India Thread

>>1185990
Cool, how much you taking? Where do you intend to go?

>>1185999
Taking roughly £3k sterling.
I'm planning on staying in Kerala for the first four months and planning to do the west coast with all the big sites up to Delhi in the last month or so.
I have a big old list of shit to see!

>>1186029
Agra
-Taj Mahal
-Agra Fort
-Akbar's Mausoleum
-Itimad-ud-Daulah
-Chini-ka-Rauza
-Mehtab Bagh
-Fatepur Sikri

Chennai
-Kapaleeshwarar Temple
-Sri Ramakrishna Math
-Dublin Nightclub

Tamil Nadu
-Shore Temple
-Five Rathas
-Arjuna's Penance

Kanchipuram
-Kailasanatha Temple
-Ekambareshwara Temple
-Kamakshi Amman Temple
-Varadaraja Perumal Temple

Tiruvannamalai
-Arunachaleshwar Temple

Chidambaram
-Nataraja Temple

Thanjavur
-Brihadishwara Temple
-Royal Palace

Trichy
-Rock Fort Temple
-Sri Ranganathaswamy

Madurai
-Meenakshi Amman Temple

Hyderabad
-Charminar
-Chowmahalla Palace
-Mecca Masjid
-Golconda Fort
-Qutb Shahi Tombs

Vijayawada
-Undavalli Cave Temples

Tirupati
-Venkateshwara Temple

Mysuru
-Mysore Palace

Hampi
-Virupaksha Temple
-Vittala Temple

Bijapur
-Golgumbaz

Panaji
-Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

Old Goa
-Basillica of Bom Jesus

Palolem
-Beach, stay at Sevas or Ciaran's

Aurangabad
-Bibi-qa-Maqbara

Ellora
-Kailasa Temple

Ajanta
-Ajanta Caves

Kolhapur
-Mahalaxmi Temple

Mumbai
-Taj Mahal Palace
-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
-Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya
-Iskon Temple

>>1186208
what?

Indian here. Prepare to have 100 and 50 rs denomination, 500 and 1000 rs has been demonetised and will not be accepted.

>>1186220
Also, I'm hyderabadi, and as a hyderabadi my advice is to definitely try the food here.
Biryani and Haleem are must.

>>1186220
what the fuck why? im going to have to carry around stacks of 100s?

>>1186223
Yeah that, or you have a credit card? That should suffice perhaps. But yeah look it up. It's been a huge deal lately, causing shittons of inconvenience to locals too. Because 86% of our cash was 500 and 1000 which has suddenly been demonetised. I have to stand in line at the bank for 2 hours to turn my old cash in and get mere 4000 rs per day.

>>1186220
Yeah I've already heard about this! Have the new notes not been introduced yet?

>>1186223
I read it's to aid in combating black market money laundering as they can no longer just sit on all of their old notes as they are being demonetised.

>>1186221
Thank you for the recommendation - I definitely will do.

I cannot possibly fathom as to why someone would want to travel to India.

>>1186277
Just some top quality banter at the end of the day.
Also I like temples...

>>1186259
You can get the new 500 and 2000rs notes but a stack of 100s is much more common.

>>1186225

No, having a credit card won't suffice in the slightest. I just arrived back to the United States from India yesterday. Having visited the country seven times, I feel confident in saying that only a very small minority of local businesses will accept plastic issued overseas. Services such as RedBus.in and the online Indian Railways booking portal cannot be used in conjunction with a foreign card. Most small restaurants and businesses and delivery services will not accept foreign cards, even if they do have the facilities for domestic cards.

Even businesses like Domino's and Pizza Hut don't take non-Indian credit or debit cards. You can reliably get McDonald's and Burger king and KFC; everything else is up in the air.

After demonitization was launched, I could hardly pay for anything - every time I tried to foot a bill, my card would get declined 70-80% of the time. That's because nobody fucking takes foreign cards in India.

I'm not happy my vacation is over, but demonitization is a total fucking mess and screwing the ever-living shit out of tourists.

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>>1187232

The cabin crew will spray him down with poison before he even gets off the plane.

>>1185990

God help you OP, I stayed in India for one year and it's the worst experience of my life.

>infected with intestinal parasites 3 times
>dirty as fuck
>locals are stupid and/or crazy
>vegetarian
>hot, cold, dusty

Some people manage to stay in India long term and enjoy it. Fuck if I know how.

The only person I know who enjoyed visiting India was a multimillionaire from Switzerland. From the stories he told me, I can only imagine he stayed in the high class hotels and rarely ventured out. Even then he said he got sick multiple times, and the pollution made him gag.

>>1187539
>Fuck if I know how.
They probably live in the more northern parts with the higher class folk, while pranching around going 'I live india so much! wow!'

peak lol

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>>1187539
>>1187553
>>1187588
>>1187593
Don't get me wrong, India is dirty and polluted in a lot of places, but it's really not that bad as long as you're not a pussy. The people and countryside are great and there's still a good amount of stuff to see outside the cities. Yea you're going to get sick, but that happens in a lot of third world countries anyway.

Also, you all sound like the same person.

bring cash with you. cards are only useful at shops and services that are part of multinational corporations. Malls and big hotels and restraunts will accept cards. but kiosks , corner stores will generealy give you less trouble with cash. and hopefully by may 2017 india would have produced new currency.

>>1187875

Most restaurants do not accept international cards. That's especially true for dhabas and small restaurants. Fast food venues and upscale dining outlets will, but most others won't.

>>1187539
The Real Travelers(tm) who post in India threads are the DUDE WEED LMAO types who spent a month in Goa high. Anyone who posts about not liking India because it's a dirty shithole gets called "5star resort hotel traveler".

Come on out, I know you post here.

>>1188196

I made a bunch of India general threads in the past. Lived in Delhi a while and am definitely not a LOL DUDE WEED kind of guy.

India isn't for everyone. I don't see why people can't just accept that and move on.

>>1186029

Is 3k normal for India? I've saved up about £6k so far and am planning on going to Thailand, Vietnam etc. Why don't you hear about many people taking a flight to India from those countries?

>>1188371

How long are you planning to stay? I'd think 3,000 GBP would be enough to get by somewhat comfortably for between three and six months, depending on your budget. I'd drawn the line between "budget traveler" and "shoestring starving man" at around $20 per day, especially for long trips on which transportation and activity costs tend to add up and wreck plans.

Of course, $20 is more than adequate for travel in rural areas, but few tourists seem keen on stepping too far off the beaten path in India.

Traveling around India is a time investment, especially if you want to see a lot and won't be able to return in the near future. However, I do meet plenty of people who fly to SEA from India. Flights from New Delhi, Mumbai, and (especially) Kolkata are dirt cheap. When I was in Kolkata last winter, I ended up booking a round-trip to Bangkok because it cost the same as one-way back to Delhi on short notice.

Lot of people do it, DESU.

>>1186223
Modi had an idea to bring the shadow economy out of, well, the shadows and increase the tax base --he thought rich people were stockpiling these notes-- all while neglecting the fact that a fair portion of the populace doesn't bank and subsists in a cash economy.

>>1188131
100%

OP here - didn't realize India had such a polarizing opinion. Thanks all for replying though with your two cents, it does provide some perspective seeing as I fly tomorrow. Ultimately I'll make up my own mind up in the end but love it or hate it, I'm gonna be there for the next 6 months so here's to /trv/.

I want to fly into South India and make my way north to Kashmir, should I travel more along the West or East coast?

What about ladies? Is my only chance in the cities?

>>1189091

There is no polarized opinion. The vast majority of people who write "poo in the loo"-type posts have never left their own basements.

>>1189275

Whichever way you want.

Traveling along the West Coast of India nets you better tourist infrastructure and stops in some of the most popular destinations in the country. You can explore the backwaters of Kerala, party in Goa, get lost in Mumbai, go sightseeing in the Rann of Kutch, take a safari to see Asiatic Lions in Gujarat, and then hit up the Thar cities of Udaipur and Jodhpur, and go camping in the middle of the desert in Jaisalmer. From there you can easily see Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi, and then Amritsar (if you want to learn about Sikhs) on up to J&K.

Tourists don't go to the eastern parts of India nearly as much, Tamil Nadu aside. Andhra Pradesh and Odisha don't get terribly many visitors from overseas. Kolkata is crowded, dirty, and has Park Street. However, I found Kolkata to be one of the most genuinely friendly cities I've ever been - the locals aren't as obnoxious as Indians in other places, and you very rarely get approached by touts or con artists (the one person who tried anything was a very persistent prostitute). I had an Indian Army Officer take me out to dinner and get me drunk as fuck before footing the bill and getting me a cab home. Always met cool people at Prinsep Ghat and on Park Street.

Lots of commies there, though. When I visited in 2015/2016, the streets were lined with hammer and sickle flags. Guess they had elections coming up.

If you want a fun-filled and touristic experience (nothing wrong with that), do the west coast up. If you want something a little stranger, less developed, and more Real Traveler-ish, go from Chennai towards Kolkata. I don't really know much about that part of India, except that they still have Maoist insurgents in some part and there's a lot of jungle and shit.

>>1186220
Australia is going the exact same thing right now for $100's and $50's are next.
>>1185990
OP the 2 places that most impressed me in India were Gokarna and Andaman Islands.
Don't even bother with Goa just go a few hours South to Gokarna. Goa is just all Russian and Israeli tourists anyway.
Andaman is absolutely gorgeous.
The beaches are mesmerising.

>>1189347

There are plenty of decent spots in Goa. You'll only see hordes of Russians and Israelis if you hit up certain beaches. While Israelis are quite widespread all over India (think Kasol), the Russians in Goa are clustered around Morjim Beach, if I remember correctly.

If you go to Baga it's all Indians, hippies in Anjuna, etc.

Second Andaman and Nicobar though. Never been, but everyone who has been told me I need to go.

>>1185990
Welcome to India, friend!

>>1185990
how much money are you taking for a 6 month stint?, i would love to do this but not sure how much i would need saved up

>>1189381
sorry, if i had just read the thread, ignore my post

Well boys I fly out in like 4 hours from Birmingham. Again thanks for all the discussion, I hope you all get some travel booked in the coming months. Good luck boys.

>>1186029
Why Kerala for four months? Don't get me wrong it looks great but why so long?

So weather wise March-August is the best time to visit Kashmir. But just how crowded does it get each month? I've heard the summer is packed.

>>1189705

I went in August of 2014. Srinagar was far from "packed," although I don't know about the Ladakh region of J&K. That seems to be, on the whole, more popular with tourists than the forested mountains surrounding the lower-half of the state.

Didn't see many foreigners on the houseboats or the Old City when I was in Srinagar. Came across a Taiwanese guy, some Greek girls, and a couple Americans when I went solo-trekking to Gangabal, but that was over the course of several days. There were way more Indian tourists than folks from overseas.

I think you'd probably see a lot more white people in Leh, which is basically Buddhist/Tibetan and has been less affected (probably not affected at all) by the tard-tier "free Kashmir" and "welcome, Taliban" (no shit - that slogan was spraypainted all around Srinagar) protests by Kashmiri Muslims.

What are people's thoughts on individual beaches in Goa? Looking to do more than partying
> Goa advice in general appreciated
> Looking to stay a week in the state

>>1187539
I loved India but it's way too fucking intense to stay for more than like six weeks. I spent almost half the time in Sikkim/ Himachal Pradesh and the rest in West bengal, Uttar pradesh and New Delhi. This was during a massive heatstroke last year in June so we could barely be outside for more than an hour before feeling like we were dying

Northern parts are definitely more clean and chill than the central parts. Like we went from Sikkim straight to Varanasi which was a different world

You can only muster so many Indians wanting to take pictures with you shaking hands every five minutes before you lose your shit. India is fun but it gets way too much pretty fast

Is traveling to india for meditative/spiritual purposes still common?

>>1185990

Are you going to Kerala? Why is it marked?

>>1186029

Kerala

Munnar
Thekkady
Kumarakom/Allepy (houseboating)
Fort Kochi
Wayanad

>>1185990

wait i thought this was /tv/

>>1190098
Kinda your fault for going in JUNE.