Where to Start When Planning Your Trip to India
Transportation:
Tuk-Tuks:
Are a popular form of transportation in a lot of Southeast Asia countries. They are a three wheel motorized vehicle, usually open air, and used as a taxi service. They were one of my favorite forms of transportation. Usually, reasonably priced and such a unique way to get around. Feel free to haggle to get the price to a reasonable rate.
Taxi:
Like most places you visit there will be taxi services in the major cities. They will cost more than a tuk-tuk, but if you are traveling with a lot of people or luggage this will be more convenient. In the city center of Mumbai, tuk-tuks are not allowed so you will be required to take a taxi.
Train:
When traveling to different areas of the India, the train system is the veins of country. Meaning they can get you about anywhere for a range of prices depending on your budget and comfort level. 12go.asia is a great website to check schedules and buy tickets.
Things to Consider:
Currency: Rupee (INR)
Best Time to Visit: December – March
Language: Hindi (44%) the constitution recognizes 22 other languages
Drinkable Tap Water: No
Haggling: Yes
Tip: Yes and No (this is a great article on how to tip in India)
Flush Toilet Paper: No
Cash or Credit Card: Cash (even for hotels)
Cultural Tips:
The wedding culture in India is huge. We walked down aisle, after aisle, after aisle that was selling wedding outfits, cards, and decorations. You will see this especially in their wedding season from November – February. We were told it is not uncommon for weddings to have at least 500 guest.
Feet and shoes are considered dirty. Do not enter someone’s home with shoes on. Do not step over anyone. Touch someone’s feet, point with your feet, or when sitting do not position the bottom of you feet pointed towards someone or a sacred item. In the opposite direction, the head is considered clean, do not touch a persons head (including children).
What We Wish We Knew:
India is like no other country we visited before. We learned so much about the culture, the people, the customs, that I can not just write a few things of what we with we knew. If you would like to learn more, I dedicated a whole article to the “what we wish we had known.”
Our Itinerary : India
Day 1:
Explored New Delhi (The Red Fort and Chandni Chowk, Raj ghat)
Food Tour in the evening
*Our flight got delayed so we lost a full day in New Delhi, would recommend at least one more full day in New Delhi.
Day 2:
Train ride to Jaipur (only thing planned that day, even with the it being a 5 hour train ride, Indian train rides are known for being delayed, gave us plenty of wiggle room)
Day 3:
Explored Jaipur (Jantar Mantar and the Nahargarh Fort)
Day 4:
Train ride to Agar
Day 5:
Visited the infamous Taj Mahal
We were suppose to make it on a night train from Agra to Varanasi, but it finally happened our train got cancelled leaving us stranded in Agra. We spent another night in Agra and booked a flight to Mumbai (to catch our next flight to Thailand). Unfortunately, not making it to the holy city.
Day 6:
Flew to Mumbai
Day 7:
Explored Mumbai (Gateway of India, Bollywood movie, Dharavi)
*A couple of things with this itinerary I would like to disclaim. You might notice this Itinerary lacking in activities we did during the day. To be honest we could only handle about one maybe two things a day, because of the cultural difference was so vast it would drain us so quickly we would get one activity done and just want to rest for the remainder of the day. Also, traveling takes a lot of time, in India it takes even longer. Keep that in mind when planning.
*If we were to come back to India we would either plan to visit in the Northern region of India or the Southern region of India. We heard from many locals and other travelers (especially the south) is almost a completely different experience and they loved those areas.
