Hello, friends! Many of you have expressed an interest in visiting our family here in India. We highly encourage you to come. In our experience, India is full of beauty and wonder. I decided to compile a list of advice that can help you have the best experience by preparing you for things that may seem unusual or unnecessary to someone from America (where most of our potential guests currently live) but are likely to occur during a visit here. For those of you who have already traveled in Asia, you probably already know some of these things but of course some of them are uniquely Indian.
So, if you come to visit, BE READY TO:
TRAVEL
1. Spend a fair amount of time in the car. With the traffic pattern, it takes longer to go a mile than you will think it should. The good news? More time to see new and exciting things through the windows.
2. Clutch the “Oh Crap” handle a lot. Between the holey roads and the many “near miss” moments on the streets of India, that handle will become your friend. It will take a little getting used to.
3. See a million dollar house right next to the slums. There are very few “rich areas” and “poor areas” in these cities. Mostly, it’s all mixed up.
PEOPLE
4. Answer a million questions. People here are very warm and curious. They will ask you tons of questions, sometimes very personal ones. We try to have a good attitude and just answer them all with good cheer. It makes everyone’s day better.
5. Have you picture taken all the time, sometimes without your permission. Indians love pictures, especially selfies. We are often asked to pose with someone we have never met so they can document that they saw us weird forgeiners. Sometimes we just catch a glimpse of someone taking our picture while we were not watching. This is particularly true if you have any physical traits that are rare like red hair or if you are an African American, like my boys. Then you almost reach super star status.
6. Have people concerned about you. One of my favorite attributes of Indian society is how much everyone wants to help you do whatever you are trying to do. They genuinely care. Occassionally, this means that they think they know where you should be going (say to a hotel) when you really need to go to another place (like your apartment).
7. Start everything late. Due to the unpredicatable nature of the traffic and other things, start times or the length of time it takes to get places are, at best, approxiamate.
8. Be targeted by the color of your skin. We notice this mostly when we go to the more touristy areas. Beggars will swarm to you in groups because they are hoping that you will give more generously than their. I’ve even had beggars tell me that I did not give them enough when I gave them the same as the Indian woman next to me. They are VERY persistent and sometimes will follow you even after you told them “no” or have already given them something. I have it on good authority, that there are many government and non-government programs and organizations set up to help people in these situations. Also merchants (especially if you are shopping not in a mall or other place with set prices) will give you a higher price than they will to Indians. Bobby calls it “the white tax” but I think it’s the same for any foreigner.
FOOD
9. Not eat the food on the domestic Indian flights. This may sound rude, but trust me, your gut bacteria is not up to the job you will be taking on if you do eat it.
10. Eat a lot of fried foods when traveling. When in doubt, order fried foods. Frying kills a lot of bacteria and makes it less likely you will get sick.
11. Ask for no ice, even though it is utterly hot outside. You can never be sure what quality of water went into making the ice. Most stores and restuarants do usually keep at least a few bottles of water chilled and will produce them when asked. But be careful. It’s best to be safe, which occassionally means drinking warm bottled water.
12. Drink more soda than usual. Soda is pretty widely available and thanks to the treatment process the water goes through while making the soda, you can always trust that it will not make you sick. Since we have moved here, my favorite sodas have been the lime and apple flavored ones.
13. Ask for non spicy food, even if you really do like some spice. Very few foods actually have no spice here. Even the Big Mac was too spicy for Gabe. So unless you really do love HOT food, always ask about the hotness level and then ask them to adjust it a few notches lower than the terminology you would use in the States. Trust me here.
14. Buy prescription antibiotics over the shelf. If you do get sick, don’t worry. Antibiotics are readily available and very inexpensive. You will feel good again in just a day or two.
TOLIET
15. Take the toliet you get. You never know what you will see on the other side of the stall door. Sometimes the fanciest places will only have squatter toliets, or no toliet paper. Equally, sometimes the more rundown places will provide soap and western style toliets. It’s toilet roulette everytime.
16. ALWAYS carry a travel pack of tissues with you, especially if female. Instant toilet paper. Totally worth it.
17. Bring hand sanitizer with you. So useful!
RANDOM
18. For the noise level. Everything makes noise, and quite a bit of it too. If you need silence to sleep, bring ear plugs. And get used to taking louder than usual too, especially when outside.
19. Scratch! Mosquitos are everywhere! Really, everywhere! Outside, in stores, in buses, in cabs, in airplanes. Bring bug spray and keep a tube of it in your around town bag.
20. Prepare yourself mentally before you leave your home. Most of the above items are nuisances, but totally surmountable. If you prepare yourself mentally before you leave, they probably will not bother you while on your trip and you can focus on just enjoy the many wonderful things about India!
lubabob
the Creasman Experience 
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