hi planet!
this has been digging my head for over 10 years now.did not know how or where to ask or tell this to...so;
in 10 years ago i travelled in india the first time. alone. (well and never really alone...) i went from delhi to varanasi and got a room in a hostel. i cannot remember the name of it. all i remember is that it was recommended in my quidebook (roughquide) and it was pink. the owner was a young indian man who had been in england for years and now owned the place. the season was quiet and there were but few travellers. everybody seemed pleasant and polite.
in one evening i expressed my willingness to swim in the ganga river in the morning and it was then the hostel worker said that they would take me to a nice place to swim and that i should not do it in the morning with others but in the dusk...
and i did. the next evening two men from the hostel took me to the other side of the river on a small boat and there was sandy dunes and the water was surprisigly clear with some ashes on it ofcourse. no corpses floating. (those i saw later in another boat trip...)and i dived with my punjabi suit on. twise. one of the men urged me to dive more but i think that was all i needed to experience and said it was quite ok for now. i did not think more about it and it was all and all a nice quiet moment.
a year later of my travel i was talking about this to a friend and he said that did i not know there was alligators in ganga and that is why no one swims in the dusk. hence their feeding time!

i did not believe it first but then i realised the nice men in the hostel i had stayed did try to feed me to the hunting at dusk alligators. no trace. a lone traveller. easily gone. "accidentally".
this chills me till today thinking that behind the smiles i was just another disposable lone traveller.
i waned to ask if anyone has experienced anything similar? or maybe this helps to track down missing travellers. i don't know... but is has bothered me a long time and just wanted to get it out to people to know what i did not.

i have since been back in India and met so many fantastic places and people. I love the country and know there is dangers but also the great beauty everywhere. especially when traveling alone. but surviving that also gave me a stronger believe that we all have our time and trusting life is not such a bad idea. i was lucky/ protected/foolish...call it what you will but happy to travel still.

shine to all.
x