Lostinasia trip report

lostinasia

I just got back from three and a half weeks in India, and I’ll try to “pay back” the forum for all the helpful and wonderful advice I got. I’ve also already added postings in other more focused sub-forums; if I can figure it out I’ll add links to the different posts. I’m going to try to answer the questions/ concerns that I had both before and during my trip. I won’t deal much with reviewing the different sights—that information is plentiful! I'll add info in a series of "replies" to this initial post.

Me: early thirties male with plenty of travel experience, lots of it in developing countries: basically everywhere in Southeast Asia, Egypt, Peru, plus richer countries. This was a one month vacation from work, so traveling on a tight budget wasn’t an issue—time was the issue!

The itinerary, running from mid January to early February 2005:
Two nights New Delhi; flew to Varanasi
Three nights Varanasi; flew to Khajuraho
One night Khajuraho; bus to Orchha
Two nights Orchha; auto rickshaw to Jhansi & train to Agra
Two nights Agra; bus to Jaipur and night train to Bikaner
Four nights Bikaner (Camel Festival); bus to Jaisalmer
Two nights Jaisalmer; bus to Jodhpur
One night Jodhpur; bus to Ranakpur
One night Ranakpur, bus to Kumbalgarh, bus to Udaipur
Two nights Udaipur; night sleeper bus to Bundi.
One night Bundi; kindly given a lift in a chartered car to Ranthambore
One night Ranthambore (two safaris and no tigers, oh well); taxi to Jaipur
One night Jaipur; flight to Delhi, and flight home.

In other words, I just saw Northern India, and then only pieces of it, so I can’t say anything about Southern India (except that everyone who went to Kerala recommends it). Plus I was very much on the beaten track—nothing exotic on this route and with this timeline. I was happy with the itinerary; I saw plenty of the must-sees and got to a few of the less-visited but highly recommended places. Of course, I wish I'd got off the beaten track a little more, but there just wasn't the time.

Next post: Advice...

lostinasia

My biggest problem: my expectations were too high. For years everyone’s been telling me “You haven’t traveled till you’ve been to India,” “India is another universe,” “You’ll love or hate India—there’s no middle ground.” I kind of suspected that was all nonsense, and now I know it is. I had a great time, but as one backpacker said, “There’s too much hype around India—it’s just another destination.” Which is totally true. A good destination, and I suppose the country as a whole is as varied as Europe, but I will certainly NEVER say “Oh, I’ve traveled a lot—but then there was India. Now that was different!”

More mundane pieces of advice: the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. This lost me a day, and Agra was perhaps the worst city to lose a day.

Get to SOMEWHERE like Orchha or Bundi—a place that isn’t exactly off the beaten track, but is quieter and not quite so touristed. Those places are SO much more relaxing than the cities!

Jaisalmer is totally worth the distance and has nowhere near as much hassle as guidebooks say. It was definitely the most beautiful town I saw, with Bundi second. Udaipur probably looks good when there’s water, but this year there’s none except for the canal that the Lake Palace has dredged so its guests can still take a boat.

Delhi: Pahar Ganj made me miss Khao San Road, and I didn't think that was possible! I DID love the, uh, Hazrat Nizamuddin? The Sufi Shrine at sunset. I went Thursday night and there were Qawwali singers--I've loved that music before at festivals, and to see it "in situ" was brilliant.

I spent quite a bit of money (i.e. took a taxi from Ranthambore, and flew to Delhi to catch my flight, rather than just taking a train from Ranthambore to Delhi) to tag Jaipur on to the end of the trip, and I’m not sure why I did. Perhaps because I’d already seen lots of forts and palaces, I didn’t get the appeal of Jaipur. Dingy and unfriendly and unimpressive. The observatory was interesting but the paint job made it look like a 1970s toilet—an example I think of poor restoration being far worse than none at all. The Palace of Winds… I don’t know WHAT that’s about.

On the other hand, if you’re into forts, Jodhpur and Kumbalgarh are the most impressive. Kumbalgarh has no real interiors to speak of, but wow do they do walls. Lots of them going every which way.

The Jain temple at Ranakpur is amazing, and apparently has a service every night around 7pm. Two people told me about this and said it was wonderful to see. Unfortunately, I learned about this after I’d already been in Ranakpur and had spent the night there, and I’m really bitter about that!

The cities have good sights but are generally less pleasant places to be. To me, Indian cities were big foul dirty places without many redeeming qualities. Jaisalmer, Orchha, and Bundi were the places where I felt I could have thoroughly enjoyed chilling out for much longer. Everywhere else I was happy to see but ready to leave when I did. I’m sorry I didn’t get to Pushkar—before my trip, I thought I didn’t really want to go there, but I met several people who loved it.

I didn’t see any tigers in Ranthambore but still enjoyed tons of deer, wild pigs, and on the morning safari, plenty of bird life. Bring binoculars or borrow them from your hotel.

You should read one of the newspapers—I forget which one—on Sunday. There’s a massive arranged marriage section, all beginning with age and height and profession, broken down by language and religion and whatever else. Absolutely surreal to read.

The real pleasant surprise for me was actually the other travelers. A HUGE range of tourists in India—no offense to the early to mid 20s amongst us, but it was really nice to meet plenty of travelers my own age or older!

Sorry, but in general I didn’t enjoy the company of local people “on the street” all that much. Of course there were some wonderful people, but they were alas the exception. I envy those of you who write about strangers inviting you to tea—I experienced nothing like that. Far too many of the men I talked to quickly came around to the oh-so-intriguing and tiresome topic of “You like f**k Indian or Western women?” Lots and lots of people stared, which wasn’t new for me at all; what was new was the way the staring continued, with no change of expression, when I waved or smiled or said hello to them. Lots of mockery and sneering from groups of lads on the streets too, which I haven’t seen much of before. Women travelers must sometimes have a tough time.

Where I did enjoy talking to people: often the hotel staff—lingering for chai in the lobby could be cool. Other tourists seem to scorn the nicer classes of Indian trains, but I really enjoyed chatting with people in the AC classes! Their English and education were at a level where the conversations could be interesting and less predictable—beyond the usual “Yes, Canada is cold” fare.

lostinasia

Everywhere I stayed was fine (uh, in my version of English that means “Ok”). A couple of places stood out for great style/ décor—Shahi Palace Hotel in Jaisalmer, and Paradise in Bundi. Both were, for budget places--maybe for any level--gorgeous places to stay. Tourist Rest House in Agra stood out for helpful advice. Sooner or later I’ll try to talk about these on the Hotel section of India Mike. Mostly I spent 500 Rp or so, sometimes as low as 250 Rp and as high as 750 Rp. 400 Rp seemed to be the threshold for private bathroom; around 600 you got a TV, and I’m enough of a news junkie that I was happy to sometimes catch BBC while writing my diary before going to sleep. Hot water was annoying—try to get rooms that have small tanks inside the bathroom. You turn these on and about 20 minutes later you’ve got hot water, although there’s not much of it (how do women with long hair wash their hair?!). Otherwise there’s a boiler to be fired up somewhere, and that may not happen at certain times of the day. Or ever.

If you care, shaving was a bit of a trick--seldom did a hotel have all three of hot water, a mirror, and light!

I never saw any cockroaches or ants in any of the hotel rooms, which was an improvement on my apartment in Taiwan! (Although my apartment is much nicer now—since I was gone for a month, I felt ok about putting poison out, and now that the corpses have been cleaned up there seem to be no more bugs about. Anyone feel like visiting now?) The only animal hassle came from monkeys at Varanasi’s Alka hotel. They never gave me any trouble, although the management was quite insistent that guests on the upper floors be escorted by lathi-wielding staff after dark. Oh, and the monkeys in Bundi scared me—I probably wouldn’t have wandered around the fort had I been alone.

lostinasia

The food was disappointing, but that was partly my fault—I was fairly conservative. Normally I eat street food (in Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, my current home in Taiwan), but, well, India is far dirtier than anywhere else I’ve been and I just didn’t trust the street food! The guesthouse restaurants had consistently ok food, although the whole month in India I never had anything I would consider spicy (I DO go through bottles of Tabasco sauce quickly in my own cooking). In Udaipur I started spending more money for the nicer restaurants—Udai Kothi and Jagat Niwas Hotels—and THEN I got some really tasty food. Additionally, when I got a lift in a chartered car, we had some great food at the “truck stop” restaurants. I wish I’d had more of a chance to eat at those places, but you don’t see many truck stops downtown!

If you don't know yet, thalis are brilliant, especially if you're travelling alone--they're a variety of dishes (vaguely vegetable curry, usually) plus raita and daal and chappattis. Possibly the only way to get a semi-balanced meal if you're on your own.

Going vegetarian was easy and not a bad idea at all (ethical too!). Besides, most of the meat was appalling quality.

Perhaps because I was so conservative, I never got sick at all. Not even a little queasy, not a single worrying visit to the toilet.

Apart from breakfast (I have a weakness for baked beans and eggs and toast while travelling), I ate only Indian meals during my month. Oh, plus one pad thai in Pahar Ganj. I admit that at New Delhi airport, upon passing through immigration and customs, the Subway sandwiches sign was an incredibly surprising and welcome sight! Fresh vegetables are NOT easy to come by.

Too bad about the food... I've eaten so much "Indian" food in Malaysia (Tamil, I guess?), and loved it, and I was really excited about trying the genuine article. Oh well. Don't get me wrong; there was nothing BAD about the food, but I found it dull. I did hear that the food is better in the south.

lostinasia

ATMs were common in Rajasthan, although I didn’t see any in Varanasi. I used traveller’s cheques at the beginning mainly because I’d been carrying a bunch on trips for 5-6 years and figured I’d better use them (now that they’re worth 30% less than when I bought them…). I met a couple who had been unable to get money at the New Delhi airport ATM, which was a big hassle for them. As always, carry a few different forms of getting money. Changing traveller's cheques when I first arrived at New Delhi airport was no problem, although that was at 2pm in the afternoon. The exchange rate was good, I think.

When leaving the country, after immigration & customs at New Delhi airport, there were no exchange counters—and no decent bookstores! I suppose a duty free shop may have been able to change money, but I had about 5 hours to wait anyway. Two subs, a couple of chocolate bars, and a (for India) EXPENSIVE 200 Rp/ hour internet café (normally it was 20-30 Rp, I think) took care of the leftover cash.

Books are CHEAP in India! I bought plenty in Jaipur the day before I flew out. Cloud Atlas and The Line of Beauty in paperback for 250 Rp each—are those even available in paperback in the west yet?!

Some costs: most of my guesthouses were around 500 Rp, and I guess that was “high quality budget”; bottled water 10-15 Rp for one liter; guesthouse meals around 100 Rp for a big feed with a pot of tea and mineral water; beer 100 Rp+, and not all that good. It would have been possible to travel really cheap, but honestly, if you’re on a one month trip, why bother? Cycle rickshaw trips around towns could have cost 15-20 Rp, but I usually paid 30-40 based on the theory that I probably wouldn’t bend over to pick up the equivalent of 20 Rp on the street at home. (Of course, if your trip lasts as long as your money, then go cheap, but that’s not what I was doing this time!)

lostinasia

I have no idea if simply cut and pasting these in works, and if it doesn't I hope someone can help me out... apologies for the rather pretentious "Lostinasia's blah blah blah", but I initially put that in to make searching easy.

Lostinasia's Gizmo report after one month in India.

Lostinasia's "discomforting stuff" report.

Reporting after a month in India (transport).

Lostinasia's packing report after one month in India.

machadinha

They're nice and comprehensive reports though, nothing pretentious about it. Nice going!

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

machadinha

nb

Of course at about Rs. 5 - 10 for a shave at the barber's you might as well leave your shaving kit at home, it's good fun too and you get a right royal treat! Tell them to go easy on the neck twisting and the nose cracking though.

Admittedly it took some getting used to letting a stranger going at your throat with a razorblade, and being alone in god knows where I sometimes had to suppress visions of Once Upon A Time In The West (I think it was that has a similar scene?) But honestly the smaller places were the happier to serve you mostly. Ah and always ask for a fresh blade of course, they'll crack it where you're at (to do with certain blood-carried diseases, be polite about it too and never mention the dreaded A-word).

Too bad about your food experiences, it depends a lot on where you are and what places you run into yes and can have a major effect on your overall experience. Oh well.

williaam

I am comforted to see that someone else had a similar experience to mine and my boyfriends. I thought that perhaps we had done sometying worng but it appears that some of us really don't have the wonderful trip that we are promised. Although I am sooo glad that we went, we had similar reactions, particularly to the cities; eventually, they all began to look the same, with the exception of some different temples, etc. I do agree that if you venture to some smaller towns the character is easier spot. And as fas as the people, we were also dissapointed with the way people reacted to us. We found it difficult to raise a smile out of people are get acknowledged other than with a condescending stare. We thought maybe we just looked like mean people, maybe we do, but it is nice to know that you had the same experience. Thanks you for sharing as I think it is important for people to hear the negatives of travelling to India, not just the positives. It helps have more realistic expecatations.

Samsara

Useful travel tips, lostinasia.

I was reading a post here a few weeks back where a traveller was saying what do you eat on trains (snack vendors or what) and he said basically pity you can't take curries (thali type food I guess) on trains. But actually you can if you just invest in a stainless steel tiffin carrier before or when you arrive in India. That's what many Indians use to take food with them on trains or to school or work and they are usually three tier (though you can get more tiers) and the containers clip together with a carry handle on top. So vegetarian curries and savouries plus Indian flat breads can be put in each tier for when you're travelling or just want a take-away to eat at your hotel. Veg food keeps O.K. during the day and is tasty cold too.

seventies'hippy

A very well written & balanced account of Lostinasias first time experience of India,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

gs_uppal

i agree samsara,
and if you go to a good shop selling Household goods anywhere in India, you can get a box which has such a 3tier steel tiffin box with a Plastic type attractive box and this keeps the food hot/warm for a longer time. Executives in India carry such a box to their offices, Costs around Rs 200-300. Take the food from your hotel before leaving or from a good restaurant, and never eat food at railway stations from the vendors (even Indians dont like the foodstuff provided/sold there)
Dont even drink tea/coffee in trains/stations, just buy packaged stuff like Lays Wafers/chips or Cold drinks there.

Am a new member here, just a month old, but havent seen any IMer asking for help on Food to eat while in India, but have seen lots of people complaining about the food.
I think India has a great variety of Food - whether Veg/Non-Veg, Spicy/Non-Spicy, and you can get Indian Food, Chinese Food (with Indian touch at most places), Continental Food, Italian Food, Thai Food, Good Bakeries serving great cakes, croissants, puffs, stuffed rolls, variety of breads.
In Indian food, if you take Thali everyday you may get bored of it, if you ask the waiters/helpers in Indian restaurants for help in choosing your dishes, they won't understand you. I would recommend first timer imers visiting India to post their tastes so that experienced imers can help them with a list of Food Items they can try while in India.
The Food you'll get in Kerala (sea food, south indian dishes mostly of rice, veg curries having coconut milk in it) will be totally different from the ones you will get in Delhi (spicy and oily foods, veg/nonveg, mughlai) , so is in Goa where you get a good variety of Sea foods, bombay(all variety), rajasthan (veg/non-veg., very spicy with lots of chillies). You'll have a lot to choose and if you have some guidance you'll choose the right thing at the right place.

gs_uppal

You will rarely sight a tiger in rajasthan, whether you go to sariska or ranthambore coz there are negligible tigers left there.
Lostinasia, you had been to Khajurao and Orcha in Madhya Pradesh, closeby there is a Tiger Reserve by the name Bandhavgarh, which has the world's highest Tiger density, and the Tiger Sighting chances there is 100%, every elephant safari group sees tigers there, the forest staff there carry out an early morning study and get feedback from the villagers and take all elephants to the jungle in the morning, and when a group sees a tiger they inform all the others, thats the best place in India to see Tigers in their natural habitat, even better than Corbett(Nainital).
In the hindsight i can say that you should have gone to Bandhavgarh instead of Ranthambhore (you were 2/3 hours away from there)

gianni66

Hi GS_Uppal, I will be in India in 18 days only (my countdown has started!!), and I have to say that among the reasons for which I have a great wish to rravel to India is indian food!
Though I live in the country most rewarded for food, I am a great fan of Indian cousine, which I have experienced all around Europe (but never in Asia). I cook very often spiced indian-style dishes at home (there is a big Indian and Bengali community in Rome and it's easy to find all the spices that you need in their wondeful little shops), and I am very very very excited in thinking to finally experience the Indian food in its original place!
I know that say Indian food is like to say all and nothing, as the variety is very wide. I will travel from Delhi to varanasi and then to Rajasthan... and I'me very happy to know from you that Rajasthani food is very spicy and lots of chillies!! My favourite taste of Indian food is the kind of dishes that leave your mouth burning and flaming... shall I ask esplicitly to the waiters to have "spicy" food, as I always do in European Indian restaurants, or if I do so I can expect something of impossible to eat for a western?
I heard from a friend that he asked in India and Indian dish cooked in "real" Indian style, although the waiter was not suggesting this to him... at the end of the dinner he has his nose bleeding!
Namaste: Gianni

lostinasia

Oops on the tigers... when I was in Ranthambore, someone else recommended a park nearish Orchha. I guess it was the same one. Oh well; I still had a good couple of trips in the park. A few people were seeing tigers around that time but they were a definite minority.

On spicy food: I'm really surprised that Rajasthan has a reputation for spicy food! I would NEVER have guessed it from what I ate there. In restaurants I asked and begged and pleaded for spicy food, but never got it--or at least never got anything as spicy as what I usually cook at home. The one time it seemed to make a difference, I got lots more spices, a little too whole and intact, and I kept biting into these big clumps of cloves or bay leaves or whatever. As I said above though, this was largely in tourist restaurants. It's also hard to find good advice on restaurants, because most hotel staff will just assume that you want a tourist restuarant. Good luck--I'm sure there's fantastic food out there, but for tourists finding it isn't as easy as I'd expected.