Dumbest thing you've done in India

fatroony

Anyone arriving on the overnight train from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer will remember the salivating hordes of touts being held back at the gates. Tired and laden down with my pack I thought it would be funny to shout out at the top of my voice: "Does anyone know of any good hotels in town?"
The result - a stampede of touts yelling at the top of their lungs that they knew a great hotel, climbing over each other, and a few policemen trying to hold back the surging mob.

fly2raven

What about the dumbest thing you have ever seen another foreigner do?

While shopping I spotted two western women wearing traditional PJ pants (those worn with a long kamiz) with really short tops - so as it was told to me they were basically wearing their under clothing as outer clothing...

I also saw two women in Goa wearing an indecent amount of clothing...even for western standards...it was just obscene...

Mays

I have seen people ....and I mean my buddies from South Africa....buy Beedies from Varanasi....Packet them as cigarellos....

He and I met at a swank Bar --5star hotel..All night we smoked beedies...He was so fascinated that they were handrolled...Gotta admit it was great fun making a mickey out of the others at the bar coz they had a great idea of what we were onto!

vpsingh

Tried feeding bananas to an elephant cub while in Kaziranga National Park. He decided to not let go us until he had his fill. Fortunately for me and fellow passenger in our jeep, his mother's mahout had a big stick to scare him off.
Others were left laughing watching my scared face and elephant being scared with stick.

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robotvoice

LOL
this belongs in the thread: How to start a riot in India?

Shaktipalooza

My wife and I were married in her home town in Andhra Pradesh. We traveled to the other side of the planet with a wedding entourage of eleven people.

Two days before the ceremony we took a day trip out to a small village. There was a fort on top of a hill so I decided to hike up and check it out with a friend. The trail was overgrown so we ended up bushwacking our way up. Thankfully we only encountered monkeys, no snakes.

By the time we made it up in the 90F+ heat we were suffering mild heat exhaustion and dehydration. There was a small goods shack at the top but it was closed. A friendly fellow standing in a doorway offered us some water in an earthen container. Against all common sense we decided to go ahead and have a cup. Just after downing the last gulp we turned around to see the shack had opened up and had bottled water available.

Oh well we figured, we'd drunk the Kool-Aid, welcome to the real India. We walked on to explore the fort where to my dismay we found the source of the water we'd been drinking; a large, shallow depression in the stone which had formed a natural water tank. It was surrounded by a considerable amount of cow poo.

I spent the next 24 hours contemplating the monumentally poor judgment I'd exercised and wondering when I'd start my residency in the toilet. By some miracle neither of us became ill and I was able to fully enjoy my own wedding.

Talk about dodging a bullet!

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Papaji

the dumbest thing i did living a life in India was not taking my studies seriously and not pursuing university degrees...

life could have had glittered otherwise

brownboy66

what's the dumbest thing so far....?

Suggesting a thread in this forum as to how you could ditch your in-laws. Might be attractive - but as pointed out to me - in India!??

what was I thinking.....

still...there are many more years left yet to do even dumber things...

shashank.aggarwal

oh...Don't worry..In-laws are differet..

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ananda2193

I didn't do it, but was in Varanasi on the roof of my hotel with some Aussies eating bananas when a bunch of monkeys appeared on the roof next door. The Aussies threw some banana peels over to them and soon after we were running for our lives as the monkeys ferosiously charged our table. One chasing me down 3 flights of stairs. Never been so scared in my life.

brownboy66

thanks Shashank.....

Darmabum

the first Special Lassi . . . or the second . . .

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mirjamd

Coming home late from partying almost every night and trusting the maid who had to open the door wouldnt tell my hosts.... THAT of course was not going to happen

Tapestry

That is an absolutely fantastic faux pas. Thanks for the laugh! That's like holding up fistfulls of money and shouting, "Does anyone know how I can get rid of this stuff?"

Again, pure gold. Great story. Monkeys are dangerous!!!

tacita

having learned here that private jeep hires often try to pick up additional passengers along the way to supplement their income, i was sure to clarify with the company through which i arranged my car that i did not want my driver to do so. however, i often saw old people (or even not so old) walking in the middle of nowhere and so started asking him now and then to stop and make my offer of a free ride. unbeknowst to me, these poor passengers never benefitted from my wish to help because my driver was taking their money! eventually, he stopped waiting for me to tell him when i wanted to stop to help someone, and simply started his own little side business. one morning, after checking out of my hotel to begin that day's journey, i found passenger already in the jeep waiting for our departure.

but while it burned me to be taken advantage of, i have to admit that it made for some interesting experiences. in the first opicture, you can see only some of the family (those in the middle pic), who rode with us. it once took a full half hour to get everyone's suitcases, gas tanks and other assorted possessions loaded onto the roof!

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