I have just completed a 10 month trip across India, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The majority of my time was spent in India and a big chunk of that time was spent riding across the country on a motorcycle. i will be happy to answer any questions and suggest destination. I am also a man of many vices so feel free to ask questions like that.

Disclaimer: I am still on the road (SEA) so I may be slow to answer some questions

cool, does mobile internet work well there, how much does it cost?

how much is a bottle of beer typically?

how much per day did you spend on food and accom?

Was it fun ?

what was your top 5 favourite places that u went to?

What is the best mode of transportation for long trips?

Is it easy/feasible to hire a chauffeur?

Is it easy for expats to rent apartments? If so, what is the best method for finding them?

Top 5 places? Places to avoid?

What is one piece of India specific advice you would give an experienced traveler for traveling in India?

What are the most common drugs found in Inida? How much do they cost?

Mobile Internet? Cell Phones? Cost for both.

Estimated monthly living expenses for somebody not living like a king but far from roughing it.

hmm I'll post more when they come to me. Thanks for doing this, I will be traveling in India indefinitely starting in March.

how do you put up with the chicks moustaches

How much to bar fine an Indian woman?

is it feasible (i guess overall level of safety is concerned) for me to consider doing a cross country motorbike trip?

I'm gonna end my 6 months southeast asia trip in India, my plan atm is to go from Kolkata to Mumbai, just straight across the country. This will be during march, do you have experience with this route, any good ideas for me and do you know what the weather is like during this time up there?
I got some experience since I've been out for a couple of months now so I'm not all green.

mobile internet is available, although i never met anyone who had or used it, the local internet and cell phone providers are running huge ad campaigns promoting mobile internet. I saw literally hundreds of tv commercials and bill boards but i cant for the life of me remember what it cost, but i will say its not more than $30 a month. My only concern would be that you are likely limited to using the internet in the state you purchased or data rates would be much higher once you leave the state. But to be honest I'm not sure.

Beer would range from 60 INR-100 INR, that's about $1.5-$2.5 for 700ml. however indian beer sucks. also there is very little drinking culture in india, especially amongst travelers

i spent around $25 per day, all inclusive (trains, gifts, flights, gas, repairs etc..). most of the travellers are gunning for $15-$20 a day. India is cheap

Hell yeah

first I'll just say that these are personal choices, depending on who you are and what you like, you may disagree with me. So, in no particular order

1. Gokarna. this is a beach town in the state of Karnataka, just south of Goa. its much more laid back and cheaper than most towns in goa and much more popular amongst backpackers. Goa is full of holiday makers that come for 2 weeks, and weird hippies that just live there. I would say its all preference between Gokarna or any town in Goa. Personally i would rather stay in a little shack right on the beach and just chill out and get high, but many people prefer nicer accommodations, getting wasted then going out to clubs/ parties. i can understand either choice, but like i said Its all personal

2. Hampi. A small holy city also in the state of karnataka. Its pretty much a unanimous agreement with anyone who I've spoken with that has been there, Hampi is one of the best places in India. I cant explain exactly why everyone loves it, but there is lots of cultural and historic nonsense, incredible natural scenery, cheap accommodations, cheap food, cheap drugs, and all around a really good vibe to the place. i would say that if you are near Hampi it is a must visit. as a side note, alcohol is illegal in most holy cities but almost all restaurant serve it, they just don't put it on the menu. So if you want a beer just ask. many restaurant will also sell you hash, opium and LSD so go figure.

3. Parbati valley (pronounced parvati). this is a valley high up in the himalayas, in the state of Himichal Pradesh. its full of hot springs, isolated villages and weed grows wild there, in fact its probably the dominant plant in the area. not surprisingly some of the best hashish (actually charas) in the world comes from parvati. If you are there in the right season and meet the right people, they will take you up to their village wich can sometimes be as far as a 5 hour hike from the nearest road and will show you how charas is made and will let you make your own, which I thought was pretty cool. They also make amazing opium in the villages (or so ive been told )

4. Andaman and Nicobar Islands. this is a chain of islands that are actually closer to thailand and burma than india, but are under indian control. In a word, the Andamans are paradise, exactly as you would imagine paradise to be. However, they have serious restrictions. visas are only available for 1 month to foreigners (with a possible 15 day extension) and many of the islands are totally off limits, some because they are indian naval basis and some are isolated tribal reserves. its also one of the last places in the world to still have cannibalism although you will never be allowed near the tribal islands. also if you are one of those uber cool people that needs to brag about going to places that are relatively untouched, now is your chance because an international airport is coming soon. as of right now flights are only available from kolkata and chennai. (personally im all for economic development if thats what the locals want)

5. Trecking in Nepal. obviously not part of India, but in my opinion it was way to good to not make the top 5. i was very hesitant to go trecking because im a lazy bastard, but am so happy i did. the scenery is amazing and the tibitan villages are really cool. some are a 5 day walk from the nearest road or airstrip. i highly recommend

ok, ur last post alone (with the top5 things to see in india) made me wanna change my plans to travel around south america after i graduate from uni

Obviously a 45 min flight is better than a 36 hour train ride, and a train is usually better then a bus if you take the right class. however sometimes a train is not an option, especially in the mountains. of course a motorbike is hella fun, terrifying and super annoying all at once

Yes and yes. my friend lives in Bombay and has full time driver. also pretty much any Indian is willing to do pretty much anything if the price suits him

I know that is for sure possible, but i have no idea how easy or hard it may be or how you would go about doing that. rooms with private a bathroom, hot water and cable TV are pretty cheap, and Indian cable TV is pretty damn good

for top 5 see above

Places to avoid
1. Varanasi. Don't fall in to this trap. unless you are the hippy spiritual type, Varanassi is just another big city sh*** hole. If you feel you must go there then go for 1 day take a few pictures of the burning ghats and get the f*** out

2. Delhi. Delhi is a sh*** hole. nobody goes there by choice, although it will probably be a necessity for you at some point

3. Agra. Agra is where the Taj Mahal is. I never went there myself but I was told by a number of people not to go. Its dirty expensive and not very impressive. however keep in mind this is from second hand information. now that i look back i probably should have gone, especially since its only a 3 hour drive from Delhi

4. Srinigar. Srinigar is the major city in Kashmir. I personally liked the place. Kashmir has beautiful scenery, the best food in India and kashmiri hash is awesome but many people i met couldn't handle the place. when you first cross in to Jammu from Punjab, the amount of military mobilization is impressive. as soon as i got in to the Kashmir valley i was shocked. I've been to a lot of militarized countries before but have never seen anything like this. 12 man patrols every 1 or 2 km and all the soldiers are dressed in hard helmets, flack jackets, loaded assault rifles with a bullet chambered and tons of heavy military hardware all along the road. In srinigar its about the same except instead of large patrols its a single soldier posted every 150 meters or so. Kashmir is basically a quiet war zone and i would be surprised if Baghdad had a bigger military presence. Kashmiris are also not to fond of westerners and are notorious for ripping tourists off and being sneaky. when i went, a chain of events caused me to arrive in srinigar alone, this was after me and my friends had a long talk the night before about how we are going to Kashmir and should make sure we stick together. when i finally go there i had some bike trouble (pretty typical) and got stuck in the middle of the city by myself. very few locals cared to talk to me let alone offer to help, and the few that did choose to talk to me never asked the typical "where you from, what nationality" instead they all asked the same thing "you come alone?, where your friends? why are you alone?" this was after a 4 month period of total calm. of course 2 weeks after i left 9 people were killed in a suicide bomb. Like i said. i really enjoyed the place and would recommend it but keep what i said in mind. If you do decide to go make sure you stay on top of the safety situation before you go

Ill give you a few

- don't be scared to learn how to wipe your ass with your bare hand and water. it will save you a lot of pain and heart ache if you get stuck in a place where TP is not available (pretty much anywhere where there are no tourists) this is serious advice

-If a train ticket seems ridiculously cheap, ask if something better is available. If its not, backsheesh (bribe) the ticket collector

-A fork or spoon is available almost everywhere if you ask for it

-bribes are very common and acceptable almost everywhere, tips are not

-don't be too anxious to go off the beaten path. because of the bike i have been through and got stuck in many places where most of the locals have never seen a white face before irl. from my experience these places are pretty boring, just a bunch of Indians going about their daily life. The good thing about these places is that a white face is so rare the local are usually much friendlier, genuinely curious about you and don't even have the concept of "there's a white man, lets go try to rip him off"

-try the bhang lassi

-Dukoral

I probably have many more, if you're curious i can list them

the most common drugs are charas weed and opium (location dependant) in the traveler scene LSD and MDMA are pretty common too, although i don't know how much i would trust indian made chemical drugs, I'm not really in to chems anyway. pharmacies also have good stuff like codien, valume and even ketamine. prices vary widely on location and quality. with charas the farther you go from the source the more expensive it becomes and the more its cut down with other garbage like incense, shoe polish and cow sh***. for example if you are in one of the villages in parbati a tola of the best quality 100% pure charas, called first cream is about $25 a tola (10 gram), by the time it reaches goa its between $75-$150 a tola and has usually been cut down at least a little. your best bet is to learn to spot quality based on look feel smell and taste and then bargain accordingly. Opium has a similar structure to charas. Weed is more common in south india and usually costs about $5 a tola (except in the adamans where its very expensive), its full of stems and seeds but a few bong hits usually does the trick. keep in mind that India has more than 1 billion people and 20% of them account for a big chunk of the world ultra rich so anything can be had if you really want. Infact one of the most popular saying amongst the travelers and those in the tourist industry is "sub Kuch millega" Hindi for "everything is possible"

for internet see earlier post. cell phones are not so cheap and can be difficult for foreigner to get. it is also much more expensive to use if you leave the state you purchased the card in. getting them refilled out of state can also be a bitch. i had one at the beginning of the trip and never used it

$40 a day will leave you pretty baller

Before i left i was told that 4 months should be the minimum amount of time i plan for. 4 months seems like the right amount of time as the minimum. i understand that not everyone can just up and go for long periods like that. but i met many people trying to cram a whole bunch of places in like 3 weeks and it just didnt seem fun to me. locations are very seasonal. in the winter the himalayas are totally snowed in and in the summer the south has a mix of crazy heat, 50 degree celcius, and monsoons

close your eyes and pretend its a man

I dont know, i wasnt offered many hookers in India, anyway hookers are not really my thing. but if that's what you want i reccomend going to kathmandu, you will be hounded constantly to buy a hooker. aslo nepali and tibetan women are hot. hot indian chicks are pretty rare in india

as far as logistics go it very feasible and pretty common for tourists to buy a bike and sell it later. Is a bike dangerous? yes, very. Especially in India, although just how dangerous depends on many factors like your level of riding experience, where you are doing most of your riding and do you have a passenger.

obviously more experience is better and driving in rajastan is safer than in the Himalayas. although the Himalayas are way more fun. as far as passengers go, you will be pretty surprised how often women will try to get invited on a long haul trip with you only minutes after meeting you. my policy was no passengers on long trips. I just didn't want to have to call the parents of some girl i just met and say "Hi I'm xxxxx, i just killed your daughter"

for extra safety ALWAYS wear a good helmet, in fact if you know you will be buying a bike bring a good helmet from home. also spring the extra money to have hydraulic front disc brakes fitted on to your bike. the bike you will ride will likely have a super **** front drum break with 0 stopping power. I tried to fix this by putting on new break shoes and tightening the cable as much as possible but still no stopping power with the front. i took it to a mechanic to try and fix, when i tested them and complained he said that on the enfield front breaks are not for stopping just holding. that means they will hold you when you are stopped on hill, but they wont stop you while in motion.

if you are interested i can go in to more detail about the bike, but am too lazy to take the initiative right now

I assume you don't have too much time, like maybe a month? if thats the case then I don't think that is such a good rout to go. You are talking about crossing a lot of country with a few places to see and a whole lot of nothing in the middle. if my assumption is correct then based on the season i would recommend flying in to Bombay, heading south to goa, gokarana and hampi. The states of kerala and tamil nadu both of some good spots as well. Then flying back out of bombay. Of course the more time you have the less your starting and ending points matter.

India is definitely not for everyone

I fly into Mumbai on March 10th. Can you give me a basic 6 month itinerary taking weather into account? I basically want to see it all.

Ah alright, yea I got pretty much a month there.
I've met a lot of people lately that all say northern India is awesome, really really beautiful and that kind of stuff so sounded good. Perhaps my idea of crossing the country isn't high enough up in the north. Goa sounds interesting, probably want a week or so at a beach before I get back to Sweden and some serious late winter with snow and ****. I've seen Airasia got like 4 places you can land in India and I would prefer to start and end at different places, you know.. But thanks, I got like a 1000 pages book about India so gonna see if I can figure out something nice, gonna check out the places you mentioned.

Thanks a lot.

How easy it is to extend your visa? Mine expires on Feb 13th, and I don't expect to arrive in the country untill mid-Jan, so I'll either have to extend or go to Nepal and get a fresh visa issued.

How safe is it?

How was your English with theirs?

Were you ever scared?

Story of your most stressful day thus far on your trip?

Best time of year to go?

Average temperature?

Do Indian girls put out much?

Wow, sounds incredible, but stressful. How many of your passengers did you bang?

Don't mean to hijack but I can answer any general questions you guys might have about living in India. It looks like OP has a pretty good idea about how things work but I figured you guys could use the wisdom of a guy who lived in India for 21 years

Is it possible to find a storage facility to keep valuables in for 1 to 2 month periods?

What do you mean by valuables? Most hotels(3 star and up) in India will allow you to keep your bags with them during your absence provided you are coming back to stay at that hotel.