{"id":4331,"date":"2020-03-08T10:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T08:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/india-part1\/"},"modified":"2024-08-03T09:34:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T07:34:06","slug":"india-part1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/india-part1\/","title":{"rendered":"India, part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lengthy story about India\u2014there\u2019s no way to be brief about this country. So, part 1: So, part 1:<\/p>\n\n

About the organization and preparation\u2014I had dreamed of going to India for a long time, about 15 years\u2026 It finally happened. In 2008, I bought a Lonely Planet guide\u2014it\u2019s actually my first and only travel guide, as I usually manage without them, and it sat for 12 years waiting for its moment. Some things have changed, but I used it extensively both in preparation and during the trip. So, from 24.02 to 6.03, 11 days on-site, with my mom and brother. I bought tickets for my mom and me in September, Tallinn\u2014Istanbul\u2014Delhi, 416 euros per person (Turkish Airlines), and my brother flew directly from Helsinki with Finnair for 500 euros. Turkish Airlines had slightly cheaper options at 390 euros, but we needed vacation time. An interesting point\u2014when booking on the Turkish Airlines website, it was mentioned in small print that the Istanbul\u2014Delhi flight was operated by the Indian airline Indigo. This didn\u2019t bother me since I was booking through Turkish Airlines; the baggage conditions were the same, etc. Our goal was to see as much as possible under reasonably good conditions without unnecessary risks. The route was planned with the help of three Indian acquaintances: Delhi\u2014Agra\u2014Jaipur\u2014Rishikesh\u2014Delhi. I wanted to do more, but everyone insisted it wasn\u2019t worth it, as planning anything in India is pointless for various reasons\u2014trains get canceled, travel takes much longer than Google Maps suggests. I started with the Delhi\u2014Agra train. Registering on the railway website took 3 days, not just waiting but struggling. Considering I have about 20 years of independent travel experience, I thought nothing could surprise me anymore, but the Indian railway website did\u2026 There are many train\/car options, understanding which is which and where you\u2019ll be traveling with a goat and where it will be decent is mega difficult. You can\u2019t buy a train ticket without registration, and with only 11 days, buying on the spot wasn\u2019t an option. So, I eventually found a high-speed train from Delhi to Agra, taking 2 hours and costing 9 euros (the regular train takes 6 hours and costs pennies). There were no high-speed trains in other directions, and traveling 6+ hours everywhere with a high cancellation risk and such a booking system didn\u2019t seem appealing. So, I decided to opt for flights. Luckily, I started early, and the prices were reasonable, around 30 euros per flight. We were advised to stay in apartments. The reason\u2014hotels are cleaned by men, like in tourist areas in Egypt, for example, while apartments are usually managed by the owners themselves, so they tend to be cleaner. Of course, we could have opted for Hyatt-level hotels, where cleanliness wouldn\u2019t be an issue, but that was out of our budget, so we chose Airbnb apartments\u2014cheap and cheerful. In Rishikesh, our apartment booking was canceled at the last minute, and I couldn\u2019t find any suitable options at all (as it turned out, there was an international yoga festival during those days). Then, in a moment of muddled thinking, I booked a hostel. Yes, a room for three with its own bathroom, nice photos, and a rating of 8.8, but it was rated by hostel enthusiasts! My brother, who usually stays in hostels, didn\u2019t understand my dissatisfaction, but I\u2019ve outgrown that stage, and in my humble opinion, the apartments were significantly better in every way \"🙂\" Clean, spacious (at least two rooms), and authentic! The cost was around 40 euros per night for all of us. The cost of food\u2014depends on what you\u2019re ready for :)) A very decent tourist restaurant, a portion costing 6-8 euros, huge one. Street food, seemingly in a relatively decent place, 8 euros for all of us, with sweets and tea. Entry to various temples is usually free, but donations are expected\u2014amounts from 15 cents to 3 euros are sufficient. Historical monuments average around 7 euros, the most expensive being the Taj Mahal\u2014about 18 euros.<\/p>\n\n

We all know about the many fears surrounding India. Dreams are dreams, but we read a lot and prepared for this trip like no other. Bottles of antiseptic, antibacterial wipes, hospital shoe covers (just in case of such dirt you can\u2019t step in), brandy and flasks (to drink before every meal), many different vaccinations, malaria prevention tablets, antibiotics just in case, Aquaphor filter for the taps (didn\u2019t fit :))). In reality, only the hand sanitizer and wipes were needed. My brother, a doctor, said on the second day that all this was nonsense; the only solution here would be to climb into a barrel of alcohol! We went everywhere and ate everything we wanted, and nothing happened to us. Well, we all drank bottled water, and I even brushed my teeth with it, while my brother and mom were braver. But the main thing\u2014yes, it\u2019s insanely dirty in places. But you can see not the dirt, but what lies beyond it\u2026<\/p>\n\n

Besides, we thought, we are limited on time, we want to see a lot, the country is very cheap, so why not hire a car and a guide in each place we visit\u2026 And we wanted trustworthy ones, not just off the street, which turned out to be not so easy. As a result, we didn\u2019t have cars and guides everywhere, and the quality of the guides varied greatly, but everything went well. The cost of a car with a driver and a guide for one day depended on the place, ranging from 33-50 euros per day.<\/p>\n\n

India was definitely worth dreaming about and finally visiting. Many amazing customs, places, people, and impressions. To perceive them correctly, you need to prepare well, and it\u2019s definitely not for everyone. But don\u2019t be afraid of what people say about this magnificent country. Of course, there\u2019s a lot of trash, dirt, and poverty, but it\u2019s not like Cairo is any different\u2026 Given that cows walk where people do, you need to constantly watch your step and make sure you don\u2019t step into anything \ud83d\ude09 The concept of cleanliness is very relative\u2014it applies to everything, but I can say that there are more unpleasant smells in one tram in Kopli than in all of Delhi\u2026 Indians are very clean, and their homes are clean (excluding the homeless living on the streets). The way local women look is indescribably beautiful! The fact that there\u2019s so much garbage\u2014no one deals with it purposefully, there\u2019s simply nowhere to throw it! Where there\u2019s a goal to keep it clean, everything shines\u2014like the Taj Mahal or Akshardham\u2026 The traffic is crazy, it\u2019s really hard to describe, people get licenses without mandatory driving courses\u2014they learn on the go, but we didn\u2019t see a single accident in 10 days! The food is delicious\u2014we tried both tourist restaurants and street food and never got sick! People are very different, wise and intelligent, and all kinds of others\u2026 But everyone is kind and friendly and tries to help, even if they don\u2019t speak English. The beggars on the streets\u2014it\u2019s hard to blame them if you understand the caste system and their customs. Seeing how children grow up and play in the dirt on the street or in slums, and don\u2019t see anything else\u2014it\u2019s unlikely they can grow up to be someone else\u2026 It\u2019s really hard in their case. Nature is simply stunning! History, architecture, religions, and ancient wisdom are very impressive! There\u2019s still a lot to process, but I will definitely return to India!<\/p>\n\n

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A lengthy story about India\u2014there\u2019s no way to be brief about this country. So, part 1: So, part 1: About the organization and preparation\u2014I had dreamed of going to India for a long time, about 15 years\u2026 It finally happened. In 2008, I bought a Lonely Planet guide\u2014it\u2019s actually my first and only travel guide, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[221,220,219,222,213,223,214],"class_list":["post-4331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-agra","tag-delhi","tag-india","tag-jaipur","tag-rest","tag-rishikesh","tag-vacation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4332,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4331\/revisions\/4332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/procareerglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}