Chandigarh, India

I visited Chandigarh on a 1 month solo trip around India in 2018. I flew from Mumbai to Chandigarh on a late-night flight and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner before looking for a place to stay for the night.

I was heavy into going with the flow and rarely booked accommodations in advance at that time. I fully embraced the backpacking lifestyle lol. I hoped to find wifi while eating in order to make a booking for the night, but as usual, there was no internet.

I figured it wouldn’t be a big idea considering that close to the restaurant was a long strip of hotels, and I’m sure I’d be able to find a room at one of them. After paying for my meal, I set out to find a room for the night and was a bit surprised when I walked into the first hotel only for them to tell me that they didn’t have any available occupancy.

I smiled, thanked them for their time, and went to the next hotel on the street. Strangely, this hotel was booked as well. I went to a third hotel. I went to a fourth…”booked”. By the 6th hotel, I started to lose patience and, sadly, my naivety. There’s no way all of these hotels were completely booked. They weren’t big-name, flashy hotels at all. There was no huge event going on in the area. And I find it hard to believe people would be lining up to fill these extremely barren hotels.

I started to feel like it was definitely me at this point. I was still determined to find a place, however, because I had nowhere else to go. 11 p.m. at night in a foreign country on my own with bags in hand…I just had to keep trying.

I stopped asking for a room and instead started to ask if I could use the wifi in order to find a place that was available. One by one, each hotel told me they didn’t have wifi. I even went to one hotel, and they told me they “didn’t have wifi.” I pointed to the sign that clearly stated “free wifi,” and they still told me no. One hotel told me I had to pay 2,000 INR ($24) just to use the wifi.

I went to 10 hotels before finally finding one that would allow me to rent a room. The price was extremely inflated, but at this point I didn’t care.

I wish I could remember the name of the hotels that I went to, or at least the exact street, to warn others. This experience wasn’t too common throughout the rest of India. I went on to have an amazing time in Amritsar the next day. I’d just be aware that it’s highly possible to run into people who do not like us at all in India, but that’s not to say that you’ll have the same experience as I did.