India is the easiest place in the world to take photographs. Most of the work is done for you. There is so much life, color, and history around every corner, it’s truly a photographers dream. To this day, it’s towards the top of my list in terms of most-photogenic destinations in the world.
It’s very easy to make assumptions about a certain country. I know I did about India. And while some of those assumptions turned out to be true, I was pleasantly surprised by many things as well.
As I’ve recently learned by reaching out to people in the travel community, many people {women, specifically} are concerned about safety within India. Therefore, they refuse {or aren’t particularly inclined} to visit. It’s a controversial topic, since many solo female travelers successfully travel through India each year with zero troubles. They will be the first to tell you it’s only fear mongering and people exaggerating the conditions in India.
While I am completely supportive, and honestly super impressed, with solo female travelers in India, it’s not something I would personally feel comfortable doing.
As I traveled through then north of India, I was extremely happy to have a local, educated Indian woman by my side throughout my trip. Even she explained that the area is better travelled with others, than alone.
This isn’t to deter you from visiting {hence the title of this post – I’m trying to inspire after all}. But I would feel silly to present you a sugar coated version of my time in India. Of course I usually felt safe because, well, I was with other travelers {and my local guide}. But even then, there were moments of uneasiness.
My advice to you is to find a way to visit India that makes you feel the most comfortable.
Let’s just say, it’s not a destination in which I’d suggest removing the training wheels for the first time. Things aren’t always straight forward, traveling between destinations is tricky, and the culture is very different from anything else in the world.
Again, many people travel India without any trouble, and will roll their eyes at the idea of the country being dangerous in any way. And good on them!
This is just one girls’ opinion en route.
In hopes that you do give India a chance {and I really hope you do}, I wanted to provide a photo gallery highlighting all of the amazing aspects of the country. My entire body went into sensory overload when I landed in Dehli, and it lasted an entire week as I made my way to Nepal. Enlightened doesn’t even begin to explain it. There is so much to gain from this brilliant country, and some of the greatest life lessons I learned were words spoken from local residents of India.
Related: 10 Shocking Things I Saw in India
I will never forget my time in India, and I would love to return one day to explore more of the country. After all, I only scratched the surface spending a week in the north. Have you been to India? If not, would you ever visit?
