Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

India: where to begin???

Maharani said:
Bahnhof Strasse which site did you use to get your visas?

Hope you're having a great time.
Click to expand...

Indian e-Tourist Visa expensive though, not just the site, it's the proper rate, but around £110 each, that's £440 for us, which is more than I'd have spent on a 2 week holiday in Spain in my early 20's!!! You need to upload copies of passport photos (taken at booth and scanned) and scans of your passports. For references just put a hotel name, any one will do.

Having a wonderful time thanks, arrived in Udaipur last night, makes Goa seem like a sleepy hick-town. Manic as hell. The drive from the airport was the scariest of my life, but had one of the best meals I've ever had last night and heading off to explore in a minute...
 
Getting hyped and a bit nervous about my trip to Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan!

My parents are now joining us and as much as I'd love to say I'm an independent woman, I know I'd feel safer out there with my pops around. My mum speaks Hindi too which I can't say I can...my Punjabi is ok but I doubt they'd understand me. I know most people speak English but I think it helps to have a native tongued person in the group.

Any tips greatly appreciated. We'll be training everywhere; Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-pushkar-maybe jodhpur-Udaipur. Keeping travel plans loose.
 
Maharani said:
Getting hyped and a bit nervous about my trip to Delhi, Agra and Rajasthan!

My parents are now joining us and as much as I'd love to say I'm an independent woman, I know I'd feel safer out there with my pops around. My mum speaks Hindi too which I can't say I can...my Punjabi is ok but I doubt they'd understand me. I know most people speak English but I think it helps to have a native tongued person in the group.

Any tips greatly appreciated. We'll be training everywhere; Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-pushkar-maybe jodhpur-Udaipur. Keeping travel plans loose.
Click to expand...

Never made it to Agra (which is strange come to think of it) but Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur and Jaisalmer were great.

Stayed at this place in Jaipur, which was wonderful:

Hotel Diggi Palace Jaipur | Heritage Hotels in Jaipur

Pushkar was beautiful, spent a couple of weeks there. One in 1995 and one in 2001. The way the little town glows at the sunset hour is difficult to beat, especially after a bhang lassi watching competing troupes of monkeys battling for territory :)

Jaisalmer is a fair old distance, but well worth it for the remote feel of the desert. Happy travels!
 
Cash is an issue, if you find a working ATM the maximum you can take out is ₹2000 a day (the screen says ₹3500, but ₹2000 is all it will let you have). If you have two bank accounts, take both card and double up. The other problem is there are no ₹1000 notes, there are new ₹500 ones, but few and far between and the ATMs hardly ever have any ₹100 notes, so just give you a shiny new ₹2000 that taxi drivers etc. won't accept cos they can't change it.

Pay by card whenever you can, loads of places now take cards. To break your ₹2000 buy something from a place that does a roaring trade in small notes, like a booze shop, just buy ₹300 worth of beer and you'll get ₹1700 back in ₹100 notes.

It became a bit of a bind to be constantly worrying if we'd have enough for a cab and it limited the amount of trinkets etc. that you can buy off street-sellers.
 
eatmorecheese said:
AARGH Wow! :D

Is this the lake palace 'Octopussy' hotel or a different place?
Click to expand...

No, that was where I wanted to stay, but it was £800 per room, per night and we needed two rooms for three nights, so would have been around £5000, a tad to much for my wallet...

This one is a royal palace, still lived in by the royals who own it, oddly called the Chunda Palace. The Octopussy one is the Taj Lake Palace:


LAKE PALACE.JPG


The building on top of the mountain on the right is the Monsoon Palace...
 
Thanks folk. My dad has a contact that is going to deliver our currency to the hotel. I'm leaving that worry with him!

The hotel looks....pahhh wow!! I'll check it out. We need to be relatively near the Obory as that's where the wedding is.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
No, that was where I wanted to stay, but it was £800 per room, per night and we needed two rooms for three nights, so would have been around £5000, a tad to much for my wallet...

This one is a royal palace, still lived in by the royals who own it, oddly called the Chunda Palace. The Octopussy one is the Taj Lake Palace:


View attachment 98265


The building on top of the mountain on the right is the Monsoon Palace...
Click to expand...
Where did you stay in Udaipur then? We're looking for two rooms in a good hotel but not wanting to pay more than say £100/150 a night.
 
If youre travelling a lot by train id really recommend picking up two or three of those metal puzzle things, the ones you turn in on themselves to seperate iykwim?

Kids on the train loved them and yku soon get to kow everyone in the carriage :)
 
craigxcraig said:
If youre travelling a lot by train id really recommend picking up two or three of those metal puzzle things, the ones you turn in on themselves to seperate iykwim?

Kids on the train loved them and yku soon get to kow everyone in the carriage :)
Click to expand...
What are these?!
 
Oh, the Oberoi is built in what was the grounds of the Chunda Palace, you can't stay closer with shelling out big money for the Oberoi itself...
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Cash is an issue, if you find a working ATM the maximum you can take out is ₹2000 a day (the screen says ₹3500, but ₹2000 is all it will let you have). If you have two bank accounts, take both card and double up. The other problem is there are no ₹1000 notes, there are new ₹500 ones, but few and far between and the ATMs hardly ever have any ₹100 notes, so just give you a shiny new ₹2000 that taxi drivers etc. won't accept cos they can't change it.

Pay by card whenever you can, loads of places now take cards. To break your ₹2000 buy something from a place that does a roaring trade in small notes, like a booze shop, just buy ₹300 worth of beer and you'll get ₹1700 back in ₹100 notes.

It became a bit of a bind to be constantly worrying if we'd have enough for a cab and it limited the amount of trinkets etc. that you can buy off street-sellers.
Click to expand...
Probs a stupid question but can I order rupees from anywhere here before I go?
 
Passport arrived, passport arrived. Weirdly they didn't ask me for more cash and it came unusually early this morning. My postman comes around 2-3pm. Do they have drones? Who cares, we're off to India in 11 days with no airport stresses! I know there will be other stresses.

My cousin got in touch with my dad. They live right in the middle of Delhi so we're going to stay with them for a few nights which means we go to the best places for food and shopping that Delhi has to offer. I'm sure Bly shopping for individuals and clothes for the wedding. I wouldn't waste my time otherwise. However, sari shopping in India is a thing in itself!
 
Clothing wise any tips? I mean in the weather sense. I always wear Indian attire when I'm there. It's just easier for women.

Don't think it'll be wet but not sure on temps at night, early morning.
 
Get yourself some decent walking shoes.
And straps for cameras and sunglasses, else you'll get mugged by monkeys
 
Maharani said:
Do they hang about everywhere? Didn't see any in the north.
Click to expand...
Not everywhere. Most of the monkeys I saw were in Hampi (Karnataka) which is southish.
There were loads in Simla, which is in the far north. Where are you going to be?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Zapp Brannigan
Air Travel to India
Replies
10
Views
322
Peter Norf
Peter Norf
Thora
Where would you take your family if you had £5k (ish) to spend?
2 3
Replies
86
Views
2K
Bahnhof Strasse
Bahnhof Strasse
Kaka Tim
Going to Berlin in March! where to go - what to see?
Replies
17
Views
580
pogofish
pogofish
crossthebreeze
Nantes / Loire valley / coast - where to go with a toddler
Replies
15
Views
617
crossthebreeze
crossthebreeze
Looby
Eurostar only, where to go?
2 3 4
Replies
111
Views
4K
hash tag
hash tag
Back
Top Bottom