Single Female Travelista

I spent 2 weeks in northern India, and wanted to lay some common misconceptions to rest.

1. Don’t drink the tap water.
   • Well, okay, this is correct. Don’t drink the tap water, but it is okay to brush your teeth with the tap water as long as you don’t swallow it. I also rinsed my toothbrush with the tap water every day and was fine. I drank bottled water the entire time I was in India, and I never had an issue finding a reputable brand. At restaurants and hotels, they serve filtered water, and I drank this. It was perfectly fine to drink. No one in my tour group got sick from it. Also, the tap water is okay if it has been boiled. We drank chai every morning from local street vendors and you know they don’t use bottled or filtered water to make the chai.
2. Traveling as a female is unsafe.
   • Granted, I was with a small tour group that had a local guide, but I never felt unsafe even when I broke off from the tour group to sightsee on my own. Of course, you need to be cognizant of your surroundings like you would do anywhere, and I kept my hand on my camera bag/purse everywhere I went, just in case. Unlike Egypt, there was no taunting or whistling or any other kind of annoying behavior from men towards me. (It was BAD in Egypt).
3. The streets smell bad.
   • They didn’t. Sure, there were lots of smells such as cow dung, dog poo, spices, and food; but nowhere was I overpowered with urine smells or anything like that. You have your typical exhaust fumes that smell, but you get that in any busy city. I think I recall smelling spices and food the most when walking around the cities that I visited. And I never smelled body odor from anyone. I probably smelled to others that passed me! LOL.
4. The people are unfriendly.
   • Quite the opposite. Everyone we encountered was so nice and willing to help us out if needed. The people in the restaurants and hotels were especially friendly. Even our tuk tuk drivers were nice.
5. It is an unsafe country to visit.
   • I didn’t feel that way. I was surprised to see that the subway had metal detectors and security to frisk you before you got on the subway. And there was always a separate security lane for females. Even a separate subway car for females! We even had to go through metal detectors and security when visiting some tourist sites – including the Taj Mahal.
6. You have to bring a scarf or shawl to cover your shoulders and you can’t show your ankles.
   • You don’t have to bring a scarf or shawl with you. All of the tourist sites that we visited (mosques, temples, etc) provided coverings for you. Whether it was a head covering for the Sikh Temples or a thin robe for the mosques, we were taken care of. So don’t worry about packing an extra scarf. You’re just going to buy one in India anyway. 🙂 Ankles are fine to show. I wore capri pants everyday and had no issues. It’s your knees that are the problem. So wearing pants that zip off into shorts is a good idea so that you can add the legs on when you visit a temple or a mosque. Pants were way too hot for me.
7. The toilets are all squat toilets.
   • No. In restaurants and hotels, they have western toilets like you are used to. You do have to bring your own toilet paper, though. Most tourist sites have squat toilets, but the Taj Mahal had both kinds, so make sure you’re waiting in the right line when you go to the toilet. Also bring hand sanitizer. There are no paper towels to wipe your hands when you wash them after using the toilet. I played it safe and luckily, I only had to use the toilet when I was at the hotel or in a restaurant, so I never had to use the squat toilets. Oh, and you can’t flush anything down the toilets – that includes toilet paper. Most “restrooms” have a bin to throw the toilet paper in. Don’t forget to have 10 or 20 rupees handy to pay for use of the toilet at tourist attractions.
8. You have to bring a bag to carry your shoes so they don’t get stolen.
   • It’s up to you if you want to do this, but at the Sikh Temples we visited, we were able to leave our shoes and socks in a private room so they were safe. At the mosques we visited, you leave your shoes outside and hope for the best, but trust me, no one was snooping around looking to steal shoes when we were there. One of the temples had little cubby holes to put your shoes in. And at the Taj Mahal, they give you shoe coverings, so you don’t have to take your shoes off at all! A bit of advice, though. If you’re wearing socks, take your socks off, too. Marble is slippery in socks. I found out the hard way when I slipped in my socks going down the stairs of a Sikh Temple in Pushkar.

Overall, I enjoyed my time in India and surprised myself that I drank filtered water and walked around on my own without any issues and never had to use a squat toilet. I even felt safe using an ATM (while my tour guide stood outside and waited for me). If you’re thinking of a trip to India and you’ve been scared off by these misconceptions, now you know.