recent trip feedback - general

Dear fellow travellers

I thought I'd do a feedback post having just arrived back from 2.5 weeks out in India. Had a great time and was a real eye-opener. Have travelled all around the world but India really is something quite different. It's not for the faint-hearted and cleanliness obsessed travellers. If you want an 'easy' holiday then unless you have lots of cash and can afford your own driver and staying in really nice places I would travel elsewhere. If you can rough it and take seeing poverty at all levels then go it really is worth the experience.

general bits of advice:

Safety: I found India to be very safe and perfectly fine even when I was wandering alone day or night (female). Most people were very friendly but do follow the normal advice you find in guidebooks about scams.

Trains: Mostly travelled in AC chair class or second class sitting and during the day so I didn't have personal experience with night time travel - although I did meet a French girl travelling alone and she said it wasn't that safe and you had to be alert with your belongings so if you are female and travelling solo the best bet is travel during daylight hours if possible. I would highly recommend taking trains rather than buses partly due to them being more comfortable as some of the road conditions are quite bad and road journey times can get stretched due to unforeseen events along the way. Also do expect a difference in quality of train between the class you book - for example AC chair class is not always the same.
Another thing to bear in mind is some trains leave earlier than their scheduled time so try to aim to be at station at least 20 mins before. Out of 6 trains 2 were delayed one of which by more than an hour.

Buying train tickets in advance: I did this using cleartrip.com and didn't have any issues. I followed the procedure as set out on this website... http://www.seat61.com/India.htm#book - from outside

Internal Flights: For longer distances consider flights - I used jet airways and found them to be perfectly fine. Some friends flew spicejet who were also good. Kingfisher seemed to have cancelled flights so best avoid this airline.

Local buses: are very cheap and quite reliable but depending where you are sometimes it is a mission trying to find someone you can ask in English which bus to take but if you succeed use them as they are so much cheaper than auto-rickshaws.

Getting around in Delhi - use the METRO! avoid journeys by road mainly due to crazy traffic unless you are travelling to and from the airport in the early hours when traffic is not an issue. The metro is super convenient, efficient and cheap. It's clean and easy to understand. There is also an all female carriage at the front of every train which helps towards the staring and glares from the men. You can either buy a token for the journey you want to make or buy a day card which costs 150rupees (50Rs deposit is refundable). Most of the time it is cheaper to pay for separate journeys rather than the day card.

Money: I relied on cash I changed when I got out there as well as ATM's. I found in smaller banks my card didn't work so use the main Indian banks such as state bank of India. I avoided paying for anything by credit card so as to reduce risk of fraud plus hotels charge and extra 2-3% on top of your bill if you pay by card.

Typical costs: 1 litre bottle water 15-20Rs, 2 bananas 10Rs, large bag of Lays crisps 20-25Rs, bottle of sprite/coke 70-80Rs. Typical breakfast 100-250Rs, typical lunch/dinner 200-300Rs local bus journey 15Rs Delhi metro 6 stops 15-20Rs bus from Agra Idgah bus stand to Fatephur Sikri one way ticket 34Rs

Typical annoyances:
1) At railway stations avoid anyone trying to give you advice on your train. Just find the departures board where all the information is clearly on display like departure time and platform number.
2) Rickshaw drivers can be extremely pushy so stand your ground. If you have more than one driver around you this is the best chance to haggle down the over-inflated prices they quote you. Also be wary of drivers taking you to their friends shops etc.. If you don't want to go just be a bit blunt and tell them - I found that being firm and politely saying no seemed to work with them.
3) generally everyone will stare at you unless you are Indian so just expect it and don't get put off by it.
4) security checks at every metro station and at most tourist attractions - many of which are really pointless and inefficient but have to be done. The less you carry the better especially at the Taj mahal. Try not to take any form of bag with you as then you can skip the lengthy queue and hopefully enjoy the place with less people.

I have posted some information about specific places in trip advisor and will be posting more soon.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members/londontownlady

thanks