As a woman traveler in India, what to wear is an issue.  You won’t get kicked out of the country for inappropriate dress but you’ll certainly feel out of place.  Luckily I did read about some of this stuff ahead of time, but I did find a few things I packed ended up being basically useless.  Here’s a rundown of what NOT to wear in India:

• Anything that shows legs – including shorts, capri pants, and skirts or dresses that are anything less than floor length.  Indian women keep their legs covered at all times, despite the fact that it’s over 90 degrees every day.  No, you will not get a leg tan in India.  The only places I saw other women wearing or felt comfortable shorts were on strenuous hikes (basically to avoid overheating), and at the beaches in Varkala and Kovalam.  Guys can wear shorts, but it’s a noteably “western” clothing item.
• Anything too revealing on top.  That includes tank tops with skimpy straps, anything with a v-neck, or anything too fitted. 
• Jeans.  Actually, it’s quite common to see jeans on Indian women (especially in the cities), but it’s more of a practicality issue.  If you need to wash them, they take forever to dry (washing machines/dryers are extremely uncommon in India).  If you do bring a pair, save them to go out at night, but not during the day.
• Don’t bother trying to wear a sari.  I didn’t see any Western women attempting to wear them, and I can’t imagine they would be very easy to get used to while travelling.   (See my next post of what TO wear for a viable Indian clothing option).
• Any sandals you can’t easily rinse off.  The stupidest thing I brought were these cloth white sandals. I think I wore them twice in three weeks.  Even in cities and populated areas, your feet and shoes will get very dirty and need to be rinsed off /washed at the end of the day.  It was a standing joke that our feet were covered with the “India funk.”  Oak’s feet were always the worst.. ewww!  haha (sorry hon!). 
• A raincoat.  We were in India in the “dry” season, and the one time it did rain, we weren’t expecting it so we didn’t have our raincoats with us. Sigh!

More soon!  Life has been a little crazy lately, but I’ve got a list of more India posts in my brain that I’m hoping to get to eventually!

Posted by Carrie on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Categories: india · 3 Comments »