My First Solo Trip to India

@Mach: nice to see your view on Drews60 tweets. You of course are a India veteran! Though, sometimes I am surprised, how insightful your India observations has been.
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Oh, thank you. What's funny is I've actually spent far less time there than many others here. Guess it must have left quite an impression whenever I did, eh

I have little more to say than: , but then also: (And KS Blue, let's hope we do meet again some day, no. It was really a great pleasure of mine, as it was with the others attending, of course.)

btw I should hope it would be clear I wasn't trying to interfere with Drew's observations, and straight from the heart as they are, he's doing with them exactly what I always tell myself but never get around to (to jot down my experiences I always find costs me half of those experiences; but swift jots like his are surely a way); but rather figured it might be helpful to fill in some of those little details, to hopefully make further encounters more smooth, and knowing what perhaps you're looking at.

Cheers, folks. Drew, and others: Carry on!

And Drew, there's really something exceptional about the way you jot down these impressions, and now pass them on. It's really wonderful to follow. I know your trip has been a long time in the making: It surely shows Let's guess Ma India must have been waiting for you

I agree! ... same learning for me too.

Yes wonderful to read his impressions ... and especially the way he says them.
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Shaves are fine, but I'd really recommend bringing your own blade. I remember there was a big story in the Newspaper about one of the barber's in a five star hotel using 'used' blades. Scary stuff. Be especially cautious if you try to bargain the price lower, because they may not be so inclined to use a new blade if they're are not getting the price they want. Also used blades are often rewrapped in 'new packaging' for presentation & approval to the unsuspecting customer. Potentially a very dangerous endeavor ......

Mweh... I indeed on my first trips would often ask, and perhaps I still often do as a matter of habit, "fresh blade?"

But in practice they'll always get out a fresh blade for you, anyway. These are the old-fashioned kind of razor blade holders, the blades need to be broken down the middle to fit them in. There's no way to fit in an old one there and reusing it. So if you notice they put a new blade in there -- and they'll make a show of opening it and breaking it down the middle while you sit there --, you should be good to go.

How are you certain that the new blade is actually new & not just cleaned & repackaged? The barbers all seem keen to want to shave the back of your neck with a blade & they will even show you a blade in crisp wrapping to get your immediate approval. That means absolutely nothing to me. The scammers will simply repackage the old blades ... it's a scam as old as refilling water bottles. Anyway my Indian colleagues warned me about this & there have been instances in the Newspaper where people have been caught reusing blades on different customers.

Um, well, yes. Let's say you and I have patently different ways of getting around there.

I eat street food there and have shaves no end (and yes, even drink restaurant water, god forbid. Nor do I necessarily advocate it, but it is what I do) no problem.* Others might choose not to. Neither proves much.

* And it is of course never to say I do "just anything" out there. I do take care, to the extent I find reasonable. But so other people's mileage may vary. Let all go by their own standards.

To be afraid of touching anything there however wouldn't be my idea of a holiday, nor sit well with my wish to achieve some level of immersion, as limited as it may always be as after all just another tourist.

If I get complimented by Indians on my level of understanding of the place, might this have something to do with my not having been so crazy scared of it all the time? And more importantly perhaps on this thread, does Drew sound scared about it? No, sounds like he's having a grand ol' time, rather, and well he should.

A barber in Sauraha, roughly north of Varanasi in Nepal, once gave me a neck shave. There was no pretence of using a fresh blade but the guy gave the old one a good wipe on his particularly grubby curtain.

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.... probably more hygienic than many joints.

I've started reading your post some time back & since then, I am glued to the computer & reading it...

Nothing to do about the real India, being scared or other. It's a common sense tip about a frequent scam ( &/or unhygienic practice) that could be, in the worse case, lethal.

Any Indians I associated with would not sit down and get a razor shave with someone they weren't 100% certain of having fresh blades. That's it, some useful advice that I thought necessary to add at this point - take it or leave it.

<cross-posted with you just now, Peak>

Did I already say btw: These old-fashioned razor blade holders, that indeed any Indian barber will use, don't hold a full blade. You need to crack the blade down the middle, to fit it in there. (Methinks that may be why a classic razor blade was once designed that way, but I can't be sure.)

Ergo, if that's what you see being done, there's no way that's gonna be a used blade.

Beyond that, maybe don't travel in places where you feel so paranoid all day long. I've kind of had it with people going but what about the droplets on my rinsed tea glass.

Shall we now leave this thread again to Drew's nice write-ups and any constructive additions?

Paranoid? That's the pot calling the kettle black. I gave notice of a popular scam that for some unknown reason, you felt a need to question.

Yes, leave it alone - please! Carry on Drew!!!!!

Eh? I say I get a shave there every few days, by roadside stands, too.

You suggest bringing your own blade for it. Well, so let's say we have different approaches. (I imagine that barber is gonna find it a little funny, if not be outright offended, btw.)

(And reminded again of how on my first trip I brought my own syringes, after all one never knows, and it would indeed be not uncommonly advised by guidebooks etc. In hindsight, one might wonder how in the one case you might need them so let's say being left unconscious after a road accident, anyone would know you'd be carrying them on you.

So anyway just upon landing I need to get a follow-up vaccine shot in Delhi. I sort of sheepishly bring up to the young British expat doctor there I have my own needles; she kindly informs me I've handily been given those for both intra- and extra-venous use, or what's that called. They're way too thick, and indeed OK if you're unconscious, but would otherwise have me up against the ceiling.

She kindly gives me some of the right kind for my further travels, for free. Needless to say, I've not often felt more stupid in my life.

I'm a little culture-shocked and generally nervous having just landed in India for the first time btw, she kindly enquires if anything else is amiss.)

And such. I thought I had a witty closing remark here but seem to have lost it.

http://hepatmon.com/view/?id=444