India Holiday

I go to India at least once year. Sad to see some old stereotypes being trotted out. Personally I’d give street food a miss, other than that theres nothing to be concerned about

Ok well, apart from general standards of driving and road safety in general. Utterly insane lack of what we’d call rules of the road. It kind of works but there’s no way I’d drive my car there.
 
Typical OcUK stereotypes creeping out of the woodwork.

India is an awesome country. The culture and history is varied and interesting. I've not been to Bangalore and it'd probably not be up there with the must see destinations but it'll almost certainly give you a feel for the place. Some of the advice here has at least been sensible. I'd avoid all street food. Period. Good supply of bottled was including brushing teeth. Avoid ordering fresh salads at smaller restaurants. Wash all friut with your own bottled water. Don't buy small bottles of water from street vendors as they often will refill with tap water and seal. Be sensible when travelling at night as with any new foreign city in the world. Be respectful of the culture and roads and it'll be fine. Bangalore has a big young middle class profession population so should be things to do to keep young children entertained.

phrases said:
Just don't go now its rather windy. I'd love to visit but the places that border it terrify me!
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This is sadly so true. I'd love to be able to explore the Indias himalayas and the Kashmir area, it's stunningly beautiful!
 
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I've been a few times, never had a problem. Simple precautions will see you fine. As others said, water, and drink plenty of it. We just bought 8 packs of 2L bottles of Aquafina/Bisleri. Get the number of a doctor if you get the ***** and they'll sort you out with some medicine - UK medicine just doesn't tend to work over there so get the local stuff. Make sure food is piping hot, even at your 5* hotels.
I turn vegetarian over there, I can quite easily live without meat and food is so varied there that you won't have a problem trying different things each day without meat. Great country, real hit in the face compared to the UK but in between 2012-2018/19 the rate of progression is massive and will one day in the next decade or so overtake the UK. 2012 it was very dirty from what I remember, when I went in January 19 much cleaner and people are taking a different attitude.
As you know a local you should be fine as well with local spots to eat at. Popular tends to mean good, avoid the less busy places.
Enjoy it
 
Must do's

Hire a driver who has a large 4x4. You don't want to drive there or use public transport. Labour is cheap, so is petrol and hiring a car and a driver will be an expense but worth it over losing your life. I assume your brother is marrying someone from there so get a local family friend of the bride to set this up for you so you don't get scammed.

Don't take advice from random people. They are trying to scam you most likely.

Don't buy anything expensive yourself get a local family friend to go into the shop and haggle for you whilst you stay out of sight of the shop. Once they know it's for a foreigner the price multiplies by 10. So it's best you get someone else to buy stuff for you and you let them know what you want outwith eyesight of the shop and obviously don't make it obvious you are together.

Don't drink tap water. Bottled water from a reputable source only. You will likely need to go to a large store and just buy 4 cases of the stuff on your first day. Use that water for everything. Cleaning your teeth, making tea, cooking, anything you will be consuming. Ask for no ice in all drinks as that will be tap water. I have 2 relatives in india who have both needed kidney transplants due to tap water. They got it tested and results were bad so they dug a deeper well and that was also bad, this is after they had been boiling it then filtering it too. SO I wouldn't go near the stuff.

Only eat in reputable places. Take loads of immodium with you as well as electrolytes. You will get the runs and you will need a lot of both.

Other than that stay safe. You will be a target for all the low lifes, beggars will harass you constantly, i've had them chase my taxi for several blocks, i've had others harass me at a market for nigh on 6 hours the full day i was there. Lots of lepers and the poor is so vast as soon as you give money to one another 10 will see it and pop up requesting some too. It's an endless cycle.

Amnesia said:
Go watch some Karl Rock videos, he does videos on India for tourists
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India is 20 times the size of the UK. The place he is going to is in the south where people are more darker skinned and shorter. They will likely speak their own dialect too which Karl Rock wouldn't understand. He only speaks the national language.

His videos are not for tourists at all but for anyone and more educational and to make him money. The fact a lot of indians watch his videos for instance.
 
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.
 
thedoc46 said:
This fella has traveled the world. Has his own travel YT channel. He has a few good things and a few bad things to say bout India. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LlHUJhynM8
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This guy seems to have eaten the cheapest crap he could find and gone on notoriously dangerous public transport. With a good driver and eating at proper places most of that can be avoided
 
Sudden said:
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.
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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 said:
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.
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Just one way to avoid getting poisoned etc. My dad & brother got ill from chicken curry at a 5* restaurant in Udaipur. One less thing for your body to adapt to.
Don't worry about veg food in India, there's absolutely huge variety compared to the UK as there are considerably more vegetarians and tbh the food is better there
 
Shivy011 said:
Just one way to avoid getting poisoned etc. My dad & brother got ill from chicken curry at a 5* restaurant in Udaipur. One less thing for your body to adapt to.
Don't worry about veg food in India, there's absolutely huge variety compared to the UK as there are considerably more vegetarians and tbh the food is better there
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I got hooked on paneer masala curry, very adventurous for me, you can almost trick yourself into thinking its very tender chicken. With about 5 Naan its the best thing ever, I never touched chicken out there, had mutton a few times but make sure you ask for boneless as you will literally just get a bone in a curry.
 
I loved India

Delhi is probably the worst place on earth so avoid it wherever possible but I went north into the hills then across to Amritsar and then Goa and everywhere was amazing

Found that the people where very interested in why I was there but in a "wow were amazed you would come here " sort of way. Never felt threatened. Even in Delhi I had a driver look after me all afternoon He waited around for me when i could have easily just left any of the sites into a different rickshaw , he even went to buy a lighter and water for me at one point while I checked out a site.

I Ate all-sorts of food , from street food (stick to busy places) , to Punjabi restaurants to fresh fish

the worst stomach problem I had was when I went for a 'safe' pizza hut before a long bus ride :/. Just be careful . I washed hands a lot more than I usually would do etc .

Goa would be great for a chilled break. Has Carribbean island vibes when it's off season. . Much slower pace compared to the other places I visited
 
MegaPinches said:
I got hooked on paneer masala curry, very adventurous for me, you can almost trick yourself into thinking its very tender chicken. With about 5 Naan its the best thing ever, I never touched chicken out there, had mutton a few times but make sure you ask for boneless as you will literally just get a bone in a curry.
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Yep lots of stuff to try. Paneer, dhosas, varieties of pizza etc. I have the benefit of being brown and speaking Hindi/Gujurati so I can just moan at them if it's not piping hot food etc :P
 
Shivy011 said:
Yep lots of stuff to try. Paneer, dhosas, varieties of pizza etc. I have the benefit of being brown and speaking Hindi/Gujurati so I can just moan at them if it's not piping hot food etc :p
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Go pizza hut!, Indians in restaurants have no clue what a pizza is, I had some hilarious "pizza's" there, one had no cheese atall another had cold grated cheese covering various chopped veg including peppers, all these were margherita's.
 
MegaPinches said:
Go pizza hut!, Indians in restaurants have no clue what a pizza is, I had some hilarious "pizza's" there, one had no cheese atall another had cold grated cheese covering various chopped veg including peppers, all these were margherita's.
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Oh yes - 1 thing, Indian cheese is crap apart from paneer. Take some frozen cheese from here OP. And some long life milk unless you want to gain some serious weight whilst over there drinking full fat goats milk etc. Bread over there is nice though
 
joelk2 said:
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.
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Not sure about the meat thing - 99% of my meals outside home in India tend to be meat. I'd avoid pork for the sole reason it doesn't tend to be as well cooked (in terms of deliciousness) as chicken/lamb, and I wouldn't expect to see beef in most places, but that's about it. The water concern is valid so even where I'd have 'regular' water (which is filtered), i'd avoid you to stick with bottled. First time i've heard the meat thing though.
 
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 .
 
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I've stayed at the oberoi. It's a decent hotel.

India however is massive. Like 50 times the size of the UK.

It's like someone from the US going to London and then saying I'd never go to Europe again.

You never even experienced 99.9999999% of what is on offer.

It depends on what you are looking for in a holiday but for westerners Goa is probably what they want.

In terms of food - should have gone to Punjab.

Dosa's are good but the breads used in South Indian cuisine are weird and remind me of damp pancakes.

The best street takeaway I had would have been an egg masala roll with chicken in it which was served in a tortilla type of wrap rolled up.

As for food I hope you had cholay bhatturay. Saag, daal makahni.

I know you mentioned you eat meat in every dish. But the best Indian dishes are actually all vegetarian. The proper ones that is not the western Indian dishes made to appease people over here.
 
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