You may actually have a point there. I was used to Hanoi and Bangkok, so I thought I was prepared, but I found that those places had nothing on Delhi. The constant, relentless barrage of people didn’t bother me in the first few weeks, but in the last week I found that I had enough. Varanasi seemed like tranquil place compared to Delhi.
Some highlights from my trip in India:
Trying to cross Kardung La on an Enfield in 3 feet of snow.
My first train ride in India from Delhi to Bikaner. Met with a group of business men who wanted to know all about my personal life and who were amazed that I was still single and childless at 35. Personal boundaries are unknown to Indians.
Playing a cross between snooker and shuffle board with a local shop keeper in Jaisalmer. Can’t remember the name of the game, maybe someone else knows what I’m talking about?
Srinagar lake. Absolutely beautiful.
Changing of the guards on the Pakistan-India border near Amritsar. Hilarious to see each side of the border trying to out-huff the other side.
All of Jaipur
All of Leh
Having my private tuctuc driver in Varanasi and trying to teach my boat rower some French.
Regarding theft: while I felt that every Indian wanted to fleece me of my money, I never felt that I had to keep extra care of my belongings. I always had my wallet in my back pocket and my iPod in plain sight and while I may have been lucky, I didn’t feel that theft was a big risk.
I was writing from cyber cafes, which are ubiquitous and dirt cheap. I honestly don’t think it’d be worth the worry to bring a laptop or iphone. You can pick up a cheap phone when you get there if you think you need one, and there are cyber cafes everywhere. Really, don’t bring anything you can’t bear to lose. You’ll sleep a lot easier for it. You can live without constant access for a few weeks. If you absolutely can’t deal, see if you can borrow someone’s iPod touch. That’d be a lot less painful to lose than an iPhone and you spend so much energy worrying about it.
I did, indeed, travel with a backpack that I never let go of. All that was really in it was dirty clothes and cheap souvenirs, and frankly it would have hurt me the most to lose the backpack itself. I generally locked it shut and cable-locked it to something when I was leaving it in a hotel room. I’d even cable lock it under my seat when traveling on trains. India is still extremely poor, and to much of the population you look like a walking bundle of hundred dollar bills. You will be the target of theft, and the thieves are professional, meaning they are damn good at their job.
PacSafe has some good luggage protection products if you are willing to make the investment.
That said, violent crimes against foreigners are pretty rare, and if you take obvious precautions you shouldn’t have to worry too much about that. It’s mostly scams and pickpockets, with a few exceptions that the Lonely Planet should clue you in on.
Make sure you have fun with the haggling. I’ve seen way too many foreigners let their whole day be ruined because they couldn’t get it down that last ten cents. That’s what you want to avoid. Just enjoy the game, don’t make it personal and know how to say it’s just not worth the fight when it stops being fun.
Don’t worry too much about the Hindi. You’ll find English everywhere, and Southern India generally doesn’t spak Hindi anyway. You’ll be fine with just a few words.
Funny you say that. I never had that experience. I always felt that the people tried more to talk you out of your money than to actively take it. As said, I was probably just lucky then.
It must have been carrom. Wonderful game - great for killing an hour or 5 with the locals.
Bo - I’ll heartily second what even sven has said: violent crime against tourists is very, very rare - it’s mostly pickpocketing and that can be avoided by applying a bit of common sense. It is definitely possible to bring a laptop, but I wouldn’t bother. Cheap internet cafes are everywhere and you have 5 pounds less to carry. (and why spend time online - apart from emails and such - when you are travelling?)
Yep, that was it. Loved that game. It was also one of the very few times when I didn’t feel like someone was out for my money. It was a slow day for the shop keeper (it was off season) ad while he intially tried to sell me his wares, once he found out that I wasn’t interested he was just happy to kill a few hours with the game. If you’re ever in Jaisalmer, tell Kemal I said hi.
Playing carrom is a great way to interact with people in a relaxed way. You’ll often get the “seat of honor” for the first game or two and promptly have your ass handed to you by one of the locals. In Pakistan they often play it on huge stone (marble) boars - 5ft by 5ft, I think. That is hard.
I brought a board home once - I still have it and love to play once in a while.
One reason I might want a laptop, or at least a fully functioning iPhone, is that I’ll be doing a lot of writing while I’m there.
This won’t be entirely a traveling vacation; I plan on attending at least one music festival in order to take pictures and video and write about it. Because of my blog (link in my sig below, for anyone who wants to read about some very obscure bands & music), I’ve been in touch with a couple of people over there who are active in the metal scene, both in bands and in record companies, so one of (if not the primary) reasons for going is to see and hear these bands and check out the scene.
Since the cost of the plane ticket is so frikkin’ high (best price I’ve found so far is $1500 RT, most tix are more like $2k), I decided it would be crazy not to take advantage of already being halfway around the world and just stay for a few more weeks and then travel around and see the place.
So, having a computer of my own might be a good thing, at least while I was in Bombay. It might prove to be more hassle than it’s worth, I admit. Luckily, I have lots of time to plan this and hopefully my new pen-pals (email pals?) can help me suss some of this stuff out. Once I am ready to commit myself to a travel date, I plan on consulting with them about a whole host of things.
I’ve got Lonely Planet India and Rough Guide India otw from amazon, and I picked up India: Culture Smart today while I was at the local bookstore.
I also just got back from the festival at the local temple. I had some excellent food in a very crowded space (about 60’ x 100’, maybe) with about 800 other people while Indian pop music blared at us from all angles. I left before the burning of Ravana tho.
The lady who helped me at the PO said that visiting India requires a visa. I showed her the one I got from my bank, but she said that wasn’t good enough, even with my line of credit.
How do I go about getting a visa for India? Do I have to contact the consulate in WDC before I go?
I got mine at the consulate in San Francisco. Despite all the hype, it was an easy process that only took a few hours. YMMV. I suggest you get it done as soon as possible to avoid hassels. They will want the name of a contact in India, so you might want to think about finding one. You can find, with some work, the information you need on the visa process from the State Department web page.
Excellent; thank you! I don’t think a contact will be hard to come up with. I’m currently cultivating some email pen-pals, sort of, with some of the guys in the bands I’m listening to.
Since I don’t have a date set for the trip yet, tho, do I need to worry about a visa now, or just wait until I decide on a departure date?
For sure wait until you have a departure date. Just give yourself some wiggle room if you can, since this is your first encounter with the great Indian bureaucracy. I’ve never head of any Americans having a problem with a visa, but you never know.
The Indian embassy has contracted out the visa process to a private company. A quick google will get you the relevant info. While I agree with sven that you should wait until you have a departure date, I do NOT recommend you wait until the last minute. This is pretty much what I did, although it wasn’t really my fault, it was because of how my internship worked out. I had to go to Chicago and wait in line for HOURS and deal with some impressively rude people (all Americans, btw, it had nothing to do with Indian bureaucracy). If you’re better prepared, you can do the whole thing by mail.
Oh I won’t wait until the last minute, believe me. I checked out the (scary! scary! woooooo!) US State Dept website, and saw that they contracted the process out. I’ll apply for a visa right before I purchase a plane ticket. That is: get visa, then buy tix.
even sven, your blog is awesome and will be an invaluable tool as I plan my own trip. I can’t thank you enough for linking it.
I also just recently ventured over to indiamike’s site, and HOLY CRAP! is there a lot of info there! It’s gonna take me weeks to go thru there! (I love researching stuff.)
Remember that visas to India begin on the date of issue, not the day of arrival in India - that sorta puts a limit to the amount of time you can get it in advance. Of course , if you are only going to stay for a month or so, you could easily get your 6-month tourist visa a few months in advance.
Right; that’s why I figure it’s best to wait until I know when I want to go. If I time it right, I could get my visa, take my trip, and still have 4-5 months left on the visa, in case I have such an awesome time that I feel the need to make a return trip, ya know, to try that biryani dish I missed or something.
You should definitely apply as late as possible. But you might be better off just staying longer the first time around. About a year ago they started enforcing a ridiculous new rule that says you have to leave the country for 60 days before you can re-enter. Even on a multiple entry visa. Might not be a problem in your case, but I know several people who were stuck for two months in Dhaka, Kathmandu, etc.
ETA: Don’t know if they still enforce that rule. There were massive protests all around (even internally in India).
