Thread 2817442

It's always been a dream of mine to visit India. It comes off as a world of mystery, exoticness, and wonder. I adore the food, love history, and am fascinated by religions and cultures.

Anybody been? Any recommendtions? Looking to go next year.

>>2817442 (OP)
It's a shithole. However, I would admit its monuments are among the most beautiful ones I've visited. The thing is, well, it's still India, and sooner or later you're gonna have to exit the monument and see the Indian way of life.

>>2817453
**will admit

>>2817442 (OP)
You’ll have a bad time

>>2817442 (OP)
I'm here now. Idk what all the pussies whine about. The cities in Indonesia are worse. Huge holes falling into sewers or no sidewalks at all.
The women are uglier in India on average and the hygiene is worse but the food in India is S-tier and you can easily spend a year here getting into all sorts of adventure and strange experiences.
You either love it or you hate it. I love chaos and bustle and myriad opportunities. You won't know until you get here

>>2817479
>the food in India is S-tier
Shit tier?

>>2817480
who doesn't love a cheeky curry, mate? luv muh curry sauce.

>>2817479
What places are you going to? I'm heading there next month and plan to travel around for about 2 months

>>2817482
Dunno. Not really a planner. I have a one year visa. Just gonna chill and see what comes to mind later. Want to see Mumbai though, just because of how insanely huge it is and wealth disparities

>>2817479
Why would you say "I'm here now" and not share any details beyond generic India praise?

India seems rather short on hotels compared to Southeast Asia. A city like Beed with 200K people has only four bookable hotels, all of which are next to the main thru highway. This place looks pretty nice for only $13, but the location is ass.

>>2817482
You should go to Varanasi, Rajgir, Savasthi, Kushinagar and Vesali.

>>2817442 (OP)
I went and got terrible food poisoning to the point I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t stop shitting. I only went to “safe restaurants” too. It’s all a lie. It’s always a lie.

>>2817479
>>2817481
I don't think Bongs understand.

Maybe Indian food and curry is normal to you the same way every American even the most virulently racist redneck type has had Chinese food or Mexican food. But nobody here but Indians eats Indian food. Even seeing the Indian font letters outside a business is immediately off-putting and repulsive to us.

>>2817442 (OP)
>Anybody been? Any recommendtions? Looking to go next year.
Yeah. Bring enough MREs so you don't have to eat the local food. 2 MREs a day is fine, 1 if you don't mind losing a couple pounds.

Drink only bottled water from chain stores only the biggest most popular brands. Indians do this thing where they refill and reseal trash bottles with tap water and sell them at small stores, so you might be drinking sewage if you get water that way.

Treat the country as a hostile alien planet and any exposure might kill you, and you will be fine.

Do not even react to touts/beggers, if you look at them and tell them no they take it to mean they should try harder. Violence works if you think nobody is looking, a jab in the kidney will get most persistent pests to fuck off. Practice your "1 inch punch". It's possible to severely discourage indians without making any overt body motions.

Unfortunately none of the food is safe because it is handled by animals with no hygiene who cross contaminate everything. Don't go there for the food.

If something seems sus, it is sus. All Indians are ratfuck theives scammers and homosexual rapists. It's a semi open pvp zone so if you enjoy hurting people, you can let yourself be scammed and when they get you isolated, you can lay into them. They are very weak. An untrained sedentary white man can easily take 2 or 3 Indians at once. If you have any training and conditioning at all, the number of Indians you can cripple or knock unconscious depends only on your stamina.

A white mma fighter could commit a mass murder in India with his hands only and nobody would show up to stop him. He would just run out of energy and need to take a break.

Anyways, you'll get sick no matter what because eventually you will fuck one of their nasty women and her polluted cunt will transfer jeetstink to you and wipe you out for a couple days anyways.

Wear an astronaut suit and weild a crowbar maybe. Good luck.

>>2817603
Calm down anon. Stay home in fact
>>2817582
>I don't think Bongs understand
Not a bong
>>2817564
>Why would you say "I'm here now" and not share any details beyond generic India praise?
Maybe I'm just not a very helpful person

I was planning to go for 3 months, ended up leaving after 1, which 2 weeks were spent in a beach hut in Goa. It's shit. You will get sick, you will get scammed, the constant honking noise and crippled beggar kids tugging on your pants while rubbing their bellies will eventually get to you.

>>2817624
Sounds like you're a bit weak and fussy. Goa. What an NPC destination

>>2817603
lmao good description
farthest I've gone though is just shoving them aside which they take quite personally, they are incredibly weak though
it's fun chaos, just get some ketamine and benzos and wander around like a hindu cow
rishikesh, bhagsu, gokarna, kerala, pushkar, have some fun

>>2817603
>>2817639
I don't get what bothers you guys so much. Maybe you're short? Scrawny jeets ask me "where you from?" "Hello friend" "which country?" Who cares. A little intimidation and they go away. Great food, nature, weird shit to explore. This is my second time in India. Never got sick, knock on wood.
I just think there's a lot of pussies on here.

>>2817647
the only time I got physical is when jeets budged in line and wouldn't listen to reason, so I gave em a shove and they got lost
what do you do when jeets budge in front of you?
anyway I spent 16 months in india and had a great time, did you even read my post? didn't even say I was bothered, you sound like a queer

>>2817672
Idk which one you are, you're either the alarmist, hysterical one or the one agreeing with him.
Someone was pushing infront of me yesterday when lining up for a train ticket. I told the guy there was a line here. He disappeared. Sounds like you're just not very intimidating. Perhaps you're physically always looking up to men and struggling to be heard? Idk what it's like to be small.

>>2817442 (OP)
best thing to do
>sexy dance parties w dancing israelis and other kinkster hippies in Himachal
>the intentional community of auroville
>staying in between all the universities in bangalore and having lots of sex
>jaisalmer and pushkar

Overrated
>agra
>jaipur
>rishikesh
>goa in fact I don’t like anything Indian with beach and water SEA is right there massive waste of time

Place I’d like to go
>hampi but it’s worse now

Horrible place (but haven’t been)
Varanasi, in fact, if you like Varanasi you should discard everything I said were too different.

>>2817626
I've been to Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Varanasi. Goa was to rest and recover from food poisoning and what I believe was coronavirus ( that was in early 2020).

>>2817479
This is true, though India has some hotties. The problem is women are oddly rare outside. It's seriously a 10 to 1 man to woman ratio out there.

To answer the OP, Mumbai and Jaisalmer are my favorites in India. No majorly bad experiences there. And the good things were simply incredible. Scenery, food, architecture-all worth it. Delhi has some cool shit but it's a generally ugly area. And not just as a city. It's in a flat, dry, gloomy environment. Kind of cursed from its inception.

India looks more and more likely as my first overseas destination. Tough to beat picrel for flying out of RDU. Start my overseas adventure by walking out of BOM airport at one o'clock in the morning.
>>2817603
Travel with your own water bottle, and use water purification tablets. That's what I plan to do.
>>2817580
Your gut is weak and incapable of processing toxins in food without having a complete meltdown. My colon is cranky as fuck and perpetually inflamed, but it does its damn job of absorbing the toxins and breaking them down. You should avoid drinking too much liquid with or after a meal, no matter how spicy it is, in order to ensure your digestive juices remain concentrated enough to destroy any bacteria which are present.
>>2817626
NPCs don't go to Goa anymore. They all go to Thailand.
>>2817675
Yep, learn to reprimand people when they behave inappropriately. It's not difficult if you have a naturally stern nature.

>>2817908
>never been overseas
>starts lecturing people on gut fortitude and how to deal with third worldies
lol you're in for a treat

>>2817675
>Idk which one you are
>Idk what it's like to be small.
so you're an obese retard with no reading comprehension
burger I take it

>>2817442 (OP)
>Anybody been? Any recommendtions? Looking to go next year.

it's really fun but everything people say is also kind of true, it's very dirty, you will get sick, etc

>>2817479
this
the level of freedom in india is fucking amazing, you can do anything, literally whatever you want, even with like $1000 a month

for poor explorers there is no better country in my opinion

>>2817908
What are you, who has never left the States, giving anyone advice?

>>2817909
First overseas destination of the 2025-2026 travel season, sorry
>>2817959
So you can be a ketamine and cannabis addled goofball clownmaxxing in the streets and everyone's gonna clown along with you instead of giving you dirty looks like "who is this creepy weirdo, can you just go away please?"

Reckon that could be fun.

>>2817977
>everyone's gonna clown along with you
not at all, that isn't what I said

you can go on adventures with people you meet in the hostels, both indian and foreigner, but "everyone" is a massive stretch, you need to remember where you are lmao

the indians in hostels will be upper class, more open to adventure, more culturally similar to you as an American or European.

outside of that, the ones you meet in the streets or whatever will have nothing whatsoever in common with you, and will think you are some kind of criminal for using drugs and alcohol (aside from the goons who actually are criminals)

>giving you dirty looks like "who is this creepy weirdo, can you just go away please?"
I mean there's so many retards on the streets in india that this probably won't happen unless you are walking in the streets naked or screaming or something

>>2817977
I did smoke weed in india but it was garbage weed, way lower quality than what you can get in the USA

maybe that's a good thing, possibly more enjoyable that some high purity goo that zoots you out of your mind

weed is illegal of course but really common in the northern parts of india like rishikesh and dehradun

of course, around college campuses it should not be hard to find if you are social

No idea about ketamine. Personally anon I would not take the chance of buying drugs in foreign countries, that sounds like the dumbest thing you could possibly do, the police are already VERY willing to fuck with you if you don't do anything wrong, if you do break the law just imagine how fucked you will be

>>2817910
Are you new to trv? There are no IDs here. I'm not American and I tower above you. Most of the problems you face abroad do not apply to other people, they are just general short man issues.

>>2817988
>the police are already VERY willing to fuck with you if you don't do anything wrong
Really? What do they do? That's a bit worrying

An uncle of mine visited Calcutta last year

He said the air everywhere he went reminded him of stadium restrooms, just this undercurrent of hot shit smell that never goes away

Two days in, he got a bad stomach bug that forced him to go to the hospital. They perforated enough veins trying to get an IV into him that his arm looked black from his elbow to fingertips. Thankfully, it was basically just a big blood bruise that resolved on its own.

He got sick of being hassled by people in the street for money and just spent the last couple of days in his hotel before flying back. Said the guy next to him on the return flight smelled so bad he was dry heaving.

He traveled for work all over and was basically a Ned Flanders type of dude, but he would go off about that trip. He to this day doesn't have a nice word to say about India.

>>2818008
have you ever traveled in a third world country before anon? they are literally all the same

The police will pull you over or even approach you on the street and try to give you a ticket for some retarded technicality

they make you pay a bribe. Yes, it's because you are a foreigner and a tourist. if you be nice and act like they did you a favor, say "I didn't know that officer! Thank you!", you can get away with paying maybe $20-$30.
it's common across mexico, india, anywhere in south america, etc.

>>2818034
>have you ever traveled in a third world country before anon?
If only you knew how stupid that question was
>they are literally all the same
Then nothing to worry about then. You made it sound like they were exceptionally bad

>>2818039
ah, in that case no worries
yea I made it sound more serious than it actually is, if you plan on renting a scooter in certain coastal cities (especially goa, where you WILL end up as a tourist) you should expect to pay bribes.
it's unfortunately unavoidable since they are stationed right on all the major bridges and specifically look for foreigners.

I haven't heard of any tourists / foreigners being detained by police on bogus charges or something during my time there but still dude I wouldn't risk going out of your way to buy drugs unless you can find some on others at your hostel.

drugs are fairly common in the hostels, met a guy who had some acid on him, obviously a lot of weed. I don't think you'll find ketamine in india unless ordered online.

Rajasthan seems amazing. Stunning architecture and temples and lots of weird shit like the rat temple. Anyone been there?

>>2818031
Funny, I found Calcutta to be one of the nicer cities, at least in the north. The place was basically built by bongs so unlike pretty much everywhere else there is some semblance of urban planning with wide streets traversed by actual cars. And since there's fuck all tourists, the people aren't used to milking you dry yet, I just got the local price for street food and autos without even arguing.

>>2818078
Sounds kino. Normies are just faggots in india

>>2818079
Don't get me wrong, objectively speaking it's a dump and I don't blame the uncle for hating it if it's his first contact with the country. It's only decent if you measure it by Indian standards, which is to say, the rock bottom of quality of life.

I did not like India, I went there with an open mind and had an ambivalent view on Indians (mostly only met them playing cricket and catching taxis) but came back to Australia with an extreme conviction of never letting my country facilitate any more of their culture. I was paid by my government to go there on a study tour. They put us up in a top-tier university for a few months, then had us in New Delhi rotating through embassies and government departments. I was hospitalised due to the air pollution. It was depressing seeing dead people on the streets, piles of trash, and the shit smeared everywhere

>>2817453
>its monuments are among the most beautiful ones I've visited
For me it was annoying. They make foreigners pay extra to visit them, then they bitch and moan about how foreigners destroyed the monuments and how they were perfect before the foreigners arrived. Then you go in there and there is Hindi graffiti everywhere and piles of trash and the entire complex is decaying. No desire to preserve it for future generations. Same goes for their art galleries and museums, it was disgusting how mistreated all these great works and artefacts were in the national institutions, never seen anything like it anywhere else I've been in the world.

>>2817479
>the food in India is S-tier
I have a fair few food intolerances, so I went in knowing that I was going to be on the toilet 100% guaranteed, I went all out trying everything and was actually surprised I was not fucked over more. Yeah, its not great, and you can tell you're in a shithole with poor food quality standards, but I wasn't dying from it. Its boring after a month though. Everywhere you go, spiced slop with a bit of bread and/or rice on the side. No distinct flavours of individual ingredients, a mouthfeel of mush, for the most part it felt like eating baby food. Their desserts are trash too, nothing to look forward to afterwards. It was nice to come home and eat a nice steak and actually use my jaw to chew.

>>2817442 (OP)
You're not a real traveller until you've spent at least a 3 week stay in Indian hostels. Until then you're a tourist.

Honestly if the people in India are somehow worse then the Sikhjeets on my recent flight not wearing socks, smelling like shit and fucking talking nonstop on a 5 hour flight then there is ZERO chance I will ever visit their dogshit trash pile of a country. I actually wanted to see Goa and the Nepal border side some time ago but holy fuck I can’t even get past how much I despise these fucking lazy dimwitted cunts they all need to be deported.

>>2818103
So, are you one of those anon who tell others to stay in Paharganj to experience "the indian vibes"?
>>2818095
Yeah, that little tiny detail to pay more than the locals is stupid, especially when they don't take proper care of their infrasctructure.

>>2817977
>"who is this creepy weirdo, can you just go away please?"
india is the mecca of weirdos and creeps, you would blend right in and yes I have been a ketamine addled weirdo smoking hash wherever and whenever and nobody gave a fuck
I got some curious looks while snorting K on a public bus on a deranged journey from northern himachal to rajasthan via local busses only

>>2818003
well with an ounce of reading comprehension you could have figured out which one I was
also I am above average height in my western nation and tower above all the indians and third worldies, doesn't stop the little buggers from trying to budge every now and then
I assumed you were american because of your strange obsession with size and the amount of importance you put on it and you also shared an anecdote of someone trying to budge in front of you despite your towering figure lol
I guess words could work but I prefer a little shove, much more fun that way, especially because in western nations touching others is highly forbidden and taboo but in india it's just part of the general activity

>>2817603
>drink only bottled water from chain stores
What chain stores lmao
You can go days without seeing one

>>2818135
Not reading all that, sensitive short king

Just bought me a flight to Mumbai for December 1st. Designated shitting streets, here I come!

The fare was $408 from Air France, a little higher than the $347 I screenshotted for November 5th >>2817908. BTW the same flight booked a week later on December 8th costs $908; two weeks later on December 15th it costs $1672. Seriously, WTF is with European airlines and their outrageous price-gouging?
>>2817986
Believe it or not, Thirdie guys do have a lot in common with me. I traveled thousands of miles from anyone I knew to land a job with someone who hired me sight unseen. It's a life choice they can relate to very well.
>>2817988
What about that bhang drink? It looks like it's chock full of good cannabinoids.
>>2818034
If you ride a motorbike or drive a car, you are at constant risk of being shaken down by the cops in Thirdie countries. As a foot traveler, Thirdie police never harass me. The fuck are they gonna try and ticket me for? Insufficient tread on my sneakers? Violating the 5 km/h pedestrian speed limit?
>>2818031
When my olfactory receptors are exposed to traffic fumes, they stop functioning. As long as I don't come back to a hotel room reeking of shit, I'll be fine.
>>2818095
Not really giving a fuck if I like India or not desu. My expectations will be shit, so anything that isn't shit will be a pleasant surprise.
>>2818103
>hostels
Screw that. I'm all about frugal travel, but I draw the line at sleeping with strangers.
>>2818136
WATER PURIFICATION TABLETS. USE THEM. I can't stress this enough. All these people with stories of horrible "food" poisoning in India or Mexico? 9/10 I bet it's something they drank, not something they ate. Drinking anything on an empty stomach results in the liquid being washed directly into the small intestine, an environment which should be mostly free of bacteria. When it gets contaminated, you're in for a world of hurt.

>>2818302
>WATER PURIFICATION TABLETS. USE THEM
Lmao. Bottled water is fine. Don't be retarded

>>2818073
I wish I visited when I went, but didn't get the chance to go.

Keep in mind that it's considered one of the poorer states in india. services aren't as reliable, roads are worse, people are dumber. but yes, the history and architecture and general aesthetic is great

>>2818302
>but I draw the line at sleeping with strangers.
dude
stay in the hostels
it's a fucking blast and it's cheap and almost always a great experience

nobody will fuck with your shit, and you shouldn't be bringing super valuable things on a trip anyways

I wouldn't eat the food there.

>>2818325
To the contrary, hostels have never been a great experience in any of the countries I've visited. Getting woken up constantly through the night by people arriving, moving around, coughing, sniffling, snoring, digging in their packs. You end up laying in bed until noon trying to catch up on your rest, which leaves you feeling groggy and demotivated all afternoon, hardly capable of handling the streets outside. Plentiful hostels mean a tourist trap, where being white will subject you to rampant scamming and street hustling. Oh, and the smell. Every full dormitory has to have a stinker, and it's even worse if people eat food in the dorms.

Much better to go out and have your fill of social interactions with curious English-speaking locals, then when you've had enough of the humanity, retreat to a quiet(ish) room to sit at a desk doing some poasting, planning and browsing. The decent hotels strictly prohibit food in the rooms, which helps keep them clean, bug-free and fresh smelling.

>>2817603
>India is a PVP zone. If you like hurting people, you'll love it

Fuck i Keked so hard reading this

>>2818606
>Fuck i Keked so hard reading this
trv is low IQ

>>2817442 (OP)
Go to Kerala most people are chill there

Anyone been to Mumbai? Been traveling a while. Thinking of renting an apartment there for a few months.

How bad are the sleeper trains really if I stick to 1ac or 2ac class?

>>2819092
>2ac class
I just did it. Compared to what? Was late af. I'm just gonna fly everywhere

>>2819093
>I'm just gonna fly everywhere
no matter how you travel in india you are risking your life

>>2819093
>Compared to what?
Compared to the night trains in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam I guess? Are the other passengers annoying? Is the food ok? Do you know if you can really order food deliver to most trains or just certain ones? I don't really care if they're slow/late if they're reasonably comfortable

>>2819123
>Compared to the night trains in Thailand
Older. Smellier. I smelt real shit for a while. Like when your shit sticks to the side of the toilet and stinks the place out. Guy opposite put his feet up on the seat right next to me. That would never happen in Thailand. I had a 6 hours journey. It was 6 hours late. They did have power outlets that worked though. And nobody was annoying or loud or antisocial.

>>2819134
In Laos and Thailand you have to be careful with your feet. They have strong taboos there. Some farang sit at the back of temples with their leg out and feet pointed at the Buddha, which is probably the worst thing you coudl do in a temple

>>2819134
I've seen plenty of people put their bare feet up on seats on Thai local trains. Did the train bathroom have a door? Someone might've left it ajar.
>6 hours late
Whoo-ey. Someone must've ACKed on the tracks.
>>2818666
Kochi is 1350 km south of Mumbai. Traversing the coast sounds like a decent idea for India in December. The pollution might be more tolerable on the coast than it is in the interior. For onward travel I can fly direct Kochi to Bangkok, at the usual fucked-up hours for budget flights to/from India.
>2:10 AM to 7:50 AM
>11:50 PM to 5:05 AM
$106 to fly out 12/31, at the peak of the New Year travel season. Good idea to buy that departure flight sooner rather than later, I'm thinking.

>>2817442 (OP)

Why do you wanna be surrounded by demon worshippers (Hindus)?

>>2819383
No one would. It's just a dumb shill thread.

>>2819388
>Nobuddy gows to indiar

>>2819383
>t. Worships a dead jew on a stick
Keep seething fat cunt

Currently planning a 5-week trip to India / Nepal. Starting with Golden Triangle shit (Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Ranthambore, maybe Varanasi), then into Nepal for some trekking. Then down to Goa for half a week to relax by the beach, and then finishing with the "rickshaw run", where we rent a tuk-tuk and drive it from Chennai to Kochi (not sure whether that's a fucking stupid idea or not yet though)

>>2819388
>It's just a dumb shill thread
what exactly is being shilled here? how not horrible at best india is for travel?

>>2819092
>>2819123
I went in 3A once and it was perfectly fine. Nobody was loud or smelly. The price tag is already prohibitive for the poorer jeets. Honestly, went better than my Viet train ride where the compartment floor was sticky with mucus after everyone was hacking phlegm on it all night.
Don't go SL though if you want to sleep. These are completely out of control. The moment the ticket guy is out, there's suddenly three times as many people in the carriage with a constant stream of vendors, hijras and other undesirables.

>>2819460
>hijras
what's the deal with them? are they just annoying ladyboy beggars or do they try to pickpocket/rob you?

>>2819465
They walk through the carriage making a shitlload of noise and clapping in your face / pulling on your clothes. You either pay or get cursed or whatever.
They usually fuck off and skip foreigners since britishers don't really know or care about their ancient magic. If one takes interest in you, it's usually easy to get rid of them by looking puzzled and confused.
That said, I've heard stories of hijras pricking people who don't pay with pins and other such HIV-friendly ventures, so I guess depends on your luck.
As for pickpocketing, I'd just assume every single being in India is potentially one if opportunity strikes.

>>2817639
>>2817977
why do you keep posting about ketamine, were you able to get ketamine there?

is it even fun to do a drug like ketamine on a trip when you might be kinda sick? what if you throw up or get REALLY sick? is it worth the risk?

>>2819626
Ketamine is kinda sorta legal in India. You technically need a prescription, but it's India, a few rupees can easily solve that problem. It's a helluva drug, puts you in a very strange otherworldly headspace for half an hour or so, with no paranoid/overwhelming feelings either...then you gradually feel your brain being put back into the drab mundane confines of conventional consciousness. The effects can't really be described in words. It's very "clean", in that it doesn't result in any physical sickness or hard crash afterwards (unless you abuse the shit out of it).
>>2819476
Stereotypical pajeetery.
I wouldn't be too worried about pickpocketing, but if the crowd is getting dense enough for people to bump into you, ensure that your wallet/passport/phone are in your front pockets.

>>2819633
is it dangerous to do ketamine without having a tripsitter? explain the concept of a k hole to me I don't know much about ketamine at all

>>2819634
Ketamine is a tranquilizer, so if you bump repeatedly, eventually you will slip into a place of complete dissociation from conventional reality. Yet I found that my physical coordination remained remarkably unimpaired, though everything looked so fucking intensified. Took a selfie and yes, I look absolutely fucking zooted. I made friends with the owners of a budget hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur (the only one I could find where every room had a window), and they gifted me some ketamine because they were burned out on zooting themselves. I stared out my window at a city landscape with traffic that all looked as unfamiliar and unreal as if I had just teleported down from outer space. I saw a building with the logo of my dad's company, and it felt like I was spanning enormous distances of space and time with my mind's powers alone.

For weeks after those ketamine sessions, however, I stroogled with extreme boredom and disengagement with my surroundings.

>>2819634
I wouldn't do it in the street, because you might walk into busy traffic as your brain becomes completely disconnected from an understanding of the basic physics of moving objects.

>>2819633
>You technically need a prescription, but it's India, a few rupees can easily solve that problem
Is this how it works for most meds in india?

>>2819656
I went to the doctor in india. when doctors give you a prescription you go to any pharmacy and just buy the medication. most pharmacies dont give a singular fuck about doctors prescriptions and just want to sell the medication.

>>2817773
>The problem is women are oddly rare outside. It's seriously a 10 to 1 man to woman ratio out there.
Is that really a surprise? Not even the monitor lizards are safe in India

>>2819633
>Ketamine is kinda sorta legal in India. You technically need a prescription, but it's India, a few rupees can easily solve that problem. It's a helluva drug, puts you in a very strange otherworldly headspace for half an hour or so, with no paranoid/overwhelming feelings either...then you gradually feel your brain being put back into the drab mundane confines of conventional consciousness. The effects can't really be described in words. It's very "clean", in that it doesn't result in any physical sickness or hard crash afterwards (unless you abuse the shit out of it).
It's also very neutral to me. There is no euphoria-inducing aspect to it, it's greatest power is to give you a sense of how bizzare the experience is. A sense of confusion trying to understand what's happening to you. Take it with molly if you want to transform it into something more impressive. On its own it's just lacking imo

Tried and failed to buy a flight from India to Southeast Asia today. Two airline websites malfunctioning, no record of my payment even being attempted according to my bank. Anyway, a one year tourist eVisa is only $40 for burgers. Holy cowshit, I'm gonna get stuck in the subcontinent for the entirety of this upcoming travel season.

Heading south from Mumbai in search of fresh sea breezes to keep away the filthy winter smog, then as the temps begin touching the 100 degree mark in late winter, slogging north town by town on local buses and trains through the springtime heat and the inescapable infinity crowds before finally reaching the base of the greatest mountain range on Earth and beginning the ascent, village by village. There is no other region on Earth that offers a journey of this caliber.

>>2819692
>Anyway, a one year tourist eVisa is only $40
I'm here on that visa. I love it. I can just chill. In an ashram atm. $7 a-day including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pretty chill. Want to go rent an apartment in Mumbai for a few months though.
Remember with the visa, it's only a one-year visa if you come in the middle of a year. Because you can only stay 180 days per calendar year. I just arrived so I essentially have 10 months.

>>2819891
What made you choose India of all places to spend a year chilling?

>>2817442 (OP)
I went to India a few months ago out of curiosity/spite since everyone on YouTube always warns you not to travel there. They were probably right in hindsight, but I plan to go back again this winter because I actually enjoyed being there. This will probably sound like cliché hippie backpacker bullshit, but India has a really unique balance of chaos and tranquility. You can be completely barraged by noise while walking around a city at one moment and watching entire cities go by on a train in near silence at another moment. The sheer size of the country plus the variety of biomes and cultures is underrated, there's a vast amount of history everywhere you look, the cost of living is cheap, and locals generally speak good English and usually are hospitable. But, there's a lot of scammers/beggars, traffic laws are nonexistent, air quality is shit, hygiene/cleanliness standards are awful, you WILL get food poisoning at one point or another, and you'll most likely have a few near-death experiences also.

I wish more people here went there so I could read more horror story greentexts(or just interesting greentexts in general) instead of the usual boring "oh no i spilled spaghetti in front of a girl in Japan, it's over" posts that endlessly plague /trv/
TL;DR
>go if you can tolerate discomfort and want a unique experience
>don't go if you can't tolerate discomfort and don't want to take risks

>>2819891
Whoa, India really is paradise for a budget traveler!
>I essentially have 10 months
The 180 day limit is per stay AND per calendar year. If you wish to stay longer than 180 days, you must register your presence with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office.
I intend to break up my stay in India with a visit to Nepal. Nepal visa-on-arrival is $50 for 30 days and $125 for 90 days.

Another noteworthy restriction: foreigners can depart India by land anytime/anywhere, but you must re-enter India at one of the designated airports or seaports with your multiple-entry tourist eVisa.

Here is a handy-dandy PDF listing everything you need to know about being a (legal) foreigner in India:

https://www.mha.gov.in/PDF_Other/Annex%20II_01022018.pdf

Oh well. I thought that link was the PDF of official eVisa regulations I had found earlier, but it wasn't. The other PDF was something like 8 pages.
>>2819959
Do you ever fuck with the scammers when you're feeling ornery, or do you just ignore them all?

>>2819646
>For weeks after those ketamine sessions, however, I stroogled with extreme boredom and disengagement with my surroundings.
wtf that's crazy
do you find it worthwhile? is it just a fun trip or does it really make you think differently about life?

>>2819981
Thank you Indian tourism board

>>2819981
>Whoa, India really is paradise for a budget traveler!
It's a cult though. Don't visit an ashram during a life crisis. They provide belonging, work (purpose), a belief in the divine (meaning), structure. I'm good in life and I can see what they're doing. There's so many international people where I am who have new names and wear religious clothes. They're lost to their families and culture. Careful with this shit.
>The 180 day limit is per stay AND per calendar year. If you wish to stay longer than 180 days, you must register your presence with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office
Thanks anon. I actually didn't know this. Relying on ChatGPT too much

>>2820000
When you're high you feel like you're on the verge of unlocking some major paradigm shift in your brain, but for me it faded out of reach as the minutes pass and the drug gets metabolized. I remember walking down to meet my friend in the street after a potent trip and he asks what I'm wanting to eat. Eat? Suddenly it dawned on me that I am not some cosmically telepathic superhuman, but just an ordinary blob who eats slop and shits it out in total mundanity, stuck in the trivial routines of daily life. That feeling of disappointment was very strong and persistent.
>>2820058
TBF, you can take these kind of pictures in a lot of Third World destinations. Beauty and garbage in the same shot.

>>2820247
>When you're high you feel like you're on the verge of unlocking some major paradigm shift in your brain, but for me it faded out of reach as the minutes pass and the drug gets metabolized. I remember walking down to meet my friend in the street after a potent trip and he asks what I'm wanting to eat. Eat? Suddenly it dawned on me that I am not some cosmically telepathic superhuman, but just an ordinary blob who eats slop and shits it out in total mundanity, stuck in the trivial routines of daily life. That feeling of disappointment was very strong and persistent
Never felt like that on K but I enjoyed reading this anyway

>>2820246
Sounds based. I've spent my adult life stripping away my Judeo-Christian programming, and the process has accelerated past the age of 30. Ownership of property was recently rejected in principle, though not completely in practice. The name I was assigned at birth - randomly selected from the Holy Bible - retains no personal meaning. My family is kind to me, but in a detached way. Since heading out on my own, they have never made any serious attempt to influence my decision making, nor have I asked them for help. All in all, this upcoming trip to India feels like arriving at the brink of destiny. The one certainty for the future is death, and it's time to start preparing for it in earnest.

shit country, shit people

>>2820255
>tips fedora

>>2820255
That doesn't sound like inner strength at all.

>>2819987
>Do you ever fuck with the scammers when you're feeling ornery, or do you just ignore them all?
Not intentionally because they're generally the ones who initiate conversation first. I only play dumb and lead people on as a means to defuse/leave a tense situation without making a scene. Only notable case that I can remember off the top of my head was a tuk-tuk driver in Delhi going apeshit and chasing me on the street because I gave him the exact amount of rupees that we agreed upon prior to the ride and immediately left before he had a chance to pull the scam where he raises the final price for whatever reason.
>>2818325
>India
>hostels
A hotel is the one oasis of peace, quiet, and solitude in India. Think of it in the same context as the safehouse in Left 4 Dead. It's worth the extra 20 dollars a night. I stayed in ONE hostel during my entire time in India (Agra) and it felt as if I was in the sick ward at a hospital. Everyone in my dorm was bedridden with food poisoning and they were all from the UK so they spent the entire night going back and forth between complaining about their trip, coordinating their next plans, playing videos without headphones, coughing loud enough to break the sound barrier, and making banter about the most trivial shit imaginable. I eventually just slept in the lobby because it was psychologically easier to fight off mosquitoes all night instead of listening to them.

>>2819412
It is a very stupid idea, and seeing how Indians drive and how much time every distance takes will deter you, but it sounds like fun and you should do it if you have patience and courage. Probably easier to buy and resell than to rent although your trip might be too short for that

>>2819633
I've heard of people getting ketamine recently but you have to have a prescription, there's been a crackdown on pharma drugs, opiates especially, although I don't doubt that with the right amount of money you could get anything, it's India after all. I was looking for DXM and the guy at the pharmacy just asked "how many bottles do you need?"

>>2820309
19-year-olds think decent sleep and privacy are overrated but yeah you can get a clean enough room with AC for 20 dollars even in Mumbai, or you can rent a one-bedroom studio with a kitchen for 150 dollars a month, so hostels really are pointless. If you have low standards for hygiene you can find 8 dollar rooms easily and still have a private bathroom to empty your bowels.

>>2819626
you can find ketamine in any city, but not any pharmacy, sometimes you have to visit a few
it's fun as hell, I was bumping it regularly, I found myself going from northern himachal to rajasthan via local busses only with no memory of the trip while high on K the whole time, had a little plastic box I would regularly inhale with a straw
what a blur

>>2819649
my polish buddy was basically on the verge of a k-hole walking down the main street of rishikesh in the middle of the road like a local cow, traffic just swerved around him, all the drivers there are adapted to look out for random things in the road (monkeys, cows, dogs, people)
you're safer walking in the middle of the road in India than you are in the USA

>>2819692
go check out Gokarna and find a place to stay in Kudle beach - it was amazing 6 years ago, I wonder if it's still good

>>2820365
I thought the place to find ketamine in third world countries was farm animal husbandry supply stores.

>>2820431
in india it's the pharmacy, maybe you could find it at vets as well, didn't bother because anywhere I went I was able to find it 300-1200 rupees per bottle

>>2820368
I went this winter, it's a nice quiet place to take a break from the swarm of India and do things slowly day by day, the furthest room from the beach is like a 5 minutes walk, the locals who run the restaurants are generally nice, but it felt weird being surrounded by so many Israelis. I wasn't acquainted with these people and didn't have an opinion on them but they're loud and rude, worse than the English and Russians. It's kind of a safe resort for cheap western hippies, peculiar vibe, people in their mid-30s with no jobs who spend three months there playing frisbee and smoking joints, people who travel to India with their kids, retired couples. It was a much better vibe than retarded North Goa (although if you like to party every night there are events all week there) but I'm not into taking a plane to go on a beach to be surrounded by white people, I can do that at home.

>>2820465
>urrounded by so many Israelis
That's an absolute no for me. Not even gonna look it up. Anywhere else in India infested with Israelis?

>>2820465
>It was a much better vibe than retarded North Goa
Can you talk more about what sucks about that area and is South Goa better? I was planning to include a stop of somewhere in Goa for a week but I'm having trouble making sense of the different towns and understanding what the areas are like today rather than information from 20 years ago

Anyone been to Varanasi? Thinking of flying there next week but sounds insane and also disgusting.

>>2820542
>sounds insane
what do you mean by insane? The traffic is insane, and the pollution is also insane, but I'm not sure if that's the answer you are looking for
>and also disgusting.
This is true, it's disgusting as fuck, however, I will say it's quite an experience. Maybe you should go and get to the conclusion why you should never ever consider visiting it a second time.

>>2820578
October is packed with festivals. I'm not at all bothered by the rest of India like most anons here. I liked Delhi, it was fascinating. I lived in Phnom Penh and other 3rd world countries over the years. I can't imagine Varanasi will overwhelm me. Why is it so much worse than the rest of India?

>>2820472
Any place you go in India where there's tourists you will encounter unexpected numbers of French, Russian, and Israeli people, different but recognizable crowds. I know their R's are even worse than the French ones and an absolute earsore but I shiggydidoo hope you are not serious about traveling to street-shitting humanhive central when the mere idea of a few people with curly hair and big noses bothers you

>>2820506
It's actually not that bad if you find an apartment a few kilometers inland (can't do that before being on site) but the beaches in North Goa are loud, there's always some party going on and drunk people and tiny streets full of shops for tourists worse than Marrakech. I wouldn't stay there more than a few days but it's a good place to meet people and get contacts for stuff. Goa is nice for the variety of food in the same place, especially meat and fish, and for the cheap alcohol. North to South it goes from young and partying to old and enjoying the calm for tourists, somewhat from poor village Hindu to rich urban Goan Christian for locals. You'll find LSD in Arambol and beachfront lobster in Canacona. The few towns like Panaji, Vasco, and Margao aren't worth going out of your way to visit, there's a few old buildings here and there but nothing grand. You'll probably want to rent a scooter, ask anyone and they'll know someone who'll deliver it to your door within the hour, it's usually 500 to 700 rupees a day. Don't know what to tell you, I don't know it all, you'll have to pick some place and see what gives

>>2820580
> I'm not at all bothered by the rest of India like most anons here
Then you should worry not, the only big difference will be that they are literally burning corpes near the Ganges, and you can see from time to time dead animal floating on the river, and you get to see some "priests" that look like some mutants from Dead space or Fallout. and people will try to scam you more often than usual. Besides that, I think you should be ok.

>>2820586
>if you find an apartment a few kilometers inland (can't do that before being on site)
Why can't I find something from airbnb or booking.com? Are there no listings or are they just overpriced?
>You'll probably want to rent a scooter
That was the plan, I've rode all around SEA so I'm not really concerned about traffic

>>2820465
>israelis
that's a shame, when I was there they just took up one area of Ohm beach and there weren't many on Kudle beach, but they're always in the good spots of India, just gotta tune them out and stay away

>>2820361
Are bedbugs a concern in India? I've stayed in many shitty hotels over the years, including a few where the sheets were clearly not changed, and have never encountered the little critters.
>>2820309
100% agree with you about getting a private room. When you're a long-term traveler, you must find a daily routine which will serve you well for the entire trip. For me, that means several brief local outings a day interspersed with rest periods in my hotel room. When I want to go somewhere farther, I pack my bags and move to a new hotel.

Some niggas like to stay in one hotel for a week plus and take long daytrips to points of interest. I travel light, so I much prefer keeping my travels going forward with as little out-and-back as possible. The ordeal of moving to a new place is neatly balanced by a spell of relaxing in the room before checkout and after check-in as well.
>>2820593
Search for a room on Google Maps if you want to book, or even if you want to pay cash on arrival. You will see all the different sites that Indians use to book their rooms when you pull up listings on Google Maps.
>pay cash on arrival
Yes, it is a big PITA to lug your bags from hotel to hotel, but inspecting the room BEFORE you pay for it can make a tremendous difference in your enjoyment of the trip. The shittiest streets can be experienced with alacrity if you know you have a pleasant, fresh-smelling room to return to.

>>2820690
>You will see all the different sites that Indians use to book their rooms when you pull up listings on Google Maps.
Have you used any of these and can recommend them as not being scams or stealing my card info? It sounds like too much hassle to show up unbooked and pay cash, I would just do that if I was staying a long time and already had a place for the night