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Anarkii posted:Yeah the international pub+restaurant scene is far ahead in Bangalore. For microbreweries, Bangalore and Gurgaon (that place is a boring concrete shithole) are wheres it at. For global cuisine, Bangalore and Mumbai have it. I almost took a job in Gurgaon a while back. Really like the veggie food down south here, and I'm not even vegetarian. Looks like I'll have to make an expedition to Bangalore one of these weekends. People tell me the highway from Hyderabad is really nice, but I'll be flying. My bus from Goa broke down before leaving the lot on Sunday night, so I was bumped to a lovely non-A/C bus back on Monday night. I had the worst seat on the bus, in the very back row wedged against a house-fat dude who blobbed all over the armrest and threatened to consume me by engulfment. I hear there's a spot south of Bangalore where a certain variety of mushrooms grow rampant.
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Oct 8, 2014 11:54
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I've spent over a year in India over two visits, and though I think the OP and I have spent time in India really differently (I always take public buses, the cheapest train tickets possible, and stay in cheap hotels), I think I would say a lot of pretty similar things. I think one of the main reasons it's relatively easy to communicate with people in India actually IS the number and diversity of local languages -- I think many Indians tend to assume communication is possible, and put at least a little bit of effort in. I lived in Turkey for about a year, and it's linguistically homogenous; if I tried to talk to someone in my lovely Turkish, there's a good chance they'd be all "oh, a foreigner, gosh, sorry, can't help you, please ask someone else." In India, if I'm using lovely Hindi or Bengali or whatever, people still attempt to interact with me, even if it's gestures, drawing pictures, or whatever. That's one of the reasons I like traveling in India because you have some pretty great conversations. The hardest thing for a traveler in India to deal with, I think, is deciding when you need to be patient, and when you need to scream in somebody's face. In the book Maximum City (which is an awesome nonfiction account of gangs and business and religion in Mumbai) the author says there's three ways to get poo poo done in India: have money, have connections, or get really loving mad. Once I was trying to catch a bus to Varanasi, and some private bus renting fucker tore up my ticket and said I'd have to wait a few days, because the bus stop got bombed. I said that he's a bhenchod and I wasn't going to stay at his loving uncle's overpriced hotel or whatever, and that I could loving read "BANARAS"* on the packed buses leaving town. I sat in front of his bus shop and told any tourists that he was a loving crook until he printed me up another bus ticket, and I was in Varanasi in just a few hours. People who prey on tourists are good at making convincing-sounding stories, so you just have to keep your facts straight. And there are plenty of good people who will try to help you or give you good advice, but it's quite difficult to pick them out from the rest. The Ganges is incredibly clean when you're up near the mountains, and I drank some of it while rafting a few km north of Rishikesh. Once it runs past a few cities, though, it's pretty hosed. Compare this to this and you can see how it depends on where you are. There is no system for dealing with trash, and it's loving shameful. There are designated places where trash gets hauled, and then cows or dogs or whatever drag it all back into the street. I have no idea how it'll ever change, but Modi's into doing something about it. We'll see. I love India and I can't wait for the next time I get over there, though I don't know if I could handle living there for more than 6 or 7 months at a time. It wears on you every day and sometimes you just want to be somewhere clean and calm. But then there's nothing like smoking a joint with a chai wallah out the door of the train while you're riding in standing class, and you haven't even decided what town you're getting off in. *: a more proper spelling of Varanasi
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Oct 13, 2014 20:48
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Roctavian posted:I don't know if I could handle living there for more than 6 or 7 months at a time. This is a thing with middle-class Indians too tbh. Living with that chaos day to day takes a toll. Then they go to Goa to party or a hill station in himalayas to hibernate for a while! The booze in goa and pondicherry is also much much cheaper than rest of India.
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Oct 14, 2014 06:58
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Anarkii posted:This is a thing with middle-class Indians too tbh. Living with that chaos day to day takes a toll. Then they go to Goa to party or a hill station in himalayas to hibernate for a while! I'm living in sort of India-lite. My area of Hyderabad is relatively affluent. Sure, the traffic is apocalyptic, and the India smell is everywhere, but there are very few beggars, and almost no open defecation. My first visit to the Old City here, around Charminar, opened my eyes to the hardcore India experience. But still, I feel like I needed the long weekend in Goa. I'm not having a bad time here, but think two years will be enough of India for me.
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Oct 14, 2014 07:13
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TheImmigrant posted:Electronics are quite expensive here. I got a great deal on the hot new handheld game system in Kolkata:  Kidding aside, this is a great thread, I've really enjoyed hearing your experiences and I'd love to hear more. I enjoy Mumbai Boss for reading about things to do in Mumbai. Also, I was in Visakhapatnam a couple months ago to catch the Pro Kabaddi match and was surprised what a cool city it was. It felt a lot like some of the easier going areas of Mumbai, and things were open pretty late. Never a place that was on my radar but enjoyed it once I was there.
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Oct 20, 2014 04:54
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thethirdman posted:I got a great deal on the hot new handheld game system in Kolkata: Vizag is a good place.
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Oct 20, 2014 06:09
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Great thread! I've spent a couple weeks in Chennai for work. I liked buying coconuts from the stands by the roads. Very annoying that public trash cans didn't seem to exist. I walked around for 30 minutes one day before finding one that hadn't been emptied in 74 years. Also, the "horning" is constant. Start the car? Blast your horn. Pass a pedestrian? Blast your horn. See no one else on the road for miles? Blast your horn.
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Dec 7, 2014 17:34
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grellgraxer posted:Great thread! I've spent a couple weeks in Chennai for work. I liked buying coconuts from the stands by the roads. Very annoying that public trash cans didn't seem to exist. I walked around for 30 minutes one day before finding one that hadn't been emptied in 74 years. Also, the "horning" is constant. Start the car? Blast your horn. Pass a pedestrian? Blast your horn. See no one else on the road for miles? Blast your horn. Have a functioning horn? Blast your horn. Horn please! Every time I come back and drive in the US I drive India-style for a few days- only leave inches of room and constantly honk- and people really hate me until I mellow out. One time I was leaving a hotel and wanted to throw something away. I asked the guard at the front desk and he replied that it would be no problem. He took the garbage from me, walked over to the nearby river, and threw it in. The sad truth is that there's not many better options!
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Dec 7, 2014 20:56
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Recently spent 7 days in New Delhi and two in Agra. The absolute worst thing in India was the traffic. Actually, it was the total disregard for any semblance of traffic laws. Chaos on the roads would be an understatement. Think you are going to just sleep and wake when you get there? Nope - the horn blasts were constant all along the road. Other than that, once you learn to look past the trash stockpiled on the side of the roads/buildings, and the locals staring at you because you are white, it was a beautiful country with great people. If anyone happens to be traveling and comes across this thread, when you go back to the airport to fly out of India - have a printed copy of your airline reservation. I nearly missed my flight because the guard wouldn't let me into the airport and the ticket on my iPhone wasn't good enough.
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Dec 10, 2014 17:04
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Old Crows posted:If anyone happens to be traveling and comes across this thread, when you go back to the airport to fly out of India - have a printed copy of your airline reservation. I nearly missed my flight because the guard wouldn't let me into the airport and the ticket on my iPhone wasn't good enough. Where were you flying out from? In Mumbai and Bangalore airports, they usually accept phone copies. Also, there's usually windows facing outwards for all the airlines who'll give you a printed copy of the ticket after looking at your PNR. But yes, less hassle to print it yourselves. In other news, India formally launched Visa on Arrival for a bunch of countries recently : https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html . It's actually Electronic Travel Authorization that a lot of countries have. You apply online to get pre-approved, and get stamped at the airport on arrival. This is also useful to people travelling to neighboring places like Nepal or Burma, since India has good connections to those. So now it's feasible to land in Delhi and spend a night and fly to Nepal the next day.
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Dec 12, 2014 08:54
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Hyderabad airport accepts phone copies of airline tickets too for the first security checkpoint. You need a hardcopy for the next one though. There are self check-in posts and traditional desks everywhere after the first post though, so no problem.
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Dec 12, 2014 16:25
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Chennai does not but you can get a printout from the outside-facing airline desks.
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Dec 14, 2014 01:27
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I spent 3 weeks in India earlier this year and I had a great time. I think I could live there for a while if I had a nice place. Speaking of which, post photos of your place, OP.
sleepy gary fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Dec 21, 2014 |
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Dec 21, 2014 23:00
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What can I do with a couple stray days in Mumbai? I'm at the end of a month-long trip around the north west, and BOM was the closest international airport to end at. I'd really like to meet some actual Indian people--one of the things I've hated most about this country (which probably comes of being a white guy, traveling alone) is that everyone wants to talk to me, and every single one of them is just faking being friendly until they can work in a pitch for their shop. I would love to go somewhere where people will just chat. I'll also settle for just some decent food though. Save me the trouble of finding a good non-tourist restaurant.
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Jan 19, 2015 15:49
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Akratic Method posted:What can I do with a couple stray days in Mumbai? I'm at the end of a month-long trip around the north west, and BOM was the closest international airport to end at. Gokul is probably a bit touristy but when I was there it was always mostly Indian people by far. It's not far from the Taj hotel. The food is pretty good and they have an AC section if you need to cool down (prices are higher in there). It's also a place where I had a conversation with an Indian guy that didn't lead to some kind of a pitch, which was also rare for me. Around the corner is a currency exchange that works on a really tight spread, in case you need to get rid of some rupees.
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Jan 19, 2015 15:56
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If your living location was independent of your job, where in India would you choose to reside? Also (just in case you know), how hard is it to get in on any kind of long-term (1+ years) residence visa without an employer? (My wife has intermediate fluency in Hindi and would love to spend 6mo+ in India, and by this time next year, my self-employment income will be completely sustainable as long as I have access to an internet connection.) Just curious. 
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Jan 27, 2015 18:12
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Sundae posted:If your living location was independent of your job, where in India would you choose to reside? Also (just in case you know), how hard is it to get in on any kind of long-term (1+ years) residence visa without an employer? (My wife has intermediate fluency in Hindi and would love to spend 6mo+ in India, and by this time next year, my self-employment income will be completely sustainable as long as I have access to an internet connection.) Mumbai or Goa, for me. Probably a combination of the two. Of course, I haven't seen very much of the country. It certainly wouldn't be Hyderabad. To stay long-term in India, you'd both probably have to be enrolled in some course of study.
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Jan 27, 2015 18:32
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I'm going to be in Delhi next week for a week (Obama's gunna be gone by the weekend right?) Anything anyone recommends outside of the main tourist attractions? Any of those a total waste of time?
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Jan 27, 2015 23:45
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Try to get away from Paharganj/Connaught Place as much as possible -- it's where the other tourists are, sure, but that area sucks. One of the densest areas of India in terms of ripoff scumbags per square meter. Walk around Chandni Chok and check out the gurudwaras and the big mosque that are near it, that's what I enjoyed most in that town.
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Jan 27, 2015 23:56
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Sundae posted:If your living location was independent of your job, where in India would you choose to reside? Also (just in case you know), how hard is it to get in on any kind of long-term (1+ years) residence visa without an employer? (My wife has intermediate fluency in Hindi and would love to spend 6mo+ in India, and by this time next year, my self-employment income will be completely sustainable as long as I have access to an internet connection.) I've lived in India most of my life, and if job location was not a concern, either Goa or the Himalayan foothills would be my choice. Of course, internet access will be pretty spotty in the mountains, so if you need access to basic infrastructure Goa it is.
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Jan 28, 2015 10:49
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Roctavian posted:Try to get away from Paharganj/Connaught Place as much as possible -- it's where the other tourists are, sure, but that area sucks. One of the densest areas of India in terms of ripoff scumbags per square meter. Walk around Chandni Chok and check out the gurudwaras and the big mosque that are near it, that's what I enjoyed most in that town. Our first day in India we decided to just get on the subway and get off somewhere and start walking. This is where we landed and it was really something special. Probably the only time we weren't hassled by anyone, just surrounded by a mass of people simply going about their business. Be prepared to be overwhelmed though.
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Jan 29, 2015 20:24
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Help, I'm visiting a couple of companies in Bangalore in the next few weeks that are all in HSR Layout. Does it make sense to look for a hotel in that neighborhood, or is it better to stay in one of the nicer ones near the center of town (like the Oberoi or something) and then take a taxi out there? Also does anyone have good restaurant/food recommendations?
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Feb 22, 2015 08:37
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Admirable Gusto posted:Help, I'm visiting a couple of companies in Bangalore in the next few weeks that are all in HSR Layout. Does it make sense to look for a hotel in that neighborhood, or is it better to stay in one of the nicer ones near the center of town (like the Oberoi or something) and then take a taxi out there? Also does anyone have good restaurant/food recommendations? HSR Layout is a pretty dreary place with nothing particularly notable. I would recommend staying in the central area in a nice hotel. Check out zomato.com for food suggestions. UB City terrace area is particularly nice in the evenings and popular with expats. It has around 10 restaurants of which Toscano, Shiro and Caperberry are personal favorites. The 5-star hotels in Bangalore are generally of very high standards, and Taj, Oberoi, Leela, ITC have some of the best and priciest restaurants. Edo in ITC Gardenia has excellent Japanese, Blue Ginger is a pretty fancy vietnamese fusion restaurant in Taj. For the best mughlai cuisine in the city head to either Baluchi in Lalit Ashok or Samarkand. All of the above are rather expensive, so if you're budget constrained let me know and I'll suggest some places regular people go to!
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Feb 24, 2015 06:30
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