How to Travel INDIA – but is it safe?

(mellow music) – India.

It can be overwhelming, it can be a little scary.

And if you're gonna travel here, it's going to challenge youat some point or another.

Video number one that I posted last week showedyou the experience of India.

Today's video is gonnashow you the realities, some of the information thatwill help you make the most of this trip and why youneed to come see India, because even though thismight not be the easiest place for a first time traveler I wanna show you why India will leave alasting impression on you, because there's really nowhereelse like it in the world.

In this video I'll be talkingabout Delhi, Agra, Jaipur as well as talking about the world famous and beautiful colorfestival, known as Holi.

I'll also be covering thebest ways to get around, safety, what were the peoplelike and so much more.

So let's get started with whereyou're going to get started on this trip.

So we've landed at theInternational airport.

We got our phones set up.

And for $20, US, we have 60days of 1.

4 GB a day in data and unlimited calling in India.

So, really really cheap phone plan.

Apparently it takes roughly 20hours for them to activate it depending on when youland and so we had to wait until the next day for thephone card to start working.

Let's find out if yoursim card really turns on in one minute or if we justpaid some dude a bunch of money.

(phone pinging) Surely enough it did start working.

So I'm pretty sure that's a standard here, but if you can find simcards that work immediately, then all the power to you.

Now one of the mainways to get around India is going to be by taxisand the amazing thing is, it is so affordable totake a long taxi ride.

Whether it be 10 minutes or two hours, it's a great way to get around, and it doesn't really add up that quickly.

Have you ever wondered whyyou've never seen a chase scene in India? It's probably 'cause youwouldn't get very far.

(horn honking) One of the things that Ireally liked is the fact that Uber is actually in India.

So with the app I already haveon my phone, I can go ahead, book a cab and get myselfto where I need to be, have GPS all tracked and you know that they're at leastgonna have a GPS system in their car, whereas if yougo with the average taxi, usually you have tocommunicate directions, there might be a language barrier.

Try to take that from the airport, but in our case we didn't have data.

So we took a prepaidtaxi where we just went to the transport authorities, they have a little desk there, and we told them where we neededto be, they gave us a price that was a little bit expensive actually.

Prepaid taxi for a 20 minute drive is $10.

But it got the trip startedand it wasn't a big deal.

Now everyone's opinions differ, but some people willactually say to skip Delhi.

Now, I'm personally veryhappy that we started there.

I was really happy to be able to see what is one of the mostdensely populated places in the world, to see whatis one of the hubs of India.

It was a culture shock to say the least.

It was a unbelievable sensory overload and I'm so happy that I gotto see that, to witness it, I think that Delhi's an experience.

I don't think you need a ton of time, but if you're coming to Delhi and you want a really, amazingtop value place to stay, definitely check out The Legend Inn.

The front desk and the team that worked there, are one of the main reasons you need to go.

They were so nice to us andI really appreciated it.

So our hotel has India's firstever indoor climbing wall.

Some of the main thingsthat you need to do in Delhi are going to be Yamuna Ghat.

And this is a place where we experiencedan incredible sunrise.

I don't know where allthese birds came from, but this is their paradise.

You can pay about a 100 Rupee per person, to get on this boat and with that you canget some amazing photos.

Later that day you can go to Old Delhi, where we went to Chandni Chowk.

Chandni Chowk is probablythe definition of chaos of busyness, crowd, honkinghorns, explosions of sound and smells, it is like the craziest thingthat I've ever experienced as a traveler and I'm sohappy that I got to see that.

It's not a relaxingexperience by any means, but if you've traveled like I have, it's always amazing to see new things and this was one for the bucket list.

And because we were there during Holi, it was actually extra busy.

Now once in Chandni Chowk, there's a couple spots there, definitely worth checking out.

There is Jama Masjid, alittle tiny sanctuary.

I think it might be a holy area, so we have to be respectful and quiet.

'Cause you can't wear your shoes.

We actually had to go buy some pants here.

We found some for fourbucks and they let us in.

Katy's all well dressed today.

– Yeah.

If you're a girl and you're watching this, a good tip is just wear long skirts and always have a scarf with you.

It'll be very helpful.

– But just next to it isthe must check out place.

And this is Khari Baoli.

And I'm sorry for mispronouncing it, if you're from India, pleaseI'm doing my best here.

It is Asia's largestspice market and my gosh, you will smell it.

Oh my gosh, it's so spicy.

It takes over your lungs, your throat, your nose, again, on with the themeof sensory overload.

This is a place you need to check out and if you're able to find it, there's a hidden staircase, where it brings you up tothe top of the spice market, giving you a view overthe chaotic streets, into the spice market, andit's a really cool spot to get some photos, relax, feel a bit elevated over the crowd.

If you wanna find that Irecommend asking the locals there.

The locals are always so niceand they will definitely try to help you out.

There's a lot of cool stuff inDelhi, but with limited time, this is all we saw.

And so, we were onto our next spot and that is going to be Agra.

Now, Agra is about an hourand 40 minute train ride and about a three anda half hour taxi away.

Now, we ended up taking ataxi, because of the holidays, the trains were completely booked up, except for 5 AM.

Now because there werethree of us on this trip, me, Katy and Malte, we actually found that it was basically thesame price to take a cab as it would've been to buythree individual train tickets.

Now, mind you it is faster by train, it's probably more comfortable, I think it comes with breakfast, but we didn't wanna get up at 5 AM, 'cause we were jet lagged.

We actually downloaded a couple of the local taxi bookingapps that the locals use.

We found they had less flexibility, 'cause you had to commit toa ride many hours in advance, and they were about the sameprice as the competitor, being Uber, so I preferred stick to Uber, it's automaticallybilled to my credit card, it's all taken care of.

Short distances or longdistances, Uber will work in the bigger cities.

If you're gonna be traveling India, then you're definitely gonnabe spending a lot of time in trains, planes and taxis.

That's where I wanna share with you guys today's videosponsor that is keeping me, powerful, while on the road.

mophie sent me this here juice pack.

And what the juice packis, it's an amazing way to keep your phone safe, 'cause it's a phone case, but it also charges yourphone while on the go.

Now, the amazing thing is, it's wireless charging.

So as soon as you turn it on, it is charging your phone, through the back of yourphone, which is unbelievable if you have some of the newer android, or if you have an iPhone, it works amazingly well, and the awesome thing is, you can charge this case at the end of the day andyour phone at the same time, just by dropping it on awireless charging station, or by plugging it in.

So even though yourphone is getting heavier, it's really practical andbecause I'm literally living on the road, this is something that I will definitely be keeping on me.

And with that, let's now talk about Agra.

If you're not here during the high season, you probably won't have anyproblems booking your train and so if you're gonna do that, I recommend using this website.

It's probably gonna be the best way to go city to city in India.

A seat from Delhi to Agrawith air conditioning in economy is going to be $12, whereas the first classis about double that, around 22, $23, so it'squite reasonably priced.

And I think it evencomes with a bit of food, so definitely gonna be thebest way to get around, you're saving time, it's more comfortable, so Agra is not a placethat has a ton to offer, but it does have one thing in particular that I would highlyrecommend you check out and that is the world famous Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is one of those places that lives up to the name and the hype and that can't be said a lot of the time.

It is a marvel, it is ajewel, and it's crazy to think that this was built 400 years ago.

They literally movedmountains to make this place, it's unbelievable.

I have a little tip for you.

If you hire a guide, you can actually skip by the ticket purchasing gate.

So, if you're running andyou're like, oh my gosh, we're gonna miss thesunrise, 'cause that was us, we hired a guide for 15 or $20, and that enabled us toget past the first line, but then we sadly realizedthere was a second line, which was basically the security line.

The women's line wasprobably five times longer and so we were in withinthree minutes of that line, but Katy took about 20 minutes and so we unfortunatelysaid ta ta for now, 'cause we had to go capture that sunrise and we met her inside at the Taj.

In Agra we stayed ata nice four star hotel called the Radisson.

Because of the vacation high season, the prices definitely went up.

This what $90 gets you for one night.

Three people in one room and they actually included breakfast, although I don't recall paying for it, so.

But when I just checked online, the average pricing isactually closer to $50 to stay in a really nice room.

So I definitely recommend that.

And one of the reasons I recommendstaying in bigger hotels, is because in India, it's a little bit hard to find food that you aren'tworried will get you sick.

It's not that there's not good food, because I've seen food thatlooks unbelievably tasty, but for me, the idea ofgetting sick for three days on a seven day trip through India would be a total devastation and so I was eating very carefully.

I don't wanna spread fear, but you of course need tofigure out what works for you, how careful you want to beand for me on this trip, I wanted to be as careful as possible and the crazy thing is, evenwith practicing extreme caution I got sick once with abit of a stomach bug, Malte literally had tosprint from the metro system to find a bathroom and Katy also got sick on one of the days.

Now with that being said, I should also mention, you can't drink tap water in India, so always go with bottled.

One other spot that isquite interesting in Agra that we did not have timeto see is The Red Fort.

We didn't go inside of it, wejust stayed on the outside, because we were short on time.

But other than that there'snot a ton to do in Agra.

Now, if you're there for Holi, this is something you'lldefinitely wanna check out.

It's called Vrindavan and Vrindavan is said tobe the birth place of Holi.

And it's about a one and ahalf, two hour taxi ride away from Agra and this is wherethe Holi festivities are absolutely off the walls.

People are throwing dried paint, people have water guns, people are dropping buckets of water from the second storyof their apartment rises, it's madness.

And I need to be very transparent, because it's not gonna besomething for everyone.

I had an unbelievable time.

Me and Malte were sofortunate to have met nothing but nice people whowere having a good time.

And one thing that we'rereally happy we did is, we actually did not go into the temple.

The temple was way too crowded.

So my tips are to stayin the side streets, where it's a little more manageable.

It's still gonna be crazy busy, but you at least will feel like you have some breathingroom in front of you.

Now the other thing too is, because we are tourists, we do get a little bit more attention and so more paint will be thrown at you.

(laughing) It's all over me.

I love it, this is so cool.

And that's where it's keyto have some sunglasses on.

Something that will protect your eyes from getting directly hit with paint.

At some points we got abit of paint in our eyes, it was not the end of theworld, it was uncomfortable, but that's it, but it's onlybecause we had sunglasses that we didn't get our eyes destroyed.

And I have some friends that unfortunately had that experience where they were not havingso much fun, because of it.

Now, the other side of it thatI wanna delicately handle, in saying, I don't think this is a place for a female tourist to come and visit.

You can have your ownprivate Holi with friends, we did that on the second day, on the actual day of Holi.

We just got togetherin Agra in an alleyway, and threw some paint, took somephotos, it was a lot of fun.

And there's also privateparties that you can find from place to place insome of the nicer hotels.

It might cost a bit, I'm not sure.

I wanna remind you that Ipersonally had a great time and again, the peopleof India are amazing.

But all it take is one ortwo really drunk people and all of a suddenyour day's been ruined.

It's definitely a verymixed bag of reviews.

Take it as you will.

Now if you do decide tobrave the Holi festivities, here's what you're gonna need.

You're gonna need a set of white clothing or something that canget utterly destroyed and it won't matter.

Secondly you're gonna need some way to protect your electronics, so we ended up having a nice, little bag that we put around the camera, allowed us to get some amazing footage and not worry about thepaint getting on it.

And with that of course, your travel essentialsare gonna be a power bank, whether you're shooting with your GoPro, whether you have your phone out, then you need a way to keep it powered and that's where Iwanted to show you this.

The power station PD.

And this guy right herecan give your phone about 35 hours of additionaluse and charge two devices at the same time.

It actually charges 2.

5 times faster than plugging into a wall would, with your typical wall adapter.

Definitely an awesome tool on the road.

And these power banks will be traveling with me on many trips to come.

With an awesome visit toVrindavan and to Agra, it was time to move ontoour next destination.

Now we considered the train, but again we had a slightly larger group and we preferred justto have the convenience of grabbing a taxi.

In Agra there's no Uber, I guess it's not running in that city, but we found the most amazing taxi driver in the freakin' world.

The guy feeds dozens of dogs everyday.

He gives back to the community so much and we're ready to go allthe way from Agra to Jaipur and we're doing so with ourtop notch, trustworthy friend, who you need to call ifyou're coming to India.

This is Tory.

He's a legend.

Amazing guide, he drives all around India, just shoot him a message on WhatsApp and I'm sure he'll be more thanhelpful to show you around.

We paid about this muchto go from Agra to Jaipur.

There may be slightlycheaper ways to get around, but for us this wasperfect and it was great to see the money wasgoing to an awesome dude.

Our adventures brought us to my favorite part of India, Jaipur.

And Jaipur is known as the pink city, although, it was more of a sandstone city, I didn't quite understandthe name pink city.

It is also loosely compared to Paris.

It definitely has some verypicturesque architectural sites and with that I wanna list offsome of the really cool spots that we checked out thatI think you should too.

The first is gonna be this Jaipur Gates.

Now, this is kind of an Instagrammer spot, it's a little bit out of the way and it really didn't do that much for me, but I got a cool photo, so if you're traveling for the purpose of getting cool photos, then check it out.

The next one I'm gonnabutcher is Nahargarh Fort.

And this is a must.

If you're gonna watcha sunset or a sunrise, come here, it is so pretty, you're up on the mountain, overlooking the entire cit of Jaipur.

That was really beautiful.

I highly recommend coming here for sunset.

It's a perfect viewing area.

You have to get in before five, 'cause I heard they don'tlet people in after that, but as long as you make it before then, you can stay until after sunset.

– And epicness has goneup to at least a 9.

5.

– Wow.

I think this was my favorite place that we went to in Jaipur.

And with that very closeby to it, there's a place, called Amber Palace.

And we did not have time to see it.

It has a very very distinctmedieval kind of red fort look to it, but I highly recommenddo not take the elephant rides up the mountain, because, wellif you don't know about it, just watch my video called Black Tusk and you can learn everything about why you should not ride elephants.

Another very beautiful site is Jal Malal.

It's kind of a cool spot for sunrise.

We got some amazing shots here.

It's surrounded by alake, so you can't go in, but I couldn't even findthat much history on it, so it's kind of just a little eye candy.

You have the Hawa Mahal, which is actually quitean interesting place.

No doubt, the best place tocome is right up this narrow little staircase, up to the top.

They don't even chargeyou to come up here, which I'm really surprised about.

And now we've got a beautiful view.

We also just found outthat the king had 33 wives, so you can imagine 33 ladiesjust watching daily life from the inside.

Let's also hope he gave themnoise canceling headphones, 'cause the horns outhere are out of control.

Badam badam, gadoosh.

You have the Jantar Mantarwhich is basically a collection of sundials and instrumentsto measure the time of day.

It was built in the 17thcentury and it has a lot of historical meaning, but for me, I don't know, it didn't really rev my engine, if you know what I'm sayin'.

Now lastly we actually stayed in one of the historical sites.

This is the Raj Palace.

This is elegant, Indian luxury.

It is unbelievably beautiful.

And the nice thing about India is that a five star experiencecosts a whole lot less than it does in most otherplaces around the world.

For two nights we got tolive like kings and queens.

Wow.

This is crazy.

And this is actually apalace that was built in the 17th century, oneof the first buildings in all of Jaipur.

Every room is different than the other.

They have antiques andartwork that will not be found anywhere else in the world, because they're complete one offs.

They have all sorts ofdesigns and interior choices, that of course would'vebeen the stylistic choices of the 17th century, tobe able to stay there for a couple nights and transport yourself into another time andplace is one of the things that this place does best and everything from the beautiful courtyard, being inside the palace gates, it makes you feel like youtruly are a king of a queen for a couple of nights.

When we arrived at the hotel, we knew this was a historical site, but we didn't know theyhad one room in particular, and so the hotel team hasactually invited us in to see The Gold Room.

If you're gonna bestaying in a golden suite, that's only fit for a king, then of course you're gonnaneed your own private lobby and so that's where youhave a little waiting area that is exclusive to the grand suite that we're about to go upstairs to.

This is the golden suite.

Literally they have takengold flakes and covered it on the walls.

This place is gonna run youabout 15, 000 USD per night.

A lot of the pieces areactually bordered off, you're not able to touch them and this is one of them here.

I asked earlier what's sospecial about these cushions, and actually what you'll seeis if you look really closely, these are golden threads.

So the entire furnishinghas been decorated with gems and stones.

So come with me here.

This is the master suite.

What you're seeing hereis golden headboards, all this has been covered incarats and carats of gold.

My personal favoritepart of the room is this.

The moment you walk into the bathroom, it is nothing but gold.

From wall to wall, it's likethe Versailles of India.

I've nothing to compare it to.

As far as sightseeinggoes, that's everything that we have seen in India.

We had a really limited time frame, but I wanted to talk about some things that I think will bebeneficial for you to know before showing up.

First things first, theIndian people are incredible.

They're fun, they're playful, they love being on the camera, they love being goofy, theylove posing and I love it.

I think it's so much fun and they made shooting really really easy.

One of the highlights of India.

With that, let's talk about safety.

How did I feel, traveling India? Well, as a male that wastraveling in a group of three, I felt totally fine.

Never once did I feel endangered, I kept my camera around my neck, even through the busiest of crowds.

Whether I recommend thator not, I'm not sure.

But I do know that India didnot come across as a place that was dangerous.

It felt very safe to me, it felt very friendly for the most part and so I don't think that you need to be travelingwith that in the back of your mind, but asalways, be street smart, protect yourself.

Now, can girls travel India alone? I can't quite speak tothat, but I do know, that I've heard ups and downs, I've met a lot of femaletravelers who have backpacked through India, like a month or two months, and they have loved it.

Indian food.

One of the things thatI was most excited about and also scared of, because as I mentioned, all it takes is one wrongmeal to be out of the game for three days and I didnot have the flexibility to get sick.

So I'm glad that it wasjust a small stomach bug for basically all three of us.

No one had anything serious.

But Indian food is some ofthe best food on planet Earth.

From fresh basmati rice, paneer, dal, butter chicken, my personal favorite and the naan, one of the most deliciousitems on planet Earth.

When you put together butterchicken with the naan, it's like you don't everwanna eat anything else.

It's just so freaking good.

And as somebody that loves a bit of spice, it's got everything I'm looking for.

Even eating at a five starhotel, could still mean that dinner was only 20 USDfor a pretty great meal.

So, don't be afraid togo try dinner at some of these more luxury spots, because if you're coming from North American spending standard, it shouldn't be anythingthat blows your budget.

I wanna give you somepractical tips for India.

The first thing you need to know, do not take any bills, ornotes that have rips in them or pen marks on them.

We were actually given a ripped bill and we were also given abill with some pen on it.

The reason is that moneybasically becomes valueless, it can't be used.

Buy snacks whenever you can.

If you see a grocery store, get some granola bars, get some almonds, get somefood that can hold you through the day untilyou find the restaurant that you feel comfortable to eat at.

What might be okay for alocal might get you sick.

Another tip is to bring some light pants if you're gonna be going into a temple.

Another thing is India'stemperature varies a lot.

From city to city, from season to season.

And so when we were therethe weather was just perfect.

I'm talking 22 degrees during the day, nice breeze, T-shirt andshort weather, fantastic.

If I had gone at theother time of the year, it could be like 40 degreesand just absolutely smoldering.

So plan your trip around the temperature, because it will changethe overall experience.

Getting a visa for India is a must.

I don't think anyone is visa free, but it is easy to do online.

I think I paid about $80, which is actually quite pricey.

It came within about a day or two.

But it does quote that couldtake up to five business days.

It's all done online andthe link is right here if you wanna book through their website.

I've been told not to buythrough third parties, it might be a scam, I don't know.

Another great tip is to bringthe relevant power adapters and lastly, I've said it before, but I do think having your phoneset up will be a good move.

So the moment of truth.

Will I be coming back to India? And the answer is yes.

Yes, I definitely wanna seemore of this beautiful country.

It is a trip of highs and lows.

Of incredible polarizationbetween chaos and beauty and serenity and thenmore chaos and car horns, and meeting incredible people, tasting and unbelievable food and so many of these memoriesthat I will never forget.

I think this was the mostmemorable trip of my entire life.

I know that there's so muchmore that represents India and if you don't know, Iactually own a Indian motorbike here in Bali.

It's a Royal Enfield.

And Royal Enfield, if you're listening, it'd be super awesome to work with you.

If you wanna set me up with a motorbike, I'd love to do an Indian road trip.

If you're new to the channel here, hit the subscribebutton, I post new videos every single Saturday and I'm actually just now gonna be getting into doing Wednesdayvideos where possible, giving a more raw andreal BTS to the production of the Saturday videos.

And lastly a huge thank you to mophie for sponsoring today's video.

If you want 20% offtheir products, make sure to use the promo code down below and let's get lost again in the next one.

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