Before I came up with the idea of traveling to India, I'd had a chance to meet a few Indian people. It turned out that they are a very friendly nation. I quickly made a couple of friends and one of them invited me to visit him and his family in India. I couldn’t say no, I was very excited because it was going to be my first journey to such a far away and different culturally land. I didn’t know what to expect at all. I tried to prepare myself for what I might see there but it was hard to imagine how India could look like.
I browsed through many websites and forums looking for information and experiences of people who had visited this vast country. Some of the articles scared me, saying that once you get off the plane your jaw is going to drop immediately because of what you see around. There were supposed to be crowds of people, bad smells everywhere and beggars that didn’t want to move away from you no matter what. Other posts, however, filled me with even more excitement, I just couldn’t wait to see for myself whether the reality is the way I'd read on the Internet.
Preparation Before Traveling to India
In short, tips on traveling to India:
- book flights, train and accomodation way in advance
- be prepared for cancellations
- arrange your visa at least 1 month in advance
- visit your doctor and take all medicines and vaccinations needed
- do no pack too many alcohol items in one bag, this will save you the hassle of repacking at the airport
- make sure you have all documents (including the certificate of vaccinations)
- don’t forget mosquito repellent as the insects are everywhere
- take sun lotion, the heat can be really scorching
Because my friend had invited me, he also took care of most of the bookings and reservations that had to be made. I was able to go there only for 2 weeks and although it was such a short time, we decided to get to see many places, to travel from east to south, then to New Delhi and to visit Lakshadweep Islands along the way as well. The pace of travel was going to be crazy, we had booked 11 flights and many train, car bus and boat journeys.
We probably had a ride on every possible means of transport. That’s fun! (as long as you are open for adventure and you’re not too posh). When you are in India, it’s a must to travel on as many means of transport as possible. When you’re back home you might start appreciating the transport system in your city (even if you had cursed it so much before), but... there will be days when you miss all those crazy train and bus rides in India!
We were going to go to India in March but we had started the preparation way earlier, in November. We had to book so many things, organize visas etc. that we would have got lost in it if we hadn’t done it much in advance. There are many people using public transport in India so if you are too late you will not be able to get, for example, seats on the train.
Bear in mind that services in India might not be very reliable and sometimes your flight or train journey may be canceled. So be prepared for surprises. It’s better not to expect anything to save disappointment. When you are applying for the visa, do it at least 1 month before traveling (because of waiting time), you have to remember that your passport must be valid for at least six months. Unfortunately, visas are not very cheap (I paid 65 EUR - 85 USD, but it depends on the country of residence and might change in the future).
Copyright © 2014 by Adventurous Travels. This article was written by Tomasz Lisowski and originally published on www.adventurous-travels.com
