Checking in: simple safety tips for travellers

I think it is a good idea for travellers to India (or anywhere else, specially if travelling solo) to consider taking one or more of the following measures:


1. Set a time interval with somebody back home and check in by email periodically. Internet cafes are available in most places in India, or close to most places. All you have to do is to email that you are ok, where you are, and preferably where you are planning to go next.

2. Get a mobile phone and sim card. A new cheap Nokia comes for 1200 rupees. For 2000 total (40USD) you can cover all emergency phone expenses over a three month trip, and probably sell the phone for 5/800 rupees at the end of it. You can restrict publicising the number if you want, but somebody should be able to contact you, and vice versa, in an emergency.

There are few places where a mobile phone will not work on your trip. If you are in one of those, a trip, say, once a week closeby to 'check in' is not too hard. Again, all you have to do is to say you are ok, and where you are and preferably where you are planning to go next

3. If you know anybody at all in India, you could text message or call them periodically and s/he could send an email to a prearranged address to somebody back home. A text message costs a rupee or two (or even two paise on some schemes)



People worry. It doesn't cost much to fix the problem.



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Thanks Capt If I might piggyback and add something pertinent to U.S. citizens - register your travel plans with the State Dept here. It's a free service, and worth the few minutes it takes to fill out the info online.

It might sound paranoid but I figure what if there's a natural disaster or something, one just never knows...

If you're in a hotel and going out with someone (a guide/new friend), leave a message with the front desk; that you're expected back at so and so, do contact me at such and such time. And give them the vehicle # you'd be traveling in.

It helps in case you're stuck somewhere in the boonies.

Above all, use common sense and be reasonably cautious. I regularly see people doing things here that they'd never do in their home country. For some reason a lot of travelers seem to think that India is this pure, innocent place where nothing can happen except for the occasional scam. This is NOT true and never was true to begin with.

There is crime here, especially in the major cities and travelers should take care. This goes double for female travelers on their own or with a female friend: be careful what you do and whom you follow. Don't do things locals would consider foolish in the extreme like getting in a car with 3 'friends' you just met who want to go and have a drink. Be aware that there is a significant part of the population on the streets whose attitude to woman in general and western women in particular is -to put it mildly- unenlightened, especially in north-India.

I'll probably have to put on my asbestos suit after writing the above but can cite plenty of real-life examples from here in Delhi.

Bottom line: be reasonably cautious, talk to the local population to see what they do and -most of all- when in doubt, bail out.

have an emergency contact in your mobile listed as:

ICE (in case of emergency), and use the number of whoever you think should be contacted in an emergency.

I disagree about the asbestos suit.

We North Indian are singed, and we never got to put on ours.

is there a specific carrier/provider that has better coverage in the Ladakh area

as this is in a thread about safety for travellers, you're probably not going to get much help on phone carriers.

check the ladakh sub-forum, do a search, or start a new thread in the appropriate forum.

sorry, I had multiple windows open and replied to wrong one

aah, yes, i think i may have done that once or twice!