Have You Been To India?

[varun]

It gives me a self-esteem boost of to hear comments like this.

However, what I find surprising is the extreme xenophobia that prevails here about India esp. amongst the Thai's. On one hand I wouldn't blame them because their opinions are largely based on their observations of the Indian community in Bangkok and quite frankly, a considerable lot of them are shrewd and dodgy often involved in shady/illegal practices.

Nonetheless, a considerable part of Thai culture stems from India but the Thai's appear to be unaware about this.

Having lived in India and LOS for 16 and 6 years respectively, I would say India is a love-hate place.

The food,culture and lastly, the diversity are what will most likely entice you.

Definitely worth a visit and who knows you might fall in love with it.

[dantilley]

I've been to Sri Lanka ... does that count...?

totster

I have also - bloody great country. I hear it's like a kind of diluted version of India - has all the elements that makes India a great holiday destination but just not so extreme. I found the Sri Lankan people the most hospitable I've met anywhere in the world, even more than Thai people. The amount of homes I'd been invited to for family dinners or drinks... Also rich culture, stunning scenery and excellent food. Not to mention the wildlife too, an aspect of the Indian subcontinent that hasn't really been applauded so much yet on this thread.

I have friends who have set up business there though and they find it immensely frustrating at times, the disorganised and cripplingly slow beaurocracy can wear you down. I think this is true for India, Nepal or Sri Lanka: great to visit and travel around - train journeys, trekking in Himilayan Nepal or Northern India, finding remote beaches, smoking charis - but not so much fun if you have to live there and can't get involved in all those activities so much.

Great thread anyway - Taxexile, those are some truly amazing things you've been describing. Another bullet-point style list like the ones you've posted already would be welcomed by all I think!

[uptou]

I'm hoping to visit India at some point,as ive never been before.Everybody ive spoken to,who's been there seems to either love,or hate it,& that its a mad experience.I'd like to see it for myself.

I remember one english girl telling me about her time there,when an indian stranger came & sat next to her & started,or tryed,to talk about sex. I like thailand though for many reasons,one being because its chilled.I suppose i'm more in expat mode at the moment,rather than a traveller type who loved all the hustle & bustle of different countries a few years back.

I want to travel in India,but mostly would like to pick a spot & live there awile.A place that would hopefully not be too touristy.

Are there certain parts of India that you've been to that are more chilled for living for awile,that are not too populated?

[wileycoyote]

India is a rapidly changing country,too diffuse to categorize.

I don't think you can give a fair opinion until you have been there.

Wiley Coyote

[Naam]

Are there certain parts of India that you've been to that are more chilled for living for awile,that are not too populated?

it's too populated where you can live, where it's less populated you can't live.

[Naam]

The food,culture and lastly, the diversity are what will most likely entice you.

Definitely worth a visit and who knows you might fall in love with it.

India was the country of my dreams when i was a twelve year old boy. now i'm an old man and India is still the country of my dreams... and if there weren't so many Indians in India with their paralysing attitudes (this is India! you bloody ferangi can't change it! ) i wouldn't live in Thailand.

joke aside. i maintain since many years two "second" homes in India. one is a flat in the horror city of Mumbai (aka Bombay) and the other one a modest house in Pune. i love to go there once in a while but i love it much more when i LEAVE!

[taxexile]

some more recollections about amazing india.

in manali , hearing some loud wailing and crying one afternoon coming from near the river i went over to see what was happening. there was a small procession and they were carrying a dead body wrapped in a sheet. they put it down by the river , built a small pyre from wood they had brought and cremated the body. all within a few feet of indian families having riverside picnics.

on a train from delhi to varanasi , i had the middle bunk , at one station two police got on with a naked man who was handcuffed and had leg irons on. they chained him to the bunk below mine . they were transporting him to varanasi. the police smoked and played cards all night and every time the prisoner moved they whacked him on the knee with a baton.

in varanasi , cars with corpses on the roof racks taking them to the burning ghats by the river for cremation. the burning ghats were like a medieval charnel house. bodies lined up on queue for cremation , huge piles of logs stacked up on the river bank , dozens of sooty men in loincloths heaving these logs up the bank to the cremation sites , flames and oily smoke rising from the cremations , mangy snarling dogs roaming around , it was like a heironymous bosch woodcut. i wanted to walk away but i couldnt. i was transfixed.

the wonderfully organised railway system , and real steam trains.

going to see a doctor in pushkar in rajasthan to try and get a stomach bug sorted out. he asked me to come back at sunset , and he was very precise about the exact time. i went back as arranged and he made me lie on a bed on the roof of his office , as the sun disappeared below the horizon he gave me a raw egg and a leaf to swallow and said a prayer.

the friendliness of the kashmiris and being treated like a king whilst staying on a houseboat on the lake in srinagar.

unfortunately , there was a curfew in operation due to rioting there and all there was to eat for a week was boiled potatoes and porridge.

the peace and calm of ladakh and the stunning locations of the monasteries and temples there. if there was one place that i would re visit , it would be ladakh. scenes from the 2 day journey from srinagar to leh on an ancient bus over impossible roads and mountain passes will stay with me forever and will never be surpassed.

makes me moist eyed just thinking about it.

a few months independant travel in india should be a mandatory rite of passage for all the gap year euro - softies who think that 2 hours of river rafting in chiang rai is all it takes to obtain backpack credibility.

[pete_r]

the wonderfully organised railway system , and real steam trains.

Sorry for the OT, but I can't resist bringing up that story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3561640.stm

>>>>>>>

UK looks to India for rail help

Friday, 13 August, 2004

British railway bosses have flown in 12 Indian railway engineers to work on revamping Victorian-era signal boxes, it has been revealed. The Indians have experience repairing systems dating back to the Raj.

>>>>>>>

[JetsetBkk]

Great stories!

he made me lie on a bed on the roof of his office , as the sun disappeared below the horizon he gave me a raw egg and a leaf to swallow and said a prayer.

Did it work?

[sgunn65]

We went in February for a friends wedding. We had a couple of days in Mumbai and another 3 in Pune. Also a further 24 hours being held by Immigration in one room in Dehli (thank you Air India the worst airline in the world).

It was overall an unpleasant experience. The dirt, the persistance of the beggars, blatant staring at my wife by groups of men, my inability to find decent bars (totally my fault) but it did cure me of my fear of driving in Bkk!! Since India traffic in Bkk is an oasis of calm. The first three days back in Bkk allowed me to become intimate with many of the cities public conveniences! Something that has never happened in Thailand.

You cannot judge a continent by a brief visit to two cities (and my friend was in Kerala at the same time and thinks it one of the great countries) however I did judge the States by my visit to New York (fantastic) and France from Paris(Beautiful) so I guess some of us do.

I have some good friends whose parents come from Punjab and I will visit there next year so I am hoping to get a more positive view then

[Acquiesce]

I have a number of properties in my portfolio in India, prices have been doing great over the past 6-7 years.

[gampaan]

If an opportunity to go there came up, I suppose I'd go just to see for myself 600 people riding a 100 capacity train car.

But I won't be looking for a travel agent any time soon..

[Naam]

I have a number of properties in my portfolio in India, prices have been doing great over the past 6-7 years.

property prices are still exploding.

[ajarnmark]

India was my first experience in Asia too , 1992.

Agree with everything Bkkmad said, especially the train journeys and the Indians starting conversation with you.

They are much friendlier than the Thais.

Thailand had work for me, that's why I didn't settle in India, although I wanted to.

What has Thailand got that India hasn't? Cleanliness, Honesty, Patience and a lot more...

I can't think of anything really - Pattaya, I suppose. Maybe because you do not go beyond Pattaya and Isaan.

[Neeranam]

India was my first experience in Asia too , 1992.

Agree with everything Bkkmad said, especially the train journeys and the Indians starting conversation with you.

They are much friendlier than the Thais.

Thailand had work for me, that's why I didn't settle in India, although I wanted to.

What has Thailand got that India hasn't? Cleanliness, Honesty, Patience and a lot more...

I can't think of anything really - Pattaya, I suppose. Maybe because you do not go beyond Pattaya and Isaan.

Ajarnmark - do you realise how stupid calling yourself 'ajarn' makes you look? Next you'll be telling us you teach English to 10 year olds!

I never go to Pattaya(hate the place). I lived outside Isarn for 8 years.

Have you actually been to India - what did you teach them there? Did they call you 'guru mark'?

Where did you go?

[Captain Chaos]

Lived and worked in Mumbai for 6 months or so in 2001. Mumbai is hard work, a very commercial city with terrible traffic and logistics and lacks some the sights that can be fairly easily reached from, say, Delhi. That said, I liked the people, and if you know something about cricket you can always start a conversation with anyone! Never fails - never been to a country with such a fanatical interest in the game

Regrettably I never got to see many of "the sights" as I was transferred straight over to BKK by my employer in early 2002 - although the odd trips into the Western Ghat hills and the old hill stations up there were quite interesting.

I'd say it's well worth a visit - but keep your wits about you - plenty of scam artists - so, err, just like anywhere else then, including Thailand!

CC

[ajarnmark]

Ajarnmark - do you realise how stupid calling yourself 'ajarn' makes you look? Next you'll be telling us you teach English to 10 year olds!

I never go to Pattaya(hate the place). I lived outside Isarn for 8 years.

Have you actually been to India - what did you teach them there? Did they call you 'guru mark'?

Where did you go?

You run out of arguments thats why you are using such language.

I never taught English and I am not willing to teach English as there are so many others who can teach.

I have been to India once and never ever want to go back there. I dont care what they call me.

Dude, relax and accept both good and bad things in any country. None of the country in this world is either only good or bad. For me, I have seen more of the bad sides of India and I didnt like the experience much. In fact its not me, but everyone who goes there shares the same story.

As other poster said that going as a tourist is a different experience as living there as a long term expat.

BTW, why you are taking it so personal, is this that you have some very strong connections/roots in India?

[zaza]

Thanks Mod ! That's what I call fast moderating!

[Neeranam]

I never taught English and I am not willing to teach English as there are so many others who can teach.

What do you teach, Ajarn?

BTW, why you are taking it so personal, is this that you have some very strong connections/roots in India?

I'm not. I don't, but what would be the matter if I did have connections/roots in India?

I'm not sure why you hate Indians so much - maybe been in Thailand too long - how long? 2 years?

This thread is about the good things in India, please don't post in it if you have nothing to say.

[varun]

We're a really screwed up lot to be honest

On one hand we can be exceptionally brilliant and forward thinking in some regards.

On the other hand, we can be the biggest lying,conniving and deceptive bastards on the planet!

Due to the gargantuan population and far flung demographics, you'll be likely to meet a vast variety of us.

Think the best way to understand Indian people is goto youtube and search for 'Russell Peters'.

He's a Indian-Canadian standup comedian and everything he says about Indians is 100% correct.

Hilarious, have a look, you'll love it!

Edited October 10, 2007 by varun

[uptou]

I'm still thinking i'll give india ago,love or hate it.

I want to live in asia without the visa hassle.

Can any of you help out with a few questions?

As far as the india visa goes,is the ten year one easy to get,or is a second 6 month tourist visa easy to get,apon leaving the country?

Where would you recommend as a 1st timer's,1st destination in india?

As far as renting an apartment goes on a monthly basis,how does it compare to Thailand,costs etc?

As far as great scenery,& relative peace & quiet goes where should i check out?

Thanks for any help.