Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 18:16     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


Actually the ghats (public baths on the river) in Kolkata were also absolutely disgusting. Kolkata is a beautiful city, but woof those two experiences were just so bad.


My parents are from Kolkata and I used to go there yearly as a kid. I think it’s the worst of the major Indian cities, cleanliness wise, by far.


But Kolkata is such an interesting city. It is a theater of life with all the good and bad.

Absolutely filthy though.

For various reasons, India does not do communal spaces well. Caste being the biggest one. Corruption being the secondary reason. But, by and large, Indians do not give a f about the poor. And it's a gigantic country that has normalized a level of misery you don't see anywhere else.

Still liked Kolkata. And Mumbai, Kochi, Darjeeling, Varanasi, Udaipur, Madurai, Bikaner and so on. But I absolutely despised Delhi and Agra. There's a cruelty there that's a little different. Dark places.


Probably O/T so maybe a new thread but this is fascinating. Any theories on why?
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 17:43     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:We need to enforce vagrancy and drug laws with prison time


Being poor is not a crime.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 16:34     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


It's like these human beings have the most advanced indestructible immune systems of anything. That guy getting his face shaved could eat aged clam chowder off an NYC sidewalk and not get sick. (not that he would want to or would).

It's one of the many things that makes India so mind-blowing, humbling, and amazing.


Well, it's "mind-blowing", I'll give you that.

"Amazing" and "humbling", not so much.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 15:04     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


Actually the ghats (public baths on the river) in Kolkata were also absolutely disgusting. Kolkata is a beautiful city, but woof those two experiences were just so bad.


My parents are from Kolkata and I used to go there yearly as a kid. I think it’s the worst of the major Indian cities, cleanliness wise, by far.


But Kolkata is such an interesting city. It is a theater of life with all the good and bad.

Absolutely filthy though.

For various reasons, India does not do communal spaces well. Caste being the biggest one. Corruption being the secondary reason. But, by and large, Indians do not give a f about the poor. And it's a gigantic country that has normalized a level of misery you don't see anywhere else.

Still liked Kolkata. And Mumbai, Kochi, Darjeeling, Varanasi, Udaipur, Madurai, Bikaner and so on. But I absolutely despised Delhi and Agra. There's a cruelty there that's a little different. Dark places.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 14:57     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

I'm not well traveled but of the cities that I've seen I'd have to say the New Orleans was the dirtiest. We saw human poop on the sidewalk and the individual who was presumably responsible for taking a dump on the sidewalk was passed out nearby taking a nap.

Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 14:32     Subject: Re:Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:India.

Paris

Rome

Lisbon


Hospital-grade sterile compared to India.





😆😆😆 don’t all these dirty cities have a bunch of Indians in them? Import Indians, get India. What exactly did they expect


Several articles about Toronto complaining about this very thing. Read the room. Don't import bad / dirty habits.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 14:30     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


It's like these human beings have the most advanced indestructible immune systems of anything. That guy getting his face shaved could eat aged clam chowder off an NYC sidewalk and not get sick. (not that he would want to or would).

It's one of the many things that makes India so mind-blowing, humbling, and amazing.


weird flex.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 14:11     Subject: Re:Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Parts of Bangkok.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 13:26     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


It's like these human beings have the most advanced indestructible immune systems of anything. That guy getting his face shaved could eat aged clam chowder off an NYC sidewalk and not get sick. (not that he would want to or would).

It's one of the many things that makes India so mind-blowing, humbling, and amazing.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 13:07     Subject: Re:Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Closer to home, Philadelphia. I was surprised by how grimy the sidewalks are, I wanted to powerwash the place.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 13:04     Subject: Re:Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

I've traveled all over. Regarding India, cities like Delhi and Mumbai have a way to go, but have also come a long way. They have even built modern neighborhoods (Aerocity in Delhi, BKC-Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai) that are like being in any modern Asian city. But of course, those are small parts of these massive cities.

China tier 1 cities are amazingly clean.

Generally the cleanest places I've been to are dictatorships since you face major punishment for littering and they sweep up any homelesness. For example, Minsk, Belarus is totally clean and safe.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 12:54     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


Actually the ghats (public baths on the river) in Kolkata were also absolutely disgusting. Kolkata is a beautiful city, but woof those two experiences were just so bad.


My parents are from Kolkata and I used to go there yearly as a kid. I think it’s the worst of the major Indian cities, cleanliness wise, by far.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 12:32     Subject: Re:Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:India.

Paris

Rome

Lisbon


Hospital-grade sterile compared to India.



India is a country. You need to go back to school.



We understand that. The reason so many respondents are saying "India" - when they are aware India isn't a city - is because India is that unclean.






As an Indian I take offense to that. All these posters mentioning India don't even know which city they visited? The title says "most unclean city" not country.

I also wonder why no one mentions Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka - the neighboring countries.


Because people don’t travel all the way across the world to visit Pakistan or Bangladesh…
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 11:37     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Anonymous wrote:Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.


Actually the ghats (public baths on the river) in Kolkata were also absolutely disgusting. Kolkata is a beautiful city, but woof those two experiences were just so bad.
Anonymous
Post 05/02/2026 11:24     Subject: Most unclean city you have visited during your travels

Any major city in India, but to be fair to them there isn't really a system of trash collection. I distinctly remember walking Kolkata when a fish market put trash out in piles on the street. Viscerally one of the most awful experiences of my life. Guy was getting his face shaved right next to that.