India Basics

I left from Newark on Saturday morning at 8AM EDT, connected in London at 10PM BST, and landed in Delhi at 10:30 IST. That was 14.5 hrs flying time, but I was on Virgin Atlantic, which is a pretty awesome airline.

So, here are some basic stats on my stay and on India. I'll elaborate as time progresses.

• Purpose of my visit? Training and leading a team with a co-worker, J, to do the job we've been doing for the past 6 months so we can do cooler stuff :)
• Arrived on Sun Aug 24th, leaving Sat Sept 20th
• Staying in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which is a 5* hotel in New Delhi.
  
• J and I share a driver. J will be leaving in 2 weeks. Another coworker, S, will be arriving next week, and will also be staying a month. S is working on a different project

The biggest questions I have gotten from people involve the preparation for my trip, and what precautions I have to take, etc. So, I'll give the spiel:

• Shots: Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever, Updated Tetanus/Diptheria, no less than 2 weeks before leaving.
  
• Drugs: Recommended to take malaria preventative if you travel outside urban areas. I opted not to take these, because there are 2 drugs that you can take. The side effects of one are upset stomach and vivid dreams, the other may cause daytime psychosis (hallucinations and that sort of thing). I chose to buy some bug spray and take my chances with malaria, which is treatable (with the same drugs as above).
• Visa: You have to get a visa to enter the country for any reason. I have a 1-year business visa.
• Water: I'm sure you've heard 'don't drink the water in Mexico'. Same in India, probably all of Asia, a lot of South America, Africa, and the Middle East. The water treatment is not as good as it is in the US and Europe, so there are lots of tiny creepy-crawlies hanging out in the water. The natives' bodies are used to them. Foreigners' bodies are not. So, I drink bottled water. I brush my teeth with bottled water. I can't have ice in my drink. I can't eat fruit or salad that's been rinsed in tap water ('closed' fruit, like bananas and melons are ok). Thankfully for the huge environmentalist part of me, the bottled water is just treated water from India (one of them comes from right over river in NOIDA), and it's not fancy schmancy water from France or something.
• Food: I can eat whatever I want, as long as it's properly cooked. Street vendors are out of the question, though, unless I want to spend a day or 2 in the bathroom. And let me specify 'whatever I want'. No beef (cows are sacred to Hindus), very little Western food. Yes, there are chains here (McDs, Pizza Hut, Domino's), but I don't eat at them in the US. Why would I do it in Delhi?
  
• Traffic: Crazy. People, bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws and yes, cows, all share the same road. Horns are used liberally, usually in place of turn signals. Painted lines for lanes? Psh, those aren't really followed. I've seen zero stop signs, a few stop lights (where the beggars come out with their wares), and zero signs of accidents taking place. It may be crazy, but they all know what they're doing, and I don't feel like I'm going to die while the driver is doing his thing.
• Weather: Hazy, HOT and humid. Highs in the mid-upper 90s every day. And this isn't the hottest part of the year; April-May is! It is monsoon season though, so there are a couple heavy showers a day. I'm in the AC all day at work, AC at the hotel at night, so I'm doing just fine. Another note: the smog is terrible. I'll be very surprised if I see blue sky while I'm here.
  
• Electricity: Since the infrastructure isn't the greatest, the power goes out for about 30s about 4 times a day. Computers still work in the office, but it's weird if the lights go out in a restaurant. You just look around, wait till they come back on, and carry on.
• Safety: People are out to rip you off. That's just the culture. Bargaining/bribing is critical to getting anything done. Thankfully the hotel is not like that. And for personal safety, I would never go anywhere but the most touristy of places by myself here. Some people speak English fairly well, but not well enough that I feel safe. I'm glad I have my co-workers as travel buddies.
  

I'm sure there are more things that I've forgotten, but I thought I'd get this out of the way. If you have any questions, please post a comment, I'd love to answer anything you want to know about India (but were afraid to ask)!