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Just spent a handful of days in Delhi and surrounding area a couple weeks ago. We had a mix of both the "typical" tourist experience as well as off-the-beaten-track experiences, and spent most of the time out and about, so we got a pretty accurate impression of things. Here's my random impressions and thoughts:
Air pollution was out of this world. It makes Shanghai look clean. I had no idea such pollution was conceivable. Never in my life have I ever seen anything like it. It's a thick brown dust as far as you can see that obscures buildings and everything that's more than 1/2km away and blocks out the sun. And it's not limited to Delhi. We took a three-hour car drive to Agra and the pollution was constant the whole way. You can't really see much of the surrounding countryside due to it.
Tons of people on the street and very chaotic. I personally enjoyed this.
Cars, motorcycles and animals everywhere. The rare camel being ridden down the streets of Delhi. Tribes of monkeys moving from rooftop to rooftop with people and cars two stories below.
You can buy a good quality cow for $350USD. Then you can't do anything with it except feed it and collect milk from it.
In tourist areas as a foreigner you will be harrassed and bombarded to no end by vendors.
In non-tourist areas you will not be harrassed at all, so these areas are much more preferable.
Anywhere there's a local market area, ask the locals to lead you to a money lender and you'll get a much better exchange rate for your dollars than what the hotel or anyone else will give you.
Things are totally safe for foreign men. Worst that can happen is you might get your bag snatched, but this seems to be rare.
The male population is larger than the female population and this is obvious on the streets, there are many more men. Things are safe for women in the day and also at night in areas where there are lots of men and women on the street, but things can be dicey in other areas so I don't recommend women to travel in such areas unless they're accompanied by a couple foreign men.
Women are fourth-rate citizens in India. Men consider themselves to be superior to women. Women who have professional jobs (doctors, teachers) are respected. Women who work in hotels, restaurants, toll booth operators are viewed as whores.
I suggest you give a couple dollars to local street orphans and destitute people living on the streets rather than give it to vendors. This way you know your money is helping people who need it.
People of India in the poor areas are warm and friendly if you take the time to talk with them, joke with them.
But if you are a foreign woman, don't get too chummy or friendly ... I noticed whenever my wife was friendly, the men would start to focus their attention on her and even a couple of them asked if she was married. It wasn't over-the-top, because obviously she was with me, but I could easily see it becoming over-the-top if you are travelling by yourself or with your girlfriends.
I would have liked to have tried street food, but everyone I've ever met has said they've gotten seriously ill from the food in India, so we limited ourselves to eating in the hotel. (And even then, we had one day of stomach rumblings and mild diarreah).
We did not see any mosquitos and therefore did not use any repellant during our stay.
The typical tourist spots are definitely worth visiting. The old forts and Taj Mahal are impressive and have a lot of history.
We stayed at the Shangri-la hotel and the food and service were excellent. If this is considered an upper-end hotel, then the next time I go to India I'll probably be willing to stay in a mid-range hotel, maybe one notch down, but I wouldn't stay in any class of hotel lower than that due to sanitary conditions.
40% of the Indian population cannot read or write.
40% of the Indian population is below poverty.
A lot of the monuments and tourist places have a fake metal detector they make you walk through. These are nothing more than a couple 2x4s erected to look like a metal detector. Apparently this is sufficient to fool the uneducated population, which I find pretty sad. We need to correct this and start educating them.
Contrary to popular belief, MOST people in India do not speak English, or only speak such poor English that it's impossible to communicate with them. So, have your translator app ready.
Indians enjoy having their picture taken by foreigners. So feel free to do it.
On the road to Agra we passed a bus laden with passengers, including 20-30 people sitting on the rooftop. They were taking photos of us and we were taking photos of them, and everyone had a good time. They were smiling and giving us peace signs and thumbs ups.
I don't recommend exercising while you are in India, as the extra polluted air you respirate will likely lower your life span.
I would have enjoyed India a lot more if it weren't for the air pollution, but it really put a damper on my experience. It got to the point where I didn't feel like going outside.
Will I go back to Delhi? No. The air pollution ruined it for me.
Will I go back to a different part of India. Yes, I'd like to go someday to Rajasthan to see the forts, and probably would like to check out southern India someday.
A few comments - it SEEMS that there are more men than woman in India, that's because it's a mans world there as you note - there are plenty of woman there but the womans place is indoors and unseen. Just the way it is.
Pollution - depends on the season. Well, pollution and filth is always bad but in the dry season you have dust come in from the western deserts and less rain to wash it out. I've been there at it's worst - the dirty yellow sky, yellow faint sun.
Be lucky trip to Agra from Delhi used to take like 5 or 6 hours one way. The highway you rode on is relatively new.
You didn't mention the smell. Deodorant seems an afterthought in India.
The rare camel on the street? Yeah I've seen that along with the water buffalo hauling carts, you see that, wait to you see the rare elephant on the street, then you know you've been to India enough times.
Not sure how the Shanga-La is, I stay at the western business hotels and they are like forts - wall enclosed, barb wire, metal detectors, guys looking under cars with mirrors. Terrorism is a real threat there but they blame Pakistan for everything. You eat at the hotel because it's simply to inconvenient to eat anywhere else.
A few comments - it SEEMS that there are more men than woman in India, that's because it's a mans world there as you note - there are plenty of woman there but the womans place is indoors and unseen. Just the way it is.
I think there are more men but it's not statistically significant, reasons it seems like a lot more men is exactly what you mention: women are far less likely to be out and about especially among lower class folks. If you go to a nice modern shopping mall in India the ratio of men/women suddenly seems a lot closer to what we see in USA.
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Originally Posted by Dd714
The rare camel on the street? Yeah I've seen that along with the water buffalo hauling carts, you see that, wait to you see the rare elephant on the street, then you know you've been to India enough times.
Definitely lots of cows wandering about in the streets. Also goats (sometimes by the passing herd), various types of monkeys, camels, and as you mentioned the occasional elephant. The elephants are pretty sad to see, they give a lot more "exploited" vibe off than the rest which I know isn't necessarily true but they have such sad eyes.
Here's an urban elephant we saw in Delhi, at least this one wasn't all painted up like they do sometimes:
The cows can be a pain if they block the sidewalks, it's funny when they start entering a restaurant and all the waiters are throwing water on them to discourage. These were from somewhere in Northern India I don't recall which city:
A goat parade passing us taking up the sidewalk, at least for goats I'm not as wary of running into them like with the cows. This was in the south in Cochin:
You eat at the hotel because it's simply to inconvenient to eat anywhere else.
We've always found eating in local places filled local people to be one of the best ways to meet and talk with folks. There is something about breaking bread together that often opens people up more, especially if you're the only tourists around since you're interesting to them. I can't count how many times we've ended up chatting with people who are dying to know what we think of their country, want to show us more food we should try, tell more places we should go, etc.
It's weird in the smaller villages out in the sticks, the adults will just stare but the kids don't care they'll just start following you around so you slowly build up a gaggle of children following you around. Sometimes the braver ones will try to impress the others by standing closer or shouting hello.
This was our crew at a small village in up in Rajasthan:
Be lucky trip to Agra from Delhi used to take like 5 or 6 hours one way. The highway you rode on is relatively new.
It's a private highway. It's owned by a guy who bulit it and stuck a few toll booths on it. Very little traffic.
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You didn't mention the smell. Deodorant seems an afterthought in India.
I didn't notice that.
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you see that, wait to you see the rare elephant on the street, then you know you've been to India enough
I probably won't be back there for at least a few years. Other fish to fry first. Not clammering to go back.
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Not sure how the Shanga-La is, I stay at the western business hotels and they are like forts - wall enclosed, barb wire, metal detectors, guys looking under cars with mirrors.
There was that at the Shangri-La too but it was kinda lax sometimes.
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You eat at the hotel because it's simply to inconvenient to eat anywhere else.
If I had at least two weeks in India I would eat outside, but with our limited time we didn't want to get sick, which is what everyone says happens the first time you're there.
- it SEEMS that there are more men than woman in India, that's because it's a mans world there as you note - there are plenty of woman there but the womans place is indoors and unseen. Just the way it is.
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as sad as it gets but that’s far from one of ugliest hidden truths about India.
50,000 female baby fetuses are aborted EVERY MONTH in India.
Yes, I've heard that the air pollution in New Delhi is worse than Beijing. I was last there in 1996 before it got too disgusting!
A friend of mine came with who has naturally blonde hair and she kept having men come up to her to touch her hair, it being blonde. It got to the point she didn't even want to leave our hotel room.
Air Pollution is a problem in these months of October, November. It is better in other months of the year. Due to changing weather, Upper Gangetic as well as Indus plains closeness to Himalayan Mountains, moisture in the air, timeperiod between two crops cycle (Rice & wheat) where farmers tend to burn their crop stubble in order to prepare for next crop deteriorates air quality with smog (smoke plus fog). Same thing you will witness in Haryana, Punjab, upper Uttar Pradesh, Pakistan Punjab, Rural or Urban. It has nothing to do with chaotic city of Delhi-it is not Delhi pollution or creation. I have see Fog in tiny villages far far away from Delhi.
Never been there. Always heard that India was where "dirty" was invented.
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