Americans in india?

alexvisentin

Hi there, just a curiousity.I noticed many members are from the us, but in my indian travels i hardly met americans.How is that?

Nick-H

Moved your post: the News forum is for relevent news items from the media.

There are plenty of American travellers to India active on this forum. The last Indiamike Chennai meetup was, by majority, a meeting of Americans.

Maybe they're avoiding you

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alexvisentin

yeah, maybe

the opoponax

I didn't meet that many Americans in India.

I think the disparity between participation in IndiaMike and numbers on the ground is because it's not actually a condition of your visa or anything that you become a regular poster on IndiaMike. Who takes part in this web forum has little or nothing to do with who goes to India.

I think the reason there are fewer Americans traveling to India compared to Europeans is because flights are so much more expensive from the US than from Europe. Also, the way international travel from the US works, it can be prohibitively expensive to travel to more remote parts of the world because you first have to fly from your home city to an international hub like Chicago or New York, and THEN the double-barreled flight to India itself.

And as for the Australians, well, they're crazy.

brownboy66

and they talk funny! (thank you for the qualification.....)

ananda2193

I've only met a few myself in the 4 times I've been there. Mostly Brits, Germans, Israelis,etc.
I think most americans choose closer places like europe or mexico or the caribbean as most people only get 2 weeks vacation a year. And also India's very far and expensive to get to and I think alot of americans think why would anyone want to go there. It's dirty and dangerouss,etc. They want a more safer holiday.
Little do they know that it's really beautiful and interesting and a great choice for a holiday.

But I'm happy I don't run into alot of Americans there. I don't travel halfway around the world to see ton's of people from my own country. It defeats the purpose of going there in the first place. Soo many other travelers hang in groups of their own kind w/o really intermingling with the locals.

Though I have no problem hangin' with american's if I run into them.

Cardamom

My thoughts exactly I went to India on business and hardly ran into any Americans at the business-hub hotels I was staying at. Did get to practice my crappy German skills with some nice lady who didn't know what sambhar was.

C

puchoo

Im kind of surprised with the above comments... i tend to bump into them almost everywhere i go - be it my def col market as well.. ,

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asicola

It may have to do with the fact that only something like 9% of Americans have a passport and most of those that do spend their time in Mexico stuffing their faces full of buffet dinners while relaxing at their timeshare.

I just got back from India last month after six months there. I met a total of three Americans, two were traveling together and the other was an expat that actually lives in Turkey!

Not to say that I didn't see any Americans, I said that I only met three. I usually avoid THEM! I didn't travel to India to hang out with Americans, I can do that at home

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Sama

have to agree with OP. in my three trips I can count the number of americans I met on one hand.

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machadinha

How's about the simple theory that as it's a very big place with on the whole a relatively small number of foreign visitors & those of them may tend to stick to certain areas, you're not bound to run into one another a lot?

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Nick-H

The majority of those must have been at the IM meetup

Sama

no. I have to agree with what ananda said: "I think most americans choose closer places like europe or mexico or the caribbean as most people only get 2 weeks vacation a year. And also India's very far and expensive to get to and I think alot of americans think why would anyone want to go there. It's dirty and dangerous, etc. They want a more safer holiday."

any time I run into westerners in Tamil Nadu (and during the 5 days I was in kerala this year) it is always europeans or australians. at the yoga school, americans that attend are a very small minority, if any.

I really think it's the fact that if someone is in a typical 9 to 5 job, most americans get 2 weeks of vacation a year -- if they are lucky. and they are certainly not going to spend it in India when Mexico, Florida, Jamaica, Bahamas, and other typical places where americans vacation are so much closer and cheaper (travel wise.)

that's about it. that literally is the first time I was with SO MANY AMERICANS!

camelgirl

I hardly ever meet Americans, beginning with my first trip overland & I was the only one on the bus!

I don't think I've met & spoken to more than 2 on every trip. On the other hand, I have SEEN lots of groups of Americans who stick completely with their tour. Just once a small tour group was at the same small hotel we were at & when we tried to be friendly they were all crabby about how awful India was. Oh, what a surprise--and the reason why we do avoid those groups at all cost!

I also agree with opoponax, ananda & asicola as to why Americans don't go to India in larger numbers.

I think over the years the most foreign travelers I met in India were from UK & Australia with a sprinkling of people from everywhere else. Very few Japanese.

I met a couple of Japanese women at a post office who could not understand why the post office would not take their letters which were addressed in Japanese characters I tried really hard to explain to them that no one could read them and they would have to find someone to write it out in English. They could not grasp what I said and kept pointing to the stamps. Nevermind.

(puchoo, what does "def col" mean?)

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kalyani68

Ha! I met more Americans (4) in my hotel shuttle van from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris who were on their way to India than Americans while I was in India! We were on our way to Chennai and the others were going to Kerala and Rajasthan. There you go, you'll find em' all in Paris!

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