A note to India,
India, India, India. You’ll forever be the first country to open my eyes to a world so colorful. Before you, I thought that I’ve seen so much, but now I know that my vision was monochrome. Life is much more vivid now.
Before you, I never thought about the fact that every country’s population that I’ve traveled to has either been majority white or majority black.
I felt my mind expand a millimeter for every day that I was there. I stayed there for 9 days, so my brain bursted through my skull on the return flight home.
This is exactly why I love to travel!
India is beautiful, hectic, historical, and electric and visiting is an experience that demands you to dive into the culture. There’s no tip-toeing around this one.
We spent 3 days exploring Delhi, then 2 days at our friends’ (Ayush and Akansha) amazing wedding. After the wedding we completed “The Golden Triangle” road trip by visiting the cities of Agra and Jaipur!
After spending almost a week and a half in India, I took note of the city’s demographics, safety, costs, entertainment options, and what it’s like being black in India.
Taking all those into account, India received 4 out of 5 Fros on the Fro Rating Scale!
Demographics
4 Fros
My mindset regarding India changed multiple times throughout the travel process. I had an expectation of India leading up to the trip.
When I first arrived, that expectation was shattered and I had a completely new view of it. A very hectic and overwhelming one!
By the end of the trip, India and I had been through some things together. I felt like I knew her better than I’ve gotten to know a lot of other countries I’ve visited.
I was born and raised in North Carolina but I’m Ethiopian, so I’ve visited Ethiopia several times in my life.
So I had some reference to visiting an extremely busy developing nation. Keep it real, New Delhi is an Indian Addis Ababa (capital city of Ethiopia).
But the major mind-fuck was realizing that…
I’ve never been to a country that wasn’t majority white or majority black.
I saw the world through a black-and-white lens and I’m no longer colorblind after this trip.
I’ve identified people of European descent as white, and people of African descent as black my whole life. Then why does it feel so weird to identify people of Indian descent as brown?
Going to India reminded me that it’s strange and idiotic that we classify people by a color although we’ve made it the norm.
Even though it’s been the norm my whole life, seeing how diverse the people of India are made it difficult to try to put them all in one box.
There are so many shades of brown, and India has its own racial system that I never knew about. But we’ll save that grim topic for another day.
It’s easy to put a whole group in a box, but us outsiders never think about the sub-racial demographics within the Indian ethnicity. Within the brown.
Being a Foreigner in India
There hasn’t been a more unique travel experience for me than being black in India.
The major recurring shocker about being black in India are the constant STARES!!!
Disclaimer: I traveled with two Polish white girls, so I know a lot of the stares were for the whole group.
But I also could see the differences between how people looked at me and them. Which is a mixture of gender and racial differences.
Even more than that, people wanted to take selfies with us the whole time! We took at least a dozen selfies with random people.
And that’s not even including the peeps who snuck selfies in from a distance. Yea we saw you!
At first, I thought it was strange but then I started feeling like the fuckin’ man, because people wanted my photo. Celebrity-complex was the healthiest way for me to adapt.
From the moment we stepped off the plane, we were eyeball magnets, and it was super uncomfortable.
When we left the Delhi airport, a driver approached us and asked us if we needed a ride and I told him that we called an uber and were waiting for it. Which was true.
He asks, “Where are you staying? I’ll take you to your place.” I tell him that we’re good and keep walking.
At this point we have 4 drivers walking around us, each asking where we’re staying and I’m like yoooooooo, back up!!!
I’m not used to people being so pushy and it was so unsettling, because we actually were looking for our uber while a group of dudes are surrounding and following us. I just wanted a breather.
But I figured out by the end of the trip that you gotta be super direct and they’ll understand.
To a salesman, any hesitation looks like a chance for a “yes”.
At first, you might be afraid because you think that they’re after something of yours. Which they are, but it’s just your money.
As a tourist in India coming from Europe or America, you gotta realize that when people in the service industry in India(and many other countries) see you, they see money.
They see opportunity. So they want to be the one to service and overcharge you.
And you will get overcharged. You ain’t special.
What’s wild is that the tourist attractions don’t even hide it.
At the ticket box at the entrance of the Red Fort (and most historical sites), there’s a line for foreigners and a line for locals.
And the cost for foreigners is 5 – 10 times the price of the price for locals. Which honestly, still ends up being super affordable. About $9 USD to get into the Red Fort.
Being Black in India
There’s definitely distinct shit that just so happens to you when you’re black in India.
First things first, everybody tries to figure out where you’re from!!
People stared so hard at me with a permanent smile on their face which comes off creepy as shit at first. By the end of the trip I was creepily smiling back 🙂
There’s no subtlety to their stares either.
In line for the Red Fort (a popular tourist site in Delhi), a group of teenagers were standing 3 feet away from me in the next line. They were sizing me up with squinting eyes, like they were trynna solve a riddle.
They’d say something to each other with their eyes still fixed on me.
From the outside looking in, it must’ve appeared as if art aficionados were examining and discussing the “Starry Nights” painting in the Van Gogh museum.
I’m the art, of course 😀
Eventually one of the kids, who I can only assume was the ringleader, got my attention and asked, “Hey, where are you from?”
I said, “America”. And they all responded energetically with different reactions like “Ahhhh” with arms in the air, as if some just lost a bet and some won.
Which is exactly what happened! The kid responded, “Oh man, I guessed you were Sri Lanka”. Another one said, “I thought Somalia”.
The second one was pretty close, since I’m Ethiopian!
They were guessing my ethnicity right in my face, and gave no fucks about hiding it.
It was honestly refreshing, and refreshingly honest.
Like I said, the strangest part is that they’re smiling right at you the whole time.
And you know how people that are staring at you look away when you look them in the eyes??
That shit don’t work at all! They get even more excited and want to talk to you now that they have your attention.
Sooo naturally that’s what I started doing.
I began staring and smiling at people that I saw, and being more receptive to their approaches. It became a lot more fun and interactive!
Oddly enough, some people guessed that I was from South India if I had a hat on. If I took my hat off, then my big curly fro would blow my Indian cover though.
That’s how I reckoned that there are more darker skinned Indians living in the South of the nation, and that was confirmed by my local friends.
Treatment & Service
5 Fros
The stares will throw you off, but any interaction with the locals will let you know that there’s usually nothing to worry about.
As a foreigner, your treatment in India can be fantastic or shitty based on the situation.
When it comes to service, you can expect top-notch as a foreigner!
There are walk-up liquor stores where you stand outside of the shop and order what you want. But the front of the shop was flooded with customers waiting their turn and there’s no line to stand in at all.
The shopkeeper saw us struggling to hold a place. He actually singled us out, and called us inside of the store to pick out exactly what we wanted, while everybody else had to order from the outside.
Unfair for them, but I ain’t tripping!
Like I said before, tourists visit countries to spend money, and the locals know that better than anyone.
In restaurants, you get sooo much grub for sooo little cash, that it’s a MUST to drop a nice tip on your way out.
Every tuk tuk driver or tour guide expects a little more than negotiated at the end of the ride, so lace ‘em with a couple extra bucks.
Speaking of negotiations
Outside of restaurants and historical site-seeing, you have to negotiate for every little damn thing.
Shopping in the markets is a whole ass event in itself!
At the beginning of the trip, we walked by a couple street dealers. They were selling a pack of six magnets for 200 rupees.
Which sounds like a steal.
Then we had to go shopping for our traditional Indian clothes to wear to our friend’s wedding.
Our friend Palavi, who’s from India, took us shopping at the Bazaar near Connaught Place and she put us on game, for real.
This Bazaar is an underground market where they sell all types of clothing, souvenirs, and almost anything you can imagine. It’s an underground mall.
Palavi told me to put my camera away before walking in because it might not be safe.
As soon as we walked into the Bazaar, all eyes were on us!
Any shop worker or vendor we walked by was calling at us,
“Hey, would you like a belt?”
“Look, look, these shoes will look great on you!”
“Come in, come in, I have the perfect jewelry for you.
I saw some of the same magnets that my friend got before and decided that I wanted them. The guy peeped my interest and said that it’s only 200 rupees.
I was like, bet. Then Palavi said, you better not pay more than 50 rupees!
I was shocked! I thought it’d be disrespectful to negotiate a quarter of the initial price so I couldn’t do it.
Then Palavi started speaking Hindi (India’s official language, although there are many), and went back and forth with the dude for about 45 seconds.
Palavi turns to me and says, “Okay, give him 50 rupees.”
I was like, OHHH SHHIIIIIIZZZ!!
That was the moment I realized that we’ve been getting played this whole time.
Since that day, I was swindling, jugging, and jiving through all the markets to get the best deals possible.
I learned the number one rule: No matter how much you like something,
You gotta be prepared to walk out of the negotiation.
Negotiation process
The next time I was at a market, I picked out 6 pieces of jewelry and souvenirs that I really liked over a 30 minute period of a salesman serenading my ear drums with all the reasons I should buy them.
When picking out each individual piece, I always ask, “How much does this one cost?”
They always respond, “Don’t worry, we’ll talk money at the end.”
If you say so.
At the end, the salesman writes down some bull shit numbers down for each item based on how much he thinks he can juice me for.
At the end, he writes down an extremely high number, and then says, “But for you, I’ll give you this discounted price.”
Which is also some bull shit.
Then I say, “I can only do [X amount]”. Which honestly hurts me a bit, because it’s like 20% of the price that they say. All for the purpose of meeting in the middle somewhere.
The guy looks disrespected and says that there’s no way that I can do that. Then gives a new lower price, that’s still too high.
We go back and forth for a bit and then I finally say, “Okay, I’ll check out the nearby stores and maybe I’ll come back.”
I walk outta the store a bit disappointed because I actually like the stuff I picked out, but you gotta be prepared to walk out.
About 10 steps outta the door, I feel a tap on my shoulder and Lo and Behold, it’s the guy from the jewelry shop. He says, okay come back in.
The price is significantly lower, and everybody wins!! Yayyy!
The same kinda negotiations happen with tuk tuk rides and tour guides. It’s all very exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time!
safety
2.5 Fros
After my friend, Ayush, from India showed us around Delhi, I felt relatively safe everywhere we went, even without him.
But I also know that I can be clueless about these things sometimes. Perception is not always reality when it comes to safety and I.
Me and my 2 female friends, Agata and Marta, decided to make the 15 minute walk from the wedding venue to our hotel.
*side note: peep our incredible North Indian wedding experience. It was literally a movie!*
Back 2 the story.
It was past midnight and we were feeling safe and bold, since we’d been surrounded by friends at the wedding for the last few hours.
And that’s where we fucked up!
About 5 minutes into our walk, a guy on a motorcycle rides past us.
He turns around and stops his bike right next to us, and asks, “Hey, can I take a selfie with you?”
We’ve had sooo many people ask us for selfies since we’d been there, so that’s not really weird. The strange part is it’s after midnight and he turned around his bike to do this.
We still said no, because it’s late at night and we just wanna get home. But he was relentless, so we took a pic to get rid of him.
2 minutes later, he rides back with a van full of dudes following him!
He asks again, “Heyy, my friend wants to take a picture with you.”
We’re like, Nahhhh man we’re going home dude.
He won’t stop asking, and there’s really no way to get away from them. It’s just us and the dark road ahead. We tried to keep walking, but they followed.
Finally, we said okay, in hopes that they’d leave after.
The kid in the van really did just wanna take a pic, but the original dude on the bike was a bastard.
He kissed my friend on the cheek when he took the selfie!!
We were all upset that he did that, and told him, that shit’s not cool, but it was done already.
He said that we should get in the van, so we could all hang out tonight and have a good time. Hell nah!
Maaan, fortunately they weren’t horrible people, and they just left eventually.
Honestly, I just felt annoyed, but I never felt unsafe. But when they left, my friend said something that made me cringe.
She said, “If they pulled out a gun and said get in the van, then what would’ve happened.”
We probably would’ve gotten in the car with no trace of where we were last seen.
That’s a situation where my perception didn’t match the reality. If they had bad motives, then we could’ve found ourselves in a fucked up situation.
India is as safe as you make it. Just play it smart, and you’ll be okay.
cost to visit
5 Fros
Now this is where India really makes the big bucks…or the opposite.
First thing to understand is India’s currency is the rupee, and one US dollar = 75 rupees!
Of course, 75 rupees in India can’t get you as far as 75 dollars can get you in the good ol’ US of A.
But it can get you pretty damn far for the value.
You can buy a great traditional meal with an appetizer and a drink for 500 rupees. That’s $6.50!!
You can take that same 500 rupees and buy a beautiful and authentic pashmina at one of the many Delhi markets (maybe less, if you know how to negotiate).
Then you can spin that same 500 rupees into entrance to any of India’s sick historical sites.
When we hopped off the plane into Delhi airport, I exchanged 300 euros for 25,000 rupees. I balled the fuck out and spared no cost for a week and a half.
10 days later, I found myself back in Delhi airport for the flight home, and I still had some cash to blow on last-minute souvenirs before hopping on that Boeing.
It’s the complete opposite of traveling in Switzerland
You can stretch your money even further if you consider those negotiation tactics I mentioned before.
Weather
3.5 Fros
When you’re planning your trip to India, don’t fuck around and plan it between April and July.
For clarity, it’s May 27th and 113 degrees fahrenheit in Delhi as I write this. My pits are sweating just from typing that last sentence!
Mix that with the smog & non-stop commotion, and it has the potential to be a personal nightmare vacation of mine.
I’d spend the whole trip in the Airbnb if the AC is hittin’ right.
Saying all that, there are incredible times of the year to get good weather in India.
November through February are the best weather months in India.
With an emphasis on February!
Speaking of that, I arrived in India on Valentine’s day so I had it made in the shade…and sun.
75 & sunny days, with no chance of rain for a week and a half. Can’t beat that!
Transportation
4 Fros
I mentioned before, when we got outta the airport a couple drivers rolled up and tried to give us a ride.
I was trynna be big dawg, and fend them off by saying we gotta uber coming for us (which never came).
I kept denying their requests until eventually, we realized that we were standing out there for 30 minutes with no ride.
We gave in and asked the drivers for a ride. Even then, I tried to negotiate the ride (and lost) from 500 rupees down to 400 rupees.
Maaaan, I went back & forth for 5 minutes with the driver, not even realizing that I’m trying to get 1 dollar off of the price!
How shitty am I? Those 100 rupees means much more to them than 1 dollar means to me.
There are many different transportation options to choose from and we tried most of them.
Within the city, we took a train once and decided never to do that shit again. It was packed and there were too many people staring. Uncomfortable as hell!
We took ubers when we wanted to be comfortable, and as insulated as possible from the hectic commotion outside. The ubers were always affordable and reliable.
My favorite way to get around the city, by far, were the tuk-tuks.
I loved negotiating for the rides and talking with the drivers on the way to the destination.
I loved having no barrier between myself and all of the action outside. I even shook hands with a dude in a neighboring tuk tuk while in traffic!
I loved the stares we got as we rode by all of the curious faces. Mostly because you can just smile and stare back, without worrying about potential conversation.
The tuk tuks have the ability to weave in and out of traffic, while fitting into voids that, by law, are not to be filled. But who cares?
Makes sense, since the only driving law in India is the aggressor wins.
Traffic is wildly insane and, at its worst, it can take you hours to get 10 kilometers down the street.
It’s actually exhausting to get from point A to point B in Delhi. Honking your horn isn’t something they do when they’re pissed off, or when you want to notify a specific car of something.
Honking is a way of life in Indian traffic!
Because there are few road rules and sooo much traffic, people constantly honk to let anybody around know that they’re coming. Pretty much saying that errbody better get out the way.
Then you have city-to-city travel.
We took a train on the first trip from Delhi to Agra, and it was pleasant. You can cop comfy seats on the 90 minute ride, that come with some snacks for 15 bucks.
The next train we took from Agra to Jaipur was outta sight!! That’s because it never came! The train was cancelled that morning, after we’d already arrived at the station.
We were hurt because we got up extra early to catch that train.
Trains in India are not super reliable, but they’re a really good, safe, and valid form of transportation!
We ended up calling an Uber to take us on a 5 hour journey from Agra to Jaipur! Guess how much it cost?
4,500 rupees!! Which is around 55 USD.
Split that 3 ways and that’s a cheap ass 5 hour Uber. Less than 20 bucks a head!
But Ola is the way to go for a cab service!
Ola is the Indian version of Uber, and we used that for the 5 hour return ride from Jaipur to Delhi and it ended up only being 3,000 rupees ($35).
So many different ways to hop around this beautiful country. The best part is that you don’t have to choose one.
food
5 Fros
I knew that I was gonna love the food in India, but I ain’t know just how many foodgasms I was gonna have…12… I had 12.
Living in the Netherlands, I end up missing very bold flavors and spice. I grew up in the south and lived in an Ethiopian household, so spice and flavors are necessities in my palate.
Going to India gave me explosion after explosion in my mouth (pause), and I tried so many dishes that I never had before visiting India.
Butter chicken, paneer, lassi, gulab, tandoori, chicken lollipops, manchurian, garlic naan, and the list goes on-an-on!
Just like everything else, food is very cheap and they never skimp on the portions. I hardly ever finished a dish and I never paid more than $10.
Everyone seems to be concerned about having the shits from eating in India, which I can understand. If you go from eating bland Dutch food for years to bold and spicy Indian dishes for several days in a row, your tummy might have something to say about it.
But I’m used to delicious food so I didn’t have any problems! You can always ask for them to make the dishes non-spicy. One of my friends that I traveled with in India was not only averse to spicy food, she was lactose-intolerant!
The restaurants were always very accommodating and got her the stuff she needed. She still had a hard time on that front, but she survived.
Overall
4 Fros
Considering the city’s demographics, safety, cost to visit, service, transportation, and weather, India got an amazing 4 out of 5 Fros on the Fro Rating Scale!
India is a nation of diversity, history, and spirituality! There is so much to see that I didn’t get the chance to explore.
I recommend visiting India to anybody!
If you want to roll solo, I would suggest taking tours and traveling through a travel group, at least for the first leg of your trip. Once you get the feel for the country, you can decide whether to go it alone or not.
I didn’t get a chance to hike during my time in India, but the Himalayan Mountains are in the Northern region of India, and you know the name for a reason.
If you need any more motivation to visit, peep my Delhi travel video where we wander through the city hitting all the most incredible and historical spots.
Being black is a truly unique experience for every single person and it can’t be captured by just one person’s experience abroad.
We’re an extremely diverse group of people with distinct looks and personalities. If you’ve been to India then you have your own story to tell, and you deserve to tell it.
What was your being black in India experience like? Let me know in the comments section.
Ya boi,
Zekarias
