Should I expect to fly on prop plans while in country(chennai to Hyderabad to Bangalore)?
JeffL, that’s a fascinating perspective. Not too far removed from what I imagined. Will be sure to report back my experience when I return.
Any advice on how to carry wallet items: passport, DL, money, etc?
Should I purchase and bring a portable water purifier?
You should be fine with bottled water. If push comes to shove, drink Coke. You might bring some iodine tablets on the off chance that you cannot get bottled water.
Personally, I keep passport, DL, money in the front pocket of jeans when I travel. Nobody is going to reach into my jeans without me noticing. The same CANNOT be said for loose pants. If you’re worried, then get one of the belts that hangs your stuff below the line of your pants. Everybody will love it when you reach into your crotch and pull out some sweaty cash.
I read a pretty interesting blog post a little while ago that expands on this a bit, and even theorizes that the extreme dissonance may be the source of “spiritual” experiences.
But I can’t help but feel that the volume of poverty in India is related to the solipsistic tendencies of the religions based there. I also can’t help but feel that foreigners regularly mistake being pushed so far out of their cultural comfort-zone as some sort of spiritual experience. When the human mind is presented with paradoxical conditions, it usually reacts with inexplicable feelings and often invents a supernatural explanation for them. And India is rife with paradoxical conditions.
There is a school of thought that says if you’re going to a place where you’re going to get sick, just get sick and get it over with. I don’t subscribe to it, but maybe you’re more adventurous than I am.
My wife works with a professor who is a big Hinduism scholar. He’s been visiting India regularly for decades, now. After hearing some shocked stories from a few friends who had visited, she asked him how long it took him to get over the sheer culture shock of the place, compared to the US. He thought for a second and said that around…his tenth year visiting, he got used to it. Nowadays he apparently feels right at home, and practically as soon as he steps out of the airport he has his shoes off and is traipsing across a soggy field to some village or another.
This experience is very similar to mine when I went to bangalore a while back. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the overall experience and it helped open my eyes that not everywhere is run like the U.S. That, and I got to eat some awesome food. That said, there were some down spots.
My group stayed at a 5 star hotel that was excellent in terms of luxury. Litterally the street behind it was a run down street of dirt poor people, with street carts of dubious quality food, people pissing/pooping in public, etc. Our hotel was on a one way street, so for us to get back to the hotel, we had to drive through that nastry street every day after work, very slowly, and people would come up to the car and bang on the windows begging for money.
Simply walking from hotel to the local food mart was a hassle, as we would get damn near overrun by beggers asking for money (mainly, adults would use thier children to beg, and they would follow us for a few blocks, nipping at our heels saying whatever they say in the local language)
It doesn’t help that the sidewalks on the main street smelled like they were above an open sewer. In hindsight I think they were.
Fun story:
If you use a tuk-tuk, do not allow them to go down back alleys. We did one time, and while on that poor alley that we normally have to go through, the driver turned up some alley barely big enough for the vehicle. After dodging a cow (how we did that with virtually no room i don’t remember), we came up on a mob of locals. There was about 10-15 men there, beating the crap out of 2-3 people. Strait up beatdown. They blocked the entire alley due to the size of the mob. There was no room to turn around.
Our driver decided to drive up to the mob, and stop about 10 feet away.
One of my worker friends was pannicking, while our ausie counterpart was gearing himself up to fight. Keep in mind, after 2 weeks of bieng heckled on a daily basis by beggers and whatnot anytime we stepped outside. We had no allusions that if we were spotted, they would come and beat the crap out of us for our money. We were about a block away from the hotel. No joke, we thought we were gonna die in that alley for the american equivilant of $40 that we had between us.
Thankfully (I guess?) the mob decided to take their activity to the wall, and they made room for us to pass while they took thier victims to task by smashing their heads against the buildings. We exited the alley and bam, there was our hotel. It was in sprinting distance, even for an out of shape person like myself.
I never got on a tuk-tuk again.
The day before we left for India I headed down to Payless on a whim and brought myself a pair croc-like sandals (slightly less ugly, still hideous.) My wife and I had exhaustively planned out this middle-class “backpacking” trip down India (decent hotels, AC buses and trains, etc.) but getting those sandals was probably the single best thing I did in terms of preparation. They breathe nicely and they dry quickly. Especially since you’re going during the rainy season (like we did.)
Yeah, if you are city hopping, expect to be flying prop. We did 10 cities (back & forth) in 7 days, but they never lost my luggage and I never felt like the plane was ever less than very well maintained (trust me, I work for one of the big engine mfgs). You can expect to be in and out of the airport within 10 minutes of landing. Longest part is the traffic on the road out.
I’ve accumulated a little more than 4 months in Hyderabad on biz travel in the last 6 years.
I’ve flown regional jets on most intercity hops, but occasional oddball big jets, in strange situations. You’ll get a continuation of a flight from somewhere in Arabia that lands in Mumbai, then continues to Hyderabad and then Bangalore. You’ll hop on in Mumbaiand go from there. That can be a little chaotic.
In any restaurant of any size they’ll bring out the bottled water, so don’t worry about that. They’ll present it like a sommelier, and it is worth making sure it’s sealed. I never really had a problem, but whatever. I don’t bring a water purifier - you’re in a big city and fancy hotel, after all.
I tend to carry a handkerchief with me in India, while I don’t in the US. You’ll find handwashing stations that don’t have dryers or handtowels because they assume everyone is carrying a handkerchief to dry his hands. If you’re exclusively in nice hotels and restaurants, you’ll get western style toilets - the only thing to keep an eye out for is a wastebasket next to the toilet. That means you can’t flush toilet paper, that it should get dropped in there. I also tend to carry a small pack of kleenex in case I find myself out and about and needing to use a squat toilet. It’s just hard to manage those when you’re not practiced.
I ride autorickshaws and haven’t had any trouble but the very occasional tout who wants to take me to buy souvenirs. That’s only happened when I get an autorickshaw in front of or near a luxury hotel, never when I flagged one down in the street. I’ve had no problems with crime, and limited hassle from begging. I get panhandled more in San Francisco than in Hyderabad, although the absolute poverty is orders of magnitude greater.
Food and spice. Learn the distinction between chile spice (what an American thinks of as spicy) and spicy (what you’ll encounter if you eat Indian food). You’ll get both - the food is baseline hotter than what you encounter in US cuisine, but it’s also just got lots more spices - more than you’d imagine. Tumeric, coriander, cumin, cardamon, pepper, and more. It piles up and can be irritating after a while. That said, the bigger problem for me was all the butter (ghee) in food. You’re eating restaurant food all the time, and so it is super rich. Cashew curry and butter chicken with butter naan sounds awesome at lunch, top it with butter paneer masala and dal makhani at dinner (more butter naan, because it’s easier to tear with one hand) and you’re queasy the next day not because you missed an ice cube, but because you’ve got 90 pounds of extra fat in your diet. Get something homecooked if you can, or something simple like a yellow daal to grab a break in there. I tend to hit Subway once in a while because I know it’ll reset my butter level, and because it’s a consistent way to get a fresh veggie without making me second guess myself. If you’re in a fancy hotel, eat the fruit and drink the fruit/veggie juices. (Spinach juice - who knew?) If you get to eat with your hands, plan on making a tremendous mess. It’s harder than you’d imagine. If you’re in Hyderabad be sure to get biryani while there (best is Palace Hotel in Secunderabad (the St.Paul to Hyderabad’s Minneapolis)). It is a level of tasty that will spoil you for life.
Spoiler tags around speculation about Hyderabad attractions
Golconda fort is an amazing ruin on the edge of town. If you’re going to see the night/light show there, that’s when you should double down on the deet. I usually don’t use it, even during monsoon. It’s possible that he’s got you in one of the palaces that have been converted to hotels. I understand them to be amazing, but haven’t been in one myself. The art museum is called the Salarjung, and it’s one man’s collection. It’s quirky - there’s some very good work in his collection, but a lot of kitsch as well. It has given me a great appreciation for the work that curators do. The nizam’s musuem seems lame until you get to all the models and letter holders. Every big project he sponsored was scale modeled, of course, but in silver. Or gold. It’s a damn sight more impressive than CAD/CAM files. Charminar has a nice view, but is only as interesting as you find the old town.
Wear long pants - only Americans wear shorts, and it probably won’t be that hot given when you’re going. You’ll really look out of place if you’re the only one in shorts.
Get some change as soon as you can - If there’s someone you know who’s been before, cadge their excess small bills off of them. ATMs are more frequent, but not universal, and they’re going to drop big bills on you when you find them. Fine for the good stores and restaurants, but the first purchases I want to make (water, a snack, a tip for the hotel bellboy) tend to require something smaller than that 500 rupee monster you got from the ATM.
Maybe try that anti-malarial before you go by a day or two. I had a boss who had a BAD reaction, hallucinations, 105 temp when he started on it. It hit him on his flight, and he got stuck in Singapore. It wouldn’t be good anywhere, but better at home than on the road. Because I’m in the city all the time, I don’t take the antimalarials, but you’ve gotta assess that risk yourself.
Let your driver play the music he wants to listen to. It won’t necessarily be better than what you’d like, but it will make things more interesting. Read the papers, they are a level of awesome.
TJ, great info! Thank you. I think Golconda might be in the plans, but can’t say for certain.
How heavy are the mosquitos in October? Does the Deet keep them off? I’ve got 4-5 bottles of the clothes spray. Do you use that before your trip?
Vincent, what hotel did you stay at in Bangalore? Maybe I will avoid it! ;)
I don’t use any mosquito spray at all, except when I’ve been to Golconda for the night/light show. And there, if I recall correctly, they fog you with something that it’s probably not best you think about.
I’m in the city all the time, and I imagine you will be as well. Most of my time is spent hopping from hotel to office and back, with limited outdoor exposure. Even times when I’ve spent the evening outdoors (restaurant patios, weddings, watching/helping the world explode during Diwali) I haven’t really been bitten much, especially relative to what I’d expect in Minnesota. Hyderabad is pretty dry, however, so I can’t speak to Chennai or Bangalore.
There are numerous anti-malarials out there, but the one that typically causes the hallucinations and the like is Larium. For our overseas trips, my wife and I were offered that or Malarone, which does not have such side effects. I have only taken Malarone and never had any side effects; my wife has taken both and said Larium made her feel loopy and depressive. Malarone is quite a bit more expensive than Larium, however.
ARISE!
So I was about to start a new thread, when I decided to browse for old ones.
Bingo.
I start a new job in September. Part of said new job involves an 8 week stint going to Thiruvananthapuram, India. Which is equal parts amazing, exciting, and tough as it means 8 weeks away from my family.
Anyhow, southern tip of India. Naturally I have much to find out about the specifics of structure there, but broadly I should have weekends free. There are a couple of major national parks and biological preserves within 100 miles that are absolute musts, no way I go to India and miss a chance to see wild tigers and elephants.
And there is a mix of stories in this thread that largely mesh with what I’d heard/ expected. Bottled water always, spicy food (which is a massive plus in my book), etc. I’m going to be in the region that is the highest developed in the country, and so probably contend with some of the more unfortunate paradoxes less than I otherwise would.
So has anyone been to the southern tip of India? Given where I am many of the traditional tourist locations/ tips/ behaviors are not applicable. While the Taj Mahal is undoubtedly a must in India, I’m gonna be some 1500 miles away. Probably not on the agenda. So what should I look for? Any particular foods I must try?
Not to pull too much of a repeat of what was said here 5 years ago, but what have your experiences been.
Ha ha what? You made that up.
That’s like… 2 months!
Wow, wishing you all the courage for this.
Sorry for the useless bump, but had to get it out.
Ha, yeah. That’s going to suck hard, as it means I probably miss my daughter starting walking (though perhaps in the next 7 weeks she will), and I definitely will miss Thanksgiving. That… is going to be hard.
But it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. For as much as that part is bad, it is still an exciting opportunity, and is a huge improvement for our families income. Short term pain for long term gain and all that.
So I had to do it for my family, though it means I’m away from them for a few months.
I lack the linguistic creativity for that ;)
Far southern tip of India, right on the ocean.
I haven’t been to Kerala myself, but my wife’s best friend’s husband is from Kerala, and they did the houseboat thing during a visit while back. Nice photos, but not sure that’s really a solo activity.
India is so huge and varied that I’m sure you’ll have no problem filling your days. It depends on how far and how long you can forage away from Thiruvananthapuram. My personal experience consisted of 1.5 weeks of backpacking and 1.5 weeks of visiting my wife’s family, so I’m hardly an expert, but it was a great trip.
Yeah, I really have no idea. But I’m a big nature and historical site guy, so that’s my starting point. From what I can tell, aside from Pondicherry, there isn’t much in terms of ‘major’ historical sites in Kerala. Nothing of the scale of the numerous UNESCO sites in the north.
But I could probably happily spend every weekend in one of the nearby national parks or nature preserves. Point me to a mountain, and tell me to go hike, and I’m as happy as you can be.