10 things you need to know before your trip to Rajasthan

Blogtrotters
2 mag 2017
Tempo di lettura: 4 min

After showing you some of our favourite pictures and getting deeper in the Indian culture, we thought that it also might be useful to share some practical tips for those who are planning their first trip to India and in particular to Rajasthan.

We haven’t read these tips anywhere, they’re authentic and come from our own experience :)

1. Shopping

New Delhi is not the best city for shopping as everything is way more expensive than everywhere else. So, don’t let yourself be tempted, we know it will be hard as your trip will probably start from there, but you can do it! You’ll find much better quality and prices in other cities, such as Jaipur and Jodhpur.

In particular, if you want to buy amazing and cheap tissues, you can’t miss Om Ganesh Exports in Jodhpur, you’ll love it!

2. Tipping

Tipping has basically been our main concern for the first 5 days. We never knew how much to give to drivers, guides and porters and we couldn’t understand if they were happy or not afterwards.

After a couple of days we figured it out and these are our suggestions: for porters 50/100 rupees is good, for guides 500 per day (if they’re good) and for the driver go for around 300 rupee per day. You won’t be wrong!

3. Child beggars

You’ll meet many people, especially children, asking for money on the streets. I know you just want to be generous and help them, but giving them money means contributing to human trafficking represented by organized. In India, roughly 60,000 children disappear each year, according to official statistics. Many of these children are kidnapped and forced to work as beggars for organized criminal groups. They aren't even allowed to keep their earnings or go to school, and are often starved so that they will look sick and therefore elicit more sympathy and donations from tourists. Read more about this on this article.

4. Dress code

Always cover your shoulders when entering a holy place and remove your shoes (sometimes socks as well) when entering temples and private houses.

Pashmina will be very useful to cover your shoulders in holi places

5. Money changing

When you need to change money, try to go together with a local person you trust, like your driver or a guide, otherwise they’ll probably give you less.

6. Food

If you don’t like spicy food, then you have a problem :) Jokes aside, it’s important to avoid tap water, raw vegetables, fruit with skin and all kind of street food if you don’t want to risk to get sick. For the rest, if you stay in hotels, don’t be afraid to taste different flavours, they’re amazing! Also, consider that usually portions are quite big and filling and you may want to share one in 2 people in order not to waste food.

Typical street food you can find everywhere in India

7. Eating with the locals

If you have the occasion to have lunch or dinner with Indian people, remember to only use your right hand to eat and to leave the left hidden under the table. In India, as all across Asia, the left hand is for wiping your bottom, cleaning your feet and other unsavory functions like putting on and taking off your shoes with the left hand), while the right hand is for eating, shaking hands and so on. Definitely something we should learn from.

8. Offers and donations

Giving offers can be quite a sensitive point. In the Pushkar temple you’ll find Brahmin priests asking you to leave a donation for the community. They’ll separate you from whoever you're with, and then use very heavy pressure to get each of you to donate serious money for blessings for every member of your family! Beware and don’t be afraid to say no as they’re just trying to cheat.

Holy ritual at Pushkar lake

9. Social behaviours

As a general rule, try not to avoid extremely close contact in public, like kissing and hugging, especially between opposite sex. Girls, you’ll meet many people, mainly guys, asking you to take pictures with them. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that and it can be fun, but if they get too close or insist too much don’t be scared to tell them no, it’s not offensive.

Also because an Indian woman told us that men can’t hug women that are not members of their family. We didn’t expect that and weren’t so surprised in seeing all the guys hugging us and wishing us “Happy Holi” in Udaipur, but it was actually breaking the rules for them.

10. Holi Festival

We have already talked about Holi Festival, but here we want to give you some practical tips.

Remember to bring with you some old clothes to use during the celebration. If you want a souvenir use a white t-shirt: the colors won’t go away you will have an original memory.
Bring with you a little bag only for documents and phone for emergency cases.
If you are a photography addict like us, be prepared to cover you camera with plastic bags. There are also some specific bags, but we only found that out once we were there.