Originally Posted by Jamoldo

I would strongly advise the op to ignore the "avoid Muslim areas" advice. Honestly, had I been in some Shiv Sena (Hindu nationalist ) slums or Muslim slums in Bombay, I would have been in danger and I blend in as an Indian as long as I don't open my mouth... It's not just a tourist who would be in danger, but regular Indians. Ditto with Ayodyha or Gujarat in years past. If you look at vast majority opinion here, it's not to avoid religious majority areas or anything like that but to only avoid areas that are unsafe to Indians, and you'll be fine. Would you be caught hanging out at night in Southeast DC? No. Would you reccomend a tourist to do so? I hope not.


The op would miss out on a major part of India if he was to avoid certain areas and circa 13% of the nation's population which has a deep history and culture in the South Asian subcontinent. The better safe than sorry advice regarding that would be not to go to India at all given all of the pollution and sanitary concerns. But then things wouldn't be fun or adventurous, would they??

Bond, check out a variety of things and see what India has to offer. We can only offer advice and opinions here, but go and find out and form your own opinions. I will say this though, many people hate India their first time around, ditto with China, especially if everything is not 5 star, simply due to sensory overload and population density.

AA lets not make this some Muslim-anti Muslim debate when we're giving travel advice, let's save that for OMNI where all the bigots and anti-bigots can really have a go at it.

In other words, Bond, with an open mind, go see the tigers, tea estates, temples, mosques, beaches etc. eat the rice, daal, naan, paratha, korma, vindaloo etc to your heart's content and let us know all about it!