great photos man, India is now a must see for me!

Awesome, love them

Great shots as usual M White

I ended up having to get a 6 month visa as the people in the visa office couldn't put the 24 month visa through the system despite me paying for it online The government seems to love making it difficult for you to give them your money. When I tried to book government accommodation at Tadoba NP the bloke on the other end of the phone said he was "not interested" in talking to me. I know that the Scottish accent is hard for some people to understand but this guy had perfect English and speaking to foreign tourists is part of his bloody job.

I've met a couple of Americans that have left India then got another visa in Nepal so it is possible. However, they said that it's fairly time consuming (7-10 days) and you can be rejected for any reason. I want to come back to visit some of the NPs in the south but I'm not sure if I can be bothered dealing with Indian bureaucracy...

I haven't seen any 3rd class trains. I have done 3 overnight journeys in unreserved 2nd class carriages. Not sure if that's the same thing? The first two journeys were fine. I slept on the luggage rack the 1st time and had a whole bench to myself for a good 5 hours the 2nd time so I got enough sleep.

The 3rd journey was Hellish. It was standing room only for most people, thankfully I managed to bag one of the solo seats. Two old ladies that were sleeping on the floor nearly got trampled to death when we stopped at a station and the horde stormed on.

God yes. I found a place in Calcutta that did cheese toasties. They got so much business from me.

India is a nice place for travel and all. you can enjoy a lot and can see lots of historical places and have fun with lots of adventures.

I'm gonna be in India for the next 6 months. If there's any online grinders (locals or travellers) in Bangalore over the next 3-4 months - drop me a pm - as i'm on a tight budget but really want spend some serious time in Bangalore and network with some techies as well as see what the south has to offer.

Then i'm off to the north as I have friends up there.

hi there..
i got 12 days on my indian trip in early decemeber before flying to goa.

starting point is delhi. im not quite sure which route is better/more worth.

taj mahal is a must see

delhi-agra-pushkar-jaipur->fly to goa.. or delhi-agra-varanasi-kolkata->fly to goa.

think both are managable in 12 days.

im already indian experienced, so travelling with train etc shudnt be a problem

I went to Varanasi 3 times during my 7 months stay in India, 10 years ago. To me it symbolizes and reconciles many of India's cultural colors into one setting : love the place.

Varanasi was one of the highlights of my 2,5 month trip. Loved it so much.

Just got back from a month in Bangalore and I would deffo recommend it to anyone who is in India or planning to spend some time in India in the future. Quick trip report whilst I'm at the airport waiting for a connection... sadly I had mega phone issues soo not gonna post any pics, might do once i get settled at my next stop.

Kinda racist... but I am pretty sure that my personal coconut experiences (indian-ish on the outside white on the inside) will be very different to the average milky bar kid experience in Blore. Some of the waiters, taxis guys etc (especially rickshaw ****ers) love to cheat a foreign brown kid who doesnt speak the local dialect but from what I've heard if your not brown then they are pretty scurd of taking you for a ride. Pretty much everyone below 25 speaks english here and the guys that dont probably arent worth talking to anyway, but you can meet some really cool poverty striven ppl that didnt get a chance at education but can communicate in english.

I blew alot of my monthly broll in the first 3 days staying at a v clean but nothing special hotel. Rate was like for like 3100 and in some cases they add tax to this so make sure you discuss this before hand as i thought i was paying less. lol. but tbf I had a pretty sic room with a free upgrade, amazing shower and toilet and my own balcony, fridge, desk, microwave-oven.

So i pretty much found out the area I'd liked to stay in and the went round every crap hotel... haggling at 50% of the starting price, when I got a decent price, I said I'd come back in 2 days, took a business card (or visiting card as they call them here and got the dude to write his name, number, room rate, dates etc on the back)... then just hustled like a $2 hoe on a deadline trying to get the lowest rate with my array of cards and block booked up my next 10 days. lol. I moved around quite a few spots, stayed in central and the east and then i settled for an okay crappy-hotel in Domlur the perfect spot imo... The key selling point was that I managed to haggle them down to 1250r per night (tax inclusive) for a 2 single bed room from 2,6 for the duration of my stay. Prior to the trip - my plan was to stay in 600r a night hotels but no-one would take me as I have a foreign passport and the form filling process is a nightmare for them and they have to notify police that your staying there - plus in these cheap ass motels there is a lot of aggro/stealing etc that they cant managed and dont want to deal with as they know foreigners will get 5-0 involved. etc

TBH the hotel was pretty unclean, stains on bedsheets, bug heavey etc but I am kinda used to india-travelling and stuff like that so it doesnt bother me. Your in the east and near all the techy ppl that speak good english, your walkingn distance to the best bar in town (toit), 2 stops metro stops away away from MG Road (central) which costs like 14r to get to and you have a sic variety of places to eat on 100ft & 80ft & CMH & old airport road where all the big hotels are at. And theres an absolutely funky low key 80s food joint called woodstok in Domlur. Amazing food at med prices. So would def recommend this place as Bangalore is pretty huge. Getting lost in Bangalore is amazing, i found soo many crazy places to chill in this way.

From speaking to a few cool cats who have been staying here for 2+ months, you can easily get a decent 2BHK... (by india standards, BHK=Bed, living room, Kitchen) for say 20,000r per month. If I ever come back I would probably do that instead but you have to put a hefty deposit down.

Foreigners can get a mobile phone and broadband dongle if you can get 1 local to vouch for you. All you need is 1 pport size photo and 2 photocopies of your passport but I personally would be very careful which I locations I do this in and would stick to prepaid and take pictures of all documetation, shop license and the broker you deal with just in case they try anything shady... for instance they give you their old prepaid dongle and sign you up to a 12m contract that they keep. Which I heard can happen quite a bit in india but not so much in tourist spots like blore and goa.

I have pretty much rambled on a bit about not very much without any thought. gotta dash now but heres some uptodate tips for any india first time visitors.

1. If you try and book a hotel online with a good discount, go for it, but you have to do it three days in advance and pay by cc.
2. Rikshaws, always make them put the meter on then pay extra if you feel like it
3. Cash, on the back of any notes you get, make sure the year is written at the bottom or you will have issues re-using this money as they are being filtered out. Bad rikshaw drivers/waiters are notorious for this.
4. Use a radio taxi after say 9pm, much cheaper and hasslefree to get home. if your out with locals, get them to tell the driver where to go and not take you via a long route.
5. When negotiating, be prepared to walk away, the honest rate is pretty much always 40-50% of the initial quote.

Hi does any 2p2er currently live in an Indian city?? I have multiple logistics questions. Mainly, can you play on stars/ftp/888 etc.. out there? Is depo/withdraw similar to other places with e-wallets, and getting a foreign bank account. Im not concerned about any living issues, just feasibility of playing while living in the Delhi area? any help would be great!

Haven't tried so I cant confirm. Maybe someone else can confirm. But as I understand it... poker is pretty much banned in india from a legal perspective so I doubt ur chances are any good from dehli.

Maybe in sikkim or goa you might have a chance but im pretty sure those sites just blanket block any IP located in India. And u don't have much chance of getting away with using vpn on stars/ftp for obv reasons.

Raketherake mention what countries sites block and u can see it on sites if they show the country or city. Stars allow indians.

One can play at least six months as a tourist in india until they consider it as a trade as one cant work under tourist visa. Though not that its a good idea to mention poker until one might need to if renting a flat with documents. Getting audited needs still more documents, and if it is tax free even for a tourist, isnt clear to me, but comparing to some other countries, tourists pay taxes to their own country during the first year until they choose otherwise.

Getting a business visa or more in india with poker isnt possible as money transfers to online gambling are illegal.

Nepal is as cheap as india and has a better weather than india, until u like tropical, extra hot spring, moist summers, even the best spots like bangalore, mysore have the extra hot and days are never 20c cool, that might though make some cooler flats during that time, and the best indian options are reasonable as the average low is pretty good at 700 meters.

I dont know about nepal gambling laws, other than no site i know block nepal, and that it can be hard to find the laws. The nepal visa one gets when entering, up to 90 days, and i dont know if one gets more by reentering insta, like one can in india, getting another six months with multi entry visa, though being in the country more than 180d or whatever, technically means taxes, trade or not, and one cant pay them of online gambling without breaking the law.

hey.
has anyone been to dhaka/bangladesha? might fly there for a couple of days from kolkata.
i imagine its even dirtier/poorer than delhi etc?

i dont find too many informations on the internet. seems like its not invaded by tourists yet.

I had no problem playing on Stars when I was there in October last year.

eb581! India is very dazzling place. It has several tourist destinations. You can see there a variety of ancient buildings, stunning beaches, and Beautiful amusement parks, Cities full of nature, Historic monuments, Religious places, museums and many other things. I visited India last year. I found it one of the nicest place.

Depends which state your in I believe.

Would be good to get an official stance from stars though via email.

check out my india thread

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...-india-649773/

its also linked in the master sticky

Charas making season is from september through mid october. fly (or bus) to kullu then go to parbati valley. Its ****ing crazy. you will not regret it

ne14dirt! Trains play a vital role in the transport of India. There are many trains which are carrying passengers here to there. Mumbai to Varansi you can get MAHANAGARI EXP & CSTM BSB SPL. . Their trains cleanliness is not so proper but you can enjoy its journey to see different sights and talking with other passengers.

whats the best city to spend nye in goa? was thinkin about palolem or anjuna.
im not a big fan of this hardcore/psychadelic?! music tho.. prefer house or charts music..

accomodation looks already pretty overpriced on booking.com.. on the other side most of the lowbudget guesthouses are not listed there. i might just send some emails out and try to reservate something. if i just show up at the 30.12 it might be a hassle to find something decent in the 1000-2000 range i guess?!

I think the main reason there are no poker houses in India is because it's too difficult to get a hooker there.

India honestly sounds like garbage and I'm shocked. I don't have first world standards - I've lived in south america for almost 4 years now and can find...after a bit of searching...decent hotel rooms almost anywhere for $20/night with blazing hot water, wifi, TV, sparkling clean sheets. Full 3 course meals for $3-4. Granted you need to know the language imo, but wow the cities of india just seem disgusting with zero value for a single white 20something male...or really anyone I guess.

More talk on how beautiful and serene the countryside, mountains, and north are please? This thread is (un)intentionally just bashing on india in every regard