If you’re a premium traveler, you might not realize it, but as you descend the budget spectrum, you’ll inevitably contend with travel noise. This is an unavoidable consequence of being surrounded by numerous individuals, and in various cultures, noise is as prevalent as exhaust emissions and red tape, often regarded as a given. This phenomenon is evident in airports, trains, and buses, where inconsiderate people believe everyone is interested in their discussions and videos.
How effectively do you manage noise? What kind of sleeper are you?
If you are planning to embark on a budget backpacking journey around the globe, you should become adept at tuning out the clamor. Alternatively, you should prepare a bag full of solutions. Brace yourself for nighttime sounds like never before, even if you’re from New York City.
## Sources of Travel Noise Worldwide
This truth strikes me each time I return to my base in Mexico. In the otherwise delightful city of Guanajuato where I reside, a truly peaceful night is uncommon. There are at least five barking dogs atop the houses on each block, and since this city is surrounded by hills, I inevitably hear many of them at some point during the night, particularly if they all join in following one dog’s bark.
At least I’m not in the downtown area. There, if a soccer/football match is underway and the bars are lively, the noise continues until the early hours, with booming bass sounds that few windows can block. Street performers are singing and shouting beneath those windows, and fireworks might add to the din.
Across Latin America, it continues with church bells, gas vendors, junk collection trucks, and intoxicated individuals singing in the streets. It’s common for bars to vie for patrons by trying to outplay each other’s music volume. If you’re indoors, you can’t hear one another; outdoors, you’re subjected to competing stereos blasting different tunes.
In nations where people reside closely together and have developed a “live and let live” mentality as a result, complaining is rare; you simply accept it and cope. It is often culturally unacceptable to grumble about the mariachi band next door at 2:00 a.m. or the morning firecrackers as loud as cannon fire at dawn on a Sunday to commence a saints’ festival.
In Asia, you will observe individuals dozing on subways, buses, park benches, and delivery carts. No surprise: it’s hard to get a good night’s sleep with all the roosters crowing and people rising hours before daylight to get their tasks underway before the heat sets in. You haven’t truly lived the backpacker life until you’ve managed to sleep through a cat in heat, two rival roosters, and a woman noisily cleaning the stairs outside your bamboo hut at 5 a.m.
“Oh my goodness, the roosters!” You’ll hear this frequently from fellow budget travelers worldwide. Your previous assumption from urban life that roosters only crow at dawn gets quickly dispelled. When do roosters actually crow? Whenever they desire, which turns out to be rather frequently, whether it’s light or dark.
In the Middle East, the call to prayer is a constant five times daily, including at least one time when no reasonable person should be awake for any reason. If you are fortunate enough to be in one of these countries during Ramadan, you’ll also encounter the unique experience of someone parading through the streets, rousing everyone by banging a drum so followers can eat before dawn. (And you’re even expected to tip this individual for the service afterward.)
In certain nations, drivers maintain one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn at all times. In Egypt, they might drive at night with their lights off under the misconception that it preserves battery life, but this doesn’t prevent them from honking—even when nothing else is in view.
If you’re in a luxury hotel, you can generally avoid this ruckus. I don’t recall hearing a single barking dog during my stay at the Villa Maria Cristina hotel in Guanajuato while on a writing assignment during my first visit, and I’ve enjoyed wonderfully quiet nights behind the triple-glazed windows of Hiltons and Hyatts. The Four Seasons in Mexico City might lead you to believe there’s no traffic on that vast thoroughfare in front of the hotel, and the Oberoi in Calcutta warrants the term “oasis,” if any hotel ever did. Wealth acts as an excellent soundproof barrier.
Stay at the $8 hostel a few blocks away, however, and the narrative alters. You’ll hear every car horn and vendor shout at near-full volume, alongside the commotion made by your fellow hostel residents. That guesthouse “right by the mosque” in Morocco