> It could be classism and segregation, or there could be a higher incidence of theft and you got lucky I can only speak from my personal experience, but I wou

> It could be classism and segregation, or there could be a higher incidence of theft and you got lucky I can only speak from my personal experience, but I would attribute it more to the former. The advice I generally heard was that you should stick to the heavily developed areas, near your hotel, etc. We were abroad for about 4 months, and I always felt safest outside of the touristy, "nice" areas. Especially in India, you'll find many scammers (sometimes entire organized teams of them!) in the areas where there are lots of tourists because that's where all of the money is. But, I found that by walking often just a few blocks away from these areas you would be alone as a foreigner, and there wouldn't be mysterious people with excellent English following you around and trying to "befriend" you. I was definitely noticed, but people would be smiling, or shouting "hello!", or waving. I never felt threatened. I felt very fortunate that I learned this lesson; we also met many people in India who had barely left their hostels because they were so stressed and afraid of dealing with the scammers who waited at all hours of the day and night in those areas. When they made it out they didn't go far: they went to the tourist-friendly places that could be found on TripAdvisor, but these places were also teeming with scammers. I think a lot of people end up missing out on India because of this and not liking it. We were very lucky and none of us dealt with crime the whole trip. Of the travelers we met who had had stuff stolen though, it was in touristed areas, especially on beaches while they weren't paying close attention to their stuff (and/or very drunk).