India

One of the things that was great about my trip to India was that I was going for my friend's wedding. That meant 1) that I would actually get to see an Indian wedding, 2) that I could ask my friend all the dumb questions you may have about another country that you can't always find the answers to (what to bring, what to expect, etc.), and 3) that I was going to be there with friends.

My friend gave us all some tips before coming to India...
e.g. leave food on your plate when you're full because otherwise they'll keep serving you (I guess it's a hospitality thing...they want to make sure that you've definitely had enough so they keep giving you more until you stop eating...my grandparents do that too...they ask if you want more; you say no; they put more on your plate; huh?).
One of the tips was to dress conservatively. My friend was really worried that people would stare at us if we wore "too revealing" clothes (such as shorts or short skirts, low-cut shirts). Now, the people there definitely didn't dress the way we did or would have; at Kovalam Beach we saw families go in the water fully dressed (men and women...even though some men would just wear shorts...women went in the water in their beautiful dresses and saris!!!!) but I'm not sure if it would have been that much worse if we'd been wearing our "normal" summer clothes. I mean, we already got stared at. We were all the way in the South - not a very touristy area. Some of them may have rarely (or even never) seen White people. So we got stared at - no matter what we wore. People asked us if they could take pictures with us. Beggars and street vendors followed us around. Random people would start following us, try to help out (e.g. if we said, we wanted to buy clothes, they'd drag us to the next store - probably someone we knew - then they'd recommend restaurants, etc.) and then ask for money. My friend had warned us not to give beggars any money or they'd all start following around. It was tough. You see these little kids, bony and tired-looking old women and men sitting in the dirt on the side of the road or otherwise coming up to you with their big smiles offering help or trying to sell you cheap touristy trash - and you want to help and you know you wouldn't miss the couple rupees but you also know that giving them money isn't going to fix the problem. You don't even know what they'd do with the money - and even if they bought food with it, it'd keep them fed for a couple days but then they'll be back on the street hungry, asking for money. We need to change the systems that keep so many people in poverty; we need to allow those countries to develop and grow like Europe and the US have and if we go there to "help" we have to teach them to help themselves. But when you look into those big black eyes of the cute girl with the injured foot, you feel like a bitch when you say no.