Was going to say this. If you are indeed a female, I would NOT(!) got to India by yourself. Very high chance you will get raped.
If you want to travel abroad somewhere exotic that is safe, go to SE Asia. There is chance for SA anywhere, but if you keep your wits about you there, the chances are low.
Not sure what he considers a ‘very high chance’ and I’m not sure what the actual rate is, but pretty sure 99% or more don’t get raped. It’s more like you’re at a club with a LOT of over aggressive guys.
It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Most of the people were amazing, even the street dogs were mostly ok, some could get territorial.
Dont be dissuaded. Just be careful and plan on running loops in parks mostly.
You seem to be getting lots of answers from people who have never been there (and likely never been outside their state).
As one poster said, lots of India is breathtakingly beautiful and many of the people are incredible. That said, there are significant downsides and my wife won't go back. We found:
- The food is lovely but you will get sick. Everyone does. Plan to lose a few days of your trip due to staying in the bathroom.
- As a lone Western female you will get a lot of attention, particularly if you're blonde. This will be uncomfortable at times and you will need to think a lot more carefully about your safety.
- The country is stunning but to travel you need to go via the cities. These are hard. The poverty, sanitation and pollution is hard. To some extent this is cultural - the insides of their houses are spotless. Outside is for dumping the trash. We accidentally offended locals by leaving empty food boxes on the table in the train so we could wait to put them in a trash can. The locals' solution was to launch them out the window.
- If you can deal with all that you'll likely have an amazing time. If you haven't got some pretty good travel experience I'd recommend south-east Asia instead.
My experience travelling in India was quite bad. I found the constant begging for money exhausting. Everywhere I went and whatever I did there were people trying to get money from me. Any generosity or good will I had was completely worn out by the time I left. On several occasions I found myself surrounded by people with their hands out trying to get money from me. Every single person seemed to expect a tip. It ruined the experience for me and I don't care to go back.
I have traveled a decent amount in my life and I finally spend 2 month in India a good ten years ago. It was excellent. India is one of the most fascinating places to see on the planet. I can't speak to the solo female traveler issue but I am pretty sure women have done it, wrote books about it and there should be some advise on the internet about it as well.
For train travel I recommend looking at the website seat 61, the authority in train travel.
A beginner's guide to train travel in India, with information on train times, fares, & how to buy tickets, Indrail passes, Indian train travel tips plus photos of what trains are like in India. Advice on where to go in India....
I would urge you to consider traveling somewhere else. You need to consider your safety in many respects. 1. Running in the roads isn’t safe
2. The water is not drinkable. Think you are going to just get some water after your run (in the heat)? Better have thought ahead and bought some bottled water.
3. The food will make you sick. I basically starve myself when I have to go there and can’t stick to the hotel food. My companions usually try to be adventurous and end up on the toilet.
4 You will stand out like a sore thumb. The potential to be attacked isn’t crazy but it’s also not insignificant
The scenery in India isn’t anything special. Spend a bit more and go somewhere more civilized.
Solotraveling in India for a month…what am I in for?
Out of the 25 worst polluted cities in the world, 13 are in India.
500 million Indians sh!t out in the open EVERY DAY.
Here's an short article describing more of what you can expect in India. (Warning - I don't think you can handle the truth.)
You MUST replace the "!" in the word "sh!thole" in the URL below with a "i" (Letsrun won't let me post the real URL because they say the URL is profane.)
Pretty hilarious that anyone would link to or read something from the NYT or anyone associated with it. While I'm sure there is toxic waste flowing in the gutters of Indian slums, it probably isn't as putrid as what emanates continuously from the NYT.
One of my college teammates went to India for a conference once and said that that 'some guy' tried to tackle her into the bushes while she was jogging. No way to verify the story's veracity -- but you night want to carry some kind of weapon and jog either in wealthy areas or in deserted areas. Also probably depends on how fast and strong you are... I reckon if you can outrun or outwrestle most men then you might have fewer worries.
They defecate on the street, but I suppose that's no different to san francisco.
There are only a few thousand people pooping in the streets in San Francisco. There are 500 million people in India pooping in the streets. That's right. 500 million public poops! Every day!!!
That's 182.5 billion poops in the street per year. That can't be healthy to be around.
You don't even need to spend more. There are many very nice, very safe, and very cheap places to visit in Latin American and Southeast Asia.
There's so many better (read: safer) places to go as a solo female traveler. I would think India is one of the worst places on the planet to travel to as a single female traveler.
There's a fine line between being adventurous (or being courageous), and being foolish and unprepared for reality: there is a [somewhat depressing, but also interesting...don't view this channel if you're feeling down in the dumps, lol] youtube channel about mountaineering that discusses *where fatal mountaineering trips went wrong.* Okay, a lot of the female trips that went wrong were situations where women wanted to "prove themselves" and show they were just as strong and capable as men.
but that's not realistic because women are not as strong as men (and I say this as a woman myself). So, you have to be realistic. Not everywhere in the world is safe for a woman to travel solo.