Travel to India

I am travelling to India next month for business. I’m going for 2 weeks and will be visiting Chennai, Hyderabad (for vacation over the weekend), and Bangalore.

Some particulars:

  • already got my India travel visa
  • flying business class on Qatar Air through Doha
  • staying in very nice hotels in each city
  • one of the vendors we’re visiting will provide a car and driver
  • I’ve already had appropriate shots. Going in this week for the hepatitis b booster. Also decided to get Japanese encephalitis. It was optional but recommended
  • Bought 5 cans of insect repellent spray with DEET for clothing (each can treats 2 shirts and 1 pants)
  • prescription for anti-malarial
  • prescription for an antibiotic and antidiarrheal

I’m a little nervous about the trip (mostly from a fear of getting sick) but also excited to experience another part of the world.

Who here has traveled to India? What words of wisdom do you have for me both to help me prepare for the trip and enjoy my time there.

Avoid Thums (sic) Up and Limca, they have reputations for making Westerners sick. I think they’re made with shitty water or something.

Eat a lot of food. Eat everything that looks good. Don’t feel bad if you hate every dessert you eat, though. That’s normal.

I’ve had Limca here in the US and it’s pretty disgusting stuff. But then I don’t much like 7-up or Sprite.

Don’t drink water unless it comes from a sealed bottle bought from a store. Not even joking.

Past that, if your into spicy food, you’ll be in heaven. If your not…well… get to like spicy food.

Do NOT go to big chains, especially those that are from the west (Ruby tuesdays comes to mind). They are overpriced and the food/service is lackluster. Moreso than what you would expect.

Instead, find a small mom and pop shop. In bangalore there was a restaurant called 20ft high iirc. Small place that was on top of another restaurant. Best food I’ve ever had in my stay in india and excellent service. Even with a 25% tip the overall bill was a fraction of what you would pay in a westernized restaurant.

If your getting a tuk-tuk (or rickshaw, or whatever they are called), make sure you set the price for the trip before you get in, instead of letting the guy run the meter. Also, ensure that the price is in the local currancy, instead of him charging euro’s or american. Hopefully your company driver will be able to cover all your trips, but if not just be prepared to bargan with these drivers.

Wife went to India for two weeks a few years ago. Despite her best efforts, she still got sick.

She also had to pick “soot-boogers” out of her nose when she was in the cities.

Take some Pepto Bismol with you and take a tablet with every meal. It has some mild antibiotic properties and will help you remain healthy. Just don’t be alarmed if your tongue turns black.

My parents didn’t really let us drink pop, the one loophole being that there was a shitload of Thums Up and Limca in the kids’ room at the mosque (recent 3rd world immigrants, all calories are good calories, etc etc.) I loved it because I didn’t know any better. The first time I had American pop it was like a revelation, like going from McDonald’s to The Fat Duck.

Then I got over it when I discovered coffee.

Do not imbibe any water while you are bathing. Brush your teeth with the complimentary water.

I’m serious about this.

You should really get to Agra to see the Taj Mahal at whatever costs. Pay your own way, fly out to Delhi on a Friday night & get to Bangalore on Sunday, or stay an extra weekend, DO IT.

I did a trip back there 7 yrs ago & created a web site about out travels. You can view it here

Seinfeld already covered this.

How can I have not seen that episode? I’ll have to Netflix the DVDs.

Debilitating sick or just stomach bug sick? Just goes to show how weak American stomachs are!

Ya, I’ve been told this by pretty much everybody I talk to. I’m sticking with bottled water for everything. Won’t drink anything but.

Will the locals find it rude if I bust out my own water bottle at a restaurant?

We debated this quite a bit. In the end, my boss (who is Indian) set up some kind of sight seeing trip in Hyderabad. Not sure the details, though, since he’s been secretive about it. I’m either going to really love it or really hate it!

I went a couple of years ago with my boss, who is Indian. Suprisingly, he was the one that had stomach problems, whereas I happily ate all the tasty spicy stuff put in fron of me. That being said, stick to restaurants, don’t eat from carts and drink only bottled water. Enjoy the culture and the sights, but don’t be talked into buying a rug. Oh, and watch your limbs and head when walking from the prop planes to the terminal!
Best advice I got before going on my trip was to try and sleep your way through the entire return flight, it cuts way down on the jet lag.

No. In fact, they should provide you with bottled water at restaurants.

p.s. Don’t get any drinks with ice.

Agreed - ice was one of the fatal flaws a friend’s otherwise good plan.

The best food I had in India was from a cart. Just find one where the vendor is actually cooking and get it fresh off the grill. Don’t buy anything that’s been sitting around.

Oh, and don’t buy any ‘special lassi’ or ‘sardai’ or ‘bhang soda’, even if you’re into that kind of thing. I mean, I’m not assuming you are, but just in case.

I spent a week in Chennai about a year ago. What struck me was the vast disparity in wealth and lifestyles that you see by simply turning your head.

We would go downtown, into one of the nicest cities in India. We’d go into a very fancy restaurant, with more gold and marble and guilding than you can imagine. Everyone dressed up extremely in very fancy and expensive clothing. When we walked out into the parking drive in front of the restaurant we saw people lying in piles of trash, only about 30 yards away from us. Trash was piled up all up and down the sidewalks and streets, men opening pissing on the sidewalk, right next to a high end movie studio. A store selling high end electronics next door to a concrete building with no front walls, in which we could see people lying on bare floors with a small fire next to them and a few ragged clothes on the ground.

Also, the traffic is like nothing I’ve seen before. I used to have to close my eyes when a cab would be taking me somewhere in a busy city in Taiwan, but here people driving 65 MPH down the road with another car or truck coming right at you and missing you by what looks like literally inches. Horns are being blown non-stop - literally non-stop - on every road.

It is one of the few places I have visited in the world that I felt I could not live in, even if only for a few years.