“The biggest challenge when it comes to travelling as a woman is the fact that you are a woman.” Solo traveller Kriti shares her experiences with Brut.
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00:00Many people did not even know that my mom has one daughter, elder daughter and two younger
00:13brothers.
00:14So they mostly knew about my younger brothers.
00:16I hardly stepped out of my house.
00:18My parents are not supportive at all about my travel adventures.
00:21They would rather have me married, travel with a partner than do it alone.
00:41I think I spend around 50,000 per month.
00:44That is my budget.
00:45It can be like one country in a month or two countries in a month at max.
00:53You enter the immigration and you are surrounded by all these men, Taliban officers with their
01:00guns.
01:01They were like, no, you have to go back because you have no man with you.
01:04They were concerned how I would keep safe when I am inside the country.
01:16They allotted me a place in the officer's house.
01:19It was the whole family, the Taliban officer, his two wife, eight kids.
01:23We watched Bollywood movies at night.
01:26They gave me food and they knew that I am vegetarian, so they gave me vegetarian food
01:30options to eat.
01:31It's kind of sad that I am kind of used to it, coming from India, like people touching
02:01you, you know, just rubbing by your body or saying things.
02:05I tend to ignore them.
02:06I met this one man from Couchsurfing.
02:10Many travelers use it to meet local people.
02:12He actually started touching me for no reasons, like, you know, just holding my hands, holding
02:17my shoulders.
02:18And I was like, it is not needed.
02:21But because I have not grown up to say no to such situations, I just ran away.
02:26And this happened in Turkey.
02:27I was doing land border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia.
02:30The Thai immigration officers, they asked me for extra papers.
02:33And all these details made me lose a lot of hours.
02:37So I had to book a stay at the land border at night.
02:40I took help from a local man and I gave him my number so he has any queries or anything
02:46he can ask me for payment or anything.
02:49The man started sending me nudes at night.
02:51It was so disgusting.
02:54And like, it makes me cry like even now.
03:06The biggest challenge when it comes to traveling as a woman is the fact that you are a woman.
03:11So you cannot definitely sleep anywhere.
03:13If I don't feel safe, I don't give it a second thought.
03:16Like earlier I used to think like, oh my God, I'm losing out on experiences.
03:20Now I don't.
03:21I start losing a lot of weight and a lot of dehydration issue because I try to avoid drinking
03:31water when I'm traveling and using roadways.
03:33I don't want to get down in every pub and use every public washroom.
03:37Having access to internet so you can stay connected with your family and friends even
03:41if they're miles, miles away.
03:43Power bank I think is a non-negotiable thing.
03:46You definitely need to have a power bank and an extra small phone.
03:50You can quickly make a call in case of emergencies.
03:53I feel that traveling has made me smarter in dealing with people, understanding their
03:57real intentions and keeping myself safe.
04:00I would have never understood all these things if I was staying at home.