India Holiday

[joelk2]

Anyone been to India on Holiday?

Brother in law getting married at the end of the year so kind of have no choice but to go over. Bangalore if that makes a difference.

We will mainly be there but will head over to Goa for a few days too.

For those who have been did you get the dreaded "Dehli Belly"??

Travelling with my wife and 2 children (the kids is what i worry about the most)

Wont be much of a trip if we got the craps for days.

 

[joelk2]

Go watch some Karl Rock videos, he does videos on India for tourists

will do, cheers

It's your brother in law, of course you have a choice whether to go. If I decided to get married in India I'd be surprised if anyone turned up.

India with children, make sure you book a decent hotel and never leave, unless you want to explain to them why a woman is smearing cow urine all over her face or other interesting sights you may encounter.

pretty obliged to go. will be booking a good hotel though.

I don't think you quite understand the meaning of the word holiday...

in what way?

 

[joelk2]

Went 3 years ago to a friend's wedding. Thankfully we didn't get craps but one of our friends did. As long as you're careful where you eat, wash your hands and only drink bottled water (even for brushing teeth) you should be fine. Our mate bought street food when he arrived before joining us so we think that's what gave him *****.

Also make sure you take lot of mosquito cream/ spray and get all the recommended jabs.

It's an amazing country, just don't look out of the windows too much when you're in a car, especially the front one.

thanks, this was the type of advice i was looking for. i dont plan on eating much outside the hotels to be honest. brother in law only eats at expensive places so hopefully that helps

 

[joelk2]

Go to the uxbridge road in southall or ealing road wembly for a while. Essentially the same place but without the heat. Will give you a good feel for it

but i love the heat, went to Dubai last year in June 45 degrees every day. beautiful.

To be honest we ate in couple of random places that didn't look great and were dead cheap. Food served on banana leaves and was much better than some of the more expensive restaurants we tried. Though we were taken there by family members of our friend who was getting married, doubt we'd go there on our own.

He's lived in banglore for almost a year now so should know some decent places to have food. again im not too worries about myself just the kids.

 

[joelk2]

I have lived in India for 5 years now and if you use a bit of common sense you will not have any issues at all with food poisoning.

1)Avoid street food.

2)Only drink bottled or RO water. Kinley is my brand of choice. If you want to brush your teeth with it....no problem. However I have always used tap water and never had a problem.

3)Bangalore has a huge expat community so you will have no problem finding clean restaurants to eat in. However if you are unduly paranoid eat in 5 star hotels. It's about £15 quid for a meal in them and no prior booking required.

4)If you travel rural at all. Stick with South Indian food. Particularly Dosa and Idli and opt for no filling or side sauce (samba etc).

I have never seen anyone smearing cow urine on their face, and avoid the negativity of never leaving the hotel. Microwaving food in your hotel????? Absolutely no need.

Experience India... Its a beautiful country and if you travel at the end of the year(October onwards) the climate will be great.

I host clients over here all the time from back home, the US or Australia and they all have the fear of getting an upset stomach. No one has had a problem yet by following the simple steps above.

Goa is great and the meat and fish options are fantastic. Enjoy Baga beach. The beach restaurants are amazing and you will have a great time.

Cheers Rifte, that's great help. Will be travelling at the end of October/start of November.

Another question. My girls love a waterpark. We've found one in Bangalore with good reviews, called wonderla. You ever been?

 

[joelk2]

Jesus, some stereotypes getting rolled out in here...

I've been to India a dozen or so times and despite having a notoriously sensitive stomach have never really struggled.

As long as you are sensible as above you will be fine - absolutely do go outside of the hotel, it's an amazing experience.

Thanks, I'm glad it's not as bad as some people make out, I'm guessing those who have never been there before.

Admittedly I had visions myself of it being an incredibly dirty place.
It's never been on my list of places to go to either. He had planned to marry in Sri Lanka and was there just a few weeks ago looking at churches but with the recent news that has been ruled out now. (Big shame as I'd much prefer that but it's not my wedding)

I'm hoping we'll swiftly be off to Goa after the wedding which seems more my type of destination.

I went to Bangalore last year, there isn't much there to see and the traffic is really bad. Try and stay near Mathama Ghandi road and use Uber to get around - the tuk tuks will charge you more and not always take you to where you want to go.

There are really poor parts of Bangalore but there is a really good night life due to the larger number of corporates and young professionals based there. Just not much of a history

The temperature is pretty mild for India about 25 degrees all year around.

Night life I'm not worried about, having kids kinda rules that one out to a certain extent. We'll be restricted to places I can carry them to the room from when they nod off.

Brother in law said he's going to sort the hotel out for us. So need to wait and see where he's looking at. Knowing him it's not going to be less than 5 stars as that all he'll ever stay in (he will choose 6 if available)

 

[joelk2]

There are really only a few theme parks in India (Imagica, Wonderla and Essel World). I have been to Wonderla and its a good park, and you will have a great day. Also in October and November most native Indians will feel that it is a little too cold for a waterpark (25 degrees ish) so the park should not be packed.

I go to Florida on a regular basis, and if you compare it to anything that Orlando or even some of the UK parks have to offer, it does fall a little short.

However from a price perspective you cant go wrong. I think (last time I went was 18 months ago) its around £10 to £15 a ticket depending on weekday or weekend entry.

That's good to know. Have been to all of the water parks in Orlando and 1 in Dubai (5 times as we were staying in the Atlantis)

Give the girls a lazy river and they're happy.

You may want to keep tabs on your wife (especially if she is pretty) if the newspaper reports are correct i.e. don't let her travel alone and stay in a group to prevent being pounced upon

We'll only be going around as a group anyways but cheers for info.

 

[joelk2]

Thanks for some reassuring posts. Just waiting on him setting the firm date and then will get it booked.

 

[joelk2]

I'm Indian and grew up there. Mostly North India but lived in Bangalore for about 6 months ago. Been in London for 14 years or so now but go back once or twice a year.

Surprised to see this many stereotypes on here. I completely agree with most of the common sense tips given by some of the folks (bottled water; avoid street food (unless it was a known place, I personally wouldn't eat street food either, just to out it in context). If you're keen on street food, try out Haldiram or Bikanerwala or ask your brother in law about similar places in South India as they may be Northern places. They are big chains but do mainly street food and sweets. You should be fine there.

Agree with taking Ubers to get around - just easier and cheap. You can take tuk tuks to get around if you'd like the experience, but you will be overcharged (anyone would - I would too) so you have to negotiate. That being said, over the last few years, I've mostly switched to Uber but also stopped negotiating with tuk tuks. Ultimately, there's like a 50p or £1 overcharge and it clearly meant a lot more to him than it did to me. As long as you're doing it for the experience, don't worry about the overcharge. Use Uber to get an idea of how much the journey would cost and knock off a small amount.

Your hotels are being sorted but I would recommend one of the 5* to stay in if that's not where you end up. If for no other reason, then the experience of luxury that you won't really get in hotels in the UK (that I've seen anyway). The Taj chain is normally good, but you have most of the standard ones like Hyatt and Marriott.

If you have any specific questions or anything, happy to try and answer.

Cheers.

Have only been looking at 5 stars, a few of the Taj ones. We'll be staying near MG Road. But we send him the hotels we like the look of and he tells us whether or not it's good or not.

We've stayed in a few 5* in the past. Most recently the Atlantis in Dubai last summer.

I must admit that I have my own view of what I'm to expect but am more than happy to be proven wrong.

As mentioned it's not somewhere I've ever fancied going or thought I would go (the fact he's getting married is a big deal as he's not really the settle down type as he's a work aholic)

I've seen people say to not eat meat. Any reason why? I eat some form of meat in almost every meal as I'm not a fan of vegetables.

 

[joelk2]

just as a little thread revival/update on this. the trip happened.

the wife, me, 2 children.
we stayed in a lovely hotel called the Oberoi on MG road.

we mainly ate at the restaurants within the hotel but was out a lot with family so did out on a number of occasions.

some were what i'd call dirty places. others were nice and clean.
we also had some home cooked food and while had some takeaway when out too.

i sampled many beers at many of the small craft beer establishments.

all in all it was an eye opening experience and totally different to over here. I wouldnt go again (wasnt on my list of places to go anyway) but am very glad we did go.

we were lucky enough to have our own driver for the week which would take us anywehre and wait while we did whatever we were out doing. we did use a tuk tuk once and uber as our driver was with other family members one day.

dehli belly, didnt really happen for any of us. we were as careful we could be in regards to drinking water.

i was affected most with an upset stomach. (wasnt really upset but felt dodgy one day and i had soft stools while going to toilet - frequency increased a small amount) - this would happen if drinking every day in this country too though.

to be honest, wherever i went i asked for the dishes to be made with more spice as i found the curry's were mild despite saying spicy on the menu. i ate as many different dishes as i could sample, and found love in a cheese masala dosa for breakfast.

we swam in the hotel pool on a number of occasions.

all in all a positive experience. and to anyone who is in the same boat. go for it. its not clean, its not western but its not bad. i actually felt extremely safe there .

 

[joelk2]

Appreciate the update. I'd forgotten about this thread and was about to respond to some of the nonsense on the first page (spreading cow faeces on their face, lol really ) but didn't realise the OP date. I'd love to go to India but at the moment my girlfriend and I have it filed under "want to go, but hard work". So it's currently sitting under places like Mexico, Japan and even Sri Lanka to explore. I'm sure your kids will look fondly back on their trip and be 100% glad they got the chance. Anything that gives kids (heck people, judging from the attitudes in this thread) a chance to see and experience different cultures can only be a positive thing. Even if at the time the experience was hard work and a spot of dysentery

Just wow. Talk about close minded.

You joke but in reality people do spread that o their face and drink their wee. They value cows so much.

 

[joelk2]

A quick Google shows me that it's very, very rare. Religious people can be crazy the world over, the very small percentage of Hindus that practice that clearly don't speak for >1bn people. It's like saying all Muslims are terrorists, do you think that too?

No. Why would you think I did?
I seen it with my own eyes. So clearly some people do, which is exactly what I said!!