching at people is the complete opposite of showing confidence, anonRight, it’s way better to stop and engage with everyone, apologize, explain yourself, then slowly get guilt trapped into doing exactly what they’re pushing you to do. Hesitation and politeness are how these "people" drag you into their scams and bullshit. It's literally emotional extortion. Big no, it's better to ignore them and keep moving.
>>2849646Saw these rich hoes at the weird little hilltop pizza place>stop and apologizeHow about stop being a klutz who can't handle himself on a busy street? Problem solved.
Their woodfired white pizza was bomb. Only 35x the cost of my breakfast samosas, which were also great.Most Indians are shy and kind of anxious around me. I like it that way.
>>2849569>How are you supposed to counter that behaviour?Embrace the caste system and treat those dalit like the dung flies they are. I'm half-serious. Politeness will get you nowhere, any attempt at courteous refusal will be understood as an opportunity to latch on. Ignore and treat like air or outright tell to piss off if persistent. If they try to scam you, tell them you know they're scamming you and you're not biting so quit it. Subtlety gets you nowhere in India.>As a general rule I try to minimize contact with other people while travellinglol, lmaoExpect a dozen people to approach you every day for some retarded scam or a selfie.>but I'll still be exposed to: (...) supermarketsNo you won't. No such thing. India has the worst retail sector I have seen in my life.>Also have small notes so they won't fuck you over the changeYou'll still need to break the 500s (a whopping 5 bucks) which is often a problem since it's a shitload of money somehow. I have NEVER, not once, received the correct change on that note in Delhi. Surprisingly wasn't much of an issue elsewhere though.>But what are the fair prices to pay for stuff like meals, entering palaces or whatever, or taking a taxi from New Delhi to Jaipur which is around 300 kilometres?Just look at the menus posted in non-touristy areas and you'll figure it out. Restaurant prices vary wildly based on how much of a dump it is. Street food is trickier since it's all spoken word only. Chai is 10, samosas and such are ~6-15 depending on size and location. Store stuff is easy since it always has the maximum legal price (MRP) stamped in black ink. Always refuse to pay above it, they'll eventually relent. Tourist attractions run official double pricing but the only scam you'll run into is shortchanging (and some retarded places where you can only buy a ticket online because ??? so enterprising Indians charge people with no internet to buy for them). Intercity taxis, no idea, I just took the bus/train.
>>2849642>Use an appBut another anon >>2847055 said in the previous thread that: "whenever I tried to get an uber for anything other than an airport pickup they would either text me immediately unashamedly asking 3 or 4x ubers price or just sit in one spot for 5 minutes before cancelling".So which one is better, taxis or uber?>The fuck is a supermarket?A place with sealed and inspected food where you don’t gamble on having diarrhea.
>>2849671ok thanks
>>2847685
>>2849657> Either pull out a knife, or go look for a cop. Or go to the nearest police station and see if that faggot follows you there.Incredible idea. Why doesn’t everybody travel internationally with weapons and whip them out against the locals? And why don’t people just teleport to police stations every time someone comes after them when they’re walking around an area they’ve never been to before and don’t know? Are they stupid? Crime rates would be zero if everyone was as smart as you.
>>2849672If you're a potato chip and Mountain Dew NEET, you're in luck here, as India has the cheapest Lay's and sodas on Earth. Packaged junk food is sold everywhere you could possibly go.>>2849671>approached for a selfieHandsome rich-looking normie problem... you get mobbed and harassed everywhere. Only after I've established a friendship do people want a selfie with me. Also for business marketing purposes. >>2849744If you cause an accident, say "sorry bro", pat the guy on the arm and keep walking. The Indian guy who chased the goofball across lanes of traffic must've laughed his ass off retelling the story fifty times afterwards.
>>2849774Nah, don't say sorry. Pull out a knife and kill the guy. Then go to the police. They have to let you go.
Yep, a 16 gram bag of potato chips is only ₹5 here. That's about a nickel. Meanwhile, US vending machines want $2.50 for a 30 gram bag. India really resets your baseline for cheap food. 40 baht omelet in Thailand? That's $1.20, too much. Here, an omelet costs ₹50 ($0.65) and has lots of veggies too. Also, even the cheapest meals are made from scratch. None of this spooning cold slop onto a plate that's so common when eating cheap in other Third World countries. >>2849823You'd discover that India is a self-policing society. It will be the hospital they deliver you to.
Only 7 km from Lonavala town center, you can go rappelling off a 150 meter sheer cliff for ₹1800 with some friendly climbing enthusiasts. They visit a different spot every weekend. Do you trust Indian rock anchors? They do.
Seeing the new bridge and tunnel system under construction for the Mumbai Pune expressway was an added bonus. No more slow switchbacks up to Lonavala.
On the right is Khandala & Lonavla, located on plateau level. The city down in the valley is Khopoli (also a great place). So much beautiful topography, and there's 1900 kilometers of it stretching all the way down India's west coast. I'm gonna come out and say it straight: India mogs Southeast Asia.
The village near the trailhead is clean and tranquil, like so many scenic rural places in India. There was virtually zero litter on the trail either. Everyone is honest and gracious when doing business. Oh, and hotel rooms here are regularly fumigated, so they don't have roach or ant issues. India haters are getting BTFO again and again by real-life experience.
Dryfruit chikki is the most nutritious, delicious, wholesome sweet you will ever eat. Overall, I have been favorably impressed by the quality of Indian foods, especially compared to SEAslop. In three weeks I've only had a single diarrhea episode which resolved after a single dose of loperamide. In fact, my gut was more cranky back in America than it is here. Nonetheless, metabolic sluggishness (i.e. feeling lazy and having little appetite) has become an issue despite a daily multivitamin and fresh fruit. Aftereffects of quitting wage slavery with its forced productivity...Hindu festivals (and rappelling off a cliff) are a little too intense for me, notwithstanding the welcoming friendliness of the participants. The ideal day for me involves 4-8 hours of outdoor activity, then 16-20 hours of rest & relaxation in my hotel room. With $41.50 visa fee getting me up to 180 days here, what's the hurry? There is none.
>>2849744Just keep apologizing and hope every random guy who decides to follow you for ten blocks straight because you brushed his sleeve is feeling generous that day.Not looking for trouble doesn't mean you have to take shit from every pajeet that starts pushing you around, and going into a sketchy place like that with no way to protect yourself, whether by knife, mace, or even calling for help, isn't smart, it's completely irresponsible.>>2849774>If you're a potato chip and Mountain Dew NEETI was rather thinking about getting some dahi or instant ramen or something of that sort in case I couldn't handle the local cuisine.
i've always wondered the difference btn buffalo milk chai and cow milk chai
>>2849849Buffalo mozzarella on that pizza was pretty damn good. Indians make some top-notch cheeses...something I did not expect after eating the awful cheese-like products of Southeast Asia.Visited the sacred Bhaja caves near Malavli village yesterday. Encountered my first tourist scam, two uniformed young men asking for money in the name of some charity.>your good name sir?I walked on without another word. A local restaurant tried to overcharge me ₹20 today for my dosa & coffee. No I did not order or receive the extra cheese on my butter cheese dosa, so I stood by the menu prices until they grudgingly tallied up the correct amount.
The caves cost ₹300 to visit as a foreigner. No change for a ₹500...always have smaller bills on hand here. They were about 2 km walk from Malavli railway station.
There was a stunning fort on top of an imposing 3300' mountain, but it was too much of a climb for a late afternoon outing. I walked up a steep mountain road to the top of one mountain, only to find myself still at the base of Visapur.
Lots of beautiful little roads in India's mountain regions. They are always narrow with gullied edges, so you have to be paying attention, drive slow and honk your horn on blind curves to avoid a crash with oncoming vehicles.
In the cave you could LARP as an ancient Buddhist monk and meditate in the shade while looking out over the valley below.
>>2849830how many bottles of pepto bismol do you have to bring with you tho?
I stopped at a struggling family eatery on the far edge of the village, where everyone was very welcoming and served me some pithala bhakri made from scratch for only ₹60.
>>2849833it looks nice. how many hours from mumbai?
>>2850202Indigestion was much more of a problem in Southeast Asia, with their overuse of vegetable oil heated to the smoke point. India has a much greater variety of foods for any taste, and lots of the traditional foods are very healthy. I picked the Western Ghats specifically for their bountiful fresh water supply, which ensures food products grown in the region are minimally contaminated. The mountain forests definitely do clean pollutants out of the air too, regardless of some people's daily determination to foul it up again with their goddamn rubbish burning.
>>2850205Train to Lonavala, very easy. Time varies depending on which train(s) you take.
>>2850207Is it like smallbrain's train to hell?>>2850206have you encountered any poop in the street? or is that just a meme?
>>2850225Lots of cowshit everywhere here. I walked past a guy pooping in a wide-open field near the ruins of an old fort. He must've been as constipated as I've been, because it took him about 15 minutes to go. There were shanty dwellings nearby, the first I've seen yet in India. Kamshet didn't look like much on the map, but the market was extremely busy. Hardly anybody seemed to notice me, apart from the girl grinning in picrel. Some creepy guy on a motorbike up on the forest trail started approaching me, but I responded curtly and continued walking. After several warnings from locals I'm definitely on guard and not going to be caught by surprise by an ambush in the woods. They are easily dissuaded by my facial expression which is no stranger to hardship and struggle. No white privilege here.
>>2850225Lots of paragliders were flying off a high ridge overlooking Kamshet, with acute little village tucked away in the valley below. Due to approaching nightfall (I've been lazy AF lately and head out on my daily outing around 2 PM), I turned around well before reaching the top.
Such an abundance of fruits and veggies in the market. Begs the old question, why don't they ever serve me a big pile of veggies in the restaurants?And yeah, if the general carraiges are too full, you might be stuck standing outside the sleeper car lavatories. The worst overcrowding occurs when one train gets delayed and everyone boards the next one.
First time I've seen a water vending machine here. Not sure if I'd trust it...
https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1ptfbyy/gay_assault_when_i_was_asleep/Some Redditor got a free handjob from his bunkmate on a sleeper bus in Bihar, kek
I'd be more worried about a bunkmate stealing my wallet while I'm asleep than him giving my night wood a little massage, desu. The ability of Indians to sleep through literally anything astounds me. This tawa-cooked mushroom dish will run me about ₹415. Definitely big enough for 2-3 diners, especially with full rice (I got half).>b-but dining alone is cringe!India is a country full of oddities. Just bee yourself, anon. Long as you are kinda well-groomed and well-dressed, most people will treat you respectfully regardless of how you look.
>>2850295lmaothough he's somewhat to blame for being retarded enough to travel in a sleeper bus in fucking india
Buttrat? Why did they rename themselves that?
Which bank are ya'll using? I keep reading horror stories about Wise and Revolut, so those are off the table.
>>2850340imagine getting btfo by wise and revolut lol. maybe a 'traditional bank', with 54 login steps, is more up your alley.
Agoda in India is a goddamn scam. They offer tempting discounts on prepaid reservations with the full knowledge that the property does not honor an Agoda reservation. I am fucking DONE with their bullshit. Five times in a row I've been scammed out of my money by Agoda, and had to jump through hoops to get a refund. Other Indian customers are less lucky and don't get a refund, so they leave a bad review. One bad review after another, all detailing the same problem. Yet Agoda keeps taking payment for rooms it has no authorization to reserve. Utterly shameful behavior from a global tech megacorp.
Every single word of the property message is a shameless, bald-faced lie. I'm convinced that scammers are impersonating Indian hotel managers and creating false Agoda listings to collect room payments. Agoda's Indian staff are in full CYA mode and refuse to admit that their site is rife with scam listings. In fact, it seems Agoda staff are in on it, approving the scammer listings and stonewalling customers who seek a refund.
Two hours of customer service chat later, they finally got it cancelled. The scammer of course did not provide a working contact number for his listing. Now it's 3 pm and what have I accomplished today?>woke up 8:50 am, showered and ate fruit/snacks from bag for breakfast>checked out, rode train 30 km, checked in to new hotel>disputed a scam reservation>bought a water bottle after mine ran outIndia can be incredibly time-consuming and tiring for the simplest of travel routines.
>>2850296merry christmas to you in india, fren
>>2850503>>2850504>>2850516Do you know if booking.com is safe?
D-Mart seems much like any other supermarket, despite being Indian. Prices are all advertised as discounts from MRP. They scan you with a metal detector on entry and stamp your receipt on exit. I bought a 150 g tube of Vithoba herbal toothpaste for ₹60. She opened the register and it was stacked with ₹200 bills. Dammit, should've paid with ₹500.
This friendly dude from Mumbai was feeling lonely and approached me in the park to walk and chat. Only problem was, he was suffering from a cold (and evidently wanted to share it with me). Lots of bacterial / viral / toxin exposure occurring here for sure, both inhaled and ingested. Night sweats occur on a regular basis even in a cool 21° room. I wake up late feeling hungover with a sore throat despite abstaining from drink and smoke. Get to feeling properly awake and energized from 1 pm to 8 pm, then the fatigue begins setting in again. >>2850550I usually ignore hotel reviews, but in India you should always read them. Expensive hotels with good recent reviews booked at the standard rate should be fine; you mainly have to watch out for the "OMG Flash Sale 48% Discount!!!" hype listings, as they are most likely to be invalid.
>>2850551Do these people smell nice?
The ₹150 non-veg rice bhakri plate I got at a little local eatery was fucking pathetic. A little cup of soggy rice, a single bhakri, and four stringy bites of chicken in a watery sauce. Some dirty sliced onions and a bit of lemon completed the "special". They tried to convince me that this was normal, but it was obvious they upsold me on their priciest dish and then screwed me hard. It was less than half of the food featured on their banner photo. For the first time dining out here, I left the restaurant hungry and looking for another meal.For ₹90, picrel was a really great non veg dish. Pilaf-style rice and big tender chunks of meat in a bowl of rich gravy.
>*gives you food poisoning*
>>2850559Walking along busy roads on a daily basis will mercifully numb out your olfactory nerves. Only the strongest rot or burning-rubbish odor will be able to wrinkle your nose. Overall, I endured more bad smells slumming it in Mexico than here in India. Mexico is 4x wealthier and much more expensive, yet it suffers from the same rampant public corruption & incompetence that plagues India. Meaning, there is dysfunctional infrastructure everywhere you look in both countries. At least bathroom drains here have fully functional traps, ensuring that sewer smells stay out of your room. And there's no shitcaked asswipe bucket in the bathroom either. Goddam Latins.
>>2850565in mexico people tend to smell like refried beans and tortillas. i'm guessing in india, they tend to smell like goat curry
>>2850575Manual laborers reek of sweat. That's about it. This mushroom tawa meal cost a slightly excessive ₹435. ₹20 extra tacked on for "tax" made 3 out of 3 eateries that day which tried to tack on an extra charge to my bill. The other two I disputed and got corrected, but this one was printed on the receipt, which they insisted made it legit.
>>2850503>hotel has bad reviews warning of scam>book it anyway>wtf this is a scam!>do this 5(five) times before you wise upits a problem, but the problem is also (You)
>>2850600looks like you've hit the jackpot, anon. so much better than laos. i hope you never go back to that SEA hellhole
>>2850670India is less dusty and has much better food for lower prices than Lao PDR. Over there, restaurant overcharging and skimping was a big problem; here it is hotels that are scarce and thus able to price-gouge. Plus, there are more interesting things in the hills of India. Ancient civilizational ruins and such. I never really found anything when exploring Xayaboury in Laos. Planted forests, hillside fields...very monotonous. Laos is also expensive to travel around. I was charged $3-5 to go 50 km between villages...here I pay 10-80¢ to cover that distance, and I have much more flexibility with departure times. $40 in India gets me 180 day visa, not merely 30 days as in Laos. >>2850622I've made over 100 bookings with Agoda prior to this trip, and only got refused at one property in Poland. I keep hoping the good room rate would be honored, but in only two cases so far have I been able to stay on a prepaid reservation. The second property let me stay two days despite not receiving any payment from the reservation, kek.
>met a guy at a train station while traveling through India>we talk for a couple hours and he lets me sit in his a/c paid waiting room that he owns >exchange numbers on Whatsapp he says he would call or text me tomorrow>he doesn't>a month later after I'm home see he called and texted me in the middle of the night>send him a text, he texts back but for some reason keeps trying to call me when I'm asleep or early in the morning>try calling him at a time he'd most likely be awake, no response>tell him we should just talk through text because there's a 12 hour time difference which I'm not even sure he realizes >he says ok. Texts me a couple more times over the next couple days>saw he tried calling me again this morning, then sent a text saying 'you are very busy bro'>think he's getting pissed at me for not answering his callsWhat do bros? I would really prefer we just text each other to talk but for some reason he insists on calling me. I also can't help the fact he's trying to talk to me while I'm asleep
>>2850806Indians don't like to text, they always prefer talking. Chances are he didn't pick up that time you called because he was already talking to somebody else, kek. Though IDK why you would want to keep in touch with somebody you met after you parted ways. I never do that shit. Every time I leave my hotel in India, I do so with no idea where I will be spending the night. That's just part of the adventure of traveling here. Make sure you have plenty of cash on hand, because ATMs are frequently broken.
>>2850806just ignore him, he's probably gay and or a scammer (like all indians) and just fluffing you up till he asks for money or cock there is no legitimate reason for a man to be calling another man that often unless he is a faggot with cocklust
>>2850806Why are you giving out your deets to randos? Fuck that shit. Nobody ever wants anything apart from money and sex. If you're not attacking, then you're on the receiving end. He's got angles in mind. Block-delete, and be more careful in the future. In the modern age, these 'beautiful connections' and 'exploring a diverse world together' is over. Everybody's got infinite resources now to run game on each other.
>>2850827Many people are curious and want to learn new insights about the world through talking to somebody else. Indian men are not anti-social like the West, because they don't fall for misanthropic "hate your fellow goyim" propaganda from /pol/ Jews. >muh low iq jeetsThey're smarter than your average 4chan NEET coomer. But still frustrating to deal with. The hotel receptionist evidently wanted a tip, because he quoted me a ₹1500 rate for a non A/C room and then as an afterthought decided to add ₹75 "tax" to the bill. Then he blatantly tried to short me ₹20 on the change. Still a better deal than last night's room, which charged me ₹300 extra for A/C while keeping the A/C breaker turned off. The hot water was barely warm, and the showerhead was unusable.
You have to pick your battles here. Yelling and getting abusive will only get abuse yelled right back at you (which is what I woke up to this morning, some nasty argument down in the lobby, merry fuckin christmas). In India, you should never rage against the way things are; it is an exercise in futility. You must cooperate and work with those around you to accomplish your goals. Do NOT put the interests of anyone else above your own, but discard any belief that rudeness and "muh alpha" chest thumping is going to get you what you want. Yes, Indians will tease you if they see you getting annoyed by their behavior. Old beggar women will poke you again with a grin after you snap at them to stop poking you. Touts will keep following you after you tell them to get lost. If you are intelligent and situationally aware, you will find that Indians are pretty easy people to read in traffic or in business. Many of them are eager to please, but don't want to show it upfront to avoid humiliation. Emoting is not really necessary to get your way in a business dispute, and is likely to worsen the situation. Being a smug, robotically inexpressive autist actually works in your favor, because your body language exudes "I am smart and always right" energy. Finding five different ways to say the same thing is necessary as a pressure tactic when you are not getting your way. Don't get mad or loud when they balk. Hell, half the time Indians can't even understand each other. Rephrase the problem and say it again. >There is 20 rupees missing>My change is 425 rupees. This is 405 rupees.>How much change do you owe me? How much change is here? >You give me 20 more rupees, yes?
>>2850835>Indian men are not anti-social like the Westthat's right, they are hypersocial manipulators looking for money or cock/asshole to put their cock into they aren't very good at it, which is why massive volumes of contact with as many people as possible is their strategy once again, and this is irrefutable, the only reason an indian would keep in contact with a white traveler is because he wants money or because he wants cock you know its true, even if you will deny it to death
₹1575 ($17) for this newly built, clean room in a modern hotel is an okay deal for India; the cheaper hotel near the train station refused me, so I had to walk a couple km to this middle-class suburb. A/C is disabled at this rate, but with Pune having the coldest December in a decade, climate control is completely unnecessary. The streets near Akurdi railway station show signs of modern planning, like wide sidewalks along the business fronts and even painted bike lanes...but there are still random areas of neglect and rubbish dumping. The area has tons of sit-down eateries serving delicious cheap meals. All in all it's a generically modern, upwardly mobile part of the Pune metro. There's a hilltop temple a short train ride away near Begdewadi station that I'd like to climb to...also near here is the Durga Tekdi hilltop park. Trust me, you never want to stay somewhere in India with no nature paths or parks nearby.
>>2850836>beggar>toutBut aren't you in rural India where you dont' have to deal with any of this?
>>2850870Not anymore. I'm in the fancy schmancy suburb full of rich people. It's pretty neat. There's some gigantic ancient trees next to the roads. The city is wasting huge sums of money building three meter wide sidewalks in front of rich people's houses that hardly anybody walks on. But after so much rampant aesthetic neglect, it's nice to see neighborhoods which care about appearance. The little dining stands and boutique shops here are packed for Christmas evening. Male female ratio is almost 1:1.
This Afghan soya chaap was fucking delish. They roast a giant seasoned and marinated skewer of meat-like product, then mix it up with some creamy sauce. Cost ₹200, plus ₹25 for a huge paper-thin roti to sop up the green sauce. Rich Indians all pay with UPI. I was the only cash customer in half an hour of brisk business. Their behavior in a crowd isn't all that much different from the lower classes; they yell, spit and litter less than the poors, but their driving behavior is just as awful. They are also very devout, worshipping at beautiful neighborhood temples on a regular basis (thanking their gods for their privilege, undoubtedly). And yeah, you can find beggars anywhere in India. Touts are less common in non-English fluent areas. In fact, business is so fucking busy in most of India that there is zero need whatsoever to tout anything to passersby, or even potential customers who pop in for a look-see. Rather, you the customer have to speak up and demand the attention of staff.
>>2850806>he actually gave an Indian his phone numberRIPI had one extremely persistent tout I kept ignoring video call some boomer lady from my country whom he'd met ages ago and ask her to convince me to buy something from him. It was 4AM back home.
>>2850935What state was that? I heard Rajasthan has the worst touts in India.India continues to be full of surprises. Walking around the area I ran into a handicraft convention with a book fair tent. Evidently many books from America are now being exported to Indian readers. Indians are definitely more hungry for knowledge than Southeast Asians; you'd never see a book fair in the Filthypeens. Most Indians who talk to me do so out of intellectual curiosity, not out of a crass desire to get my money or play with my pecker (as this other anon >>2850840 so adamantly insists, because he looks like a low IQ degen and thus attracts only the low IQ degens).
I snuck through two fences into a spooky abandoned hilltop compound that may have been a military outpost, IDK. Thankfully nobody was present, because the trail ran along an open ridgetop with no concealment.
The gate to the guardhouse compound was unlocked, but the tower itself was padlocked shut, sadly.
Air quality here has been on par with Bangkok or northern Thailand during burning season. Not clean, but still suitable for exertion if you have strong healthy lungs. Usually AQI is lowest in the afternoon and highest at dawn. I spit white phlegm while walking the streets (very common here) and wake up with a parched scratchy throat several times over the night.
The ₹170 house special kulcha (flatbread) and chole (chickpea stew) from an eatery owned by very friendly and hospitable folks. The kulcha was stuffed with a wide array of goodies, sealed shut, rolled flat, then topped with more goodies before being fire roasted. Eateries tend to be very clustered here. Many streets have zero restaurants whatsoever, then you walk past six Chinese food street stalls with identical menus. The flute seller strolls around with a big pole covered in plastic-wrapped flutes, playing his song endlessly. At least the aspiring singer in the room next to mine has checked out. He spent hours doing loud vocal warmups last night and this morning as well. Ah India. Land of endless quirkiness.
₹10 admission fee for this hilltop park, a popular spot for well-off families to enjoy leisurely picnic afternoons in their colorful attire. The park is only open from 11:30 am to 5:30 pm. The hilltop used to be barren grassland, but the city is working hard to reforest it, meaning there are no good views to be had thanks to the thicket of young trees diligently watered by a crew of gardeners.
>>2850840Is it because homosexuality is a common thing over there or is rape just an everyday thing in their "culture"?
>>2851127I'm surprised that I see no garbage on the ground in that picture.
What is babby's first Indian city? If you had to land and stay relatively nearby, maybe the furthest a longer taxi ride, where would you go? I'd like to book an apartment, land, and try out an Indian city (or town) for a week or a month. I want to get a feel for India by starting on easy mode, and then maybe branch out from there, maybe stay longer, or go elsewhere after gathering experience. My budget is desperation level but enough to fly in and stay for a few months. So I won't be living the luxury life as evidenced by the cheapest apartments. Middle-of-nowheres seem to be the best places just from videos like straybob; it's the huge cities which are unbearable and which I dread most and will leave asap. I don't care about tourist traps, but if there's cool stuff nearby wherever I end up, I will probably sperg out about it because I like history and some of their books (Gita and Mahabharata is actually pretty cool to me). I have some sub-kindergarten level Hindi (and I can read/write the letters but not understand the meaning) but that doesn't go as far in the South. I tried looking at language schools but those are too expensive, so I'll probably just sit in my apartment and teach myself and then go outside to try my new skills (this is fun to me). Now I am rambling. tldr where go easymodo
>>2851185>I want to get a feel for India by starting on easy mode, and then maybe branch out from there, maybe stay longer, or go elsewhere after gathering experience.To clarify: elsewhere within India - not leaving to other countries.
>>2851137You must think he's in that filthy hellhole, Laos.
>>2851195I've been to India and there was garbage every square foot of the ground. I enjoyed visiting, but it was dirty. That's why I'm surprised a non-dirty spot exists.
>>2851185Ime Mumbai would be a decent place to start. You still have the noise and the trash in some places but overall it's a comparatively more developed somewhat westernized city compared to the other ones I visited. Has some more upscale areas and a clean efficient subway. Only problem is that hotels are more expensive.
>>2851251Mumbai is both the most expensive and the most crowded city in India. Not quite Manila tier, but close. The traffic is arguably the worst in India, both on the roads and on the metro lines. Getting out of the city is a huge chore due to the fucked geography of the place. Manhattan has six bridges and tunnels connecting it to the surrounding landforms; Mumbai has one bridge and the Sea Link, which is built out on the water because there was no fuckin room to build it over land.However, the bigger roads in Mumbai usually do have sidewalks, crowded as they are with vendors and beggars and loiterers, and if you've come to splash the cash, Mumbai offers no end of luxury options. It's one of the world's best food cities, for instance. But if you want to travel frugally and keep your stress levels low, I recommend getting the fuck out of Mumbai as soon as you've rested up from your flight. Pune is much more relaxing, spacious and affordable. There are many cute girls in Pune as well. It's safe for them to be out and about with no chaperone in sight.
>>2851137I've also been surprised at how hygienic the Pune metro is. Restaurants wipe their tables and mop their floors multiple times a day. Hotel rooms are spotlessly clean. Many streets are almost completely devoid of litter. Picrel is a typical boulevard in my neighborhood...this one right outside the train station, with a large collection of food stalls on the left.Looks like that sick dude who insisted on walking very close to me while sniffling and coughing has given me his virus. Oh well. He blew his nose into a filthy hankie, then offered his hand to shake as we parted ways.>>2851185There's lots of villages which are really shitty due to being poor and low IQ. Infrastructure is absolute trash, and the place might not even have a single restaurant which meets minimal hygiene standards. Even if you do find a cheap hotel to live in that accepts foreigners, it is likely to be plagued with problems like power outages, mosquito infiltrations, water failure, dirty sheets, etc. After experiencing the better parts of India, it'll be a real hard struggle for me to return to the squalor and filth of the poor areas.
A quartet of teachers on an outing made me their teacher's pet after we met on an outing to Ghoradeshwar, a shrine located in a hillside cave. They fed me lunch of chole, chapati, carrot, cucumber and guava. The top of the holy mountain offered a hazy panorama of the endless growth surrounding Pune. On the way down, a cow was blocking the path, and the people were scared to squeeze past it in such a steep place, so I walked in front of the cow with the guava they gave me in a bag and lured it down the trail to an open area. Sometimes you have to spontaneously solve problems as they present themselves here.
>Can you visit India on less $20 per day?Ironically, to live on a shoestring here you're gonna have to stay in places popular with foreigners, where there are cheap hostels. In the rest of India, many budget hotels refuse foreigners, so you have to shell out for business-tier accomodations. (Worth it? Even as a cheapskate, I must say yes, the mid-tier accomodations are worth the extra cost. But you have to budget Rs 1200-1800 per day on lodging.)>Do Indians all want to scam foreigners?No, most Indians are honest when it comes to small transactions. You must always put your own self-interest first and not let someone else make your decisions for you.>Do Indian girls like white guys?Some of them do, yes. But most Indian girls are very awkward around white guys, especially the darker-skinned ones. >Do Indians speak English?Some of them do speak English fluently, but the majority of Indians (in my experience) have limited to very limited English proficiency. Your skill with navigating language barriers will determine whether or not you will be able to communicate without an interpreter. Commonly, an interpreter - a friend or relative of the person you are trying to speak to - will be summoned by phone when the language barrier is proving to be an obstacle. As an experienced traveler, you sometimes think you know what they are trying to say, but to be on the safe side, wait for the interpreter to arrive.>Do Indians ask foreigners for money?Beggars are very recognizable by the way they walk about with an anguished, pleading look on their face. They will ask everyone for money. Ordinary Indians do not ask for money, but on numerous occasions they have asked to see my dollars out of curiosity (and greed too). I lied and told them that I do not have dollars, and only withdraw rupees from the ATM using a card. They also frequently ask my profession and salary. I low-ball the numbers a little.
>Do Indians shit in the street?Grown men don't shit in public places where their butthole and nutsack would be visible to passing women or children. Such behavior would be considered exhibitionist perversion and warrant a beating from enraged passersby. However, rubbish dumps, thickets, and other semi-secluded spaces are used for open defecation in early morning hours. Sometimes, people will continue to defecate in such spaces even when a public toilet is nearby, just like they continue to walk in the traffic lane after a lovely new sidewalk has been constructed alongside it, or throw rubbish over a fence barrier intended to discourage rubbish from being thrown into a creek. Indian culture as a whole is set in its ways and very resistant to (((social engineering))).>Do Indians say "thank you"?Some of them do, because they know that foreigners (especially Americans) expect the businessman to thank the customer for doing business. The Indian custom is to take payment and make change without comment. >Are Indians loud?Face to face they are generally soft-spoken unless they are arguing. However, they do speak loudly on the phone in order to be heard above the traffic noise in the background.>Do Indians head-bobble?Yes. The sideways nod indicates mild satisfaction/agreeability. It is often used as a casual farewell at the end of an interaction or transaction with a stranger. It's less emphatic than the "yes" nod, which is commonly used in the West to indicate casual agreement but in India is primarily used when formally agreeing with something a boss, official, parent, or other social superior is telling you.>Do Indians love to rape?Drinking and meth use destroys the Indian's social inhibitions, which are generally robust. Such degenerates should be avoided.
>>2851319they just want to see what the money looks like. the kids like to collect foreign coins. this is true everywhere. it's always a nice thing to be able to give them a quarter or even a nickel
One of the best restaurant pasta alfredo meals I've ever eaten, and it only cost $2.10 at a cafe which has been in business since 1935. It takes a long time for food to come to your table here, because everything is made from scratch. The veggies in this dish were fried crisp with a delicious blend of spices before adding the chicken and the sauce. Indians have very diverse palates, and the upper classes especially love trying new & unique flavors. At this point, I'd say that food in India mogs food in Thailand.
>>2851326>people will continue to defecate in such spaceshave you tried it yet? how can your visit be complete without the authentic indian experience of open defecation? we want to know the details of how to do this. do you take TP with you or what and so on
>>2851332I've tried it on a sort of camping trip and it's not fun. Feels uncomfortable, you're constantly on the lookout in case someone shows up, and there's a shit load of flies that suddenly appear as soon as your feces hit the ground. Only a pajeet would prefer this over a normal toilet.
More clarifications on budget...Rs 1000 - 1800 is my own personal range of nightly hotel rates across nine locations so far on this trip. I always strive to maximize value for cost, which in the cool season means booking a room without A/C whenever possible. Nonetheless, lodging has totalled 65% of in-country expenditures so far, the highest of any country I've visited.Biggest cost-saving tip: always ask for a non A/C room if you don't think you'll need the A/C. Virtually every hotel in India offers a non A/C option. At my current hotel I got an Rs 550 nightly discount for booking a non A/C room. It is 74 F inside day and night. As far as food, your expenditures here will vary hugely depending on how much you eat, and how fancy you want to eat. On the cheap end, you can eat nothing but veg samosa and live on Rs 100 per day. On the premium end, you'll average Rs 350 - 550 for a full meal. Sometimes quite a bit more, if you're getting a fried fish or something more exotic. Indian food doesn't look like much when it's served, but it is deceptively filling. Most of the premium entrees are designed to be shared with one or two others, but you can be a pig and eat the whole damn meal yourself. And fuck it, why not go whole hog and throw in an Rs 250 appetizer as well (suitable for 3-5 diners). Keep in mind that rice, chapati, appetizers and sides are never included with the main course unless specifically listed as part of a set meal. My personal daily food average has been south of Rs 500, the lowest of any country so far. Despite India's reputation for inducing diarrhea, my gut has been sluggish here, and poops have been solid. A testament to the richness and quality of the food on offer here.
>>2851337>on the lookout in case someone shows upi don't think you have to worry about that in india tho. but the flies sound nasty
>>2851332No, you take a water bottle with you. Hold it with your right hand over your asscrack, then make a cup with your left hand over your butthole. Fill the cup and swish swish swish the poo away. Then rinse any residual poo off your left hand with the water bottle and dry it on your pants. I quit using toilet paper a few days into my stay here. The only thing you really need paper for is wiping up your jizz after you beat your meat. In case you can't go without paper, a hundred pack of mini napkins costs fifty cents.>>2851329When you are smoking ganja with eight young guys you just met at an abandoned building and they all start clamoring to see some dollars, do you A) pull out your rubber-banded emergency cash wad totaling $700 and hand it to them for inspection, or B) tell them you don't have any dollars and change the subject?Self-interest, my dude. Never ever let anyone convince you to override your self-interest.
>>2851331>food in India mogs food in Thailand.everybody's food mogs Thailand. even the philippines has better food. all Thailand has are disgusting coconut and peanut butter curries. it's like they werent paying attention when the indians showed them how to make curry
>>2851347>The only thing you really need paper for is wiping up your jizz after you beat your meatIs it so difficult to find a girlfriend in India (even a paid one) that you have to resort to jerking off?>When you are smoking ganja with eight young guys you just met at an abandoned buildingWhy do you even end up in this shady situation to begin with?Also what phone/camera are you using?
>>2851329>they just want to see what the money looks likeMy ass. Everyone always was vividly interested in my foreign money. I've entertained a cashier once with a nigh worthless third country note I had in my wallet and he tried his best to make sure I forget he has it. Took like three reminders to get it back.I was wondering what gain is it really to have all these unexchangeable garbage bills until one tout ran out of offers for me to reject and then proceeded to pull out the smallest note my country issues and try to sell it to me for Indian rupees. Was a good rate to be honest, I'm a bit bummed I didn't repatriate it.
>>2851349I met a guy at a restaurant, he invited me to his table and paid for my meal, then we rode the train to the next town and walked over to his dad's Uber vehicle and drove it to the smoke spot where we met up with the local college students. The Indian pipe is called a chillum. It is packed with a mix of weed and tobacco, then a piece of gauze is placed over the mouthpiece, and you puff on it a few times before taking a hit. You do not let your mouth touch the pipe or the gauze. Indians do not nigger-lip their joints either, unlike disgusting Colombians who drool all over the tip. When Indians drink water from a bottle, they also pour it into their mouths to keep the bottle mouth clean.>finding a girlfriendI haven't really tried. Indian girls are way too talkative. They aren't phone zombies like girls in other Asian countries, who can be easily rizzed up by some texted flirtations from a dating app profile. Indian girls expect a very high level of emotional and conversational engagement. Most /trv/ autists would be unable to deliver. And unlike other countries, you can't hone in on the easy lays or P4P by their scanty attire, because even the slum prostitutes dress modestly.
Only 80 rupees on the cheap side of the tracks, but fuck is it delicious. Buttery flaky paratha bread, fresh off the griddle and paired with rich spicy chicken puree. Damn if I remember the name; lots of places have no Romanized names on display for their dishes. Even the prices might be in Marathi script. Cheaper places always skimp on seating to save space. You're lucky if you get stools and a ledge to put your dish on. The bigger the restaurant, the higher the menu prices. Tomorrow I'll be venturing on into the heart of Pune. See what big-city life is like.
Indian cities have a thousand different aesthetics. Everything changes from block to block, sometimes drastically. That's what makes them so intriguing to explore...although huge swaths of any city are bound to be unpleasant, it only makes the pleasant areas stand out more.
A pleasant riverfront park tucked away behind one of the innumerable chowk (street markets located around busy intersections). Amazing how many species of wading birds were hunting for dinner in the river. Sewage flowed through a separate pipe built alongside the river. Truly every corner of India is rich with sentient life.
Even the shanty towns with their low sloped roofs looked reasonably clean and well-ordered. They are located on random lots all over the metro area.
>>2851251>>2851315Get well soon dood>>2851316Mumbai: developed and western, but stressfully superbusy and expensive, orPune: Relaxing, spacious, affordable, cuties, cleanerPune sounds better so far. Even has an airport. SE of Mumbai, so different weather. I also keep finding more medium-sized towns outside of the bigger ones, and those seem even nicer. I am not seeing a decent-priced apartment in Pune, but there are plenty of okay-priced hotels there. I just really wanted a kitchen.>cheap hotel to live in that accepts foreignersI keep looking at places, and have read that you should contact the place before booking online. I have yet to do that, though.>>2851326>The Indian custom is to take payment and make change without comment.This is a great cultural insight. I am going to remember this.
>>2851564It is very nice. I hope you bought some of those flowers to make puja to Lord Vishnu
>>2851585If you're a foreigner, you will run into roadblocks when looking to rent locally due to the foreigner registration requirement. Some people are willing to ignore the law, but many are afraid of consequences down the line, especially if you get in trouble or otherwise draw police attention. Tough to do here; unarmed traffic police standing at thrir posts are the only police I've seen on a regular basis in India. Indian society is basically self-policing. That's why foreigners with an anarchist bent love it here so much. >a kitchenUhh, why? In Europe it makes sense to do your own cooking, but not here, where good food is so affordable.>contact the place before booking onlineI have WhatsApp to make calls using WiFi, but the language barrier is strong enough that I choose face to face conversation and inspection of the room prior to paying (or making a reservation in the lobby using hotel WiFi). Pictures and listings are very deceiving here.>different climatePune is on the dry side of the Western Ghat. Huge cacti and other dryland shrubs grow on the slopes, as well as scrubby hardy trees which can handle six rainless months. During the hot season, Pune can become a furnace seeing arid 39° C highs, as temps are not moderated by oceanic humidity like they are in Mumbai.
>>2851347If you see another man doing his business should you give him wide berth and find your own spot? Or can you squat next to him so you can keep each other company while you squeeze one out. Is it too much to ask him to share his water bottle? What is the etiquette?
>>2849276I run a big thrift store, 90% of the clothes that are donated are put into big bags and sent to the Middle East where they are then auctioned off to people in third world countries. That's why you see photos of third worlders with shirts that don't seem like they belong there.
Only in India can you walk down a creepy empty road under the metro line that dead-ends in a garbage truck parking lot, then hop a wall into a (rubbish-filled) bird sanctuary to emerge through a ruined gate into a Hindu crematorium with a body being burnt on an open pyre and a funeral crowd standing in the road outside creating an enormous traffic jam while kids scamper over the back wall of the crematorium complex to fly kites in an active construction project along the riverbank.
Not a big lover of Pune. There's a fuckton of wealth here, but also so much blight, desolation and destruction of ancient forests. So many roads are lined with high walls that protect the estates of the ultra-rich from the street crowds. Here and there is a dirty street stall where locals slurp maggi on low stools. Or a commercial building with a row of fancy glass-fronted boutique shops. Everyone is too rich and important to walk here, despite the city government spendibg huge sums to lay brick sidewalks; as a result, the traffic is relentless. After being rejected at every budget hotel in Shivajinagar, I said "fuck it" and paid for three nights in a hostel. Great location my ass. Reviewers must be smoking something.
The entire riverbank of the Mula-Mutha River is being destroyed and rebuilt as a "beautification project". Untold crores of rupees being pocketed in the gigantic boondoggle. Still it was cool to see the eagles diving for fish. Despite relentless destruction of urban nature in pursuit of more money, bountiful birdlife stubbornly persists.
This is the street my hostel is on. Tons of hostels & guesthouses clustered here, but so few dining options nearby, unless you walk for blocks along a hellishly noisy and mostly desolate boulevard. Yet reviewers inexplicably rave about how wonderful it is. Local guesthouses refused me for being foreign, so I have to lie awake listening to snoring poorfags for three nights at ₹575 per night. At least I get to have some good chats and bring my daily average spend down a little.
A fancy Rajasthani restaurant located somewhere between multi-millionaire estates and a pocket slum area served me some ghee-soaked bhati with rich dal for a rather steep ₹385 (including 10% surcharge on top of the menu price.)
Ready to GTFO of this greed-ridden urban dystopia. Ultra-rich, ultra-poor, and a whole lot of restless, rootless migrants struggling to get rich and not giving a fuck about anything besides money. The Pune metro is really awesome, but everything else, ugh. The far-flung middle class suburb of Nigdi (20 km from Pune) was much more pleasant; mid-tier dining options abounded, and service was very attentive as well.
Even the beggars in Pune have gone cashless, kekNext stop will hopefully be Pirangut, a place nobody here knows anything about despite it being barely 30 km away. Many local buses head up to mountain villages from Pirangut, some of which undoubtedly have cool treks.
The pocket slum wedged into a small esrate near the railroad tracks was ironically quite pleasant and much more tranquil than the surrounding streets. No restaurants, but there's always a friendly barbershop offering a ₹70 shave.
Ginormous trees grow up through the estate walls and lend a pleasant shady aesthetic to otherwise desolate streets. Pune being an ancient city has so many ancient trees, but sadly they are being destroyed for the sake of greed. Widen the roads so a gazillion rich faggots can zoom around impatiently in their disgusting cars. Wall off every square foot of land that is not a road. Turn every unwalled nature area into a rubbish heap. Ruthlessly exploit the lesser greed of the migrants coming here to work. God I hate big cities.
>>2852172That shit was my favorite food in Rajasthan. I want to visit India again just to eat some
>>2852167BUt there are no people in this photo, anon
>>2852176this man looks asian
>>2852180it's a nice looking street. do they put their names on the walls of their houses? how do these people make their money?
New Years Eve at the hostel. The white woman is from northern Canada. There was also an acne-blotched desi grad student who wore short dresses to distract from her face. After three nights of good convos punctuated by poor sleep and indigestion from late-night food, I'm feeling grumpy and ready to move on, but with the usual nagging worry. The next place (wherever the hell on the map it's gonna be) could be worse AND overpriced. My new SIM card hasn't gotten approved 24 hours later, so I'm posting from airtel store WiFi - no rangeban here. As an added bonus, a bird shat yellow filth all over my pants leg while I was walking. Think positive, it could've been my hair.>>2852190They own property. The money simply pours in.
Old city Pune had its charm. Very few cars meant the streets were less hectic than I expected. Nothing caters to leisure visitors, apart from one hospitable grandma and grandson who encountered me resting on a bench outside their house somewhere in the maze of alleys. They fed me a tasty lunch, and the grandson chatted curiously with me for an hour or so before we parted ways.
The old Shaniwar Wada fort was closed by the time I got around to it at 5:22 pm. Security guards shooing away visitors. A Latvian autist took a local bus back to the hostel and got stuck in traffic for 1½ hours. I boarded the lovely metro and got there in 30 minutes. Overall it was a pretty enjoyable urban excursion.Well, the SIM card activation got denied because I didn't bring along a color copy of my electronic travel authorization to submit with the application. Luckily there was a print shop nearby that got me one for ₹10 a page.
You never get bored in India, because everything is such a hassle!
>>2852391you should try to clean up some of the litter under the bridge. set a nice example for them
So I went back to the phone shop and submitted my visa paperwork (which required finding a print shop, getting their email address, then returning to the phone shop WiFi, finding my eTA on the Indian e-Visa website using my e-Visa application number and passport number, downloading it, emailing it to the print shop, then returning to the print shop to pick up the printout and bring it to the phone shop.) They also had to rescan my passport, retake my photo, and send another OTP to the long-suffering hostel manager, who was evidently busy and not picking up his phone. So I had to call the hostel on WhatsApp and ask the desk staff to reach out to him so that he could call me and give me the OTP.Okay, the SIM card is now connected to the airtel network...but OTP verification for the airtel app is not being received, so I can't log in to the app. The website offers me a variety of plans for my number, but when I go to pay, I get an error message. So now I have to go back to the shop for a third time and find out what the latest problem is. Indians always seem so busy and industrious, but they accomplish so little with all that endless talk and activity. A mystery which starts making sense when you see firsthand how much time and effort it takes to get the simplest tasks done here. In Taiwan, I walk into a phone shop and five minutes later walk out with a fully activated plan good for the next thirty days. SIM registration requirements are virtually identical, but Taiwan is so much more efficient it's not even funny.
This shitty motorola phone can't take stealth photos of Pune cuties worth a damn. Guess I have to stand still and be brazen about it, but then they would put on a sour face to ruin the photo.Figured out I had to call the 59059 number to fully activate my SIM. At last, ready to buy a plan! But the website and the app both glitched out, failing to load or process card payment. So I had to walk to a local electronics store where the friendly owner charged me up with the 28 day plan for ₹349. 5G speed, 1.5 GB per day, free Apple Music, etc.
Pune is growing on me. Found a great ₹1200 A/C room at a back-street family hotel with a nice view out the window. This tasty veg rice plate at the busy corner eatery cost only ₹80...and the chapatis were bomb. Made to order, not stale and reheated like most cheap places do. The difference in flavor is incredible. Lane 6 near my place has all kinds of fancy eateries on a quiet shady street. A delicious 6" mushroom veg quiche at one such place costs ₹150. Crust is mediocre, but the filling is so rich with cream, cheese, egg and veggie flavors. Only in India can delicious treats in upscale classy restaurants be enjoyed by a frugal traveler averaging a mere $5.50 a day in food spend.
>>2852418>Indians always seem so busy and industrious, but they accomplish so little with all that endless talk and activity. A mystery which starts making sense when you see firsthand how much time and effort it takes to get the simplest tasks done here.This is something known to anyone who has the misfortune of actually having to work with Indians. They put in a shitton of effort into feigning labor and stringing you along with their lazing about.Chances are you did not need any ETA printouts (I most certainly did not). They just made up some bullshit on the spot because they simply forgot to do the needful yesterday. Happens all the time with them.
>>2852451Yep. I asked if I could just send it as an email attachment, but no, it had to be a printout. A color printout. He took one photo of the page and then handed it back to me. Anyway, a full 31-day month in India cost me Rs 58670, or $650 USD. Of that, lodging cost Rs 37462 or $416, not quite as cheap as I hoped. None of the rooms were truly awful, but some of them near Mumbai were pretty fuckin dirty. Food cost Rs 13795 or $155 USD, which is cheaper than expected given how many great meals I enjoyed. Transport expenses were a mere Rs 816 or $9, of which half was spent on the tourist train to Matheran. The remaining Rs 6597 or $73 consists of a variety of miscellaneous expenses: clothing, laundry service, barbering, cell service, entrance fees, toiletries, etc. At 13.5 kilometers per day of travel, distance covered on public transport has been negligible. It took me four weeks to get from Mumbai to Pune for godsakes. Average daily walking distance is probably somewhere around 10 km.Add to these figures the flight expense of $410 and the visa expense of $42 to reach a grand total of $1102 USD for the first monthly episode of Abroad in Asia: Season III.As a pedestrian experienced with walking in Third World countries, I have tread the streets of India for an entire month without stepping in a single pile of shit or other nasty filth that would've gotten stuck in the cracks of my shoe soles. After a long walk I usually pick discolored snot out of my nostrils thanks to the bacteria-laden dust kicked up by passing traffic, but I haven't gotten any illnesses here which lasted more than 12 hours. Indian viruses and bacteria are pretty weak due to the lack of disinfection here. A decent immune system will kick the shit out of most budding infections.
>>2852471>most budding infections.does this apply to stds?
>>2847779i got heat stroke just staring at this photograph
>>2852530Less promiscuous societies should have low STD rates. Upper-class sluts seem to be very choosy about their partners, i.e. he has to be a rich HinduChad, and undoubtedly they insist on rubber usage. Lower-class girls stay chaste to avoid getting a reputation which would endanger their safety while walking the streets. Some low-inhib anon might shamelessly proposition a desperate, barefoot street girl for paid sex. You see them pretty often, and they always want money. Most hotels would refuse such a couple at check-in, so you'd have to sneak her back to your room and wash her down thoroughly before doing the deed.>>2852552Weather couldn't be better here. Constant news headlines about cold waves across Maharashtra, i.e. 82° F high and 51° low. I never go out in the AM hours, so it's perfect. Kinda dreading the advent of hot season... some years 100° F temps arrive as early as late February for the Deccan Plateau (interior south India).>picrelRestaurant hygiene? Who cares. Long as they dry the dirty water off your plate before serving the food (most places do). Don't drink from the table pitcher, of course. If you buy new clothes from an open-air shop in India, always wash them with your next laundry load before wearing. Otherwise they'll start stinking like a homeless bum in short order.
The Arai Hills forests look ugly, but all this was a barren hilltop not long ago. The world's most extreme seasonal rainfall variation makes it very difficult to re-establish Indian forests after they are destroyed. Monsoon downpours wash away soil once anchored by tree roots, leaving only barren impermeable clay. Supplemental watering seems the only way to keep the young trees alive long enough to grow their own shade and begin restoring the soil with their fallen leaves.
Bro picks the noisiest possible place for a nap. Maybe he wanted to sleep under the benevolent gaze of a public security camera instead of somewhere dark and secluded where punks might beat him up.Pune metro takes security seriously, no white privilege here. They wand me and pat down my pockets every single time.>what's that in your pocket?>some coins>what do you have in that bag?>some fruitThe WhatsApp digital ticket option failed to send me an OTP for a self-service ticket, and the exit gates also glitched with an error message telling me to use a different gate, followed by an "exit denied, ticket already used" buzzer at the other gate - even though I hadn't walked through. They had me wait briefly while they printed a free exit pass. Pune has some really upscale neighborhoods, but the lack of intoxication & intercourse options keep Pune undiscovered by the tourist and expat hordes that have overran many other big, newly prospering Asian cities.
Too many boulders in the water to go cliff jumping here at this abandoned quarry in a nature reserve.
Graffiti hotspot: a gutted building in an abandoned compound near the quarry, probably the old offices. Walls and fences always get broken down here if abandoned by their owners, allowing the urban explorer to wander freely. Worst that can happen is a security guard materializing and rudely ordering you to skedaddle.
Groups of young coeds hang out in a hilltop park talking about money and careers. They give me an appraising look, then quickly realize my business casual attire is a sham; my detached expression is that of an unmotivated loafer whose friendship would not offer any career benefits. The young strivers of India both male and female seem completely devoid of sexual energy, as if romantic passion would only distract them from their goal of climbing to the top of the payscale. Their elders frequently lament over the lack of interest in marriage and babies among the youth. It's all startups and partnerships and cashflow talk instead.
How much do fruit prices vary here? I've encountered pomegranates for as low as ₹100 a kilo in the squalid street markets of the smaller towns, with wizened old vendors sitting on carpets on the ground, and as high as ₹450 per kilo in the premium fruit stores serving ultra-wealthy Koregaon Park. The independent street vendors often sell old produce that is past its peak freshness, dirty and banged up from being pushed around on a cart. As always, you have to judge for yourself which quality/price tier suits you best.
>>2852630do they make tequila with that agave?
>>2852665is it smog or why is it always so overcast in poon town?
How many houses can I buy with $100k there? Can I retire as a real estate mogul?
>>28528212BHK spacious apartment advertised at 1.2 crore ($133K USD) here in a modern part of Pune. Barefoot beggars all over the place, reminds me of Manila.>Welcome to Koregaon Park, the most exclusive neighborhood of Pune!First thing you see on entering Koregaon Park is a squalid riverside shantytown which has spilled out into the street. Women laying on mats all day long, shouting demands for money at anyone who walks by (especially the foreigners, roasties, boomer couples and such who fell for the "OMG such a great location" hype). The begging class in India is so lazy and devoid of entrepreneurial spirit. Their whole ethos is to look as dirty and downtrodden as possible while studiously avoiding any activity which resembles work. All those people living in the slum, mooching off the family mule's earnings, and not one of them can do so much as sell tea to passersby on the busy road.
Disgusting beggar moms will order their small children, filthy as can be and deeply ashamed of it, to sit alone on a curb in a wealthy commercial district in the hope that passersby will give them money.
>>2852676The cold clear weather pattern in place for most of December has already transitioned to warmer, cloudier weather. The sky has been a bleary grayish-white since yesterday, and I expect it'll stay that way for the foreseeable future. The natural areas are all turning brown too as the trees shed their leaves. It is bleakly dystopian, but at least it's not cold and dark and lifeless here like the northern latitudes in winter.
Only six of the promised 12 exhibit rooms at the Aga Khan Palace were open, so you only get half the story of India's struggle for independence. Disappointing. Lots of Instagram and Tiktok hoes were doing their bits for the camera on the grounds. Simple chit-chat with locals is easy as an American here, but expressing a complex or nuanced idea inevitably results in befuddlement. Indian English uses very different idioms and expressions. Rarely do I talk to anyone for more than ten minutes; the lack of comprehension is simply too tiresome, and we both lose interest in continuing.
>>2852833>>2BHK spacious apartment advertised at 1.2 crore ($133K USD) here in a modern part of Pune.Lol? Why is it 10 times more expensive than it should be? You can buy for that almost anywhere in the world except most expensive countries??
>>2852846I encounter this in China, too. Conversations can be very very tough if you try and qualify any points. Only what they expect to hear seems to be accepted.
>>2852937Indian real estate is anything but cheap. The weak rupee means every richfag in the country is plowing his money into real estate. Everything in Goa is owned by Delhi investors, which is why a hostel bunk there is now close to ₹2000 a night per reddit. Hotel room rates across the country have been soaring for this very reason; greedy real estate investors demanding higher returns. And unlike China, India's huge population of upwardly mobile young careerists means insatiable demand for high-rise flats and business-class hotels. This is no bubble. The owner-operated, family-run hotels remain the most affordable option, but they are limited in number, sometimes dilapidated and often they refuse foreigners.Very happy to discover that I can get from the metro station to the lane my hotel is on via the riverfront path. No more hassle of crossing four lanes of non-stop heavy traffic to walk 1 km along a busy boulevard. Yeah, it's still under construction, but In India you can walk through public construction sites no problem.
>India is too crowded!Meanwhile on the Pune metro, this is what the platform looks like every time I ride from Bund Garden. They just started discounting the already cheap fares...only $0.20 USD to ride to Vanaz, 12 km away.Airtel data service, less impressive. It's already dropped out briefly several times in two days.
>>2852942are you travelling to argue with people about why they should appreciate your western privileges or to appreciate their cultures, even after travelling you still don't understand that people don't want their ideas to be challenged no matter how wrong they may seem to you
>>2853041I just want people to express ideas, any ideas, so we can discuss them and go beyond the banal topics...>how old are you?>are you married?>when did you get here?>how long you stay?>what's your favorite food here?>what's your job?>which state do you live in?etc. etc. All these routine questions and answers do not a friendship make.Would you climb this unsecured, possibly abandoned radio tower? The gate was rusted out, unlocked and unlatched. Worse, the concrete base of the tower ladder was dangling several inches off the ground, suspended by the ladder itself. The crossbars of the ladder appeared to be welded to the surface of the riser beam - welds which may have fatigued with age, leading to sudden failure 100 feet above the ground. Also, some kids were playing at a shack nearby. I kept expecting to hear yelling when they spotted the white monkey climbing the tower, but they must've been very dull kids, because they didn't notice me at any point.
All my life I've wanted to climb one of these towers...then when I get the chance, I get a case of shaky leg and chicken out less than halfway up. Lame.
>>2853044there's a way to do this without being direct, just tell them something that reminds you of your girlfriend and they will respond by telling you about their girlfriend or will just ignore the topic, that's how conversations flow, asking direct questions like you are some autistic interrogator never works for any culture you visit in any country, people respond to common and shared experiences
>>2853044Why the fuck would anyone talk to a guy who will leave in a week about anything else?
Bro at the food court revealed the reason there are so many westernized cuties in Pune. (He laughed when I remarked that Pune is full of beautiful girls.) Students come here from all over India to study at the numerous universities.>>2853048They ask 90% of the questions; I ask only a few. Usually we fail to find any commonality. >>2853049Discussions of Indian politics, while passionate, quickly venture beyond my extremely limited knowledge of political happenings here. Most Indians seem to take the non-alignment principle to heart; they don't have much of an opinion on world politics.
They don't even have fricken telephone poles in some of these newer neighborhoods. Wires are strung from one rooftop to another in every possible direction. Looks like the electric lines are buried, and these are random comm lines being installed the Indian way (minimal effort, minimal expense).
Saw this beautiful bird among many others in a nature preserve surrounded by a high wall with very few pedestrian entrances. A jackal or dhole (pretty sure it was a jackal, the dhole is much rarer) spotted me from a distance and squeezed through a gap in the wall barely six inches wide to escape. I also flushed quail and a wild peacock from the brush.
The Pune metro ticket booths are mostly manned by young ladies, occasionally sweet but usually bitchy like picrel. Why are Indian ticket sellers so chronically exasperated? They have the easiest job in the world, sit in a comfy chair printing out little slips of paper, but 9 times out of 10 they have a bad attitude.
>>2853072White-throated kingfisher. Cute as hell.
>>2853068das nice nice punetang
>>2853029Is india where we should invest our money? Sounds like the country of the future.
>>2853074Why do you keep creeping on girls bro?
>>2853072Indians take care of their wildlife. Respek. If this was Laos, that bird would be spread eagle smoking on a grill right now with a papaya sald waiting in the wings.
>>2853240>waiting in the wingsGood one, kekYou hear so much about the spoilage of India's environment by slums and factories alike, but the Hindu belief system of respecting all life means that Indians don't exterminate wildlife by wantonly destroying wildlife habitat near their settlements in the name of beautification or landscaping. Up to 60 different species of waterfowl have been observed around the Mula-Mutha River here in Pune, polluted and degraded as the surroundings are from a First World perspective. Yet how many other world cities have such a diversity of bird life in the heart of an urban area?Reserve Bank of India recently issued a directive ordering banks to stop hoarding smaller bills and giving their customers only ₹500 notes for ATM withdrawals. This practice has created a huge shortage of change among India's businesses. I got ₹6000 changed into smaller bills today; it took about ten minutes inside the bank branch. Many banks here like ICICI and HDFC charge ₹200 for foreign bank card withdrawals, while others like Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank don't charge any fees. >>2853086The squirrels in the scrub forests look like giant chipmunks. They can be very inquisitive. There are several species here, one of whom has a melodic alarm chirp easily mistaken for a birdcall. The Malabar giant squirrels are much less common and only found on a few rainforest plateaus on the western side of the Ghat.
>>2853074Probably because they have to sit in that mind numbing dead end job and deal with incels taking their picture.
>>2853292Observe and be observed. Such is life as a traveler. Pretty girls are only part of the scenery.Wrapping up another day of exploring the city with a stroll down the riverfront to my room, a cute little owl landed on top of a wooden pole a few meters from me. After a few minutes of scanning for prey, he disappeared in the blink of an eye.Twas another day of boundless life energy in Pimpri, as an independent party held an election rally in the streets. A huge congregation of women, mostly lower-class but dressed in their best attire, followed the candidates through the streets. What a riot of colors.
Great food too. A spotless new restaurant was having its grand opening in a squalid trainside slum with a sizable Muslim population. Mutton fry entree was only ₹140, and they were extra generous with the portion size. (Mutton dishes usually start at ₹300 here.) A local urchin dining on some generous woman's tab grabbed the napkins given to me; I let it slide twice, but when he came back for the last napkin I confronted the kid and grabbed it back. He returned to his table, and they avoided looking at me afterwards.
You really never know what you're gonna find and who you're gonna meet when you pick a random map dot as your daytrip destination.
Evidence of Indians' love for nature. Only in India would this tree still be alive and growing strong right through the middle of the restaurant ceiling. Everyone else would've chopped it down.
>Indians can't queueYes they can. This was the line to exit the metro station on an unusually crowded afternoon.
As a non-believer I've never felt comfortable stepping into a temple without a worshipper accompanying me. Nonetheless, Hindus are quite tolerant and unlikely to scold a curious foreign visitor. I even saw some people entering the grounds with their shoes on, though most took them off at the base of the steps. One particularly devout woman crawled on her knees through the entrance. The greeter sitting outside gave a rather senile "hello, hello" to everyone who came by.
>>2853068Ugh shaved/waxed arms and legs.
btw literally nothing you posted was interesting or made me want to visitI know its you slumbro because you are latched onto absolutely trivial bullshit nobody else on the planet would care to mention/photograph/bother talking about, while drawing ridiculously broad conclusions based off of almost nothing. The webms I just posted of this indian WWE shit are 100% more interesting than anything you posted in this entire thread, because they are actually portraying an event meant to entertain (and they do that, even if they are silly). For fucks sake would you PLEASE actually do a tourist thing once in awhile. You're like a black hole of wasted potential.
>>2853068The girl on the left spotted you sneaking a pic.
>>2853470They usually do. In any case, I left Pune for the rural-industrial blight of Pirangut. Evidently a new ring road around Pune will be built shortly, so there's a frenzy of development underway. Heavy construction traffic, rubbish piles all over, everyone looking dog-tired and completely indifferent to their surroundings. Even the sacred hill forest has been burned down to bare rock. Only the fields are a pretty green, and they keep getting sold off to goddamn developers.>>2853424You won't do shit, keybored warrior. You're a monkey-brained troglodyte who couldn't read a map if it lifted up in a breeze and slapped you in the face. So it's no surprise that you have zero curiosity about the world beyond what base pleasures it can provide for you.
In any case, I appreciate the thoughtfulness implied in your three long effortposts. Papua New Guinea could be a travel destination up your alley. Or perhaps the Eastern Congo. Sonewhere you can vent your primitive bloodlust with impunity. Hindustan is a peace-loving nation. Aggression from outsiders will not be tolerated here.
Time for the real adventure, getting around India on state buses. No real schedules (they show up whenever they show up), very brief halts at each roadside stop, hand-painted Marathi signage in the windshield...but they go all over the map, if that's your goal. The "bus stop" is merely an area of filthy roadside, so you better be prepared to stand with your bags on your back the whole time you're waiting. Alternately you can try to get a ride in a shared taxi, if lurching around in a bus aisle for 1-2 hours is too much of an ordeal. Good luck getting anyone to understand your American English pronunciation of Marathi place names. I can't even ask for tea or a towel without getting a befuddled look in response.
>>2853645If you went for one of these women and gave them like $50 would they gf you and travel with you?
>>2853645did you upgrade your camera? this picture looks nicer than the others
>>2853656The smog is lighter in Pirangut than in Pune. Heck, out by Mulshi the sky was downright blue, and what a surprise, the whole landscape was jungle-green, with totally different vegetation from the dry hills around Pune. At the Mulshi Lake overlook I met a gang of youths who were drinking some homebrew made from tree sap. They had already gone through at least five liters of it, and they all had a good buzz going. One guy wanted badly to speak to me (evidently because his favorite English teacher was from the USA) and kept shushing his other friends in order to hear me. He was pathetically eager for approval desu. His friends (who were from a nearby village) were evidently disgruntled by the fact that their urbanite buddy was ignoring them in favor of some random whitey who happened to be walking by. No, I don't understand Marathi, but I understand tones and body language, and the four village boys did not want to be around me. They walked off about ten meters to make the point clear. The English-speaking college student guy seemed afraid of offending me by abruptly parting ways and returning to his friends. He said they had to be heading back, and then he said that it wasn't safe for me to hang out at that spot. So I gave him my number, shook hands like five times, complimented him on his English, and then made my way back down the road to stuff myself with a gluttonously huge kaju paneer curry dish.
>>2853648You'd magically draw a crowd of curious villagers as soon as you start offering large sums of money for no reason they can understand.PMPML (district buses) routes are all on Google Maps, making trip planning much easier than for MSRTC buses (state buses). Here is bus number ७० heading to मुळशी, which took me the 18 km to the village on the south end of the Lonavla - Amby Valley Road for Rs 40.
All the resorts out here in the hill country villages are so fucking expensive, well out of my price range. Fancy food, now that I don't mind shelling out for (because both flavor and quantity make it worth the bill). My meal cost Rs 365, with a half order of rice, a single naan, and a bottled water. The entree was double-sized, and the paneer was some of the best I've had yet in India. As an added bonus, I found a ganja roach on the ground near the overlook which I slipped in my shirt pocket and then smoked back in my room. Indians mix strong tobacco into their weak marijuana when rolling a joint.
Speaking of tourist destinations, Zostel Kolad looks like an interesting spot to stay. Everyone says you have to cross the river in a boat to get there, but I see a meandering footpath on Google Maps satellite view that appears to access the property from the highway. It would involve 3 km of walking from the Kolad ST bus stand.
>>2853680>You'd magically draw a crowd of curious villagers as soon as you start offering large sums of money for no reason they can understand.They can't understand sex and traveling and marriage?
>>2853648this is a very good question
>>28537215000 rupees is barely two weeks' wages for the poorest laborers. You can't take away someone's daughter to be your sex slave for that ridiculously miniscule amount of cash.
Waiting for the 227A bus at Ghotawade Phata. The idea that a foreigner would stay here to take sightseeing daytrips by public bus seems incomprehensible to most people I've met.
>>2853721Shitbrown moment. >>2853841A common theme on your 'adventure' is locals not understanding why you would waste your time doing something objectively boring and shitty even by their own standards.
>>2853853Exploring strange & unknown places based on a few clues from a map is very stimulating. The mountaintop village at the end of this road, for instance. Watching YouTube or playing vidya, now that's boring. NPCs can be transfixed by moving pictures on a screen for hours on end, yet they find 3D existence with all its complexity to be dull and "not worth it", whatever it is. Evidently their dimwit brains have been buckbroken by techie wizards to the point where they can't even look a stranger in the eye, much less 100 strangers, and catch a glimpse of their soul.
>>2853819Why are they so rich now? I thought they were working for like $5/month.
4½ hours of trying to go someplace on the bus, and I've only made it 7 km to the next village. The online timetables for routes on the far fringes of the PMPML coverage area are a work of fiction. With only a filthy, shadeless roadside to stand waiting, most people give up and pile into an auto or Mahindra jeep.
>>2853868i wonder what the logic is behind this, but i for one would like to walk barefoot for a while on a straw road. maybe it will lead me to the guru of oz
>>2853885even in the poorest shitholes like laos $5 is a day's wage not a month's
>>2854170Adding a wet cover helps the fresh concrete cure more slowly, hopefully resulting in a better road.I walked across this busted-up bridge on my way up to a scenic spot. The far gap could be crossed by stepping on a piece of rebar spanning it. No way in hell was I going to step on the spaghetti tangle with a 15 ft drop below, so I walked across the bottom crosspole of the railing, which was thankfully not too shaky. The closest gap was only 5 ft deep, so it could be clambered across. A shocked schoolgirl exclaimed in Marathi upon seeing me make it across. >>2854171The gap between developing world and developed world has been closing very rapidly since the 1980s.
Too bad the tranquility of this small lake - 3 km from Kolvan village - was marred by noise from construction of yet another overpriced hilltop resort on the opposite shore. Forested slopes have been destroyed and replaced by hideous retaining walls so richfags can enjoy a view without ever having to get off their asses and walk for it.
The village had a tent encampment in a vacant field...low-caste migrant field workers, evidently. One of the old guys was shitting on the roadside not far away. Overall, it was much like any other agrarian village in the region: peaceful, reasonably clean, and full of shy people who don't try to chat with a passing stranger.
>>2854171Well fuck them then. What's the purpose of the third world if they're fucking rich.
>>2854274The richer they get, the more they hustle your business. Lazy poor people won't lift a finger to serve you. Look at the size of this dosa. Only ₹50 too. Desperately poor people never serve good food like this, but proudly prospering family eateries do. Brokie slumrats only want handouts from whitey.
>>2854278Well my question is where can I get a wife for money that I can't get her in an Eastern European third world shithole. Obviously they should be cheaper if brown?
>>2854171>$5 is a day's wageI should add that that's for rural migrant labor picking fruit and doing other agricultural work. Wages in the city are much higher.
