If you consider yourself a top-tier traveler, you might not realize it, but as you go down the budget ladder, the exposure to travel noise increases significantly. It’s an unavoidable consequence of mingling with large groups of people, and in various cultures, noise levels are as normal as exhaust emissions and red tape, often accepted as part of life. This is true for airports, trains, and buses, where discourteous individuals presume that everyone else is interested in their discussions and videos.
How effectively do you manage noise? How soundly do you sleep?
If you’re gearing up to backpack globally on a budget, it’s crucial to become adept at ignoring noise. Alternatively, you should prepare a set of solutions. Brace yourself for nighttime sounds that may exceed anything you’ve encountered, even if you’re from New York City.
Sources of Travel Noise Worldwide
I am reminded of this truth every time I return to my residence in Mexico. In the otherwise charming city of Guanajuato, where I live, enjoying a truly peaceful night is a rare experience. There are typically five barking dogs on the rooftops of each block, and due to the city’s hilly terrain, I can hear nearly all of them at some point during the night, especially if they start a chain reaction when one of them begins.
At least I’m not in the central area, though. There, if a soccer/football game is in play and the bars are bustling, the noise persists until the early morning hours, with booming bass sounds that few windows can block. Street performers are singing and shouting just below those windows, and fireworks often add to the commotion.
Across Latin America, this continues with church bells, gas vendors, garbage collection trucks, and intoxicated people singing in the streets. It’s common for bars to vie for patrons by cranking their music up louder than their competitors. If you’re indoors, conversing is nearly impossible; if you’re outside, you’re subjected to competing stereos playing different tracks.
In countries where people live closely and have fostered a “live and let live” mindset, complaints are rare; you simply tolerate the noise. It’s often culturally unacceptable to voice grievances about the mariachi band next door at 2:00 a.m. or the cannon-like fireworks at dawn on a Sunday, marking the beginning of a saints’ festival.
In Asia, you’ll see individuals dozing off on the subway, buses, benches, and even delivery carts. It’s no surprise: sleeping at night is tough with roosters crowing and everyone awake long before dawn to kickstart their day before the heat sets in. You haven’t truly experienced backpacking until you’ve managed to sleep through a cat in heat, two competing roosters, and a woman noisily sweeping the steps outside your bamboo hut at 5 a.m.
“Oh my god, the chickens!” This phrase echoes frequently from fellow budget travelers globally. Your previous urban assumption that roosters only crow at dawn is quickly dispelled. When do roosters actually crow? Whenever they like, which turns out to be quite often, day or night.
In the Middle East, the call to prayer rings out five times daily, at least once during hours that no reasonable person should be awake. If you find yourself in one of these nations during Ramadan, you’ll also get the unique experience of a person parading through the streets, beating a drum to awaken everyone so the faithful can eat before dawn. (And you’re expected to give this person a tip for their service afterward.)
In some regions, drivers constantly have one hand on the wheel and the other on the horn. In Egypt, they may opt to drive with their headlights off at night, erroneously believing it conserves battery power, yet that doesn’t prevent them from honking the horn, even when there’s no one around.
If you choose to stay in a fancy hotel, you can generally avoid all this. I don’t recall hearing even a single barking dog during my stay at the Villa Maria Cristina hotel in Guanajuato while I was there for a writing assignment on my first visit, and I’ve savored blissfully quiet nights behind the triple-glazed windows of Hiltons and Hyatts. The Four Seasons in Mexico City will make you feel as if there’s no traffic at that bustling intersection outside the hotel, and the Oberoi in Calcutta deserves the title “oasis” more than any other hotel. Money is a significant sound barrier.
However, if you opt for the $8 hostel just a few blocks away, it’s an entirely different experience. You’ll hear every car horn and vendor shout at nearly full volume.