Going to Asia for the (US) Winter

Before traveling to India on my own, I did quite a lot of research and tried to prepare myself as best as I could.  

The cards were stacked against me from the jump — being relatively inexperienced and a solo female, I knew I would be getting into a wild adventure, and that was true. 

First, I packed my sleep aids in my carry-on instead of my pocket, and my carry-on ended up far away from me on a packed plane. I’ve never gotten motion sickness before, but I’ve also never been on a 14-hour plane ride. So about halfway through the flight, I started getting sick and didn’t really stop until after landing. I got a Sprite in the Delhi airport that I think set me straight. 

I haven’t been sick in India since! Perhaps my time will come, but so far I’ve been fine. I’ve been using tap water for showers and toothbrushing and bottled/reverse osmosis (available at most places I’ve stayed so far) for drinking.  

Despite a lack of travel experience, I have life experience and grew up in the suburbs of NYC, so navigating the city as a young person gave me a lot of street smarts, common sense, and a lot of the things people say about India that make them uncomfortable are quite true of NYC as well, so I thought, I got this!  

Here are my takes so far- 

1- Keep your sleep meds nearby for the plane ride, and hopefully you won’t get motion sickness!

2- E-sim info! I downloaded the Airolo app that gave me a few days of data, and then purchased six months of Airtel when I got here from the supply store in Rishikesh. Airolo was good for the first few days so that I would be connected to wifi as soon as the plane landed, but Airtel is the company I’ve seen around here the most, and getting it here was a better deal. 

The boss of the supply store in Rishikesh kindly helped me get it connected.

3- Bring a portable charging block and/or get a universal adapter before you go so you can charge your devices as soon as you arrive. I know there are also fancy suitcases nowadays that have built-in phone chargers! I have a portable charger for camping; I got it at Big Lots and forgot it, doh!

4- Ubers are great for bigger cities, but they’re not a thing in smaller cities, such as Rishikesh, my second stop.  From there you have scooty’s, taxis, and tuktuks. It took me a minute to warm up to the idea of a scooty, but now I enjoy taking them, and they’re affordable. Some of the roads for hiking and camping are only accessible by scooty, so I leaned into getting around on them to get everywhere I wanted to go. 

5- Google Maps is good for driving on main roads, but once you’re tucked away in the narrow alleys and side streets, you want to remember the path you’re taking and look for friendly faces who seem like they might be able to guide you.  A lot of times you’ll see a narrow alley that looks like it goes nowhere, but it probably does.  Sometimes you see an alley that looks like it might go somewhere and you end up on someone’s front porch. Either way, using Google Maps as a pedestrian will definitely get confusing. 

6- Load money on your Google Pay before you go and exchange currency as soon as you get there, even if it means telling the guy pushing you in a wheelchair to pull over. Once I arrived, I downloaded the app CheQUPI so that I could pay for things using a QR code that most vendors and stahls accept, but you have to meet someone in person to verify your identity before you can start using it. They need to be merchant UPI’s, rather than someone’s personal QR code (like Venmo or Cash App). 

7- Some people are very kind and helpful, and some people are dicks! Just like in the US and anywhere! Use your street smarts and spidey senses; I have found that most people will go out of their way to be helpful, so far. I have turned down some scooty rides, left an Airbnb after just a few hours, and said no to drugs a BUNCH of times. (Self sober high five)

*Bonus- Music in my headphones has brought me a lot of joy when I’m feeling homesick or frustrated from walking around in the heat. (Hi Jagged Little Pill) 

With my phone being my map, camera, and money source, an old phone to listen to music with or an old-school MP3 player would be pretty cool so I could listen to music and not use the battery on my phone/take pictures whilst grooving. 

Here are some other links to resources:

Redbus India – bus trips are so cheap

Train travel– one of my first friends in India showed me this. If you get an eSim card in India, you will get an Indian phone number along with it. It needs to be turned on through wifi calling. When you go to book a train ticket, it will request to send you a confirmation code via text, so you will need that Indian number to receive the text. 

I watched so many helpful YouTube videos to help me prepare for my trip, but these are things I didn’t catch, so I wanted to put them out there. I hope they help someone! 

Feel free to like it, hype it, and all the stuff you gotta do to help me get it going!