Holidays in India - Getting around - things to try and avoid, Touts, Misleading Hotels, Begging etc,
Currency. India's currency is the Rupee -
certainly in the U.K. it is not possible to buy your rupees before travelling -
you can only get them on arrival. Similarly if you have any rupees left at the
end of your holiday and you want to change them back to your own currency you
have to do this before getting into the departure
lounge at the international airport. There is meant to be an ATM at the airport though
we could not find it - there are however several money change booths around.
Once in India there are quite a few ATMs scattered around in most towns and
cities - these work quite well most of the time however if you are travelling
around a lot it might be worth using "swipe" ATMs (Like the Bank of India's)
rather than the type which actually swallows your card and may decide to not
give it back for some reason.
Visas. Most people visiting or going on holiday to
India will need a visa - if you are living in England this can now be done
online via the Indian Embassy in London - our visas took around 7 days to be
returned - the visa cost UKstg 30 but you have to pay various other charges like
postage which made the cost around UKstg46. Note you cannot travel to India
without a visa - there is no provision to purchase one on arrival.
Getting to India and Moving Around it's various Towns and
Cities.
Flying to India (Delhi). India is very well served
by international airlines from Europe - flight times from London are around 9
hours either way. Seat prices on offer on the web (especially on the actual
airline websites) really do vary even from day to day at times - we flew with
Air India and were able to get return flights for UKstg 290 each - although a
few days later we noticed the price on offer had jumped by another 150 UKstg.
We flew in and out via New Delhi's International Airport - currently the whole
area is being ripped apart as they are building a completely new facility - the
roads are in chaos much of the time so plenty of time is needed especially if
you are taking a flight out - this includes flying out of Delhi's domestic
airport as well which is in the same location.
Flying (Internal). There are quite a few airlines operating within
India - their ticket prices vary considerably at the moment although there is
something of a price war starting to occur. Generally we have found that Indian
Airways have the best prices and often have daily flights to most major cities
and larger Towns - they also have an excellent baggage allowance (currently
up to 30kg). The most expensive we have come across whilst planning and booking our
various trips is the "glamorous" Kingfisher Airlines - not least
"glamorous" because of their lovely stewardesses.. All the airlines
below have online booking which does work very well.
Several of India's Internal Airline Websites: (online booking)
Indian Airways
Kingfisher Airlines
Jet Airways
Indigo Air
Indian Railways. India has an extensive railway network
serving just about any major town and city in the country. Every railway station
has a unique code and you need to know this code to use the
Indian Railway website efficiently
so the first thing to do is use their site to identify the short code for the
stations you are interested in travelling between.
Then you can use their "trains between Stations" link to find the train times etc. The trains
are numbered and so once you pick out your train make a note of it's number -
also you need to know what type of seats (i.e. 2ac) are available on the train in question
especially if you plan to book your tickets online. The online booking is
achieved via IRCTC website
- you have to create a user account to use this site but once done the site
works well and you can purchase e-tickets. 2ac is a good way to travel - you can
get quite a long way quite cheaply - therefore on a long journey it might be
worthwhile booking the whole compartment (i.e. on 2ac this would be all four
seats/bunks just to yourselves). Note when using the Indian Railway websites
mentioned above you can only actually book tickets during their opening
hours - they close between 2300 and 0500hrs Indian time. The trains we used whilst on our holiday in
India did run very slowly and in every case ended up arriving late - sometimes
up to 3 hours late for just a 250km journey. The engines are a little more
modern than that shown on the photo above - this was actually India's first
fully manufactured steam engine - built in 1895 - and ran on the Rajputana
Malway Railway. It can be seen at Delhi's National Railway Museum.
Buses. There are many long distance bus and coach
services operating between India's towns and cities including so-called tourist
services which allow you to sleep on overnight trips however quite a few people
we met who had used these seemed to regret having done so despite the low fare
cost. The buses looked really scruffy and apparently there is very little room
to sleep.
Taxis/Tourist Cars. A costlier way to get between cities you can hire a car and driver to get you from A to B - prices really vary with a 300km one way trip costing perhaps 2800 to 3000 rupees. You can often negotiate that the journey involves a short diversion here and there to enable you to have a short visit to perhaps a temple or fort close by on the route so making the trip and expense more beneficial. Many hotels offer to arrange such journeys for you - decent hotels will just put a few hundred rupees extra onto the cost as an arrangement fee but some will try and rip you off badly with their add-ons. Therefore prior to going on holiday it might be worth noting down a few taxi company phone numbers in any locations where you expect to need a car and driver to compare if what you are quoted seems excessive. On a couple of occasions our tourist car driver did not go where we wanted - we think it's worth only paying perhaps half the charges upfront and only settling once the trip has been satisfactorily completed. You will often have to pay any road tolls and parking charges on top of the hire fee - tolls are few and far between and are usually only a few rupees - for instance on the new road to Chittaurgarh the toll was 50 Rupees. Car parking fees are often just 15 or 20 Rupees - for instance the parking fee at Connaught Square in Delhi was 15 Rupees for the evening.
Getting around within India's towns and cities.
Local buses are everywhere but they are
nearly always really full with passengers with some even sitting up on the roof
- not a good way to get around.
Cycle Rickshaws. These quite fragile three wheelers
are really vulnerable to all other traffic - we saw quite a few being knocked
over by other vehicles or just turning on their sides because the drivers lost
control. OK to try out in a quiet area just to say you have been on one but not
a good idea where there is any motorised traffic around in our view.
Auto Rickshaws. These three wheelers have tiny
engines and can be found everywhere - they are great fun to be in and certainly
are the best and fastest way to get around many of India's highly traffic
congested towns and cities and only cost maybe 50 or 60 rupees for a several
km ride. Although officially in India they are called Auto Rickshaws they are
very commonly referred to as Tuk Tuks. You should
always agree your price before getting into one. Two things to watch out for -
don't be surprised if your driver stops off at a clothes or carpet or similar
"factory" and tries to get you to go in - they get maybe 50 rupees for this. Just
tell them to move on or you will get out without paying. A much more potentially
costly issue is that once in your Tuk Tuk someone else gets in the front
alongside the driver - this person will want to be your "guide" - he will not
want any money, and he will probably say one of "I am just learning English, "I
am a student", "I am not a guide" or similar. None of this will be correct - he
does want money and he is probably a tout - best thing is to get out of the
Tuk Tuk and say you will use another unless he clears off.
Car and Driver. You can hire a car and driver for
the day - often via your hotel/guesthouse front-desk - typically we found that
for around 90 to 100km drive the cost was about 1000 rupees (although you may
have to additionally pay for car parking or road tolls as well - 20 or 30 rupees
is typical should these occur). This way of sightseeing is excellent if you want
to visit various locations perhaps 20 or 30 kms from where you are staying since
you simply make up your itinerary and off you go - the car is at your beck and
call for perhaps 8 hours or so. Should you go over the agreed distance the extra
cost is not high and just covers extra fuel costs. We had a car and driver
whilst we stayed in South Delhi and got around quite a few locations - much too
much for a tuk-tuk (although we used Tuk Tuks when visiting the heavily
congested Red Fort area of Delhi).
Begging. This is a difficult thing to ignore in
India - we have got money and the beggars want a bit of it - especially at the
start of a holiday in India it seems really mean to not hand over 20 or 30
rupees - however as your holiday proceeds you find this sometimes incessant
begging gets really irritating. Often as not the beggars are actually being
organised by touts - just be in a tuk-tuk in Jaipur when it stops at
traffic lights - you are quickly spotted and soon dirty poorly clothed women
with babies appear asking for money - try looking over to where they came from
and you will probably see the well-dressed tout who sent them out to you and who
will grab most of any money collected.
Many beggars do hang around the various sightseeing areas like Temples - in fact
these people are fed by the temple so if you want to give any money (which we
often did) then put it into the donations box rather than give it to the actual
beggars.
Touts. These people are in our view the very worst of India and their annoying and sometimes incessant attention to you can really spoil parts of your day out - they are often aged around 18 to 30, casually but well dressed - and often seem to have striped shirts. They operate and organise auto-rickshaws and taxis, hang around many sightseeing locations where they organise "guides" and beggars, or they want to take you to various shops or markets etc. In fact they simply see you as a walking wallet or purse the contents of which they want to grab for themselves. They can be extremely persistent and you sometimes have to resort to being really rude or angry at them to get them clear off - not a nice thing to resort too in someone else's country.
Baksheesh. Everybody it seems in India wants to be tipped for doing hardly anything or probably nothing at all in return - get to a hotel and you will probably have 2 or 3 bag boys who will grab your suitcases. These will be taken a few yards to the reception desk and then they will expect 30 or 40 rupees each. Once you have done your paperwork another lot will grab your cases to take them to your room - these want and expect a tip. Go to a temple sightseeing - even the guards or police will approach you - tell you something useful like "this is a Jain Temple" and then expect a tip. Sometimes it is almost extortion - we arrived at Jodhpur railway station and unasked our 3 suitcases were grabbed by two railway porters who whizzed off with them to the outside of the station. They then demanded 200 rupees per case to which they were told "no chance". This went down to 100 rupees and then 80 rupees per case - same answer from us. We took them to the Indian Railways notice board where it clearly states porters are to be paid 20 rupees per item. More porters arrived and started a lot of talk - I then offered 50 rupees total for the 3 cases take it or leave it - they said no so I put the money back in my pocket and made them clear off with nothing.
India - Hotels. Here we go again - probably the best bet if you are pre-booking rooms before going on holiday to India is to assume that the photos of the rooms and facilities are false or misleading. It soon became apparent that before signing into a hotel you need to see the hotel room, check various things like hot water, lights, fan and/or air conditioners work, views are as advertised, no particular noise issues like having the hotel's restaurant next door or above so early and late noise might be a problem and that the room is clean. One "Lake View" room which we had booked (and paid more for) in Udaipur actually just had a view of a flat roof opposite which was full of building materials - the Lake could just be spotted if on tip toe from the very top corner of one of the windows. When this was pointed out to Reception the comment was "well if we put that on our web site nobody would book the room..."
All this sounds like a lot of grumping but after a few weeks it can get really wearing on you and can easily spoil your holiday for a while - Indian authorities really need to get a grip in our view if they want an increasing tourist industry. Loved India itself and the sightseeing is excellent but as tourists in tourist areas there is a major problem with the local people you by definition come across.
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