Being a woman in the outdoors in India
By Rashmi Shenoy
Hello fellow travellers! I’m Rashmi from India and I’m writing to provide a perspective on being a solo female traveler in India. It has been around 3 years since I started travelling, hiking and exploring new places and the travel bug is still very much alive and growing within me.
It was a normal day at my office and my friend came excitedly to show me his pictures of a Himalayan trek which he had just returned from. The pictures were like something out of a fairyland, he was in knee deep snow surrounded by beautiful panoramic views of Himalayan peaks and a beautiful Lord Shiva temple. He told me all about his adventure and I immediately googled how I could go to that same place. That same day, without telling anyone, I booked my trek with a trekking group called “Indiahikes” and booked all my transportation to the trek which was 2000+ kilometres from where I live in India. That was my very first serious trek which lasted for three days. I met a bunch of people from all over India, and outside of India – it’s also where I met Rosanna - the person I am writing this article for right now.
The entire trek was a crazy fun ride - we slept in tents at night, 15 of us ate our food together in the dinner tent, motivated each other to summit, played snowball fights, danced on the day we summitted, witnessed a snowstorm while trekking (we got fully drenched and started shivering because of the cold) and peed in dry toilet tents. All this might sound so uncomfortable when you are sitting at home in your PJ's but astonishingly, I felt more alive on all the days there than ever before!
I felt that adrenaline rush for the first time ever and found myself craving more. I felt a sense of belonging and this is the reason I started to look for more opportunities to travel or be among nature. Another thing I learnt is that I love meeting new people and making friends, and have now become a trek leader in where I live in Bangalore. I lead and guide groups of people on weekend treks and travels. Usually when we are trek leaders, we must go to the same place again and again once we have covered all the trips. Everyone asks me if I get bored of going to the same places, but I feel that with different people the experiences change. We visit these places in different climates and conditions which makes it new each time. I have become someone who looks for more experiences and less for materialistic things, someone who finds happiness in listening to other's stories and their life lessons during trips, and have found comfort outside of my comfort zone, and have successfully converted into an ambivert from an introvert.
It is important to talk about being a woman in the outdoors in India, and safety. My experiences have taught me the feeling of safety is relative and always depends on the kind of people I'm surrounded with. There are instances where I have led a group of 12 guys alone over weekend trips and I have felt 100% safe. When I have travelled alone on public transport, the conductor and fellow passengers have made me feel safe and one amongst them. I feel lucky enough that nothing bad has happened to me during my solo journeys (touch wood), but this also thanks to being careful. When I am alone, I have been more attentive, and I have a few to share:
Always keep an eye out for any unusual activities
Trust your sixth sense if something feels wrong, and get out as soon as possible
Carry a pepper spray (just in case) and a whistle
Keep family and friends informed about your whereabouts
Keep the local police number handy
Try not to wander in unknown/less-populated locations after dark
Do not share too much personal information with strangers
Keep your money in at least 2 different places
Download an offline map of the location you will be going (maps.me is a very useful app)
Learn a few self-defense steps
I think the above tips are relatively similar whichever country you go to and are not specific to India. The media might tell you otherwise but once you have visited India, you will see the culture and history, the different food habits, the several languages spoken, and that all these things changes every 200 km in India – the diversity is enormous. I am yet to explore even 20% of India and there are still so many more unexplored places waiting to be stepped upon.
During my first Himalayan trek we were asked to collect trash all along our entire trek. We found a lot of trash considering we were in a place that had far fewer people passing through than in a city, for example. It made me sad to realise that people who come to nature when they want to escape their routine life can be the ones that damage her the most. I started reading about sustainability and becoming more aware of the dangers we are imposing on nature. I have made a few lifestyle changes, and I am in a continual process of making my life more sustainable. I started using shampoo bars, switched to a menstrual cup, I carry my own water bottles on travels instead of buying plastic ones, switched to non-plastic alternatives, and switched to vegan and cruelty-free products. I had stopped eating meat around 6 years ago owing to the way I felt about animals - I could not stand the fact that I would be eating one of my fellow cute beings!
I aspire to be more fit, learn new adventure sports, to convert my lifestyle into 100% sustainable one and hope to never stop travelling in the future, whatever the hurdles may be on the way. Travelling is the only thing which makes me think, wonder, and brings me true sense of happiness and inner strength.
All photos are property of Rashmi Shenoy.
