India

India: Our Top Picks...

9/5/2017

#5

BECKY: Alleppey Backwaters

Don't judge the town of Alleppey until you've boarded a small boat and taken a ride through the small canals of the backwaters. It is a whole different world amongst the waterways, houses and bustle of daily activity going on, hidden away from the traffic and noise. I would recommend taking one of the small, paddled boat and the local ferry to get a real feel for life in this area- the larger boats can only get into the larger canals. Ask to stop at a Toddy Shop for a true local experience (and some pretty average tasting palm alcohol)!

SHANE: Goa

A cruisey little state on the west coast. Everything seems a little more relaxed and slow paced here and after three weeks was the perfect place to chill out for a few nights. We spent most of our time at Agonda beach. Situated in a small village our accommodation backed onto the beach and we spent a majority of our time eating, swimming and you guessed it....drinking. Alcohol is half the price in Goa as opposed to other states and when your watching your wallet it means you can enjoy a few more sneakys without feeling the guilt of blowing the dinner budget.

#4

SHANE: Jaipur

Jaipur was our first stop and I'll be honest day 1 and I wasn't impressed. It took some time on foot and a bit of a mind set reshuffle for me to begin to enjoy Jaipur. At times it feels as though you have wandered into another century, a very distant past. Markets line the streets in the Pink City (Jaipur's old town) with retailers selling spices, fresh fruits and vegetables among a wide range of other things. Cows, camels, goats and poultry roam the streets freely and the retailers are yelling and people are hustling all around you, it's new and exciting and you just can't help but feel you've just hoped out of the DeLorean. To match the turn of the century feeling, Jaipur offers so much history with its forts, museums and palaces. A really interesting city that at first I didn't think I would recommend.

BECKY: Munnar

Munnar was a little slice of cool and calm in the hot Indian summer. The beauty of the tea plantations, the colder climate, and the fresh air are a perfect way to take in a moment of serenity. Take a hike to the top of one of the nearby mountains to really appreciate the view (especially if you're not like me and enjoy climbing up large elevations).

#3

BECKY: Mahabalipuram

Mahabalipuram was an unplanned stop between Chennai and Pondicherry. It doesn't get as much recognition as the two other cities, but it was my clear favourite between them. Various temples, carvings, and large rocks are dotted around the small city (walkable from end to end in less that an hour) for exploring during the day and the sea front restaurants give a great place to have dinner and relax in the evening.

SHANE: Hampi

Hampi was an incredible surprise! A UNESCO world heritage site made up of ruins scattered across 25 square kms, Hampi has so much to offer. Trying to see as much as we could in one day was as exhilarating as it was exhausting. The ruins themselves are impressive with the detail and scale that they are built but there is something about the scenery that really adds to the experience. Nestled in between hills littered with boulders and palm trees that have grown sporadically among the ruins there is a real feel of a desert oasis, especially with the river to one side of the site.

#2

SHANE: Taj Mahal (Agra)

I've been dreaming of visiting the Taj Mahal for quite some time and it really is spectacular. A tomb built for the then king's deceased wife (costing him money even from beyond the grave) the Taj is an incredible piece of architecture especially considering when it was built. We were there for sunrise and snuck past the angry rushing tourist mob who pulled up at the first site of the Taj and pulled out their cameras (some bigger enough to scare an elephant......the cameras not the tourists). We headed to the front took a few quick happy snaps then headed for the stairs up to the base of the building. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves for about 10 minutes and it was something truly special. As I always say, these kinds of places are touristy for a reason.

BECKY: Hampi

Hampi blew me away...my only regret is not having an extra day to explore. It is a bit of work to get here (we took an overnight bus from Panjim) but well worth it. Everywhere you walk there is something new to explore. Two of the sites are paid (500 INR for a ticket that covers both the Elephant Stables and Vitthala Temple), but the rest are free. Achyutaraya Temple was my favourite. Make sure you take the walk along the water from the town center to Vitthala, not the road. The views along the river are stunning.

#1- Our Favourites

BECKY: Bandhavgarh National Park

We booked a few days in Bandhavgarh hoping to see a tiger in the wild (one of the few remaining places in the world you can do this) and we were not disappointed. We saw 5 tigers the first day, 2 tigers the second day, countless monkeys, deer, birds...and we were incredibly lucky to spot a leopard (something that happens very rarely...even the guide took out his camera for some photos!). It is hot, but worth going in the summer (we were there in mid April) when the foliage is thinner and the animals are looking for water sources, as this makes it more likely to see them. Again, a bit out of the way, but not too difficult. We took an overnight train from Agra to Umaria and the hotel we stayed with picked us up from the station and drove us to Tala (where the national park entrance and hotels are located).

SHANE: Bandhavgarh National Park

One of my favourite things about traveling is nature and especially animals. Some organised safaris can be hectic with the amount of vehicles and people that visit. At Bandhavgarh they have a vehicle limit for each gate to help with congestion and over crowding. We were incredibly lucky on our safaris not only getting to see the majestic tigers but at times being within metres of them. If your a nature lover or animal enthusiast this is definitely a must do, and unfortunately if we keep running the track we are on one day this experience may not be possible as the wild Bengal tiger may no longer exist.

And our least favourites...

SHANE: Everyone seems to have an ulterior motive

I'm a little bit of a people person and I love talking to locals and asking them about there community and country. I found having a genuine conversation in India really difficult because 95% of the time it lead to being asked for money or a favour and after awhile you become extremely skeptical. I fully understand the difficult lifestyle that people face and money can be hard to earn but I felt here more then anywhere I have been that no matter what was being said or how friendly someone may seem that there was always an ulterior motive.

BECKY: Rubbish EVERYWHERE.

The trash problem in India is out of control, which is really sad to see because it detracts so much from the cities, nature and sites. There seems to be a gap in education about disposing trash (I saw so many people give no second thought to throwing whatever they had as trash onto the side of the street), but there must be a much bigger infrastructure problem for dealing with the disposal of so much waste, as any bins we did see were always overflowing. It's nice to see some cities trying to take the right steps (Goa was the cleanest we saw, with proactive teams of people picking up trash daily; Munnar was clean in the hills of the tea plantations; Mumbai has signs about keeping the city clean; some cities discourage the use of plastic bags), but a serious overhaul is needed or the problem will only continue to get worse since almost everything comes in some sort of packaging nowadays.

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GETTING AROUND INDIA: Ground Transportation

1/5/2017

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When you are on a budget while travelling ground transportation is often the cheaper option to flying. We've pulled together a few bits of info that might help while getting around India.

Should I Get A Local SIM?

If you are in India for more than a couple weeks or are travelling around a lot, yes you should. It is quite easy to get a SIM and very inexpensive. We found having a local data plan really helpful for getting around and being able to use local utilities (e.g. using wifi at the rail stations and some airports require a local phone number to get the access code).

There are two main companies- Vodafone and Airtel. To get a SIM simply find a shop nearby (ideally a bigger one so they can activate your SIM straight away) and bring:

a passport sized photo
your passport with Indian visa
cash
your mobile phone
the address of where you are staying in the city you are buying the SIM

A 2GB data plan with 40 mins of call/text time from Vodafone cost 600 rupees (about $12 AUS). We used this for Uber/Ola/Google Maps mainly (not social media) and it lasted our entire one month trip. Definitely a benefit to have access to Google Maps when you're on an overnight train and don't know what station you're at! Vodafone kept sending me prompts to download their Vodafone India app, but I could never actually get the download link to work or find it in the app store, so I just used the website to check my credits.

Before leaving the shop, make sure to ask the person helping you:

When your SIM will be activated
How to activate your SIM (we had to call a number and confirm the last 4 digits of my passport and the address we were staying at) & what to do if you have any issues activating it
That your plan covers roaming for all of India (all plans with Vodafone should include this)

Is there Uber in India?

Yes, there is in about 30 of the bigger cities. Here is a list: https://newsroom.uber.com/india/namaste-india-uber-in-27-cities/
You can use your existing Uber account and credit card payments which is super helpful for not having to carry cash or worry about haggling for the right fare. You also have the details of your driver in case of any issues, which we found reassuring.

What's Ola?

When Uber is not available, there is another local option called Ola. https://www.olacabs.com/ You can download the Ola app and it works similarly to Uber. You need to create an account but no payment is required. You can load Ola Money or link your account to your credit card but we opted to use the "pay cash" option. This does require you to have a local SIM to check the ride cost at your drop off point (or rely on the driver to tell you how much it is for the fare, which shows up on the app once you have arrived). The car options work well but we struggled a bit with the accuracy of the rickshaw option (the drivers aren't as well equipped so they have a harder time finding your pickup location or drop off point).

Can I Book My Own Indian Rail Train Tickets?

There are several booking agency websites you can use (https://www.makemytrip.com/railways/ , https://www.cleartrip.com/trains) but it is best to book your own tickets with Indian Railway directly using their website https://www.irctc.co.in/eticketing/loginHome.jsf. It is tricky at first because you need to create an account before you can book tickets. Once you create your account, you will be asked to verify it by getting an OTP code sent to your Indian mobile. If you have a mobile already, or know someone who does, this is easily done. If you don't have access to an Indian mobile number, you will need to email IRCTC to get them to validate your account in the backend without the OTP verification. To do this, email your IRCTC account username, and a copy of your passport to care@irctc.co.in. This can take some time for them to write back (mine took 8 days for a response).

Once you have a login, the search tool is easy to use. If you can't find a direct train for a longer distance trip, you may need to search smaller legs of the trip in sections and book 2-3 separate train tickets to cover the longer total distance.

When booking, note that you can only book 6 train tickets in a month. This is to prevent the agency websites from mass purchasing tickets when they become available and re-selling them at inflated prices. If you are booking in advance, you can book 6 tickets, wait a month, and then book 6 more. When booking, pay attention to the ticket codes. If the ticket has a "WL" (wait list) code, there is a good chance that you won't actually be confirmed to travel on that train. The "charts" (reservation lists that list who has a confirmed tickets) are prepared a few hours before the train departs and will tell you if you have been assigned a seat or not. If you book a WL ticket, and are not assigned a seat, you will be given a refund to the credit card you used when booking. We booked one WL ticket for a better class of tickets and then bought a cheaper class ticket as a backup to ensure we would still make a connecting train if the WL ticket wasn't assigned (which it wasn't so thankfully we had the backup!).

We travelled on mostly 2A class tickets, which are air conditioned "rooms" with curtains. Each room has two bunks (4 seats/beds), each with an upper and lower. There are also aisle bunks that have just an upper and lower bunk with curtains on each bed. We did one 6 hour journey on a Sleeper class train, which is not air conditioned and does not have curtains. Each room has two bunks (6 seats/beds), each with an upper, middle and lower. Definitely do-able, but not recommended if you don't like the heat (if you are travelling in summer) or everyone on the train starring at you.

A great app for checking the status of your tickets (PNR), train schedules, if your train is on time, etc is IndianRail. There are a lot of different apps with similar names but try to find this one:

How Do I Book A Bus In India?

The most popular site to book a bus is https://m.redbus.in/. We had issues using our international credit cards for payment on this site and finally found an alternative site that would accept them: http://www.abhibus.com/mobile/. This site sends an email confirmation with your ticket details for future reference.

There were also a few times when these two sites didn't have the travel routes we were looking for. We found this site that has additional trips that often aren't listed on other sites: http://m.ksrtc.in/oprs-mobile/?OS=null. The buses aren't always as nice as the buses your get from the other sites (more local than tourist), but are often cheaper. The ticket will say the type of bus you are booking under "Class of Service". "KARNATAKA SARIGE" is non-air conditioned local bus. It's a small seat and not a lot of space, so would be best for shorter trips (we did 8 hours on one and it wasn't pleasant). "AIRAVAT CLUB CLASS" is an air conditioned bus with reclining semi-sleeper seats, similar to the tourist buses.

None of the buses we took in India had toilets on board, but they all stopped at least once for longer journeys (although you never knew where they were stopping or when, they just kind of yell at you to get off and tell you how long you have, usually 5-10 minutes). If you are travelling during the day they seem to stop for a quick lunch around 1pm, but this is not guaranteed.

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