Heading to India next week

Hatcho

Hatcho

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So I'm off to India next week to attend a coworkers wedding. First stop will be New Delhi where we'll visit the Taj Mahal, then it's fly to Mumbai for the event itself. Four of us travelling together, two girls from work, my better half and myself. We have hotels booked, transport arranged and visas sorted. The wedding will be a bit different than what we're used to... Three days long, starts at 7:30am, no alcohol and we've to dance on stage in front of 500 people. Both India and an Indian wedding are firsts for the four of us, luckily we have plenty of local knowledge to lean on. With 22 million people in one city, it'll be quite different to Dublin within it's 1.5 million or so.
Any tips or advice welcome. We've been warned to keep valuables close and out of sight, not to eat from roadside stalls, eat only washed fruit and drink only from sealed bottles. Air quality will be a challenge as well, that's not a problem I'm used to.
 
Sounds good have a good trip. No booze at all ?
 
Make sure the fruit has been washed with bottled water and have a jolly good time.
 
Anti-bac wipes are your friend,
not only for cleaning your hands (esp if there is a buffet) but also for cleaning your cutlery that all and sundry have handled.
 
Drink will be available if you want it, just ask the locals where the nearest establishment is. Keep valuables out of the way when out and about phones included. I found rural India to be fantastic, friendly locals who just want to chat, offer you chai etc and want nothing in return. The cities are different, lots of beggars using kids to tug at the heart strings, they will hold your hand tug at you trouser leg etc.

Great place to buy made to measure shirts and suits etc especially silk, good quality at bargain prices made up very quickly. Also if you like jewellery particularly gems and silver you can get some great deals. Make sure you go to an approved seller, you will know as they are usually in a compound with armed guards. You will get VIP treatment, beers and wine etc, silver jewellery is sold by weight at the current market price on the day. Make sure to check for hall marks but you will know if you are in a proper dealers as very luxurious and guards everywhere.

Get a tuk tuk to take you for a tour, but nip any shit in the bud quickly if they play the game of taking you to their street vendor mates who sell tat. Tell them they will be well rewarded if they play ball, we tipped ours about a £10 after he stopped messing about and the guy near fainted said he wouldn’t have to work for the rest of the week.

Going for an Indian meal is a must to get the authentic experience, it is very different to what we get here. Again ask a local for the best restaurant in town, they are high class and unfortunately most locals couldn’t afford it, but cheap as chips to us.

Roads are mad and hectic, the only rule is “might is right” whoever is bigger gets right of way purely because you will come off worse if smaller and they hit you, that includes elephants. But it works, I rode a bike around for a few weeks and had a great time.

Enjoy 👍
 
Enjoy Sean :thumb
India's not really somewhere I have a massive grá to visit. Too many people, too noisy & too dirty
But that's no reason for you & Pauline not to enjoy it :beerjug:
 
Yes, expect v poor air quality in New Delhi - often you won't know exactly where the sun is, such is the smog. It will be better in Agra, when you travel there to see the Taj Mahal.

Do consider public transport - trains can be pretty good (thank the Victorians) - you get to see the countryside and avoid the roads. I suspect that the Indian diving test comprises "can you operate the horn button?" and little else!

India is an absolute assault on the senses. Colours, sound, smells, have a great time!
 
The Other PaulG said:
Yes, expect v poor air quality in New Delhi - often you won't know exactly where the sun is, such is the smog. It will be better in Agra, when you travel there to see the Taj Mahal.

Do consider public transport - trains can be pretty good (thank the Victorians) - you get to see the countryside and avoid the roads. I suspect that the Indian diving test comprises "can you operate the horn button?" and little else!

India is an absolute assault on the senses. Colours, sound, smells, have a great time!
Click to expand...
New Dehli is simply a means of going to Agra to the see the Taj Mahal. Our transport to and from Agra consists of small minibus - 3 to 4 hrs each way to the Taj Mahal. Then it's onto Mumbai on the Monday where it will be considerably warmer, especially for Irish folk. No intention of driving - I'll leave that to the locals as I don't have the required deathwish. Won't deny I'm a little nervous, but also greatly excited to see such a wonderful change of culture.
 
Hatcho said:
No intention of driving - I'll leave that to the locals as I don't have the required deathwish
Click to expand...
If you have ever driven in NI then you could handle India, I’m from Belfast but living in Scotland now, I have driven / ridden all over the world and without doubt the driving in Northern Ireland is the worst I’ve ever seen, worse than India and Africa included, it is truly terrible.
 
I went to Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam 2 years ago. We stayed in decent hotels and ate in local restaurants. No one got ill, no one got hassled in the streets, robbed or had any negative experiences. We even ate the food brought into the cricket grounds for locals without issue (we were there for a test match tour). I am hoping that England revisit Mumbai on the next tour, if only so I can go to the wonderfully named Wankhede stadium. It is on my bucket list. I loved India and look forward to going again.

Have a wonderful time. I will be interested to hear your view of Mumbai.
 
The best advice I remember getting was that you have a touching hand and an eating hand. If you touch anything other than food with the eating hand, wash it. Just let the washed hand air dry.

This obviously worked for me, as I didn't have the shits in the time I was there, although I was in IC for seven days with pneumonia.
 
Hatcho said:
So I'm off to India next week to attend a coworkers wedding. First stop will be New Delhi where we'll visit the Taj Mahal, then it's fly to Mumbai for the event itself. Four of us travelling together, two girls from work, my better half and myself. We have hotels booked, transport arranged and visas sorted. The wedding will be a bit different than what we're used to... Three days long, starts at 7:30am, no alcohol and we've to dance on stage in front of 500 people. Both India and an Indian wedding are firsts for the four of us, luckily we have plenty of local knowledge to lean on. With 22 million people in one city, it'll be quite different to Dublin within it's 1.5 million or so.
Any tips or advice welcome. We've been warned to keep valuables close and out of sight, not to eat from roadside stalls, eat only washed fruit and drink only from sealed bottles. Air quality will be a challenge as well, that's not a problem I'm used to.
Click to expand...
Make sure you sit in Seat 11A :thumby:
 
You'll have a great time at the wedding, no booze sounds like a factor but if it's a posh wedding there'll be lots going on. Dancing is pretty much compulsory, you'll get into the stride once started. Funny fact we attended a 3/4 day wedding and Kelly who was with me had her feet dyed as part of the traditiion of the local tribe. They said don't worry it will wash off, a month or two later it still looked like she was wearing pink short ankled socks. Plenty of things to see in Mumbai, if you're a geek like me you'll find the architecture is amazing.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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