India Holiday

joelk2 said:
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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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 :rolleyes: ) 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 :p

moon man said:
i guess im one of those with preconceptions about India but i certainly wouldn't pay to go there or go for free
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Just wow. Talk about close minded.
 
Scam said:
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 :rolleyes: ) 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 :p

Just wow. Talk about close minded.
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You joke but in reality people do spread that o their face and drink their wee. They value cows so much.
 
Bangalore is fairly westernised really for an Indian city, I've been 6 times and not had a problem.

Personally I stay away from street vendors and only eat in restaurants or with family.

Plenty of bottled water and no ice, careful with salad too, it might have been washed in dirty water.

Be aware, Bangalore is massive and quite congested, you'll be sat in traffic a lot if you're travelling around.

Oops, didn't notice the OP date
 
joelk2 said:
You joke but in reality people do spread that o their face and drink their wee. They value cows so much.
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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?
 
Scam said:
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?
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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!!
 
This reminds me of a trip I made to India last year for a friend's wedding. I went along with another mate and on our first night we thought to find a bar before dinner. We were in a small "village" (actually thousands of people rushing about but relatively small) outside Mumbai. We got some drinks from the counter in a bar with a storefront. It was very basic and the seating area had us under some stairwell with about 8 others in the room drinking too. As I sat down my back was to the rest of the room. My mate said how everyone seemed intrigued by our presence and they immediately pulled their chairs closer to us. No issues but when we tried to leave literally everyone in the bar got up for a group photo... everyone wanted a copy so we spent about 5 mins awkwardly posing for photos with the bar crowd before making our escape.

The event weirded us out initially but in hindsight I regret not asking them to take a photo with one of our phones too :D

It was a very common experience, especially in the touristy areas of Mumbai to be asked for photos. Initially, I would think they want me to take a photo of them with their group but I soon realised when they just stood next to me!
 
Edit - old thread I'd already replied too

Glad you enjoyed it op. Not for everyone but it's Definetly an eye opener
 
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Bumpety bump. Considering in impromptu trip to India in November to tag along with a friend's wedding. After a recent trip to Jordan, totally agree with hiring a driver where possible - makes life so much easier.

So if we do go, the usual after reading this thread. No ice/tap water, stay away from street food, careful with beggars etc.

Would be Mumbai, Agra (can't be mere hundreds of miles away and not try and see the Taj Mahal) and Goa.
 
Street food ist not to be avoided, just to be cautious of. Eat where the locals eat. And knowing you personally, you'll be fine with the majority of food places, not sure about your wifey.

If you're going North only, I can hook you up with my driver. If you're thinking of doing the whole place in a long trip it might be worth looking for those adventure tour guides. I used one for China and they helped translate and hook up transport.
 
Ta duck, I don't know man - even my hardened stomach got obliterated in Pakistan (**** sake Kash!). But that was definitely tap water from pani puri I think.

What a trip that was eh :D?
 
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Salads was the thing that gave me the ***** the most, because they were assumedly washing it in their filth ridden water.

I enjoyed my 3 trips there though, people friendly, great food etc. Just avoid tap water at all costs. Oh and do not under any circumstances drive over there, it's mental.
 
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moon man said:
It's somewhere that if I ever won a holiday there I would just give it away, if I want to see squaler and poverty I just go down Camborne for the day
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I’ve been and visited Delhi which was so smoggy it was like thick fog. Kolkata was clear but there’s just so much rubbish piled everywhere, everything felt disgustingly dirty. I spent quite a bit of time in the Sikkim area which is on the edge of the Himalayas which was beautiful and is cleaner than other parts of India it’s an autonomous region and many don’t really see themselves as Indian. The country itself is fantastic but is ruined by a population that don’t seem give a crap about it. The Ganges their sacred river is a polluted rubbish dump. They seem to believe everything is sacred but seemingly respect none of it.

In total contrast, I crossed over to Bhutan and what a difference. On the Jaigon Indian side was rubbish piled up on both sides of the road and on the Bhutan side it was spotless with people washing down the Buddhist monument at Phuentsholing.

I travelled across Bangladesh before entering India and Bangladesh was far cleaner than India
 
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