When I started to prepare for my trip to India I did the usual things: passport and visa requirements, made sure I had a great camera, and did as much research as I could on this popular yet in ways elusive travel destination. I read as many travel blogs as I could but found that the information I was looking for was not as readily accessible. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading about people’s impressions and touring but I was looking for practical information. I will say that after being in India my impressions are much different and as with most international travel experiences, pure academic research will never fully prepare you for the real deal.
So I did my blog in part to let my family know that I was still alive and to share where I’ve been as well as my photos. The other reason was to give folks looking for information on India some additional resources to prepare themselves. This is of course purely my opinion and experience and I found that people travel very differently and various things are important. All of the things I am sharing I learned from talking to a lot of folks while traveling and trial and error experiences. The Lonely Planet and other guidebooks are fabulous but I by far preferred learning the harder way 
Here are some tips and info, I’l try to organize them for easy reading:
A lot of folks thought that I was brave for embarking on this adventure alone and I guess it just depends on your outlook. For me this was a trip that I had planned to take my whole life. I was born in India and left at one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages before being adopted by a US couple as a baby. To me this was a chance to reconnect with a piece of myself that I never knew very much about, a rather emotionally charged trip. Questions and expectations flew around my mind in the months prior to my departure, fear and excitement welled inside me to a frenzied point. A week before I left a sadness overtook me as I realized that I had to let go of any expectations and hopes , a calm came over me and by far this was the best thing I could do. I got on the plane readying myself for a long and fun journey.
Flights:
I flew from the US to Bangkok as I found it cheaper than going directly to Calcutta which was my first destination in India. My friend and I then took a flight from Bangkok to Calcutta on Jet Airways a local Indian airline. This is a popular connection and many foreigners and Indians take advantage of it as vacations in Bangkok are as cheap if not more than India.
Flying within India is very cheap..I never paid more than $100 for a flight even booking a mere day before my flight departure.
To find the cheapest flights I went to www.yatra.com which is India’s version of yahoo farechase. However use of international(non India) credit cards was not allowed at the time I booked. You have a few options: book through an Indian travel agent (who will usually charge a small commission fee or what I did was go directly to the airlines websites to book my tickets(did this on both www.jetairways.com and www.spicejet.com) and used my credit card.
Indian airports are bustling and expect to go through atleast three to four security checkpoints which are seperate for men and women, keep your boarding pass and passport handy through the whole process as you will be asked for it at each checkpoint.
Mobile phones:
This option is not one that most travelers take advantage of but since I was traveling alone and knew I would be going to multiple places I wanted to have it for emergencies. I brought my quad band phone from the US with me and simply put an Indian SIM card in it. I selected Vodaphone but there are others like Airtel that lots of folks use. It was a pay as I go phone plan with text messages. They really don’t have voice mail in India and most people just SMS(text) to leave another person a message. When I was there, the SIM cost me roughly $18 USD and I paid for about a month’s worth of minutes and SMS at about $20. I was able to make international calls (US, Thailand) at about 25 cents a minute. I had great coverage other than a few places in the North and was really happy that I had the phone.
Internet Cafes:
These were both the business and social centers for foreigners in every city I went to in India. You can: -use the internet which ranged from 20cents to $1(USD) per hour depending where you were in India
-book train or plane tickets for a small commission fee(a percentage of the ticket price)
-get help with all your technological needs from buying memory cards to burning pictures onto CDs
-book tours to local events and places
But perhaps the greatest benefit is talking to both the Indian owners who are quite knowledgeable and chat with foreigners who have usually traveled to other parts of the country. Since I had no set plan and stubbornly clung to not bringing or buying the holy grail of traveling: The Lonely Planet, this was a great place for me to decide what my travel itinerary would be. I also met a lot of great friends at the internet cafe that I still keep in touch with today. I really wanted to travel alone but lots of folks found travel partners while checking their email or surfing the internet.
Hotels:
The more aggravating part of India for me was that you had to haggle for prices on a lot of things and hotels was one of them. Surprisingly, arguing about prices was not something that my personality was suited for and I muddled through. I’m going to put what I paid for hotels(which steered more towards the medium range) but know that at any of these places there were people paying more and some paying less…all depends on your negotiating skills and stamina. When I landed in a new city I would ask other foreigners what they paid to get a range.
There were a few things that were very important to me in terms of traveling and one of those was staying in my own hotel room with my own bathroom. I always asked to see the room first, asked if it had hot water and whether breakfast was included in the price. You literally spend so little time by yourself that having a small place away from everything is quite the blessing. I always tried to have an idea of a few places I would check out when arriving in a town and also what the price I was willing to pay. I heard from others that many of the hotels recommended in the Lonely Planet were booked due to their popularity and so always talk to folks and have some back ups.
When you get out of the train station or airport there will be a gaggle of rickshaw or taxi drivers all vying for your business, at the airports opt for the prepaid taxis. These guys seem really nice but will try to steer you towards a specific hotel usually because they are getting a commission to take you there. I read somewhere and used a lot to say that I was meeting a friend at the hotel that I wanted to go to in oder to not waste time looking at others. Typically the places these guys will take you are over priced and will take advantage of tired foreigners. I was more particular than most travelers and found it quite easy to find a place with no advance reservation.
Where I stayed:
Hotel Lytton in Calcutta: This is billed as a higher end hotel and you certainly pay a hefty price at $100 USD for a room. This was the first place I stayed in after arriving in India and was willing to pay a higher price initially while I acclimated to my new surroundings. I did eventually negotiate a much lower price after the first few days of my stay. This isn’t luxurious in terms of western standards but was clean, had air conditioning, hot water, internet on the premises(though I never used it) and a great continental breakfast. The staff there were amazingly kind and helpful and gave me a lot of tips on things to see in Calcutta. You can check out there website at: http://www.lyttonhotelindia.com/
When I came back to Calcutta I needed to spend a bit less on hotels and opted for some cheaper choices:
First was the Ashreen Guest House ($13) a block from the major traveler area which was a nice place for the most part though the room that I was in didn’t have a hot shower but rather a bucket of hot water was brought in for me every day. The beds in general were not so great in India but luckily most of the days I found myself so exhausted that it didn’t really matter. They were quite disorganized and I eventually left there after my friend arrived in Calcutta because they lost his reservation and couldn’t give him a room.
We then went to the Super Guest House which is owned by a very sweet Bangladeshi man that was quite curious about me and cut me a deal on our rooms ($10) which included cable tv, hot shower and a few buddies in the form of cockroaches. By this point in my trip I was pretty use to living in less than pristine living quarters and wasn’t bothered by my new friends.
In Kochin I stayed at the Hotel White Rose http://hotelwhiterose.com ($11) which is owned by a young Indian man and run by his friends and him. The room was clean, it included cable tv, hot water, on site internet and though there were rooms that has air conditioning, mine was not one of them. One of the great features of this hotel is the rooftop dining area where you can sip coffee, eat masala dosas and scan the Fort Kochin skyline.
In Agra I stayed at the Maya Hotel ($18) which had the most character of any hotel that I stayed in India and was the only place I had the luxury of taking a hot bath!!! The rooms were decorated with local artwork and the beds had marble frames. It was fairly clean and they supplied a space heater because it was freezing in Agra when I was there. There is a rooftop restaurant as well as one indoors and the food was quite incredible. This hotel was tremendously over priced and the owner a bit smarmy, I was only able to negotiate down to this price by suggesting I would be writing a review.
Hotel Haifa ($12) in Varanasi http://hotelhaifavns.com/ was quite lovely with hot water and the best water pressure I had, cable tv, on site internet and a restaurant downstairs. The staff were incredibly nice and helpful and the foreigner crowd was pretty diverse and interesting as well.
Trains:
There are quite comprehensive and convenient routes that trains take in India and train travel is by far the most popular and common way of traveling, I spent 5 nights on a train. That being said, the first time that I took a train trip was in Chennai and I was fairly convinced that I would end up living in the station while I tried to figure out the system.
I am definitely a fly by the seat of my pants traveler but I highly recommend booking a train ticket in advance if possible. I booked most of my tickets through travel agents (agents are almost always at hotels or internet cafes) because the system is somewhat nuanced and paid a $2 commission fee, the tickets never being more then $35(which was north to south). Though you can book them yourself by going to the train station in person or on the Indian government website http://www.indianrail.gov.in/
On Republic Day I joked with one of my Indian friends that perhaps India could celebrate their independence from Britain by buying some trains that were made after the Raj left. The trains are bare bones in terms of western standards but are nonetheless nice to travel on. There are four basic classes: sleeper, 3ac, 2ac and first class each costing more than the other. The sleeper and 3ac compartments have three bunks on each side of a compartment, six total in a cubicle area. The 3ac on up supply blankets, pillows and hand towels and have air conditioning and heat while traveling depending on the weather. I traveled mostly on the 3ac class with the exception being from Agra to Varanasi in which I was wishing I was not in sleeper class as I didn’t have a blanket and was freezing the entire trip.
When you receive your ticket it will say what your class, train compartment and seat is…this was information I didn’t understand on my first train ride and hopped on the first compartment I could which turned out to be the wrong one. If it wasn’t for some very nice natives I probably would still be at that train station trying to figure things out. Even if you are wait listed, hop on a compartment in the class you have purchased a ticket on and wait for the ticket taker or ti ti (train staff) to come by to figure out where your seat is, some folks I spoke to were able to pay the ti ti a little something something for better seats. The ticket takers come by usually within the first hour of your trip and check everyone’s ticket, if you are sleeping they will wake you up so be prepared.
I heard all kinds of horror stories about theft of property and seats on Indian trains but never experienced any trouble. Like anything, you need to be aware of your surroundings and keep your passport and other items you need on or close to your body at all times. I also had heard that westerners end up paying more than Indians but I never experienced that. However, you do need to be aware of scams which there are many. Travel “agents” will lure unsuspecting foreigners from the train stations promising to book travel and then end up charging three times or more than the price you would pay if you stayed and bought your ticket at the station. Make sure that the travel agents you use are reputable and if possible be aware of how much a ticket should cost before purchasing, again I booked my tickets through folks at the internet cafes I frequented or the hotels I stayed at. I also spoke to foreigners that had their money and property stolen by other foreigners so take nothing for granted.
The routes are typically from a city in the north to a city in the south or east to west (or vice versa) and they do not announce stops along the way. Even if you purchase a ticket between two stops within a route do not assume that your final destination is the last destination on the route. In the beginning I either asked the ti ti or folks within my bunk area to let me know when my stop was(which was often at 2am) and after becoming a bit more savvy I counted the number of stops between my departure and destination and roughly when I would arrive to know when to get off. Time tables on trains (and frankly in India generally) are approximations so don’t expect tight departure or arrival times, just relax and enjoy the ride.
Train rides are really fun cultural experiences as they are bustling and full of activity. You will see everything from business men to entire families traveling together. On every train trip I took there was atleast one guy who was jabbering away on one or at times two cell phones and this entertained me to no end, I would make up stories about what they were talking about. At about 9pm, everyone folds down their bunks and nestles in to sleep for the night. Despite the snoring and rustling of 50 plus sleepers, I slept like a baby on the train and found the bunks to be perfectly comfortable. The bathrooms are dirty, there’s no other way to describe them and you need to bring your own toilet paper because there is none supplied. In each train compartment there is atleast one western toilet which was often cleaner (not clean) than the others because of their infrequent use.
Remember the rule of carrying your passport and other important items on your person, this includes when you sleep and go to the bathroom.
Interrupting your sleep are the wallahs hawking everything from chai to socks. They speak mostly Hindi so keep an eye open if you want snacks or something to drink, the train staff come around with meals as well usually curry and rice. I usually had a restaurant pack me up some fruit and bread for my train rides because I got a little sick the first time I had the food. Depending on the time of day you can jump off the train quickly at the stations to grab a snack.
Taxis and rickshaws:
Its pretty easy to get a ride where you want as taxis and rickshaws are readily available, in fact in most places I would say no to a bunch of folks offering me a ride. Taxis in the bigger cities have meters and you ask them to set the meter and at the end of the trip they have a laminated guide to what the price is (prices are different than what they show on the meter.) You can take a taxi without a meter but make sure you agree on a firm price and destination before you get in. Rickshaws don’t have meters but tend towards consistent prices, again ask and agree about price beforehand.
Volunteering:
There are literally hundred of non governmental organizations in India and the volunteer opportunities abound. I volunteered at the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and will give info about this experience. The Missionaries of Charity was the first order established by Mother Teresa in order to “serve the poorest of the poor” and since its beginning has grown dramatically not only in Calcutta but also throughout India. It is a coveted destination for those looking to give of themselves and emulate Mother Teresa’s integrity and charity.
In order to volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity you have to go through one of their regularly scheduled volunteer orientations. I believe that its pretty well set on Wednesday afternoon from 3-5pm, the order and all of their homes are closed daily from 12-3 and all day Thursdays so the nuns can pray and engage in their devotion to God. In Calcutta you go to the Mother House for the orientation and believe thats pretty much true throughout India.
During orientation you supply them basic contact information for yourself including your passport number. The coordinators tell you more about the order as well as the different homes they have and volunteer opportunities, there are nine homes just in Calcutta. They are pretty good about not pushing any religion but will kindly remind you of the two daily masses you are free to attend (I never made it to these ). You then meet with the coordinators individually to select your assignment, there are 8-12 and 3-5:30 shifts and you are able to work one or two of these. You can also work at multiple sites depending on your stamina or interests.
I volunteered at Shishu Bhavan which is the orphanage I was an infant at a long time ago. It was a bit chaotic and disorganized at first but I just jumped in and started to play with the kids and helped the Indian women who worked there with “school.” The kids took a little time to warm up to me but it really turned out to be a very rewarding experience! The nuns there are incredibly kind and I was really impressed by how seamless the relationship between the order and the locals was despite cultural and religious differences. All of the Indians I spoke to really loved Mother Teresa and the nuns truly loved the locals!!
Tourist destinations etc.:
I’m not going to go into depth about anything in particular because there is A LOT of information out there about places to go and things to see. If anyone has questions about the places I went, I will be happy to answer them.
This is a somewhat abbreviated version but I could go on forever, I’ll try to add other things later. Hope this is helpful!
