My Trip to India: Preparing and What To Expect

Travel

Oct 22

I went on a trip to Bangalore, India to celebrate my boss’ wedding. In recapping the trip I wanted to share with each of you how to prepare for your own trip to India as well as a bit about what to expect.

How to Prepare For Your Trip to India

A few weeks have passed at this point since I have returned from India, and I am proud to say that I did not catch malaria or typhoid while I was over there. I guess the nauseated feeling that came with all of those pills might have been worth it after all (note: more recent prescriptions don’t have nearly as bad side effects as the old ones used to have, but this still wasn’t a picnic). I wanted to share some of my knowledge about getting to and packing for Bangalore, India with the world, hopefully somebody can learn from some of my mistakes. Also, you’ll find a few more pictures throughout this post, enjoy.

Stop By a Travel Clinic

First things first. Make a doctor’s appointment to make sure that you have all of the correct immunizations. Here’s the list. Typhoid pills and shots are only useful for so many years. So are tetanus shots. Also, you need to take malaria pills starting 1-2 days before you leave and continue them through 7 days when you return. I also vaguely remember something about needing to let the typhoid pills or shot settle into your body for a few weeks before the plane takes off.

*Note: I have been informed by Reeba that the exact pills and immunizations depends on what part of India you are visiting, so be sure to check with your doctor.*

Get Your Visa

Second things second. You need an Indian Visa. What does that entail? Well, these were the best directions we found. It involves (at a minimum) filling out 2 forms, having 2 forms of identification, a money order or cashier’s check – and if you are going to do it via mail mailing, tracking, and pre-paying both the envelope you’re sending it in and one for them to send it back in. You should allow at least a month to account for sending it back and forth, and that’s cutting it close. Also, if you’re trying to figure out how to mail an envelope that you’re able to track and pre-pay the answer involves fedex overnight shipping. This may involve creating an account if the computers at fedex don’t want to cooperate with you.

Pack For Your Trip to India

THEN, once all of those logistics are taken care of (and your flight is booked) you can start packing. We had a few emails floating around about packing and the list we came up with was pretty extensive. Also, I definitely spent $70 at CVS about 3 hours before leaving for the airport because I didn’t want to get to India and find out that I forgot anything. It’s also the RA in me, I want to try to make sure that I’m prepared for everyone else as well as myself. When we arrived, it was definitely a group effort, all 17 of us were pretty much on our games at all times. I’m going to break this up into two pieces, general must-haves and medical must-haves. And none of this will include the basics, those you’re just going to have to figure out on your own. Alright. Ready? Set? Go.

General Must-Haves

Snacks, because some nights you won’t feel like eating traditional food
Q-Tips, to fix your makeup (I’m sure they’re useful for boys too somehow…)
Toilet paper, which I actually ended up using more than I expected because a bunch of stalls were always out of paper
Safety pins, because it’s the easiest way to get the traditional outfits to stay where you want them to
Your passport, which should seem obvious, but if you’ve ever met me you know it’s not
Your card for the wedding you’re attending
A list of addresses of places you will be staying, you will need this before you even get off the plane
An outlet converter

First Aid Kit Items

Pepto-Bismal, the chewable tablets worked best (I didn’t like the cherry ones) – just remember that one of the side effects is that they might turn your tongue black, so don’t be alarmed when you wake up
Tums, just for a little Pepto variety
Gatorade Packets, in case you find yourself needing some extra supplements
Bug Spray, which I found out that they sell in the form of wipes, which were super convenient to put on, but not quite as convenient on the go or for sharing purposes
After Bite, just in case you do end up with any bites
Cortizone, just to add a little variety
Bandaids, clumsy happens
Neosporin, see previous reason
Advil, just in case
Tylanol, because sometimes Advil is too harsh on the stomach
Sunscreen, because it’s India
Baby wipes, for quick hand-washing
Your malaria pills

Things that I bought that seemed unnecessary after-the-fact were Claritin, Nyquil & Dayquil, Benadryl, and Tide to Go.

Other Last Minute To Do List Items

Changing your cell phone to an international plan
Calling your credit card companies
Taking out a little bit of cash
Checking the voltage capabilities on your electronics (anything that doesn’t go up to 240V won’t cut it without a converter)

What To Expect When You Get There

Here’s some of what you can expect on your trip based on my own experiences. Be ready for some surprises and some things you’ll never want to forget.

6 Things That Really Happened

Somebody said the sentence “a monkey slapped my dog” out loud and it was a true statement.
I sang “One Way Ticket” by LeAnn Rimes a cappella on a microphone at the karaoke night because Bossman decided to tell everybody that I could sing. I really need to learn the words to more songs that aren’t broadway, hymnals, or alto lines to jazz songs.
Within an hour of arriving in India Bossman looked at us and said, “Guess what? You’re dancing at the Henna Party!” Little did we know this meant working for three days with a choreographer to learn a 90-second dance that all 17 Americans would be doing. I turned out pretty great though.
After the Henna Party it started to downpour and one of Bossman’s cousins came over the sound system and said, “if you want to do a rain dance, now is the time to do it,” which resulted in everybody running outside and dancing in the rain in our traditional Indian outfits.
I ate a McSpicy Paneer sandwich from McDonalds.
Henna is piped out of a tube just like frosting is (who knew?). Once it’s piped on you need to stay still until it dries and then try not to touch anything for the next hour. Then you mix a lemon and sugar syrup and put it all over your hands and don’t move for another hour or so. Then you can crumble off the frosting like mix, but still shouldn’t wash your hands until morning. A nice man that I met three days before fed me dinner that night for a while, or at least until I got stubborn enough to believe I could do it myself, I think we call that liquid courage.

6 Things I Will Miss

The chai. On the last day I drank three-and-a-half cups of chai, most of which were homemade. This is ridiculous because I shouldn’t actually have caffeine, but the shaking and heart racing was totally worth it.
The dancing. There’s something about Indian music that makes it impossible to sit still. Not only that, but your whole body can get into it from toes to finger tips. You also don’t need to contain yourself while dancing – if you want to throw your arms up in the air, do it, if you want to kick your feet around, do it. I love that.
The desserts. Almost every traditional dessert that was served to us was SO sweet it was brilliant. Please keep in mind that I’m a girl who could down an entire bag of cotton candy in 3 minutes flat and not think twice about it. I think my favorite was the jalebi.
Taking pictures. Not gonna lie, it’s kind of awesome to have something cool to take pictures of every day – and at least 40 models on hand at any given moment.
The colors. I looked at Bossman at one point and said “you look great in burnt orange, you should add that color to your office wardrobe,” but he told me that he could only pull off those colors in India. What does that even mean? Unfortunately, it means that it’s way more acceptable to wear fun colors in India than it is in the United States.
The people. Oh my goodness, the people. Bossman’s entire family was incredible. So much fun and genuine and hospitable and down-to-earth and willing-to-help. I think I found most of them on Facebook already.

6 Things I Will Probably Not Miss

Being in a vehicle in India. Those streets are crazy!! Lanes and street signs are suggestions, high beams are the norm, and everybody is honking all the time. Holy goodness. HOWEVER, I must say, I was impressed that I never once saw an accident, so it’s definitely possible that they’re actually better drivers than we are in the US.
Malaria pills. Did you know you have to take malaria pills for an entire week after you get back? And while they’ve finally made it so that you can take the pills and not hallucinate I would really love to not feel nauseated all the time.
Dogs in the streets. Dogs just wander around there, some of them hurt, most of them pretty dirty. They didn’t really bother anybody, but I just felt sad looking at them.
Being paranoid. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, I’m a hypochondriac. I never actually got sick in India, but I did spend a lot of time being worried that I was going to get sick.
Shoe shopping. While this is not specifically India-caused, I don’t usually shoe shop in the US. I was unfortunately on a mission for gold sparkly shoes though to match my outfits. The first day we went shopping there were 7 girls all shoe shopping at the same time in a small store. It was pretty obvious that I was overwhelmed as I slowly backed myself into a seat and just sat there wide-eyed and not really talking. After the third shoe store I almost started crying. Yes, I’m admitting this on the internet.
Being surrounded by couples. Nobody was really all that touchy feely, and nobody highlighted the fact that they were in a couple, but sometimes it made me a little sad, specifically when people started taking couples pictures and I realized I didn’t have anyone to take one with. Also, out of the 17 of us there were 5 couples, so that’s not exactly a small percentage. This isn’t something that bothers me often, but ever so often I feel it in my gut.

6 Things About My Cultural Experience

I’m prefacing this category by saying I saw a very small portion of Bangalore, India and spent most of the time at a wedding while staying at a resort, so these by no means are supposed to be generalizations of India.

Everything happens on Indian Standard Time (am I allowed to say that?), which means that everything happens 45 minutes to 2 hours later than it was originally intended to happen. This means that you can sleep in later and not feel guilty about it.
There was no part of the wedding that was about romance, it was all about families coming together and starting a life together and rituals and traditions and blessings. Definitely an interesting twist from the other weddings I’ve been to this year.
Almost all of Bossman’s cousins had children, but none of them felt like parents as I’ve come to understand that word. All the cousins danced and joked around and drank and even did karaoke. This probably isn’t so much a difference between India and the US, but a difference between my family and Bossman’s family.
It was surprisingly easy not to drink the water in the shower by accident. As somebody who likes to sing in the shower I was genuinely worried about it. Even though we were told the water at the resort was filtered, I just didn’t want to chance it.
Dinner always started around 10:00pm. I don’t necessarily think that this was just a starting late thing. It did make large lunches and afternoon snacks much more important though.
Some things were cheaper in India, and some things were not. Currently $1 USD is equivalent to 60 rupees. (Let me tell you, 6 is not the easiest number to divide by when doing mental math.) The two pairs of shoes that I bought (the second time we went shopping when there were only two of us) were approximately $30 USD each, and I could have bought pairs up to $70 USD. This seemed pretty standard to me. However, when we ate at McDonalds, we ordered 3 sandwiches, 3 sides, and a drink and the total came to less than $5 USD.