what's going on everybody this island Hopper TV coming to you from India we're going to
talk about things to know when you visit let's do it [Music] all right the first thing you
need to know is General facts about arriving in India and that includes Visas so you're
going to need a visa before you arrive you can either go on the government website and
try and get it that way which is quite difficult in my opinion so I paid a company to do it
iviso was the name I will try to put a link below if you guys want to try and get a hold
of them but uh you know you got to go on the government website make sure it is an official
visa for India before you arrive also don't forget to get a health certificate because
the airline will ask you for that at the airport
all right so one of the things you probably want to know is where to start in India where
to go so we began in Delhi that's the two big places Delhi or Mumbai the best place
for tourists they say is Goa which is actually where I'm at now this big Long Beach that
I'm on all here in Goa go is actually one of the smallest states but from here you could
either go south to Kochi which is in the far south of India not quite Sri Lanka but still
far Southwest if you go to the middle you can hit Bangalore okay you could go to Calcutta
Calcutta is another big city I would say three areas that you might originate depending on
what side you're coming in Mumbai Delhi or Calcutta from there you can expand into places
like Jaipur or you could go to Rajasthan a lot of people here say go to Rajasthan or
you could go to the north to the Himalayas Rishi cash or some of the other towns up there
at the foothills of the Himalayas so I hope that helps you guys decide where you want
to begin
obviously there's the Taj Mahal which you see right behind me there's also the Golden
Triangle which includes Agra there's the Jaipur and then there's New Delhi in the Golden Triangle
there's a few other places like Jaipur and that Golden Triangle shape that you have actually
goes from Delhi uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan if you look on a map so the main areas you're
going to be looking at there in those regions Agra Delhi and Jaipur there's a few other
towns like I said but that's the Golden Triangle so when you go to Delhi you just go look for
one of those tours and you can get all of that in your visit there here's something
about the driving so you're going to need good brakes a good horn and good luck you'll
hear that quite commonly and that's the reason that they have that is because driving in
India is quite unique and you can see by the look of the traffic here it is traffic jam
traffic jam traffic jam every once in a while you get on a freeway and it's open road but
it doesn't matter where you are in India expect traffic jams even in the small villages why
because there could be a train that's blocking traffic or there could be a cow in the road
you never know what it is and taking buses around India is a very affordable way to see
the country it does take a bit of a long time because of the traffic jams but you can still
do it for a very affordable price and see much of India by bus and another option is
going to be these rickshaws they call them the Indian BMW at least that's what my tour
guide called them another form of transportation is a talk talk the benefit of a tuck tuck
is it handles traffic jams a bit better than a car and especially better than a bus but
these are short distance Solutions it's not going to be able to get you long range you're
not going to be able to go clear across Deli in a tuck tuck and then there's trains which
are a bit faster and more convenient than buses because you can sleep on them but also
they go a bit faster and you can avoid the traffic jams and there is Uber in the big
cities like Mumbai and Delhi but for the most part do be ready to ride prepaid taxis and
if you're at a hotel ask them for a taxi or a private car and if you're going to the airport
or a train station you're going to want to take into consideration traffic jams right
now we're in the Stop and Go gridlock that uh like it's not going to move for another
10 to 20 minutes and our flight leaves at 2 30.
it's currently 11 o'clock we still have time but traffic jams can sometimes extend hours
Google Maps because on the map it will tell you that if there's congestion along the way
so before you leave you can check and see if there's congestion see the red right here
so you can either download Google Maps or Waze yeah so when doing air travel here it
is October 2022 you still have to wear your mask also another thing to know about going
through the airports they're going to pull everything
out of your bag it's electronic including cords plugs anything that you have that's
Electronics has to come out it's one of the only countries I've ever been to where they've
pulled all your electronics including cords output into a separate bin
yeah when you come to India there's a bunch of different foods that you'll want to try
like street food and let's be real if you're coming to India you already know about the
good food that you're going to get here I mean it's all over India's street food is
so tasty all over India you're just gonna be in a food heaven really and I experienced
this firsthand when it comes to trying food along the street some people will tell you
don't try street food my rule is this if it's steaming hot I'll try it because that cooks
a lot of the bacteria or anything that could be in it if it's cold I probably don't want
to try it all right can I try food yeah
and to talk more about the street food what you're basically trying to avoid is Deli belly
it's basically diarrhea that's contracted in India by tourists and it's usually contracted
because of a lack of Sanitation whether it be the water or the food quality or not cooking
it all the way through you know whatever the case may be you don't want to get a bad case
of the runs while you're in India not just because it's painful and annoying but also
because the toilet situation might not be ideal but I personally ate street food and
was there two weeks and didn't have any issues I did take a probiotic and a gut enzyme every
day
yeah and another thing is on pistar airlines they have premium economy I think they're
the only ones that do also they give you food even for a 55 minute flight this is my lunch
for a 55 minute flight and another thing across India they do have different Cuisine for example
in the north it's veg a lot of vegetarian in the South you'll get more non-veg
let's talk about what to wear when you visit India definitely shorts and a short sleeve
shirt or you could also wear a UV protected dry fit clothes for that sun right now we're
here during monsoon season it did get a little bit chilly when the rain was coming down but
also I want to tell you that dressing down here in India especially when you go into
the villages and off the beaten path you want to dress down you don't want to wear your
Rolex watch or your jewelry or your gold rings you don't want to appear as though you've
got too much money or an easy target so keep that in mind when it comes to dressing down
I'm not saying that everywhere in India you got to dress down because there might be some
occasions you're at a nice fluff or a hotel and you want to dress up that's fine but when
you're going out into these small towns these small villages consider are dressing down
not wearing your best clothes in your entire closet
all right let's talk money in India so the official currency that you're going to use
here is rupees so when you go to the ATM or the cash exchange you can use US Dollars and
you can use your card at International ATMs and some of the local ATMs the problem is
not all the ATMs are working around the clock I've gone to several different places where
the ATMs were down so I had to go to another one ATM was down and the thing is ATMs are
scattered far apart it's not like they're condensed amazing ATM still doesn't work that's
the second one I have a couple blocks and then find another down ATM so keep that in
mind so take out large amounts when possible but typically they're only allowing me to
withdraw about 10 000 rupee even at the airport and that comes out to about 130 dollars now
when it comes to using the cards you can use Visa you can use MasterCard but American Express
not so easy but when it comes to actually having cash on you and negotiating with vendors
or taxi drivers or people in the towns you're going to want to have smaller bills on you
like 10 rupee or 20 rupee and if you can get a chance to do that in abundance get a bunch
of those because when you're walking around you're going to want to have that small bill
because it's hard for them to typically get change for 500 or 200 so having the smaller
bills on you is always a good thing
and another thing to know about visiting India there's going to be lots of animals in the
streets and on the roads for example this cow right here is just one example of what
you'll see when you come to India look at this cow you're just walking around the town
like it's nothing you also see monkeys doing the exact same thing he's coming to me right
now look at this there's a dog so get used to seeing lots of animals I've even seen rats
hanging out chilling like no problem so animals inside the city is very common
obviously [Music]
[Music] now when it comes to more General facts 1.3 billion people live in India making
it the second largest country in the World Behind China okay the official language is
Hindi so when you go on Google translate type in Hindi that's the language that you're going
to be speaking when you get here Namaste also the tallest mountain range in the world is
right behind me it's the Himalayas they share that with Bhutan China and Nepal but right
that way up the ganga river right here is the Himalayas the tallest in the world as
you know in India there's actually 22 languages that are recognized as official languages
but there's actually more than that there's over 121 tons of different languages but they're
not all official also did you know that India ranks number three in the world for the most
billionaires so there's a lot of really wealthy people from India
so another thing to know is about the spirituality or the religion here in India 78 of the people
are Hindu about 13 to 14 percent are Islamic then that remains with a few extra percentages
that's going to comprise of two percent Christianity about one percent Sikhism another one percent
or just below one percent Jainism also some people here practice Baha'i as you'll see
with the Lotus Temple in Delhi those are the main religions that you'll find here
and here's another thing to know about the trash in the litter situation in India it
is a bit unsustainable as it appears you can see on this beach here it's a problem climate
change is playing a factor whether it's man-made or not climate is changing here which is causing
this erosion on this Shoreline they're putting the sandbags here but you'll see it with the
Plastics and all that so being more conscientious if you can of the amount of waste that you
personally are producing when you're coming to India
let's talk about when the best time to visit India is so the Indian subcontinent gets a
lot of monsoon moisture in the summertime so the best time really to visit is going
to be from October until March that's in the south of India if you go to the north of India
you want to avoid the Himalayas during the months of November December January February
because it's going to be snowpack unless you're looking to do some skiing it's all going to
depend on where you're going but the further south you go you're going to have this Monsoon
moisture like we're getting right now in Mumbai here it is in October
all right let's talk about safety in India what do you have to be concerned about or
how safe is it in general so we've been to Mumbai we've been to the Himalayas we've been
to New Delhi Delhi been to Goa so far I have not seen anything that really stood out as
alarming there are some places you will go to where you might get some fuzzy eyeballs
but for the most part if they're looking at you smile back and you'll realize they actually
are smiling at you as well so I haven't really had too much issues with scammers either when
I came to India I was reading about scammer scammers obviously we all know about the infamous
IRS prank call scammers I was expecting a little bit more scanning I didn't see much
of it I found most of the people to be very honest and it was actually from my experience
safe to walk around the food thing you might want to pay a little bit more attention to
so eating street food it can be done but take necessary precautions taking multivitamins
or enzymes for your gut or even probiotics other than that I would say overall India
has been a safe place but you do want to take general safety precautions when you get a
taxi for example get it from the hotel if you trust the hotel then trust their taxi
guy right that's kind of my rule of thumb for how I approach it late at night if I'm
going around late at night I'll hire a guide hiring a guide is always the best way to do
it and the way you get that is going to the hotel front desk and saying do you have someone
who can give us a private tour or you can go with a big tour bus or a big tour group
so those are some things that you can do to make sure you are even safer but I've walked
around here all alone even with my friend walking around alone no real issues
yeah I really did enjoy my time in India and I would recommend that if you have two or
three weeks for your first time that's probably best and then you can always go back but we
went all across India you can watch more of our other videos and we hope to see you on
the next one [Music] foreign
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