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Capn Jobe posted:I'd imagine I stand out as a tourist just by being white and looking at everything/taking photos, but I saw several people who looked like they came out of a dictionary entry for tourist (Hawaiian shirt, bucket hat, satchel) and they were doing fine. So I'm at a loss. Maybe it’s like those poisonous animals with bright colors. If you stand out SO much, touts will think you’re a broke backpacking sexpest hobo, or a serial killer on the run.
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Apr 29, 2024 08:03
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 01:25 |
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Capn Jobe posted:I'd imagine I stand out as a tourist just by being white and looking at everything/taking photos, but I saw several people who looked like they came out of a dictionary entry for tourist (Hawaiian shirt, bucket hat, satchel) and they were doing fine. So I'm at a loss. I was in Delhi twice during my trip to India, once when I had just landed and once a month later when I had a few days to kill before I flew back. While it never was as bad as you described, the difference between the first and the second time was very noticeable. It felt like something must have changed in my demeanor that made me less of a stand out target. In general I felt the more northern areas (Himachal, Chandigarh) were more chill, so maybe try going there.
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Apr 29, 2024 13:41
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You mentioned talking to the touts. I'd say never do that - don't acknowledge, don't reply, especially don't glance at their face to see how they're reacting and don't ever worry that you're being rude. It's possible to have banter with touts but it's extreme hard mode. That said, no idea why one city would be so bad when Jaipur was fine. Seconding the above, I used to feel my mood had a big effect.
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Apr 29, 2024 18:06
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Potential discussion topics: I'm going to try and get myself to do an effortpost on my couple weeks in Nepal once I finish sorting through the thousands of photos from my month wandering around procrastinating on getting a new job, but just wanted to say jesus christ what in the gently caress are those people doing with their road construction?! I took a bus from the Chitwan area to Lumbini (by which I mean I took 4 buses because despite both notionally being tourist destinations there are only local buses between them, which do not connect anywhere near directly) and virtually all of the ten hours was spent on what appeared to be land that was graded for a highway which was never paved. We would periodically have to off-road the bus over the median to switch sides because a massive pile of rocks was left across one side, and of course there was no consistency in which side they'd block with the piles. The dust was insane (no AC so windows open the whole time) between that and the air pollution generally, I'm glad I brought N95s. Really feels like they just started all of the road projects in the entire country at once, and then just kinda got tired of most of them and decided to only stick with a couple tunnels up by Kathmandu. At least those had workers around, even if they didn't appear to be doing anything.
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May 1, 2024 15:59
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Strategic Tea posted:You mentioned talking to the touts. I'd say never do that - don't acknowledge, don't reply, especially don't glance at their face to see how they're reacting and don't ever worry that you're being rude. Yeah this is the key thing with touts. Don't engage with them at all, don't look at them, don't respond at all. Even when they grab your shoulder and say "hello my friend", just brush them off and keep walking. These guys approach dozens of people every hour - there is nothing you can possibly do or say that will discourage them, as they've heard every objection hundreds of times, and have responses lined up for why your objections aren't important. My father-in-law had the genius plan that he was only ever going to say "sprechen sie Deutsch", like none of them will know how to speak German (spoiler: many of them did). But I will say: arriving in New Delhi is probably the most intense culture shock you will ever experience, especially if you haven't really been in developing countries at all. Our last trip to India we were mostly down south in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and it's much more chilled out down there. All of the hustlers and scammers hang around the tourist areas up north, so in the south people were generally friendly, helpful and honest. India is hot and dirty and noisy and crowded - it's overwhelming in almost every way. I love it for that, and I find travelling there really exciting, but I can totally understand why a lot of people find it challenging. And of course it helps that I'm an average looking middle-aged white guy - I would absolutely not want to be a woman travelling solo.
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Jun 4, 2024 12:48
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| # ? Jun 7, 2024 01:25 |
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Capn Jobe posted:Due to it taking almost 20 hours of flight time to get there, our inbound and outbound flights are at strange hours. Like, we arrive around 2am, and depart around 4am. Would it be possible to get to/from the airport (DEL) at those hours? Or should we book those nights at hotels super close to the airport (we were looking at the Aerocity area)? We only have 3 days in Delhi before heading to Jaipur, and I was hoping to stay in Connaught Place, but I really don't want to have a huge ordeal getting there at an odd hour, freshly off a long flight. Oh I forgot to respond specifically to these questions! Getting around in the middle of the night in India is no problem - arriving at 2am you can either get Uber from the airport (just make sure you have a way of connecting to the internet), or there will be taxi drivers out the front as well. Can't recall specifically if it's fixed-price or not, I think we got the subway into town. For trains: I don't know about specific trains between Delhi and Jaipur, but it's one of the busier rail routes and is pretty well serviced. If you get an AC Chair Car, it'll be pretty similar to any other intercity train you've ever been on. The cheaper classes are a bit more intense, but definitely adventurous too. AC 2-tier and AC 3-tier mean it's two or three tiers of bunks, but during the day they fold up into bench seats (like those fold-out beds in a cupboard I guess). There's also I think the "sleeper" class which is pretty much just wooden benches and no air con. Tickets are mostly booked in advance, though the website is kind of awful - IRCTC I think is the official ticket website. Indian train stations (especially the one in Delhi) are colossal, so treat it like an airport and arrive with plenty of spare time. You'll go through security checks outside, and ignore anyone who tries to "help" you. The signs are usually in Hindi and English so you can find your way around without too much drama. Just be aware that the trains are typically hundreds of metres long, so you need to stand in the correct section of the platform (again it is reasonably easy to find, but a local waiting for a train can help if needed). On the "connecting to the internet" point - for a week or two I'd recommend an e-sim from AirAlo which are pretty cheap. The data limits are low, but it's fine for maps/translations/google, you just can't sit there scrolling tiktok or instagram all day. If you go the e-sim route, activate it before you arrive in India, as e-sims are banned and all of the provider's websites are blocked 
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Jun 4, 2024 13:35
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