Camping on the beach? Allowed? Safe?

Curly87

Hey all,

At the beginning of April I will be taking part in the Rickshaw run, which means i will be driving a rick from Bangladesh to Goa for charity which is over 3500km! Yes i know we are nuts!

But we are thinking of driving down the east coast for a bit. How safe would it be to wild camp on the beach in this area? I know the obvious dangers in India, have been living here for the last 8 months. But just wanted to know if its a bad idea or a really bad idea!

Let me know what you guys think!

steven_ber

I'm no local expert, but I've been to several places on the Andhra coast, and a few times I've been warned by the locals not to be on the beach at night, they say the local fishermen have a drink problem and can become violent, I've heard similar stories about parts of the Orissa coast.

However, the stories are always told by middle class Indians who may well have a poor view of the lower caste fishermen.

I've never noticed any problems myself, only friendliness and curiocity, and I've been for many late night and early morning walks for miles along the beaches, and I slept on the beach at Voderavu on New Years Eve, out of choice I think, but the Vodka and the local hooch may have had something to do with it.

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chennaiwala

if you are a group of people and the rally is official or sponsored by well known name , then inform the local police station .

if its not official , you have only one choice . book a beach side resort and camp on the beach .

CW

Nick-H

Same for the coast here. You may wake up without your wallet, you may find a woman or two missing from your party, or you may not wake up at all.

No, it is categorically not worth the risk. Try waving a range-topping mobile phone around outside just outside a London underground station for your kicks instead!

palerider

On chennai beach there is a curfew of 10 pm. The police will roam the beach periodically and remove stragglers. Sorry. Like the others said, I don't think it's a good idea.

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varmaqs

I dont think its a good idea. I live in coastal andhra. It can get bad at times unless u have a local along with u,

rajee87

i think it is not such a bad idea. but you have not mentioned the group size & any women members in it.

anyway, it is always better to inform the state police once you enter that state &

may be, who knows, as you are on charity run, the local NGOs & interested folks may join you & make it more merrier & memorable.

edwardseco

The drunks come out late at night & there seem to be a ton of them. Have dodged the bottles..

Merchant

Or you could just enjoy hanging out all night with the fishermen, who set out in their boats in the wee hours and return at dawn. Why assume they will be drunk and out to harm you?

varmaqs

OK, let me tell u this incident which happened in Machilipatnam when I was in college. A woman along with her husband and younger sister went to Manginipudi beach. It wasn't a weekend and there were no people around and the beach was deserted. The local folk who were drunk tied up the husband and raped the women.

Steven, I'm a middle class guy too and I didn't make up this story.

I'm not looking to scare members here but that was what actually happened.

Nick-H

My wife learnt the hard way about the dangers of being out on the beach even in the late evening. She ran fast enough, luckily.

That was over twenty years ago, even, I think, before her children were born.

Now, I'm afraid, the knives are sharper, the desire for mobile phones (and cash) stronger...

Whilst I still feel able to walk the streets with a cord around my neck which obviously leads to a mobile phone, which I would absolutely not do in London, and I would still say that the tourist's camera, for instance, maybe safer here than outside their home, unnecessary risk is... unnecessary.

varmaqs is not being alarmist; these events happen.

Merchant

The fearmongering here is silly. The OP doesn't even suggest WHERE he might like to camp. All he says is east coast of India. The fact that one can point out unpleasant incidents in greater Chennai has no bearing on whether or not spending a night on a beach is a good or bad idea. No one here can say with any certainty whether or not the OP will be safe camping somewhere along the thousands of miles of beaches of India's east coast. In fact, there is no answer to this question.

But why type furiously about unsafe it is? Drunks! Rapists!

Bad things happen everywhere, even in your own hometown. Bad things happen in India, too, and people should make smart decisions about what they do when they travel.

But the fearmongering here, which I grant is a peculiar feature of the internet, is unnecessary and unhelpful.

varmaqs

Hi Merchant!

Curly wanted to know if its safe camping on beaches.

I said its unsafe.

You advised him it might not be a problem.

We gave him our own opinions.

Now, what is the point in advising others on what they should advise. We didnt ask u to.

Let Curly take the decision. We just want him to b safe.

Sindhbad

I live in visakhapatnam
if you r a groupn of 10 with no women or may be one or 2 is fine but you should also see that which part of the beach u r staying in like in vskp rushikonda beach is safe but yarada beach is a bit daingerous
i feel tot ake up a resort near the beach is the safest thing and you can enjoy in the beach and spend ur time in night may be sleep these with ur valubles locked in the resort
why unnecessarly take a risk and lose ur valubles and end the trip in a dismay??
and more over tell me which parts of the eastern cities or towns(costal)you are covering in ur trip so that we can suggest you where to stay and which resorts r gud and economical..so taht you can get a clear idea rather than tieing all the costal belt in one thread..there r places which are safe and places which r not safe!!!

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atala

Do not underestimate the cruelty to which fishermen (and women) are capable if it means they can earn something from it. This is not to denigrate them as a whole, but you will always find a number of especially ruthless ones in any fisher village. I have come accross some such incident even in a "civilized" looking neighborhood in a larger town, where you would have been safe accross the street, but not in the adjacent fishermen's village. The poor view of them is often also based on personal experiences.

What is even worse is when someone is an outcast of such a village. Then such people become extremely dangerous. They may not plan to kill you, but just threaten to cut off some of your fingers if you do not give them what they want, that is in extortion if you give them an opportunity (otherwise they would just take it from you). Since they are outside the law, i.e. do not care about the consequences of their actions, they have nothing to lose but a lot to gain from you.

I am sure there are many hard-working, honest people as well, but for us, it is always better to have a tat more bias to better be safe than sorry later. During daytime I would not hesitate to be friendly with them, but at night, no thanks.