India travel tips

Here are some tips from my six weeks of traveling in India in February-March ’10 (June ’10, pg. 27, July ’10, pg. 30, and Aug. ’10, pg. 14).

Drink bottled water only if you break the seal on the bottle, yourself, or watch someone else do it for you. If you can, buy bottles of water by the case and leave them in your vehicle; you save money and always have water available.

Forget about lettuce and uncooked tomatoes and other vegetables and unpeeled fruit until you get home. It’s just not worth risking an upset stomach.

Indian breads, such as naan, help with spicy food, as does ice cream. I often finished meals with vanilla ice cream, which was delicious and removed much of the spice from my palate.

Undoubtedly, you will be taken to various handicraft shops, so sit back, accept their offer of something to drink and enjoy the skills of Kashmiri salesmen.

If you are even thinking about buying a carpet or wall hanging, take the dimensions with you, ideally in centimeters.

Just don’t believe anything you’re told about where anything actually is made and how valuable it is. Decide what you like and how much it’s worth to you, and then bargain for a lower price. As a general rule, I found that the smaller the shop, the more I should expect to knock off the initial asking price. In the state handicraft emporia near Connaught Place in Delhi, the prices are fixed.

STAN BACH

Washington, DC