Big Trip 2015

---

My family, husband Greg and daughter Niamh (9) have been planning a 5 month trip in 2015. Tickets are now all booked and our itinerary is as follows Northern India for 30 nights, Myanmar for 14 nights, Laos for 14 nights, Cambodia for 10 nights, Vietnam for 21 nights, China for 6 nights, Japan for 21 nights, Latin America visiting Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua and finally Cosa Rica flying back to UK in late August.

Full of excitement and trepidation we need to get started with planning as we leave on 30th March 2015. My main concern over this whole trip is India. A place that I'm really looking forward to going to but because we are covering such a whole area of it, and conflicting advice on the web do I really need to book train tickets? Is April a busy time for tourists, and therefore are all the seats going to get booked up? Would ideally like to book as we go then we can be more flexible on staying a little longer in some places that we like and moving through those that we don't. Also have been advised to only eat in restaurants by a lovely Indian client of mine, but would love to eat at the street stalls also which I've been strongly advised not to!

We are sorting out our visa's for India in Jan/Feb and will also sort out the additional vaccines we may need. Do we really need a rabies shot? Would love to hear back from anyone who can give me some advice who has done such a trip recently.

Thanks

Wendy

---

Comments

[Rupak]

Re: Big Trip 2015
Hello Wendy, I am a regular follower of TravelBlog. I went through your queries and wanted to give some suggestions. April is the start of summer in India, you might face upto 40C in the plains and more in the deserts. In some states the summer vacation in schools start in April, so yes it will be busy time. Since you have "only" 30days it is better you make out a rough plan. It is better you book train tickets in advance if possible. Try to book in 3A class atleast, it will be comfortable and clean. Book through the official IRCTC website 60 days prior to departure. If you cant, no problem, there are special foreigner's quota in trains and big stations have special counters for foreigners. You can go personally and book whenever required. Beware of touts/scams at big stations esp. Delhi. Always go to the reservation/booking counters inside the railway station. Do not believe if someone says its closed/shifted or train is cancelled etc. Always verify from the railway enquiry/electronic display boards/website of the Indian railways. Travelling in non-AC trains and buses will be a really painful in April so try to travel in AC. There are AC Volvo buses and sleeper buses between important cities, you can use them, they are comfortable. Many states have govt run AC buses which are quite reliable. Approx taxi fares are around Rs.12-16/Km (or 2000-3500 per day) for intercity travel, depending on the type of vehicle. Bargain hard. Prefer to have food in good restaurants. Avoid street food which have water in them (ice candies, gol-gappa etc), dry and hot street foods may be OK. Since you have a kid along, carry a generic antibiotic (like Ciplox TZ). If you get sick just visit a doctor, its very easy and cheap in India. India being a tropical country, hygiene is very important. Carry alcohol based hand sanitizers. Almost everything is available in India, just ask around :-) You can avoid unnecessary vaccines. Stay away from dogs and monkeys. Take the rabies vaccine from a reputed hospital only if you are bitten/scratched by an animal. As all tourist coming to India do, you can visit Taj Mahal, Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa. But since you are visiting in April, I will also suggest the Himalayan region - Kashmir, Himachal (Kinnaur, Manali), Sikkim, etc. I would strongly suggest Kaziranga national park in Assam. Please research/review the places on the internet and make out a plan. Google maps is your best friend when you plan a travel. Avg travel time in India is 40km/hr by road & rail and 20-30Km/hr in the hills. The only thing that you need in abundance here is - patience and calmness. Happy planning and journey - Rupak

[thebigtrippers]

Our Plan for Northern India
Thanks Rupak for your email, our plan is to only overnight in Delhi then on to Agra also for one night then the Ranthambhore National Park for poss 2 nights, then two nights for Jaipur, Pushkar, Udaipur, Jodphur, Jaisalmer, then fly via Delhi to Amritsar for 3 nights, Srinagar 2 nights, Ladakh to Leh fly to Delhi then 2 nights in Lucknow, Varanasi and Bodhgaya and finally catch our flight our of Kolkata. It may be impossible what are your thoughts?

[Rupak]

Re: Our Plan for Northern India
Hello Wendy, Your plan is technically possible. Here are few comments: Visit Ranthambor if you absolutely want to. Refer other blogs on Ranthambor and see how fruitful it is. Getting to see a Tiger is a slim chance. Give a thought on hiring a car for the Agra-Jaipur-etc-etc-Jaisalmer trip. Since the distances between each of these places are around 200Kms, it might be faster to go around in a car. It will save the hassle to book so many tickets and you can make your trip flexible. You may skip Pushkar, it will be very hot and dusty, kid may not like it. It may not be worth spending 2 out of your 30 day itinerary. In my opinion 10-12 days in Rajasthan can become quite monotonous, so try to slim it down. Cut down your stay in Amritsar, one day is enough to visit the Golden temple. Try to spend more time in Kashmir & Ladakh. Leh will be only accessible by air. Roads "to" Ladakh region will be closed in April but all roads "inside" Ladakh region will be open. To do justice to Ladakh you need atleast 5 days. Visit Pangong lake and Nubra valley. Permits are required for foreigners to visit these places. You can skip Lucknow and go directly to Varanasi, unless you have a personal reason to visit this city. Keep a buffer of one day before you fly out of Kolkata. Regards - Rupak

[thebigtrippers]

thanks for your comments Rupak, we have made some changes to our trip based on some of your suggestions and what we really want to see. So will probably fly from Amritsar straight to Kolkata, driving is something that neither of us want to experience so will go via train. Thanks again and when we have a finally itinery will probably post again. Cheers