Come here to discuss travel in India, be it a week vacation or a six month odyssey. If you've gotten bored of Southeast Asia, visit India and rediscover the feeling of exotic adventure on the other side of the world. Be prepared to step over a lot of cowshit!
Buy this delicious sponge dosa breakfast with a dollar and get 25 cents back. They even gave me a complimentary tea (value, 12 cents).
>>2870309That looks good, I don't have any restaurant that tempts me around but I went to a home kitchen for the first time it was nice.
>>2870312Went to the Annamalaiyar temple, expected to see white tourist because it's popular but didn't see any, they prefer the Sri Ramanasramam apparently.Pic is west entrance, it's fucking huge took me 2 hours to visit and get various benedictions.
>>2870314Piles of shoes all around. It can go up to 100k visitors a day, most of them actual hindus taking it very seriously.
>>2870309Where's the protein
The door to the old pumping station is jammed, but daredevils step across the protruding I-beams to climb through the window and write their names on the walls. I'd have to chicken out of that challenge. Just thinking about it gives me the willies.>>2870315So many Indians walk around barefoot because they lost their shoes at a temple, kek>>2870312I like how they cook different sabji every day, so you can keep coming back and getting different flavors.>>2870317Don't need lots of protein to be peak skinnyfat like most Indians. Eat a big dinner before bed and your belly will get swelly. Every now and then I get meat cravings. Last night was a mutton thali, but despite charging 350 rupees they gave me bony, tough scraps of meat. Not happy with that, at that price you should get premium tender chunks of lamb that flake apart.
>>2870323aren't you in south india where they cook chicken and lots of meat-lamb samosas, i'd be ordering ten samosas to go with the sparse morsels you keep posting and calling food, and indians are skinny fat because of the buffalo chai they drink, buffalo milk has a lot of fat
>>2870309Wow bro some pancakes and diarrhea oil. What a great healthy meal.
>>2870578Go to a tandoori joint and you can make the owner's day by eating every meat item on the menu. It won't be dirt cheap, however. Two medium-sized pieces of grilled chicken will run you about ₹250. Mutton has gone up in price a lot lately. Few years back a mutton rice plate or mutton biryani cost $2, now most places charge $3.50. If you're a proper American steakhouse-tier carnivore, you'd eat about $5 worth of mutton in a sitting. >>2870580Perhaps. Been having a lot of putrid farts lately, butthole chronically sore and inflamed. But no watery shits. Diarrhea is for wimps whose gut literally has a meltdown over a little spoilage or contamination.
>>2870578This ₹250 chicken thali had a large portion of savory boneless pan-fried chicken, chewy but otherwise great. The broth was boiled down until the chicken herb flavor was amazingly intense. So good for dipping the roti. Muh "90% rice Asian food" meme BTFOYou don't need as many calories in a hot climate as you do in a cold one, even when you're active.
Two cups of chicken in the last pic BTW. They just raised the price from ₹200 to ₹250, evidently it came with a portion size increase as well. Rare to spend good money and not feel stuffed afterwards, unless you order seafood.Picrel an abandoned chapel on an Indian Army base that allows visitors to climb up to Purandar Fort. Two bus rides and one (free) motorbike ride to get there from Bhor. Friendly and helpful people all around, although the first guy who gave me a ride seemed a little off, like he was homosex. He also believed that repetition could magically overcome the language barrier, ignoring my repeated insistence that I don't understand Marathi.
>>2870603Might just be the heat, it messes with my guts in weird ways personally. I with I could stand the sun like you, these days I've been lazy all day and do my shit from 5pm to 8pm basically.At least I've got a place with a terrace and a nice view.
>>2870615Normies will simply never understand the appeal of this view. It's not something that can be put into words. It's something that can only be understood once you've experienced it.
>>2870653Do Indian normies understand it?
>>2870615Lounging after a big meal is a bad idea, and resting your laptop on your belly while lounging is even worse. You're farther south than I am, and you have no wall of mountains blocking out the oceanic humidity like there is here at 700 meters elevation on the edge of the Deccan Plateau. Dry breezes are common in midday, and temps have been reaching 31-33 C. It feels a lot like Colorado during a dry summer desu, and plenty of Americans enjoy the outdoors in those conditions. 3-4 liters of water necessary for each outing, which does fuck up your electrolyte balance. The rehydration drink boxes are only 20 rupees at any pharmacy, however.
https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/cities/delhi/story/delhi-man-shoots-chest-friend-video-new-ashok-nagar-pawan-2882992-2026-03-17The things people will do for Internet immortality. Anyone have the webm?
>>2870653Anon has a shitty phone camera and took a photo at midday. If he had a telephoto lens and captured only the rugged flanks of the mountain towering over the big red tree under the golden rays of the evening/morning sun, then you would get a sense of what it's like to actually be there looking at the view.
I hate having power lines in my vista shots tho. They ruin the perspective with their ugly straight lines. Stroked this big boi as he entered his burrow on the riverbank in Shirwal. He quickened up the pace a bit and shortly disappeared underground.
>>2870806The shitty phone camera adds an extra level of Indianness
>>2870815Most Indian phone addicts have $200+ phones, which they likely buy on credit. I like my $65 motorola phone, but two hours of screen time runs the battery down to 40%. Indians are always shocked when I tell them how little I paid for my phone. Virtually 100% of my positive interactions here are with men. Same with past travels to Poland and the Philippines. Women are rude and obnoxious, men are friendly and polite. It's always women shoving their way onto the bus to grab the best seats. I can be standing right next to the door waiting to board and ten women will push in front of me. One time the women were crowding so close that people could hardly get off the bus. I put my elbows at my sides and plowed right through them. Bitches love to push men aside, but they sure hate to be pushed back, kek
Met a 40yo blonde woman today, here for some spiritual retreat at the local ashram. She landed in Chennai then took a private taxi straight to her place then didn't go more than 500m away since she arrived 12 days ago because she didn't feel safe.Took her for a 5 hours walk around the city and some nature, she enjoyed it but less than me I think even if it's my daily routine.She got so much attention, especially from women, and it was a bit stressful for me after sunset, glad I don't have to deal with this daily.>>2870818The worst I've seen is Vietnam where girls must have the latest 1000$ iPhone. Heard about family businesses lasting generations who went bankrupt because they had to finance one for their daughter.
While drinking beers in the abandoned cottage I met a couple scrawny young guys who showed up for similar purposes. One of them was drunk and exuberant, the other smoked ganja only and was much quieter. The ganja was Maharashtra village grown and 10x better than the godawful brick weed from Odisha, although potency was quite low. Eventually the drunk dude started being an asshole, despite (or because of) me buying him a beer. He wanted to drink at a dargah, which I knew was disrespectful and refused to bring out the beer. We went to the river, met some rapper guy who was also a good swimmer. Word got around, and soon while cooling my heels on the shady stone steps I looked up and saw the guy from the dosa shop I frequent watching me from the top of the wall with his friends. They seemed to indicate that I should leave that drunk guy, but I liked the river too much. When he started throwing one of my pomegranates up in the air, I got mad. A hungry old man caught it and began eating it like a monkey. I stalked off indignantly as usual when the conduct of newfound "friends" is deemed unacceptable. Theft or attempted theft is my one big red line.
Mango rains arrived today, boiling up over the peaks and dumping fat raindrops on the parched Deccan plain. Everything smells like a recently extinguished campfire. Of course the streets are full of filthy puddles, so I took off my sneakers and walked barefoot back to my room. No, I don't think I want to visit India during monsoon. The countryside looks paradaisical, but the wet streets are too fucking messy for a foot traveler. Passing vehicles regularly splash your legs. Water pours off of every roof onto your head. Dry spaces become extremely crowded, especially during downpours. Pigs start fornicating in plain sight, and large toads hop cluelessly into the drenched streets.
I got so close to the walls of Rajgad Fort climbing a barely-used trail recently hacked through the brush. But this one portion was unacceptably dangerous. A slippery slope of crumbled gravel on the side of a ravine, without the smallest rock to use as a foothold. Basically, it is an emergency escape route from the fort through a gap in the south wall. The trail was well-blazed with orange ribbons, which is how I found it in the first place starting from the backside of a tiny temple on the benchland below.
Rajgad fort from a distance. The main trails enter the fort at each end of the ridge. Originally I intended to visit a ridgetop temple located a couple km from the foot of Rajgad, but the trail to the top of the fort passes along the base of that ridge before cutting a grueling route straight up the mountainside. Picrel is GPS location pins I dropped along the way, as the route was a little tricky to find at times (even with the excellent trail markers). So close, but no cigar.Also failed to get breakfast or lunch. They dropped me off at the restaurant, but the place was not yet open, and the owner was surly like a bad cook who only has disgruntled customers. 3.7 km of road walking til the turnoff, then 5.8 km of winding curves to get to the temple at the end of the road, then at last the trekking route to Rajgad begins (which was not on any map). All the while I hurried, thinking that the return bus would arrive 2 pm like the conductor told me. I made it back by 1:57 only to be stuck waiting for two hours.
The area was scenic and very tranquil. Temps surprisingly cool, barely reaching 30° with moderate humidity.
Yesterday was bazaar day. Lots of unripe fruit on offer, buyer beware. Mostly veggies. I wish I could eat a big dish of Indian veggies for breakfast, but the eateries are so limited in what they want to prepare. Only with dinner do you have a good choice...at 300+ rupees a meal, of course. And even at that price so many places skimp you on veggies or paneer. The good places make you forget about all the lame meals you've eaten, they are that good. It's basically a matter of luck for a traveler. Appearance means nothing, and reviews are all AI-generated marketing snippets. Even menu pictures are often stock images. You see many cafes advertising delectable beefy looking burgers, but what you get is a sad flat disgusting little "burger" with no pettuce, no tomato, nothing but a thin patty with zingy onions and some slop sauce.
Upon the parched and thirsty Deccan, where the crumbling eaves of a forgotten habitation offered a shelter of dubious merit, I didst find myself sequestered with a pair of scrawny striplings, their countenances marked by the disparate humors of the vine and the verdant herb. One was a creature of bacchic excess, loud and overflowing with a coarse and boisterous spirit, while his fellow remained a silent votary of the Maharashtra leaf, a rustic harvest far surpassing the wretched, brick-pressed weeds of the Odisan marshes. The mango rains began their heavy descent, boiling over the stony peaks to quench the gasping plains with fat and sudden drops. This exuberant knave, ungrateful for the barley-brew I hadst so freely provided, soon turned his tongue to insolence, demanding we profane the sanctity of a holy Dargah with our revelry, a sacrilege I wouldst not brook. We retreated instead to the river's edge, where a swimmer of some local renown didst appear amidst the rising waters, even as the watchful guardian of the dosa-shop—he who knows my daily bread—signaled from his high stone perch that I shouldst abandon such low company. The mango rains turned the air to a thick and fragrant steam, redolent of campfires long extinguished. My patience didst finally shatter when this drunkard, in a fit of senseless thievery, cast my pomegranate into the firmament, only for it to be snatched from the air by a withered, ancient mendicant who devoured the crimson seeds with the frantic hunger of a forest ape. I took my leave in high and righteous indignation, for I shall never suffer the hand of a pilferer, stalking barefoot through the gathering mire of the thoroughfares. The mango rains have rendered the world a paradisiacal emerald in the distance, yet beneath one's feet, they offer only a wretched slurry of filth and puddle, where the swine fornicate in the open deluge and the witless toad leaps blindly into the gray and drenching gloom.
>>2871165LMAO, this is good
Quite an evening in Velhe. Half a dozen teashop loiterers got the whole police station involved to resolve the matter of me not receiving a room key for the mountainside cabin I rented, and then being locked inside the property like an ox while the caretaker went shopping. I was pretty mad about having to climb over a barbed wire fence to escape. Also, talk from the owner's young son had me worried, demanding 2000 rupees for "securing" my luggage while I was trekking, i.e. holding it hostage by locking my room door while I was away. Two hours and thirty conversations later, I have an apology from the owner, a room key and a promise that I won't be locked inside the compound again.
Dude went snooping in my room while I was bathing in the outside bathroom...I heard him unlatch my door, and he was standing next to my open door when I finished. Of course I brought my money into the shower with me...basic travel sense, never leave your cash out of your reach. He continued lurking around, seeming to demand a tip for giving me a motorbike ride, or rather demanding that I drop my business in town and ride back with him. But then my phone crashed to the floor from its perch on top of the outlets and I yelled some cusswords seeing the back was shattered. He retreated to his room and didn't bother me any more. After a sleepless night on a stack of camp pads, I set out for Torna Fort at daybreak.
Holiday weekend started yesterday; seems like there is some kind of holiday every week here. It gives the people something to look forward to. Couple days back there was a Hindu nationalist speech in the road near my hotel in Bhor. The message was clear: Islam is the historic enemy of Hindustan and should be treated as such. The speaker went into detail about the tortures Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the captured Maratha king, endured at the hands of Aurangzeb's minions for his refusal to convert to Islam. Several hundred children listened with rapt attention from a huge carpet spread in the road. I ate some more food, then came back half an hour later. The stage and crowds and police had all vanished. Muslims about town looked butthurt and angry, but then again they always do. The hatred felt by Abrahamics for idol worshippers persists to this day.
At ₹2000 or $21.50 per night it's the priciest room of my trip so far. But it mogs all the poorfag rooms with its 36 fuckin wall switches. (Yes, I counted them.) Fridge, terrace, tea/coffee service, and the obligatory "let me follow you into the roo- GAHH I HATE FANS TURN IT OFFFF!!!!" mosquito. Velhe village is full of friendly people who go out of their way to help a visitor. Yes, it feels good to go somewhere that's a bit exclusive and be welcomed. >why are you so frugal?Because the math works. Sixteen weeks in, I have a solid baseline of frugal daily spending established. Average $20 a day for 16 weeks, then you can visit a pricier country, spend $80 per day for four weeks, and still end with a 20 week daily average of $32 - less than $1000 per month.
>>2871555Do you plan your route in advance or do you just wing it? Thinking about doing a shoestring trip in provincial Thailand
And how do you handle your car insurance when you're gone 75% of the year?
Back in the city, wanted to see the sea and opted for Chennai, 6th day and still didn't see any westerner and many locals come to me for selfies. Thought it would be touristy but everyone is in Pondicherry.My first appartment was full of big flying cockroaches, owner came and stomped them with the toilet brush but they'd come back from the drains constantly. I knew I had no chance to get my money back for the 3 last nights but just decided to flee when I was shitting while they ran under my feet.It's busy as fuck but I like this kind of chaos.>>2871555Looks like you got real curtains. Crazy how they usually don't care about the sun and even high end hotels will provide white transparent ones who don't block anything.>>2871603>>2871609Not him but it's easy to wing it in those countries because worst case scenario you pay 20$ and someone will drive you to the nearest town and find you a place to sleep.If you travel long enough it's good to get rid of expenses at home but sometimes it's too painful and not worth it.I never travel for less than 18 months so I cancel everything and leave my appartment, but keep an insurance in my country that covers everything that can happen to me anywhere in the world, very costly but I'll always keep it.
>>2871657Had my worst meal in the country, thought it'd be some grainy balls like falafels but it was spongy as fuck, also looking at it doesn't help.
>>2871603I try to plan the next day's travels before going to sleep, but getting information about these remote parts of India can be so damn difficult, leaving you stuck loafing around all day (which is boring as fuck). Thailand should be easier, as your choice of bus or train-accessible destinations is so much smaller than in India. The villagers don't know anything most of the time, because 85% of households have motorbikes and hardly ever ride public transport. People kept telling me there is no bus going past Velhe, but when I am walking past Gundavane Dam at sunset, I get passed by two S.T. buses. Even asking the driver of the one bus that had stopped was difficult. Indians are not good at intuitive logic. They get puzzled so easily and require 1000 words to communicate the most simple questions & answers. Not written communication either, because they are barely literate; only spoken words suffice. Photos can be very helpful as well. I showed the driver a blurry picture of the destination sign placed in his filthy bus windshield. At last he named the destination of the bus. Kumble. Ah, I could've gone to the brink of the Madhe Ghat waterfall today if I had only known that a bus to Kumble passes through town. >>2871658Do the poop-covered bread balls have a name? This room has a lot of ants in the bathroom, but I haven't had to deal with roaches in many weeks.>>2871609State Farm let me suspend my insurance coverage on the only trip I took overseas while owning a car. Registration renewal was also a concern, and my boss was not happy about having my shitbox sitting in his parking lot all winter.
>>2870605>>2870312Your food looks amazing. I can't eat meat, oil or butter without getting painful acne on my face. Would you consider it impossible to visit India without eating any of that? They seem to love oil and gee.When I travel in other countries, I ask for plain noodles or rice, get sushi, cook at my hotel, eat lots of fruit, buy loafs of bread and pre-boiled eggs.I don't know why my body is incapable of dealing with fats like other people, but eating fats is not worth looking and feeling bad on a vacation
Rubbish in most places here is concentrated in dumping areas. They can be very foul-smelling, but walk 50 meters and you don't even know they exist. Using creekbeds as rubbish dumps is one of the worst Indian habits I've seen. Yes, people deliberately throw/dump trash in waterways intending for a flood to wash it all away downstream. Oh, people live downstream? Huh, whatever. If they want clean water they can buy Bisleri.
>>2871721Religiously wash your face with soap and water after every meal. If I forget, a pimple usually pops up to remind me.
>>2871730damn dude, you're a character.
>>2871730Nigga chose the jeet life
>>2870950>took a private taxi straight to her place then didn't go more than 500m away since she arrived 12 days ago because she didn't feel safe.Did it seem like she questioned her spiritual/religious devotion? Like "if my saving grace brought me here... oh no... there is no god"?
>>2870307>India general
Just completed my first daytrip by riding along in private vehicles. A family man with his wife and two daughters offered me a ride to Madhe Ghat while eating breakfast at a little dosa shop. He stopped on an upward slope when his tires briefly spun out and had his daughters put rocks behind the wheels, because evidently he couldn't use all three pedals at once. (Automatics are rare in India.) He drove a few km past his resort to drop me off at the turnoff to Madhe Ghat. The edge of the plateau, unremarkable rolling green hills abruptly giving way to a dropoff of up to 500 meters. Below, the low parched plain spreading away to the industrial outskirts of Mahad. The waterfall being dry, visitors were scarce and the eateries were closed. A local man took me 4 km up the hilly road on his motorbike, where I had lunch, and the eatery owner flagged down a passing vehicle driven by a jovial and prosperous Brahmin who dropped me off at my resort in Velhe. Nobody wanted money for the rides.The shared taxis are supposedly honest and not prone to ripping off foreigners. However, one old lady got shorted 100 rupees on her change and loudly reminded the driver just before he continued on. Lots of carelessness with making change here The 30 km ride from Cheladi to Velhe cost 60 rupees, with shorter distances costing less.
Looking forward to my venture tomorrow to a small village near Rajgad Fort. Plenty of cash remains; I brought about $220 worth of rupees along, not expecting to find any usable ATMs in these small villages. In general I keep $90-180 USD worth of cash on hand, enough to provide travel flexibility for extended stays in the countryside.
>>2870309looks better than pancakes!
>>2871897you better watch your step when taking these photos. looks like the dirt under your feet can slip away at any time
>>2871730You look like Rick Steves in the 80s
>>2872063Raised doorjambs and random small steps inside buildings will teach you quick to watch your step here no matter where you go. Even when stepping into the bathroom.It's rapidly getting hot again after that brief rainy cool spell. 96° F (36° C) and 17% humidity inside this restaurant at noon. Tin roof baking in the sun. Low humidity and a fan's breeze makes it bearable on the inland side of the mountains. Once you have become heat-adapted, your sweat glands limit perspiration to the bare minimum that is necessary for cooling. Only when your body temp rises beyond normal due to exertion do you start dripping sweat uncontrollably - a warning sign that heat exhaustion is imminent. Germanics have a love of baking in the hot sunshine, but Celtics OTOH may not have the capability to handle 35°+ weather without getting red as a cherry and feeling like they are burning up inside.
>>2872081There is no such thing as heat adaption you fucking retard. If you stopped sweating it means you are dehydrated.
Every time I check in on slumtard he has come up with some new and retarded psuedoscientific bullshit he tries to casually pass off as wisdom.Honestly its a little bit entertaining, but I do wonder what made him this way.
White privilege is insane in Chennai for some reason, at least in restaurants. Long queues for the popular ones but they just give me the first available table and the owner/manager will come personally to take my order and go in the kitchen to make sure I get it asap.I usually avoid hotels but the one I fled in is nice, except the owner has a switch to turn off rooms AC from his office and does it even when I'm there. I wake up in sweat too.>>2871721You can find rice anywhere and they're usually flexible so I'm sure you can eat out and just ask for specific ingredients. Or just do like usual with groceries and cooking. >>2871706They were called millet podi idli, 125 rupees.>>2871730You look like a local, maybe I should buy some clothes here to stop looking like the most oblivious tourist.
>>2872126It's tropical here, apparently cockroaches are a huge problem everywhere and there are many midges traveling in swarms. Monsoon season has to be crazy.
Rajgad Fort has four different layers of ramparts, with the king's palace occupying a level clearing on a huge natural buttress of rock jutting up from the middle levels. Morning weather is still beautiful and cool for the ascent, but very few visitors are around. A local friend set me up with lodging & dining at a rustic hotel. Pay at checkout. So far it's been good. They are simple, patient, unexcitable village folk...and so am I. The dinner they cooked was fkn delicious, cashew butter masala with dal, rice and five butter chapati. Served at 7:15 pm. I had only eaten a melon and 400 calorie poha all day, while walking about 13 km roundtrip to the base of Torna Fort. Metabolic efficiencymaxxing. >>2872101It's called not having a thick layer of insulation, i.e. being fat. Body temp is 98° F, so a heat-adapted person should be able to handle temps up to 94° with minimal sweating. Also don't be an Ameriglutton eating so much food. Excess eating makes you feel overheated and in need of A/C when it's only 33°. I eat very light before my treks and therefore dissipate heat very well. >>2872126"Guest is god", Indians say. I like the millet bhakri they serve here in Maharashtra at the rustic eateries, the taste is so wholesome and sits well in the belly. Not a fan of idli, however. Too thick and plain, poor people food at ₹10 each.>>2872127When the insectivore birds are feeding their young, you will notice a stark decline in flying pests. I think now it is breeding season for most species. Raininess surprisingly can have an inverse correlation with prevalence of mosquitoes, as the formerly stagnant filthy pools are now flowing and clean.Anywhere that eating in the room is discouraged, roaches are uncommon. Sounds like the places you are staying are neglecting both room cleaning and fumigation if roaches are everywhere. Long-stay guests like migrant workers are to blame because they cook and eat in their rooms to save money.
Relying on rides from people I meet is something new, but so far it has gone great. The ultimate no-planning trip; everything is figured out as you go along. BTW as a guest you should never say "no" to an offer of tea or some other thing. It is rudeness to refuse. Better to sip just a little and then leave it if you really don't want tea. In India you don't have to fake effusive gratefulness. They prefer genuine expression here, so if your personality is unemotive, you can be yourself without anyone holding a grudge against you like they do in America. >>2872016No sugar in dosa, unlike most pancake breakfasts.
Also got to see the spot where I tried and failed to ascend the steep mountainside from Male village. >>2871130 Even from the top it was hard to tell how the trail reaches the level of the ramparts.
Some dude told me about an uncle feeding parrots every day at 4pm nearby so I went thinking you can just show up, see them arrive, eat their seeds and leave.Actually it's quite popular and you need a booking. Seeing a white dude they just let me skip the queue and go in then gave me the vip seat next to the owner while he was making his speech about the circle of life and shit and made me feed them while the aunties giggled.
>>2872354I think it's my last day in Chennai, city is exactly how I imagined India to be but one week was more than enough.If I wake up with enough motivation I'll just go to the main bus station and take one.>>2872273It has to be one of the easiest country on earth to hitch hike, I didn't do much but the 2 times I was kinda stuck on the way back of a day trip I didn't have to wait at all.
>>2872354Woah that's a lot of parrots>>2872355I just returned to the city Pune after months in smaller places, not liking it very much. Villagers are gentle and curious, while city dwellers are indifferent and stressed, not giving a fuck. The cramped little eateries serve much cheaper food than the village restaurants do, however. Lugged my 14 kg bags up a steep hill to find a non-existent hotel. Another fraudulent listing on MMT and Google Maps. You don't find those in the villages either.
Goods in India are trash tier. Check out the atrocious performance of my new mobile battery, installed for an excessively high ₹1200 at a phone shop in Satara after the old one developed voltage issues which had the phone blacking out at random. It's rapidly losing capacity after only a few weeks of usage. In the time it took to type this post, it already dropped to 41%.
>ah nice, a hilltop garden overlooking the city! >the disappointing view once you get to the edge of the garden - a bunch of ugly houses crowded up against the boundary>at least the neighbors are quiet respectable poors who live up here to get away from noise, not to make it>manager tried to charge me 2500 for a standard A/C room, I had to show him the online listing to get it for 2000>le 10/10 rated location is awful for walkability, hardly anything within a kilometer>saw a mean autodriver yanking on a yowling cat's tail as it was squeezing through a narrow gap between concrete pillars>the cat broke free and he laughed his ass off with his thuggish friends, slapping their backsFuck auto drivers. Scammy pieces of shit driving their filthy little machines around, clogging up the roadsides and harassing passengers at every station.
Whew, escaped the concrete jungle on the Pimple bus - two buses in fact, because the #294 I intended to take was not running. Not sure how people can visit India and spend all their time in its cities. I guess they just lounge around their luxe hotel room for most of the day, because even two hours of walking the city streets feels so wearying. Tough to get used to the surly dismissive attitudes and constant impatience after weeks of being treated like a VIP in the slower-paced small towns. You become grumpy and indifferent and unappreciative, just like everyone around you. The reception poster said this room was ₹1400, but after griping about the broken elevator and lack of amenities in the ₹2000 deluxe rooms, I was offered the budget room for ₹1000. Seems every property over the last couple weeks has gone through the same ritual of quoting an inflated rate upfront, then offering a "discount".
It wasn't humid when I set out for the lake under the hot afternoon sun, but a wave of mugginess arrived in the still of the evening, turning the sky various shades of soft pastel. There is a barely used motorbike path along the lakeshore that is perfect for a peaceful stroll through the sticky calm. The Indian countryside is no end of discovery; there is always something to find if you care to look for it. No A/C in my room because I was counting on low humidity. Oh well.
Tomorrow, Sinhagad Fort, the last one on my list. The next 3½ months of travel are a blank slate. Take it one day at a time and trust that everything will work out OK in the end.
Unseasonal rainstorms have returned again for the afternoon. Nice to sit on the balcony hearing the pitter-patter, feeling the balmy breeze and inhaling the odor of burning junk from the crematorium or incinerator adjacent, whose smokestack is right on a level with my third-floor room.Pimple metro bus conductors never put the destination I specify on the ticket. They always input a place 5 stops farther along to raise the ticket price.
There was a natural stone cave full of clear water on top of the mountain. Everyone was dipping the pail to fill their water bottles; evidently the water is blessed by god. Not wishing to be blessed with the kind of blowout bowel movement that afflicted one trekker, who left a giant pile of shit right in the middle of the mountainside trail, I stuck with my Bisleri.
One last daytrip tomorrow will finish my wanderings around this area. Restlessness has set in after four months of slow travel. I want to ride for hours and hours until the land looks nothing like these parched, waterless hills baking under a hazy sun. Verdant Himalayan forests towering over rushing creeks, that's more like it. Interestingly, Nepal only recorded 250K Indian tourist arrivals last year. Meaning that despite its proximity to a billion people, Nepal is barely even visited by jeets...far less so than its neighboring Indian states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, or Jammu & Kashmir. Of course one can expect an inferior array of lodging and dining options in impoverished Nepal, but also absent will be the touts and the price gougers and the tourcattle and the rich assholes driving aggressively in their shiny new cars - or Thars.
Nights are getting much warmer lately, but days are staying around 33°, significantly cooler than cities out on the Deccan plain like Solapur - which have been routinely hitting 40°. With humidity low, the climate here in the Western Ghat is significantly less oppressive than Southeast Asia. The koels, mostly silent for the winter apart from an occasional kerfuffle, have begun their "U-WUU" breeding calls. I love hearing them, and they help keep crow populations in check (whose cawing is far more obnoxious). Future itineraries have narrowed down with the purchase of a $520 BKK to LAX flight in July. For an intermediate destination, India's flight options out of New Delhi are far more numerous than Nepal's poorly served Kathmandu airport. Thankfully, Kathmandu to Bangkok ($180) is well-served, if hardly a bargain. That flight will be the final link completing my circumnavigation of the Earth. 30 or 90 days in Nepal? I think the country is worth up to 90 days. No need to loaf around Thailand for another 60 days, that's for sure. Already been there done that. Thailand is peak comfy, but it doesn't offer anything close to the landscapes of Nepal. I'd get bored and return to smoking weed in my room all day and shambling down the flat streets like any other lazy loser farang, instead of adventuring around the base of the world's most tremendous mountain range and feeling the exhilaration of the high altitudes.
Also worth noting that AQI in India has improved greatly with the onset of summer breezes. The dusk sky is so clear and bright tonight. USA tier air quality, basically. Some days it still gets hazy, but nothing like the constant pall of January, which at times was so thick even the midday sun cast no shadow.
Well, the Sahyadri tour is finished. Once again went door to door in several parts of Pune to get the "fuck off, we're full" treatment from every hotel. No choice but to go back to the same dilapidated budget hotel I stayed at last time. 1400 for a room with an ice-cold A/C unit, about as good a price as I've seen on this trip. It's quiet and clean and comfy here, which is great because the fucking laundry is going to take five fucking days to be ready. And no, I'm not paying 2x for your expedited service either. Pune definitely has a big city mentality. Everyone is hustling and grinding, competing and distrustful of each other. Plenty of luxury is available, but it comes at a steep price. Here it's a guarantee that every idler who approaches you in public has some sort of hustle up their sleeve, so being anti-social is the only way to go. Completely different from all the friendly and hospitable rural places I've visited over the past few months. It's remarkable how many light-skinned people there are here compared to the villages, where everyone is mid to dark brown. Many of the upper class Indians would easily pass for white in muttmerica. The city girls prefer modern Asian styles too, which is also not at all the case in the villages where they all dress in colorful sarees. They are all pouting and make-up caked and spoiled with fine living, unlike the dutiful and obedient village girls who don't even understand the concept of looking sexy.
Waiting out a thunderstorm in the museum atop Parvati Hill. Power is out, so I can't see the exhibits I paid ₹30 to see. Lots of wind and thunder, only a little rain. There's really no reason to hurry on to some faraway place when 64 days still remain for this stay. Pune is quite livable as Indian cities go. In the airtel shop there was a naggy middle-aged pajeet with a Trinidad and Tobago passport who had gotten approval to reside in Pune. It's considered one of the best metro areas in India.
India-bro any cool parts of India I can live through June-August and just low-key live and work remotely, maybe socialize and party too, that would not be unbearably hot? I was thinking Kerala because I like socialism or Goa because I like techno.However it will be monsoon season in Goa (and In most of India?) so there will be 0 parties and no people to meet?Trying my last attempt at breaking out of my shell of an alienated 30 yo loser, is India at that time of year good for that?I think you recommended some up-and-rising city in India, maybe somewhere in Kerala state, which has good and cheap accomodations?
>>2873297Plenty goes on during monsoon, and the south will be cooler & cloudier than the north in June. Goa is slammed with domestic holidayers, more than ever before - it's only foreign arrivals which have declined. Monsoon is the locals' favorite season, because the temps are mild, mist shrouds the hilltops, waterfalls cascade down slopes and everything is impossibly green. India becomes like a magical fairytale landscape, when viewed from afar. Up close it is a messy slog; India has limitless quantities of dirt and filth, so no amount of rainfall is capable of cleaning a cityscape. Overall, life goes on in rain season much the same as it does in sun season. Social opportunities are very unpredictable here. It's impossible to predict what your experience in a certain city will be like, or what kind of people you will fall in with. Just like the traffic, you can only react to things as they develop. Today I saw a tall, balding white guy in his 30s with a longish fringe of flaxen-colored hair being surrounded by a covey of college-age admirers at an overlook as lightning steaked in the background. One guy was video recording him as he spoke. Your expressiveness has to be more normie tier to make friends in the city, I feel. In the smaller towns they like eccentric guests, so the odder the better.
Gas shortage has been a huge PITA for dining here in the city. I literally can't find basic-bitch Indian food for dinner; no restaurant will cook it. Many places are shut down entirely. In the village you'd hardly notice anything is amiss, because they've seamlessly reverted to cooking most foods with firewood. But in the city, only electric cooking is an option, and most businesses didn't invest in electric apparatus. Why would they? Power goes out almost every day in India. Cell service has become ridiculously slow for me as well. 45 seconds to upload a 3 MB file kind of slow. Old phones are getting denied bandwidth; only 5G-capable phones can scroll reels all day without a hitch.
>>2873311how much longer are you goin to be stuck there?
Slumdorks final adventure will be starving to death like a homeless leper, because he refused to pay more than $3 for a meal.
The new phone battery is evidently bulging, because the back case of my phone has popped loose on two sides. A mere 36 minutes of usage now runs the battery down to 50%. Last week it was 49 minutes. How long before the fucker bursts into flame? India fatigue has set in. Disappointing meals and shoddy rooms coupled with degraded and uninspiring urban surroundings are bound to do that. Tough to find motivation to go out and explore... IDC what you architecture fags think. Access to imposing structures like Shaniwarwada, Eiffel Tower or Taj Mahal does NOT substitute for actual quality-of-life enhancing amenities like easy daytrip access to spectacular vistas and beautiful nature reserves where you can be alone and active amidst the greenery.
Public toilets in the Pune metro are shockingly clean, just like the platforms and metro cars.>>2873402Lunch was 330. An okay veg thali with bland watery dal and stale chapati for 180, plus a yucky veg grilled cheese sandwich for 150. A pile of unmelted cheese shreds thrown on top of a sandwich that was nothing more than a few slices of cucumber and tomato plus a smear of mint chutney inside two slices of bargain-bin white bread.
>>2873403is that pune? go to lonavala. If you are coming to india just go to the mountains or kerala. I would skip everything else.
>>2873406Already visited Lonavla, so Narayangaon is looking like a better option for a two night respite from the city before returning to pick up my clothes from the stupid laundry place (which takes 96 hours to finish a 96 minute process) and then heading north for good, probably to Dhule on the ST bus. Junnar and Shivneri Fort would make the perfect daytrip from Naranyangaon.
Sneak over a wall behind a slum rubbish dump along the canal road and whoa, you're in a romantic Japanese garden full of couples and families. Evading the security guards who watch for people leaving the pathway. There were three of them, but they all stand together, making evasion not too difficult. I did get whistled at once, but moved along until I found a better spot to sneak into the perimeter greenery and move undetected toward the infiltration point.
The lazy security guards probably didn't even know about the back way in. You're supposed to pay an entry fee, but there was no entry along the east side, only a fucking wall. Wasn't about to walk in a big circle outside the boundary just to pay a fee for the privilege of walking in a smaller circle inside.
>get a downstairs room, yes it's quiet here>manager playing brainrot reels at 10:30 pm, clearly audible inside my roomIndians have zero sense of what quiet even means. Here's a test. How Third World are your surroundings? A good gauge is the number of times you have overheard the wheezy laughter soundbite - if you know, you know - play on somebody else's phone in the past month. Upwards of 100 times? You're in a very brown place. Zero, you're either in a white utopia or you never go outside.
Got a great deal on a used Oppo F15 at a local phone repair shop on a back street in Pune. The sticker price was ₹9000, but after spending half an hour heming and hawing over the various phones on offer, he offered it for ₹6500. You got a deal! Dual SIM capacity, and supposedly it is sold worldwide, so it is suitable for world travel. There was also a Samsung M32 5G on offer for ₹8000, but the camera on the cheap Samsung phones was rubbish. Glad I remembered to try the cameras before buying, because all sales are final.
>>2873450What is the wheezy laughter soundbite?
>>2873607It plays in just about every single humor reel that Thirdie scrolling addicts watch. After hearing it for the thousandth time, it becomes very annoying.My old SIM card expired today. Woke up and it was cut off from the network. The 21 days left on the 28 day recharge were lost as well. Now I had to dial 59059 to activate my new SIM and then begin the ordeal of finding a shop offering recharge for cash. The first shop was right across from the airtel store, run by a Sikh who gave off scammy vibes. He kept insisting that I only had one option, unlimited data, and turned off his screen when I asked to see the different options. No can do. Luckily I came across another mobile shack on a different street with a friendly and honest owner who got me back on the network. No, things don't become less of a PITA with time spent here. You only become more resigned to the tedious hassle involved with every simple task. Best to keep your to-do list for the day as short as possible. BTW new (to 4chan) devices are banned from uploading files here. once you've gone through the 4-page captcha rigamorole a few times, the file upload ban disappears.
>>2873450What forts would you recommend around Mumbai? I'll probably have 8 full days in the middle of May, thinking of 3 or 4 days for Mumbai and 4 or 5 days for some forts/countryside.
>>2873783>climbing forts in the middle of MayIt's been strangely rainy and cool lately, despite the calendar signalling the start of hot season...but May is usually the time of year where temps are around 30 C at the crack of dawn. You must bring at least 3 liters of water plus electrolytes, if not more.Mumbai has geographical constrictions which makes it very time-consuming to leave the city. Commuter traffic is also among the heaviest anywhere in India. Malanggad looks like a cool dingus shaped mountain not too far from Mumbai, but first you have to take the local train to Kalyan, then make your way to the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transit (KDMT) bus station to catch the #45 bus to Malanggad. There are many train stations in Mumbai where trains depart from, and once you get to the station indicated by Google Maps transit directions it will be a complete shitshow of hurrying passengers and minimal signage. Be sure to ask the harried ticket seller which platform you are boarding on. Fellow passengers unfamiliar with the route you are taking may direct you to the wrong platform rather than saying "I don't know". Personally I'd stay in a hotel in Kalyan if I wanted to climb Malanggad. Much less stress that way. There are other forts in that same mountain range as well as the hill station of Matheran, which is accessed by a very tedious hill-climbing railway that will bake you alive in a glass cage if you don't shell out for the A/C carriage.
>>2873447you should go to that part of india in gujarat, gir or whatever where packs of lions come out at night to hunt the cows in the streets
Lovely traffic jam last night, everyone making a right turn and blocking through traffic. Some old lady started remonstrating with the drivers and pleading with them to let the people through, because they were not letting anybody continue down the road. Eventually she got them to create a gap and the traffic surged through until some aggressive drivers blocked it off again. By the time the traffic police showed up from 1/2 km away, rush hour was already over. Took them over an hour, and even then one of them just stood scrolling on his phone while the other one directed traffic. India idolizes their politicians, puts their faces up on huge billboards all over the country, yet they are some of the most useless, lazy and incompetent bastards you will ever meet. With egos pumped up to the stratosphere, they act like lords rather than public servants. When they go out they are always traveling in a convoy surrounded by an entourage of cool-looking tough guys with gold chains and designer sunglasses who love their job of standing around looking cool and tough all day. Plus a whole bunch of assorted lackeys.
Rode seven hours on a bus to Chh. Sambhajinagar, a very unwelcoming city for foreigners despite being a big tourist destination - or hell, because of it. Only two hotels out of the fifteen or so near the bus stand would accept me. The rest refuse to fill out the C Form, claiming it can't be done. One was a back street dump I was led to by a tout, and they tried to charge me ₹1500 for a shitty non A/C room. Instead of giving me the proper ₹1200 rate listed on the card, still higher than the fair value of such a rundown room, the owner told me to get lost. So I ended up at the only designated foreigners hotel, with a choice between a muggy little single room facing the busy road for ₹1050, or a deluxe A/C suite for ₹2100. That's a huge spread, but feeling nauseated and filthy and tired, I chose the fancy option for 15 hours of rest before continuing north across the plains tomorrow. Yes, it's gonna get worse the farther north I go. I can sense it.
24 hour hotels are pretty nice. You can check in any time, and your checkout time is 24 hours after you check in. I arrived at this room at 8 PM, so now I don't have to leave until 8 PM today. In general, Indian hotels are very lax about check-in times, much more so than other countries.A couple days ago I ate a burger in Pune that had lettuce on it. Lettuce undoubtedly watered from one of the filthy reeking cisterns you see all over the countryside. Most other food crops filter out contaminants from irrigation water, but lettuce soaks them up. Unlike shartanon >>2873988 the experienced traveler knows not to push shit out into his undies regardless of what its consistency feels like. Helps to not be gay too. A virgin butthole is much better at retaining watery diarrhea without leakage.
An eleven hour sleeper bus ride while undergoing intestinal illness is not a good idea, particularly when you only notice that the bus has no washroom after you are on board and underway. However, such an experience is peak India. The bus was quite uncrowded; over half of the berths were empty. Other than the gut pressure and clenched butthole due to lack of bathroom breaks, the trip went all right. Parcel dropoffs necessitated a detour down a road so full of giant holes that I got thrown around like a rag doll on a few occasions. The railroad tracks outside my rundown hotel room in a quiet suburb on the fringes of Indore will likely be the next leg of my northward journey. Much flatland country remains to be covered before I will catch my first glimpse of the Himalayan foothills. A guy on a motorbike lingered around me after I arrived, trying to convince me to ride along with him... but eventually he got bored and left. He seemed to have ulterior motives, particularly when he said "you can trust me" out of nowhere. This is urban North India. You can't assume the best when random strangers approach you being vague about their intentions. >Posting from your IP range has been temporarily blocked due to abuse. Please verify your email address or try again later.It's part of the site's new crackdown on ban evasion. Any device which does not have a history of posting is automatically suspected of ban evasion and may be blocked from posting even if the captchas, waiting periods, and whatever other bullshit they think up is completed successfully. My laptop OTOH has a very long post history, so using the same data signal I only get a single challenge with three panes.
Been enjoying your blog posting, usually read a few of your posts to my mother on weekends.Peace be with you, God bless.
>>2874122hope to see some pictures of kashmir
Evidently my new phone doesn't have the standard Mossad backdoor surveillance package, because it triggers globohomo tech companies left and right. I even got captcha'd for a fucking Google search yesterday.>>2874242Kashmir is full of Muslims. It is also a place where everyone is trying to take you for everything that you got, because evidently the locals spend ten months of the year lollygagging around. Kashmiris are some of the smoothest liars on Earth. I met one recently, and that dude was as glib as they get. He brought me to a gem shop, but me and the owner got into talking politics and religion, and the owner closed the door to the gem cage as if to signal that I was coming as a friend and not as a customer. Seeing no further advantage to be taken from me, Kashmiribro got bored and wandered off without a goodbye.Uttarakhand looks like a much better option for mountain adventures. ST buses traverse most of the state, unlike Kashmir's transport mafia which doesn't allow travel options outside of their ripoff-priced services. Uttarakhand is almost 100% Hindu in the mountain regions as well.Immediately after the train pulled into the station at Ratlam, one burly guy forced his way on board through a bunch of old people and women, then shortly afterwards another big guy tried shoving his way upwards through the exiting passengers. But this time I was at the top of the stairs, and I made him back the fuck up and wait his turn. Welcome to the north, Land of Assholes. Last night some drunk youths tried forcing their way into my hotel room after midnight. I opened the door and they went from rapey to apologetic in half a second. A tranny also went around collecting money and patting people's heads on the train. Indians LOVE getting attention from tall trannies with charming mannerisms and deep voices; you should've seen them all beaming with happiness as they handed him/her some cash and got their little head pat.
>>2873402In India the price you pay for food is unrelated to its safety. The safest places to eat streetfood are the ones where food is flying off the shelves which tend to be the ones that cost like 50 cents lol. The tards who get raped by streetfood are the ones who go up to a jeet on the side of a dusty road who is trying to sell cold shit that has been sitting in dust clouds for 8 hours>>2874122nah peak india is when you settle down in a place and experience authentic community. you can get a decent RK even in delhi for 100 bucks a month or so, after you become a part of their daily life they treat you like family. peak india is living on $3 a day in squalor with lower middle class jeets for several months at a time. The pluralist civnat culture, the 180 day long visa, the extremely low cost of living, the nonmaterialist anticonsumerist deconstructions of modern capitalism that goes on in those hoods, you can‘t get that anywhere else in the world.
>>2874293>one burly guy forced his way on boardPreviously you emphasized women exhibiting this crude behavior. I guess you were further south at the time?>Last night some drunk youths tried forcing their way into my hotel room after midnight. I opened the door and they went from rapey to apologetic in half a second.Think they anticipated stealing or raping some local women?If you were to stab them with a screw driver, would the law side with you, them, or enforce justice without bias?They were probably scrawny fags. Did you consider educating them? I imagine any recourse would feel futile since there are 100s of thousands of retards like them
>>2874293>Last night some drunk youths tried forcing their way into my hotel room after midnight.whut? does the hotel not have a reception desk?
>>2874338>volume = hygeineI've seen this said many times, but do not believe it to be true. Many of the high volume kitchens have no time to spare for cleaning, so everything is fucking filthy. The towel used to wipe off your dish before the food is put on it has been used to wipe dirty water off 100 dishes before you. Street food is for people who are in a huge hurry; it's better to sit down at a proper restaurant if you want to eat leisurely. >authentic communityWhy would I want to be involved in the countless daily dramas of this human stew? Being a traveler gives you freedom from entanglement with the lives of other people. Most of what happens socially here would completely boggle the rational mind of a Westerner, because the backstory is so complex and intertwined with other backstories. You might be treated like a VIP by a bunch of villagers, but one small faux pas leaves one guy feeling slighted, and he starts spreading a pernicious rumor about you. Suddenly everyone has turned cold and hostile. You have no explanation for it either, because Indians are never going to speak the plain truth.>treat you like familyFamily are often treated worse than anyone else, kekTheir presence is completely taken for granted. Demands are levied on their time and energy without regard for their individual desires. >nonmaterialist and anticonsumeristThis is absolutely not the case in the cities. There wouldn't be so much rubbish strewn around if the slummies weren't constantly buying little items they didn't need. >>2874358Drunk Indians behave very repellently, and when they set their minds on some tomfoolery, it is very hard to convince them to fuck off. But you have to govern your response. Most Indians will become passive and non-threatening as soon as you show some menace. >>2874387The boys were staying in a neighboring room. I looked inside in the morning and it was a complete pigsty. They drank about $15 worth of beer.
I might go for the sleeper bus again for the journey northward, seeing as train tickets are impossible to reserve a day or two in advance unless you travel general class, and then the carriages are so full that you have to cram inside a reeking sleeper car lavatory area with barely any room for yourself, let alone your luggage. Sleeper bus is sheer luxury by comparison, even though the ride is full of bumps and jolts. Prices are quite reasonable as well for the best-served routes with plenty of competition. Poorly served routes can be price gouges. Pickup points can be very vague or inconveniently located as well, and you might struggle to figure out which bus is your bus.
>>2874412Post pics of your meals again, I liked seeing what was available there.>3.23MB>Mentioned having extremely slow internetYou could also compress your images before uploaded them here and probably get them 10x smaller without even noticing
>>2874409Volume is a foolproof way to not die. I never even got sick from a high volume placeYou’re too elitist and transient to enjoy India. Maybe a more superficial place like China is more suited for you, so you can go to random places, say hi, and leave after 5 minutes without having to engage with them on a deeper level.
>>2874413Currently using WiFi on my laptop. Phoneposting remains blocked. Hotel WiFi is usually good when it is functional and within range, but power outages always shut it off, and hardly a day goes by here without a temporary blackout.>>2874413Picrel is from a city restaurant, but a quiet part of the city that felt like a village. Price was 130 IIRC. There was a woven bird nest only 1 meter above the ground in a shrub growing right next to the dish washing area. The mama bird regularly flew in and out, but she didn't like getting attention. While human proximity was not deemed a threat, her instincts still treated the human gaze as predatory interest.>>2874423A healthy immune system can handle low-level bacterial contamination. But the most delicious, wholesome and lovingly prepared food I've eaten in India has always been at the low-volume rural restaurants. >engage on a deeper levelI've done that on a regular basis in my travels, but as an outsider, not as someone striving to become part of an in-group. I am not one of you, and that's the way it is going to stay. None of this globohomo melting-pot ideology where foreigners try to assimilate into local culture.
Would not recommend this local wine (cost $3.50 USD for a half bottle). Dinner sat like a sour lump in my belly afterwards, and eventually I got out of bed and puked it all up.
Rajendra Nagar was a remarkably quiet suburb of Indore. This was the main railroad street at 9 AM on a weekday. As wide and empty as small town America. Nearby was the RRCAT atomic research facility. There were several highly rated hotels on silent back streets suitable for high IQ scientists. All of this very different from the typical edge of an Indian city. But why go to Ratlam? Map autism. By starting in Ratlam, I would visit four states (Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi NCR and Uttar Pradesh) on my way north to Uttarakhand, versus going straight from Madhya Pradesh to Uttar Pradesh if I went north from Indore to Uttarakhand.Hotel rooms are definitely cheaper in the north than in Maharashtra. This place charges 800 for non A/C room and 1200 for A/C room. The room has a desk and cabinet and natural light, but ventilation is poor as the window is very high and cannot be opened. In Satara, a similar room with no natural lighting cost 1200 for non A/C and 1500 for A/C.
>>2874436Being a fake traveler in India is fake and gay. If you want to fake travel you can just go Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty etc. The narrative of a White man pozzing India is really cringe from a colonizer’s point of view. Rudyard Kipling was a proud White British man born in India, and even he said it‘s the White Man’s Burden to learn Hindi and colonize them. And he was right. After British occupation the Indians became smart enough to write their own Constitution and govern themselves on their own terms. That’s a feat that even the East Asian countries like China, Japan, and the Koreas couldn‘t accomplish.
Bangalore anon here, I didn't post much here because I was writing some shitty blog for my family and friends already.Spent 60 days total in India and I'm back home now, the silence is the biggest cultural shock, usable sidewalks feels weird too.The trip was extremely good and I can't wait to come back, I hope in November. Always felt safe, made friends (who were certainly just networking), didn't get sick except a very mild diarrhea 50 days in.I'll do more climbing next time, plan to bring a friend and go to famous spots like Hampi.The return was via Abu Dhabi and had to spend 14 hours in the airport, could hear drones being intercepted and we had to take shelter, some dude got hit 10km away.>>2874413My favorite was kesari bat, a dessert, almost ate it every day.
>>2874452Watching a movie in theater a Saturday night was one of the wildest experience actually. It's like you'd expect with people cheering and shouting, eating hot food, sound level so high I had to put earplugs.>>2874412I only took a sleeper once, it wasn't as comfy though. Worst part is no toilet and no breaks for the last 5 hours, since I drink 3-4 liters every day I can't hold that long.I put the curtain and peed in a bottle, with the bumps I peed on my white pants quite a lot. The crouched position was so hard to maintain I had DOMS for day.
>>2874452Based, why did you go back? Especially now
Indians on Reddit are complaining that the coolest spots in the Himalayas are all being ruined...by Indians. A chillum is a weed smoking pipe BTW.>>2874447>learn Hindi, you fake traveler!NoHindi is only spoken by half of Indians. Arrogant northerners will tell you that Hindi is THE national language of India, but southerners insist just as adamantly that Hindi is merely one of India's national languages, one which is not widely spoken in the south. They hold that English should be the lingua franca for business and public life throughout the country. Northerners undoubtedly snark back that English is the colonizer's language, not an Indian language, and independence demands that India have its own national language. Strangely, the friendliest people I met here in Ratlam were the Muslims. The Hindus have been mostly assholes. Opposite of my previous experiences in Maharashtra.>>2874453Speaking of popcorn I was eating some on the train when a gust of wind blew it onto the laps of the people across from me. I said "sorry", and they looked down, collected the handful of popcorn from their laps, and handed it back to me to eat. >dickhole too big to fit within the mouth of a 1L bottleSame problem here. I had just given up on pissing into the bottle without pissing all over myself when the attendant pulled back the curtain and told me that I could relieve myself outside during the halt. The bus I was on stopped about a dozen times to pick up and unload.>>2874465Too hot, perhaps. Another western disturbance is bringing highs of only 31 C to the middle of the country. But the forecast for a week from now is 39-40 C every day. Laying around in your A/C room all day is hardly a good trip.
>>2874482For me personally, Bengali speakers have been much more friendly than Hindi speakers to me. But at least learn the local language of wherever you are, why not open doors for yourself
>H. pylori infection can be acquired by consuming food prepared with soiled hands. Fuck. Just after getting over the last bout of diarrhea, a new ailment hits me right in the stomach. H. pylori gastritis symptoms:>Bloating and belching>Feeling full soon during a meal>Feeling overfull after a meal>Gnawing or burning sensations in the upper left abdomen>Heartburn>Indigestion>Loss of appetite>NauseaEvery single box, checked. Food has also started tasting yucky as well. At least when you have a really sour face, nobody tries to mess with you.
>>2874452>kesari batBased high protein semolina enjoyer. Glad you didn't get sick as fuck. I had to go to the hospital twice just for eye infections
India bro, how long have you been travelling, do you have a destination or deadline?I lived in Delhi in 2017, I think of it fondly and wish I could go back.
>>2874568>Limit of current India stay: May 30th>Crossing into Nepal for a 30-day stay is likely>Flight from Kathmandu (or North India) to Bangkok: TBD, but sometime after May 17th>Departure from Bangkok for America: July 15thKeep in mind that a foreigner on an e-Visa cannot enter India at a land border. So once you enter Nepal from a land crossing, your only option to continue on is to fly out of Kathmandu.>>2874562The south really has superior quality food. Lower population density + higher affluence = much more good food available.
>>2870307i am a chud white man who hates indian peopleswhy should i travel there
>>2874597Colonization. Read Rudyard Kipling
>>2874597Why would you hate people who are merely primitive heathens? India teaches you to be more tolerant and less hypersensitive. Just saw two dads on the train have words with each other after one dad spat out the open window and the wind blew it onto the sleeve of the dad sitting behind him. Once he acknowledged it with a "my bad", the matter was forgotten. Traditional conflict resolution without law enforcement involvement or threats of murder (i.e. stand your ground & concealed carry) is still an integral part of Indian culture.
>>2874465I'm on a 2 years vacation, I'll spend the spring and summer at home in Switzerland. They are nice seasons here, pic my room's view of the garden, 20° today.As he said, heat was starting to get bad in India and most of SEA and I've been 3 months alone, kinda homesick.I'll go back to Asia including India when it starts to get depressing here in October and then 10 months in south America with the gf.>>2874508That sucks and can happen anywhere anytime, at least you're not shitting every 30 minutes.>>2874483Languages are hard as fuck for most people, except if you only want the basics I guess. I speak 4 now but the amount of time and efforts it took me is insane.Traveling when you know the local language makes it way more enjoyable though and is so satisfying.
>>2874453>3-4 liters every dayfucking hell, this is overkill unless you are overweight
>>2874508h pylori is serious and extremely stubborn, make sure you treat it before it gives you ulcers and gastritis that could take years to heal because most people don't like changing diets, treat it immediately
Picrel is the perfect illustration of how tolerance is necessary when traveling India.>>2874633Drinking that much water is essential for even a lightly active white person to stay cool and hydrated in 35 C heat. Dry heat might feel more bearable, but that's only because your body's cooling system is running very efficiently. But by doing so it sucks so much water out of your skin. And if you smoke weed, now you have to add another liter or two because your lungs exhale much more moisture after deep hits of weed smoke.>>2874634It's so serious that half of everybody on earth has it in some form or another. Contaminated food may cause a flareup, but a functional immune system should bring it back under control shortly. No, taking antibiotics is not a good idea unless you are suffering from relentless diarrhea for 7+ days that doesn't respond to any natural remedy. Yes, after traveling Third World countries and making a few mistakes, you must accept the presence of low levels of all sorts of nasty bugs living in your gut, kept in check by your immune system. Can't remember the last time I sat on the toilet and pushed out a 10" solid log. You get used to it, it's part of the cost of living this kind of life. Prebiotics may help stop the occasional shart attack, however. It's really annoying to have burning hot sludge push up against the inside of your butthole at completely random moments, even if you can easily hold it in until you get to a toilet.
Chittogarh, Rajasthan has left a positive initial impression. People are friendly and happy to see a visiting foreigner. Even the train ticket reservation agent was extra helpful. People do seem less inhibited in the north than they are in Maharashtra. Some teenage clowns swerved at me from a passing motorbike (at low speed) and then continued on laughing when I yelled at them. A dude sat down across from me at the restaurant even though all the other tables were empty. He kept staring at me, then eventually began communicating across the language barrier. He gave me one of his chapatis and then kept trying to give me more food off his plate. I began to suspect him of trying to pull a "the foreigner agreed to pay for my meal" scam. Anyway I finished up before him, refusing his constant pleas for me to eat more food, and paid for my own meal only. Being an emotionally unreactive autist can serve you very well in India; as long as people don't cross my red lines, I let them do their thing without responding negatively. But I don't let them make my choices for me.Economic activity seems rather scarce in Chittogarh, despite this town looking rather sizable on the map. The streets are wide and have a fair bit of traffic, but it's a far cry from so many crossroads towns in MH where every square meter of space has some sort of business going on, and two cars can barely pass each other even on the main through streets. There are a huge number of mediocre budget hotels here, but I chose to stay in a heritage mansion hotel for Rs 1800 ($19 per night) because the setting was interesting. Picrel is the view outside my room window.>>2874631Wasn't expecting it to be so green in early April there. But Europe seems to be like that. Even northern France in December was surprisingly green. OTOH most of the USA turns brown in wintertime and doesn't green up until mid-April.
