How safe is it for a woman to travel alone?

Brut India

She never stepped out of her house. But once she did, she travelled to more than 15 countries alone. Kriti tells Brut is how she learned to be safe on these trips

Transcript

00:00I am kind of used to it, coming from India, like people touching you, you know, just rubbing

00:08by your body or saying things.

00:10I tend to ignore them.

00:19Many people did not even know that my mom has one daughter, elder daughter, and two

00:24younger brothers.

00:25So they mostly knew about my younger brothers.

00:27I hardly stepped out of my house.

00:29My parents are not supportive at all about my travel adventures.

00:32They would rather have me married, travel with a partner, than do it alone.

00:53I think I spend around 50,000 per month.

00:56That is my budget.

00:57It can be like one country in a month or two countries in a month at max.

01:05You enter the immigration and you're surrounded by all these men, Taliban officers with their

01:11guns.

01:12They were like, no, you have to go back because you have no man with you.

01:15They were concerned how I would keep safe when I am inside the country.

01:27They allotted me a place in the officer's house.

01:30It was the whole family, the Taliban officer, his two wife, eight kids.

01:35We watched Bollywood movies at night.

01:37They gave me food and they knew that I am vegetarian, so they gave me vegetarian food

01:41options to eat.

01:42It's kind of sad that I am kind of used to it, coming from India.

02:10Like people touching you, you know, just rubbing by your body or saying things.

02:17I tend to ignore them.

02:18I met this one man from couchsurfing.

02:21Many travelers use it to meet local people.

02:24He actually started touching me for no reasons, like, you know, just holding my hands, holding

02:29my shoulders.

02:30And I was like, it is not needed.

02:32But because I have not grown up to say no to such situations, I just ran away.

02:38And this happened in Turkey.

02:39I was doing land border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia and the Thai immigration officers,

02:43they asked me for extra papers.

02:45And all these details made me lose a lot of hours.

02:48So I had to book a stay at the land border at night.

02:52I took help from a local man and I gave him my number so he has any queries or anything

02:57he can ask me for payment or anything.

03:01The man started sending me nudes at night.

03:03It was so disgusting.

03:06And like, it makes me cry like even now.

03:18The biggest challenge when it comes to traveling as a woman is the fact that you are a woman.

03:22So you cannot definitely sleep anywhere.

03:24If I don't feel safe, I don't give it a second thought.

03:28Like earlier, I used to think like, oh my God, I'm losing out on experiences.

03:32Now I don't.

03:33I think it's great to try once.

03:35I start losing a lot of weight and a lot of dehydration issue because I try to avoid drinking

03:42water when I'm traveling and using roadways.

03:44I don't want to get down in every pub and use every public washroom.

03:49Having access to internet, so you can stay connected with your family and friends, even

03:53if they're miles, miles away.

03:55Power bank, I think is a non-negotiable thing.

03:57You definitely need to have a power bank and an extra small phone and you can quickly make

04:02a call in case of emergency.

04:04I feel that traveling has made me smarter in dealing with people, understanding their

04:08real intentions and keeping myself safe.

04:11I would have never understood all these things if I was staying at home.

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