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what's going on everybody this island Hopper
TV coming to you from India we're going to

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talk about things to know when you visit let's
do it [Music] all right the first thing you

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need to know is General facts about arriving
in India and that includes Visas so you're

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going to need a visa before you arrive you
can either go on the government website and

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try and get it that way which is quite difficult
in my opinion so I paid a company to do it

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iviso was the name I will try to put a link
below if you guys want to try and get a hold

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of them but uh you know you got to go on the
government website make sure it is an official

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visa for India before you arrive also don't
forget to get a health certificate because

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the airline will ask you for that at the airport

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all right so one of the things you probably
want to know is where to start in India where

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to go so we began in Delhi that's the two
big places Delhi or Mumbai the best place

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for tourists they say is Goa which is actually
where I'm at now this big Long Beach that

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I'm on all here in Goa go is actually one
of the smallest states but from here you could

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either go south to Kochi which is in the far
south of India not quite Sri Lanka but still

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far Southwest if you go to the middle you
can hit Bangalore okay you could go to Calcutta

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Calcutta is another big city I would say three
areas that you might originate depending on

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what side you're coming in Mumbai Delhi or
Calcutta from there you can expand into places

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like Jaipur or you could go to Rajasthan a
lot of people here say go to Rajasthan or

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you could go to the north to the Himalayas
Rishi cash or some of the other towns up there

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at the foothills of the Himalayas so I hope
that helps you guys decide where you want

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to begin

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obviously there's the Taj Mahal which you
see right behind me there's also the Golden

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Triangle which includes Agra there's the Jaipur
and then there's New Delhi in the Golden Triangle

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there's a few other places like Jaipur and
that Golden Triangle shape that you have actually

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goes from Delhi uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
if you look on a map so the main areas you're

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going to be looking at there in those regions
Agra Delhi and Jaipur there's a few other

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towns like I said but that's the Golden Triangle
so when you go to Delhi you just go look for

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one of those tours and you can get all of
that in your visit there here's something

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about the driving so you're going to need
good brakes a good horn and good luck you'll

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hear that quite commonly and that's the reason
that they have that is because driving in

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India is quite unique and you can see by the
look of the traffic here it is traffic jam

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traffic jam traffic jam every once in a while
you get on a freeway and it's open road but

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it doesn't matter where you are in India expect
traffic jams even in the small villages why

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because there could be a train that's blocking
traffic or there could be a cow in the road

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you never know what it is and taking buses
around India is a very affordable way to see

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the country it does take a bit of a long time
because of the traffic jams but you can still

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do it for a very affordable price and see
much of India by bus and another option is

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going to be these rickshaws they call them
the Indian BMW at least that's what my tour

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guide called them another form of transportation
is a talk talk the benefit of a tuck tuck

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is it handles traffic jams a bit better than
a car and especially better than a bus but

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these are short distance Solutions it's not
going to be able to get you long range you're

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not going to be able to go clear across Deli
in a tuck tuck and then there's trains which

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are a bit faster and more convenient than
buses because you can sleep on them but also

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they go a bit faster and you can avoid the
traffic jams and there is Uber in the big

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cities like Mumbai and Delhi but for the most
part do be ready to ride prepaid taxis and

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if you're at a hotel ask them for a taxi or
a private car and if you're going to the airport

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or a train station you're going to want to
take into consideration traffic jams right

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now we're in the Stop and Go gridlock that
uh like it's not going to move for another

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10 to 20 minutes and our flight leaves at
2 30.

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it's currently 11 o'clock we still have time
but traffic jams can sometimes extend hours

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Google Maps because on the map it will tell
you that if there's congestion along the way

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so before you leave you can check and see
if there's congestion see the red right here

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so you can either download Google Maps or
Waze yeah so when doing air travel here it

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is October 2022 you still have to wear your
mask also another thing to know about going

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through the
airports they're going to pull everything

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out of your bag it's electronic including
cords plugs anything that you have that's

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Electronics has to come out it's one of the
only countries I've ever been to where they've

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pulled all your electronics including cords
output into a separate bin

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yeah when you come to India there's a bunch
of different foods that you'll want to try

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like street food and let's be real if you're
coming to India you already know about the

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good food that you're going to get here I
mean it's all over India's street food is

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so tasty all over India you're just gonna
be in a food heaven really and I experienced

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this firsthand when it comes to trying food
along the street some people will tell you

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don't try street food my rule is this if it's
steaming hot I'll try it because that cooks

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a lot of the bacteria or anything that could
be in it if it's cold I probably don't want

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to try it all right can I try food yeah

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and to talk more about the street food what
you're basically trying to avoid is Deli belly

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it's basically diarrhea that's contracted
in India by tourists and it's usually contracted

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because of a lack of Sanitation whether it
be the water or the food quality or not cooking

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it all the way through you know whatever the
case may be you don't want to get a bad case

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of the runs while you're in India not just
because it's painful and annoying but also

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because the toilet situation might not be
ideal but I personally ate street food and

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was there two weeks and didn't have any issues
I did take a probiotic and a gut enzyme every

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day

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yeah and another thing is on pistar airlines
they have premium economy I think they're

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the only ones that do also they give you food
even for a 55 minute flight this is my lunch

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for a 55 minute flight and another thing across
India they do have different Cuisine for example

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in the north it's veg a lot of vegetarian
in the South you'll get more non-veg

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let's talk about what to wear when you visit
India definitely shorts and a short sleeve

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shirt or you could also wear a UV protected
dry fit clothes for that sun right now we're

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here during monsoon season it did get a little
bit chilly when the rain was coming down but

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also I want to tell you that dressing down
here in India especially when you go into

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the villages and off the beaten path you want
to dress down you don't want to wear your

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Rolex watch or your jewelry or your gold rings
you don't want to appear as though you've

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got too much money or an easy target so keep
that in mind when it comes to dressing down

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I'm not saying that everywhere in India you
got to dress down because there might be some

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occasions you're at a nice fluff or a hotel
and you want to dress up that's fine but when

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you're going out into these small towns these
small villages consider are dressing down

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not wearing your best clothes in your entire
closet

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all right let's talk money in India so the
official currency that you're going to use

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here is rupees so when you go to the ATM or
the cash exchange you can use US Dollars and

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you can use your card at International ATMs
and some of the local ATMs the problem is

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not all the ATMs are working around the clock
I've gone to several different places where

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the ATMs were down so I had to go to another
one ATM was down and the thing is ATMs are

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scattered far apart it's not like they're
condensed amazing ATM still doesn't work that's

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the second one I have a couple blocks and
then find another down ATM so keep that in

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mind so take out large amounts when possible
but typically they're only allowing me to

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withdraw about 10 000 rupee even at the airport
and that comes out to about 130 dollars now

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when it comes to using the cards you can use
Visa you can use MasterCard but American Express

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not so easy but when it comes to actually
having cash on you and negotiating with vendors

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or taxi drivers or people in the towns you're
going to want to have smaller bills on you

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like 10 rupee or 20 rupee and if you can get
a chance to do that in abundance get a bunch

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of those because when you're walking around
you're going to want to have that small bill

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because it's hard for them to typically get
change for 500 or 200 so having the smaller

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bills on you is always a good thing

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and another thing to know about visiting India
there's going to be lots of animals in the

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streets and on the roads for example this
cow right here is just one example of what

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you'll see when you come to India look at
this cow you're just walking around the town

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like it's nothing you also see monkeys doing
the exact same thing he's coming to me right

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now look at this there's a dog so get used
to seeing lots of animals I've even seen rats

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hanging out chilling like no problem so animals
inside the city is very common

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obviously [Music]

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[Music] now when it comes to more General
facts 1.3 billion people live in India making

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it the second largest country in the World
Behind China okay the official language is

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Hindi so when you go on Google translate type
in Hindi that's the language that you're going

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to be speaking when you get here Namaste also
the tallest mountain range in the world is

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right behind me it's the Himalayas they share
that with Bhutan China and Nepal but right

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that way up the ganga river right here is
the Himalayas the tallest in the world as

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you know in India there's actually 22 languages
that are recognized as official languages

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but there's actually more than that there's
over 121 tons of different languages but they're

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not all official also did you know that India
ranks number three in the world for the most

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billionaires so there's a lot of really wealthy
people from India

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so another thing to know is about the spirituality
or the religion here in India 78 of the people

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are Hindu about 13 to 14 percent are Islamic
then that remains with a few extra percentages

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that's going to comprise of two percent Christianity
about one percent Sikhism another one percent

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or just below one percent Jainism also some
people here practice Baha'i as you'll see

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with the Lotus Temple in Delhi those are the
main religions that you'll find here

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and here's another thing to know about the
trash in the litter situation in India it

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is a bit unsustainable as it appears you can
see on this beach here it's a problem climate

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change is playing a factor whether it's man-made
or not climate is changing here which is causing

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this erosion on this Shoreline they're putting
the sandbags here but you'll see it with the

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Plastics and all that so being more conscientious
if you can of the amount of waste that you

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personally are producing when you're coming
to India

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let's talk about when the best time to visit
India is so the Indian subcontinent gets a

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lot of monsoon moisture in the summertime
so the best time really to visit is going

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to be from October until March that's in the
south of India if you go to the north of India

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you want to avoid the Himalayas during the
months of November December January February

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because it's going to be snowpack unless you're
looking to do some skiing it's all going to

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depend on where you're going but the further
south you go you're going to have this Monsoon

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moisture like we're getting right now in Mumbai
here it is in October

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all right let's talk about safety in India
what do you have to be concerned about or

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how safe is it in general so we've been to
Mumbai we've been to the Himalayas we've been

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to New Delhi Delhi been to Goa so far I have
not seen anything that really stood out as

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alarming there are some places you will go
to where you might get some fuzzy eyeballs

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but for the most part if they're looking at
you smile back and you'll realize they actually

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are smiling at you as well so I haven't really
had too much issues with scammers either when

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I came to India I was reading about scammer
scammers obviously we all know about the infamous

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IRS prank call scammers I was expecting a
little bit more scanning I didn't see much

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of it I found most of the people to be very
honest and it was actually from my experience

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safe to walk around the food thing you might
want to pay a little bit more attention to

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so eating street food it can be done but take
necessary precautions taking multivitamins

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or enzymes for your gut or even probiotics
other than that I would say overall India

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has been a safe place but you do want to take
general safety precautions when you get a

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taxi for example get it from the hotel if
you trust the hotel then trust their taxi

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guy right that's kind of my rule of thumb
for how I approach it late at night if I'm

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going around late at night I'll hire a guide
hiring a guide is always the best way to do

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it and the way you get that is going to the
hotel front desk and saying do you have someone

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who can give us a private tour or you can
go with a big tour bus or a big tour group

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so those are some things that you can do to
make sure you are even safer but I've walked

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around here all alone even with my friend
walking around alone no real issues

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yeah I really did enjoy my time in India and
I would recommend that if you have two or

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three weeks for your first time that's probably
best and then you can always go back but we

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went all across India you can watch more of
our other videos and we hope to see you on

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the next one [Music] foreign

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[Music]