Sightseeing

So I learned a couple of lessons the hardway while here in India. First and foremost, listen to my Doctors orders. He informed me not to eat seafood while in India and I disregarded this sage advice and ate prawns. Big mistake. Deep fried seafood hasn't been a problem but with grilled seafood there is not way to ensure that the temperatures made it up to 170 degrees. Avoid seafood at all costs! I highly recommend azithromycin. Taking four of these and two Imodium AD's cleared up a bad case of travellors sickness and stopped the rapid weightloss from dehydration. In all, I lost 4 kilos in 48 hours from bad seafood. I have to state though that it is possible that it was not the seafood that made me sick and may have been the cafeteria food. I wouldn't recommend eating in cafeteria's in India. In my instance the food tasted fine but I question the sanitary storage since it is stored in large vats underneath the serving counter without additional heat. So my two lessons are both about food. Never eat seafood or eat in cafeterias while in India. Learn from my mistakes folks.
India is a beautiful country, I was able to see some sights in Delhi this weekend. There is a wealth of culture and tradition to be viewed, enjoyed, and absorbed within a quick drive from Noida. We called a radio cap that charges 15 rupees per/km and had him stay with us for the entire day; having the air conditioned car for a brief respite from the 100 degree heat is a must. Bring water with you when you go out on these trips or purchase bottled water from reputable vendors. I recommend Aquafina. If you want to be sure that the water is fresh and professionally bottled, look at the cap. The cap is stamped in ink with a date and some text, if the stamp above the break line, lines up with the stamp below the break line, then it is safe to assume that the water has been machine bottled in a plant.
Note that when sightseeing in India many of the tourist attractions have two prices, one for the locals, typically 10-20 rupees and one for foreigners, typically 250-350 rupees. It is a little frustrating to see the price differences but there are typically no waiting in the foreigners line and the cost is still quite reasonable at about $5-$7US. Note that if you bring a video camera there will be additional charges for filming however if you use a regular digital camera there is no additional charge. All of the tourist locations are securerly guarded so don't be surprised about the military watching and checking your activities.

Word of advice, the price in the shops will change from person to person. Best advice is to shop for the items you want and then have a local go back when you are not there and haggle the price down. Americans are not given the best prices.

Thoughts....

The more I am here, it amazes me how this country is a study in contrasts. Yesterday, I was in my taxi going to the mall to make some purchases and was shocked to see who was sharing the road. In less than a 10 minute ride on the "highway", I saw a Bentley with a lone man in the back seat reading the paper beside a motorcycle carrying 4 people. A mile or so up the road, I saw a buggy being pulled by a brahma bull alongside people on bicycles or better described as human powered trucks as these bicycles had beds on the back loaded with produce or building supplies or whatever else the rider was transporting. Attached are some photos that I took that also illustrate the contrasts. The indoor photos are all from inside the Park Plaza hotel, the outside photos are all taken from the rooftop of the same hotel. You can see the contrasts in the modernness of the hotel, especially when compared to the tent tenement across the street. Notice the haze in the air. That is smoke. It permeates the air most days I have been here.

A couple of cab rides

Sorry for the short post but not much to discuss....But here are a few short videos to show what traffic is like in Noida. You have to be impressed with the cab drivers and their capability to maneuver in this. As a smart man once said to me, there are no bad cab drivers in India because all the bad ones are dead!

Arrival day!

Arrived in Delhi at about 9:30 PM local time. Customs and Immigration was pretty typical and a breeze as I had nothing to declare. I found out that non-Indians are not allowed to bring Indian currency into the country however getting money exchanged was easy and convenient inside the airport.

When I arrived, I was supposed to have a driver from the hotel meet me however they didn’t show up. Not a big deal as there is a booth for pre-paid cabs near the front of the airport. There are unscrupulous cheats who will try to get you into their cabs….don’t fall for it. Wait for the official guy in the booth to offer you your pre-paid fair and take it. For me it was only 850rs (about $19US) to get from the airport to the hotel. The ride from the airport was hair-raising. Don’t drive in India. Use the public transit system. Red lights and stop signs are optional, horns are used to signal and little regard is paid to the other drivers on the road. But other than scary, it wasn’t a bad experience. No need to tip the cab drivers folks but you may want to tip the guy who loads your luggage into the cab.

The air is ripe with scents. Almost smells like gun-powder or something that has been burning for a very long time. The smog is terrible. If you have allergies or COPD, you may want to consider a mask.

When you arrive at the hotel, you most likely will not find a convenience store inside the hotel. Stock up on your supplies before you arrive or when you are out. A tip I got from an Indian traveler at the airport: when in the shower, avoid getting water in your mouth. The way to avoid this is to keep your mouth shut in the shower. But how do you do this? A little mouthwash, hold it in your mouth and you won’t swallow it and consciously will hold your mouth shut. Nice!

Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet with an odd mix of foods. It will take awhile for me to determine what is a decent breakfast. I have posted some pictures of the view from my room and the room itself. Note the hose beside the toilet! Wonder what that is for? ;)

Preparing to go

Today I went shopping for supplies for the trip. When I went to the travel clinic, the doctor recommended that I purify the water I drink while in-country. The recommendation was to boil or purify with iodine. I went to Gander Mountain and purchased a collapsible water jug and iodine tablets. This will make the water safe to drink for those of us accustomed to the microbiotics of North America. Iodine tablets are expensive, $14.99 for enough pills to purify 7.5 gallons. I purchased 5 packages so I will have 67.5 gallons of purified water to last approximately 80 days. Additionally, they have an electronic purifier called the Steripen which can purify 16 oz of water electrically in seconds.

Other things to bring: Mosquito repellent with at least 30% DEET, good sun screen, a first aid kit, and a small sewing kit.

Overall, for miscellaneous supplies mentioned the cost was approximately $250 dollars but well worth the expense. One can never assume the same availability of products. I have been informed that mosquito repellent with DEET is not available in India and with the risk of Malaria and Dengue Fever, better safe then sorry. It may be overkill but why risk it.

For me, I chose to have two check boxes on my checklist. One that defines whether the supplies have been picked up and another to sow that it has been packed.

The voltage system in India is 230V 50Hz so I purchased a step down transformer, a small travel power strip, and a couple of international plug adapters from Amazon. Total cost for everything was just over $25, which made it qualify for free shipping.

I like to read as well, so I also went onto Amazon and sent about 10 books to my Kindle. My Kindle is last years model and cannot wirelessly receive books while out of country. Note that Amazon does allow the user to download books to a computer and then transfer the books from the computer to the Kindle at no charge. International downloads for the newer model kindle is not free. There is a nominal charge of approximately $1.

Nothing too exiting yet, but as I said, I am trying to document what I am taking as well as the overall experience to determine if my choices were good ones or not.

Nothing too interesting but maybe useful. That's it for now.

The adventure begins

Some people I know asked that I create a blog while on my trip to India to inform them of what I am doing as well as provide them insight into what they may experience, should they follow in my footsteps.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so please forgive me if this is not of professional quality. ;)

The process started a few weeks ago so I will start there and move through the steps taken so far. I will try to provide future updates frequently so I am not inducing further errors due to memory.

First I should warn everyone if they volunteer for something there is a greater chance that they get picked then if they don't volunteer.

Obtaining the visa was a surprisingly simple process. Instructions can be obtained from various websites. Follow the instructions step by step. As a foreign national (Canada) working in the United States I had an additional step of having to provide my Green Card but that was also included in the instructions. The cost is approximately $140 + shipping and handling. (I strongly suggest using a courier as you will be sending your actual passport to the Indian Consulate). Within 7 days, my passport and approved visa was returned to me.

The next thing on the agenda is getting the shots. In the case of India they recommend Hepititus A+B (Twinrix), Meningitis, Polio, Typhoid, and Tetanus. I would also recommend the seasonal flu vaccine and H1N1 vaccine. Do as much of this at your family physician as possible and have them code it as inoculations. The shots are expensive and if you do them at a travel clinic, they do not except insurance. Alternatively, if you are able to use a company nurse, they can also provide the shots. Even if you are able to get all of your shots at the nurses office or at your family physician, it is still worth shelling out the $45 dollars to the travel clinic to provide you with consultation of what to expect medically when on your trip. I used a travel clinic for everything and the cost came to $371.

The plane tickets to India are not cheap, especially for upgrades from coach. Most companies won't pay for upgrades and travel agent are often not set up to allow split billing to use a personal credit card to cover the difference...(Not sure you'd want to anyway, in my case tickets went from $1400 to $5000 with a simple upgrade...forget first class!).

Over the next few days, as I prepare to leave (today is the 11th and I leave on the 19th) I will provide updates on what I am packing and things of that nature. I figure documenting what I pack up front will be a great way to explain how I screwed up when I realize that I forgot stuff or packed inappropriately for the weather.

Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

- Elvin