I'm travelling to India in November. Timing it for the ODI Cricket World Cup and Diwali but wanted to go there anyway.
Are there any bargain tips you all have? Or general tips?
I'm going to: Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune & Kolkata if that helps. I already have accomodation and flights sorted.
I don't have a phone sim.
I found Travelan possibly beneficial while in India. No problems at all with the food. I say possibly, as it's impossible to show I would have had a negative experience without it. After being sick for six days in the nastiest ways after visiting Thailand, I now don't take any chances.
I didn't know about Travelan, but just looked it up and will bring. Thank you.
Yes both Travelan and Imodium will be beneficial
Buy Travel Insurance and Imodium.
Look @ https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/asia/india for Health Risks.
I don't have a phone sim.
Carry a sim with roaming enabled.
Its harder to purchase a SIM as foreigner in India as you cannot easily satisfy the KYC details.
Also most of India (at least the cities you mentioned) is now only accepting digital payments via GPay/Paytm/UPI etc. You will not be able to use this if you do not have an Indian bank account. I found this very annoying. Many places do accept international cards though.
We went to Bangalore a few months ago and had similar issues.
Decided not to get a SIM at the airport cause the line was too long. Outside the airport; was just too much of a hassle. needed passport, OTP and they wouldn't use their number to receive the OTP - kept asking if I knew anyone in India whose number I could use to receive the OTP. Just gave up after that.
I enabled roaming on Telstra; it would not work. My phone just wouldnt connect to Jio which was the only network that Telstra could roam on - that was a wasted few dollars.
Our hotel would only accept Paytm. No cash, no credit card. That was a massive hassle. A lot of other places also only accepted digital payments.
Also, some tourist attractions no longer have ticket counters at the attraction. You have to purchase tickets online and then simply scan your QR code to enter. Not having a local SIM or roaming; that was a hassle as well.
And finally, its impossible to hail a taxi on the street. Has to be booked online through one to the apps - Uber or Ola or something else. Only three wheeler auto rickshaws could be hailed on the street and they were charging double what an Uber Sedan would have cost.
Don't go to Delhi, rural areas are beautiful and well worth it.
Cities are crowded and claustrophobic (tolerable if you grew up there), although i don't think you get a choice with that one.
I’ll second don’t go to Delhi. Some lovely buildings and history there but it’s also just sh.t. I do my best to avoid that place.
Also rural India, it is stunning!
Ola and super both work there if anything Ola is more popular
Bombay if you can go to All of this in the one day because you get a very unique experience of Bombay - Madras Cafe for breakfast, dharavi tour, and then sunset drinks at Aer or Dome (you will want to change what you’re wearing for the last one)
Also in Bombay stay in Bandra it’s where the nicest bars and restaurants are.
Don’t go nuts on the food when you get there. It’s not that the food is bad but it’s the spice set that will upset your belly because it packs a bit. Find places where there are a lot of people and don’t over eat you’ll be fine. Street food in India is my favourite stuff to eat there
dharavi tour
Can you explain this a bit more?
There are tours that go around Dharavi. Judging by your username I don’t need to elaborate
There’s decent and crappy companies that do it. This one is one I did work for 12 years ago not long after they started, can vouch for them actually doing good work in India (I worked with Chris when I was in India who is in the second article)
https://realitygives.org/go-on-tour/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/poverty_to…
Tips? If you get approached by 'helpful' locals, just keep walking. Nothing good will come of it.
Where he’s going it’s fine. It’s up north where you get that stuff
Hmm, touts everywhere basically. If someone "recommends" something be okay with paying double or at least surcharge. At worst it's a dodgy place. Wanted a hotel in Madurai (south india), then someone pointed me into a makeshift "office" with about five people of varying ages waiting there. They started talking about scenic tours for a very cheap price. I said yes, then the said they just needed a deposit and my passport. I pretended that my passport was not with me and left.
Interesting, never had it anyway from the middle of India . Including living in India for 6 months (neither did any of my expat friends there). All had it up north in the usual tourist traps: Delhi, Agra
how many days in india?
klook has a bunch of different sim cards.
Good question. I'm going for 20 days. I'll take a look at Klook.
Avoid north India. South India is great, east India is beautiful but prolly not the best time to visit the latter. See the good places before the current government ruins the whole country forever
Why avoid north India?
lol, north india is great mate. And it’s undoubtedly got the best food.
I agree bout the food. But can't recommend anything else
I think food would be a top priority for any tourist, isn’t it?
Otherwise J&K’s great. Himachal’s awesome too?
@Gervais fanboy: I wasn't aware that Kashmir was open to tourists again. Just read that it was from early this year. That's good as it's one of the most beautiful places in India.
Also, just to be clear. It's the Hindi belt of India I found to be horrible (Bihar, UP, Gujarat, MP)
If you can try South India, I'd recommend Kerala to be specific. Amazing hospitality, food, scenery and overally very welcoming to tourists. State with highest literacy rate too and you could probably find a lot of things to do. PS. I'm from there :)
Yeah, people over there like to boast the literacy, but both me and my partner were harrassed in Alappuzha at multiple places.
So check with your friends / family before deciding places.
Munnar / thekkady was great though.
That's unfortunate to hear. But yea, its good to check around beforehand.
Try to get a paid guide / local friend who can be with you all the time, that would help to avoid scams / dodgy places.
I presume you're not a young female travelling alone?
I'm one of those things. I am travelling alone.
Travelling alone is great, the point is if you're a young female travelling alone, you may need to take several precautions while you're there. Just google it.
I agree young female travelling alone could be problematical.
I travelled 2nd class air conditioning on trains. No problem.
(If you have spare time the golden triangle new Delhi, Jaipur and Agra is well worth it; the stepwell at Chand Baori is an experience if you like those kind of things).
EDIT: should also be okay for young female travelling alone.
Modi is starting to lift his middle finger at Charlie:
He is set to rename his country as he has already done at the entry to the G20 summit.
The opposition coalition trying to unseat the central government (same as federal in australia) are calling themselves I.N.D.I.A. The ruling party (BJP) doesn't want the optics of "BJP vs INDIA, so this is just a smokescreen to distract from real issues. Very unlikely
Interesting: At this stage anything is possible.
Looking at Syria or even Turkey, many people are reluctant to change.
Türkiye
Forget Telstra or Boost
use a phone with an empty esim and chuck Red Bull mobile into it. Works like a charm.
Never heard of it before, but looks like a good option. A tad expensive, but I don't plan to use it much, just at a pinch.
currently all over South India, now in Trichy.
Boost: 18 Bits per sec, too slow for email or google maps.
RBM: Perfect 4G datastream, worth every cent.
Should I activate it now? I believe there's a 1GB trial available or should I wait until November when I go? Don't want it to expire or anything.
@kiriakoz: Activate on arrival, it took less than a minute for mine to work.
However I had 2 trials, 100MB in 1 month and 1Gig for a year!
Pretty sweet!
prepaid services in India are very cheap but if it's easier for you to use just your aus number, check details of Vodafone's $5/day deal:
https://www.vodafone.com.au/mobile/international-roaming
It seems from some people that I've conversed with that it's hard to attain one. I'd rather get a local prepaid service if possible.
@kiriakoz: Very hard to get one.
The airport in Delhi was 'out of stock ', and after spending over an hour at a local store to buy one (with someone local vouching for us, it kept coming up with an error, and never activated).
Avoid local stores for sim cards.
Guessing this was a cheap fare that lands in Ahmedebad? Not too much tourist stuff there, besides Ajanta caves? It is close to Goa though. Did read that your accoms etc are booked. If you could squeeze a few days, I reckon Goa is worth going to. We stayed at Benaulim beach/south goa which was very quiet and short walk to beaches. Recommend a travel sim or something like lebara or lyca sim. Did see a youtuber get a sim in India taking about an hour at a local telco's office in a flashier mall.
Pack plenty of medications with you, and instant noodles or cans of tuna….. one can only eat so much curry or tumeric based dishes, and bring an oxygen tank… the while country stinks of weeks old brown onion.
In summary if u can get a refund of any flights or accomodation booked and travel elsewhere.
sounds like a health issue, not normal for the same stench to be everywhere.
Lmao
Be prepared for every person to have their hand out to you asking for money and being accosted by vendors of all types trying to sell you goods and services…I mean constantly! They will be relentlessly. Be prepared to see abject poverty whilst a Bentley drives by.
Indeed you see some sights, sounds, and smells. A religious naked man in the middle of the street, a huge cow walking down the platform as I was explaining to the Japanese newly weds why their train was late (not sure they quite understood the concept)…..
But seriously as an Australian I was more unprepared by public urination on trains and in streets in LA, by homeless sleeping under bridges in San Diego, and by ppl living in bus shelters in Hawaii.
Go figure.
EDIT: I experience way more hawking in south east Asia than I ever did in India (new Delhi, Agra, Jaipur).
I had the best holiday of my life in India back in 2004, so great that we went back three years later and took the kids (maybe that trip was even better!). So I wouldn't know where to begin in recommending specific things to do or see (and, anyway, there have been a lot of changes in fifteen years!). What I would say is to check the travel forum, indiamike.com. As good as Ozbargain is for just about everything else, indiamike was, back then (and hopefully still is) the great site for hints and tips about where to go and what to see. Good luck, and have a wonderful time… and by the way, November is the perfect month to go… everything is fresh and green after the monsoon.
India's big on UPI payments, smallest of vendors to large supermarkets have UPI and you might have a harder time going with cash/International CC. Foreigners can now get a wallet app to use UPI.
https://travel.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/technology/…
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/…
This Youtube short from Karl does a slightly better job at explaining,
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QS6OunAKDi8
In short contact Thomas Cook and get Fave App from Pine Lab and get it loaded with digital currency.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate this.
Ahhh Karl Rock, cool. read the whole thing. That makes sense.
Thsnks everyone interesting read 👍😎
General tips.
Get your visa done well in advance - paperwork is very involved, so worth doing it ahead of time. And print your visa out as the airline and immigration will require a printed copy.
Goodluck.
Take a pack of imodium with you.