Bikepacking india

[Adam4868]

It's a great country that will get under your skin...in all ways ! I've not really cycled that much there, but I've traveled around India a couple of times for 7/8 months at a time,never once did I feel unsafe,quite the opposite.
It's a good 20 odd years since my last trip there and I still get a urge to get back one day...just need to convince my partner it's easy travel 😁

 

[Chris S]

A six year old French tourist was thrown off Tate Modern by a Brit.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...of-tate-modern-now-less-reliant-on-wheelchair

I'm not moving out of London anytime soon.

"FCDO advises against all travel to parts of India."
and the rest isn't much better.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/safety-and-security

 

[8mph]

@Paulwong you won't need a sleeping bag in South India!

Kerela to Mumbai is on my bucket list. I'll research the route and if camping is unavoidable I'll take the cheapest single skin dome tent I can find and dump it as soon as it's not needed.

I enjoyed camping on beaches and I also found places to camp near villages which were OK. I did not enjoy the night spent half way down a mountain in the jungle one bit!

Plan sensibly for the wild bits and I think you should have a great trip!

 

[rualexander]

"FCDO advises against all travel to parts of India."
and the rest isn't much better.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/safety-and-security

Relatively small parts of a massive country.
Would you travel to the UK if you lived in Canada?
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-kingdom

 

[Chris S]

Relatively small parts of a massive country.
Would you travel to the UK if you lived in Canada?
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-kingdom

Yes, the threat risk is lower.

 

[matticus]

Some friends of mine were their on honeymoon and got caught in monsoon floods, the driver went off the road, they were rescued and set off next day into a sudden riot where the people on the bus in front were burnt to death, the village elders got them out of the car and into a hut though the lady was molested, then the next day after being in fear all night they got back to their hotel to meet men with automatic rifles on the landing. They turned out to be guarding a chap in another room, but despite this their hotel room had been broken into and robbed.
Their was more but they declined to say ! So yeah just the same as anywhere else.

Cool - no dangerous wildlife then, that's a plus!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yes, the threat risk is lower.

I’d steer clear of Birmingham. Sounds very dangerous

Disturbances after hundreds at demonstration

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly883p5yj8o

 

[Emanresu]

Doesn’t the FCDO warning affect the level of travel insurance you can get?

 

[Brandane]

Relatively small parts of a massive country.
Would you travel to the UK if you lived in Canada?
https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/united-kingdom

Sensible advice from the Canadians.

 

[rualexander]

Doesn’t the FCDO warning affect the level of travel insurance you can get?

Quite probably.
But the areas which are advised against all travel are relatively small areas close to borders and disputed areas, such as the India/Pakistan border, Jammu and Kashmir, and the state of Manipur.

 

[Paulwong]

OK thanks for your replies, I might just go as light as possible, light, water purifier bottle, change of clothes, maybe a hammock 😃

 

[rualexander]

Build a few days into your schedule for a dose of 'Delhi Belly'.
I was ill on the third day after I arrived in Madras, lasted about three days before I was fit enough to consider cycling south.
Rapidly exhausted my supply of toilet paper and had to go native with water and left hand, never bought any more toilet paper for the whole trip.

But after that I was never ill again for the next ten weeks.

 

[Psamathe]

Quite probably.
But the areas which are advised against all travel are relatively small areas close to borders and disputed areas, such as the India/Pakistan border, Jammu and Kashmir, and the state of Manipur.

It isn't just FCDO that advise against "all but essential travel ..." but Indian Gov. places restrictions as well. Maybe I'm a bit hooligan in that I have travelled to places FCDO advise against (even once told by British Embassy in one country "don't go" to neighbouring country... but I did. Last year travelling Amritsar into Jamu & Kashmir and when bus realised they stoped just short of border at Pathankot and paid for a tuk-tuk for me into the city. Shame but interesting city with interesting onward travel "toy train").

Also the Inner Limit Line restrictions and complexity of getting an ILP. I could never quite work out where the Inner Limit Line was and what was a "special case" for specific activities.

Do be careful about your reliance mobile data. It can be switched off over large areas without much warning. At one time I was there in Rajasthan, mobile data all networks switched off for 24 hrs across all Rajasthan. Also, assuming you don't have an Indian passport, if you get a local SIM it has limited validity, last year it was 3 months.

I found credit cards a disaster. Prepaid debit cards work in some ATMs but not all. In one city (Junagadh) went round every ATM in the city and none accepted any foreign cards. Ended up in Bank of India managers office discussing reasons (which was interesting). Some banks machines arefinebit those machines are not everywhere.

Ian

 

[Psamathe]

With regard to what sights to visit, big famous places can often be surpassed by smaller less well known places eg Agra, Taj Mahal, OK'ish but local bus from city and Fatehpur Sikri is amazing. Bikaner short trip out of city and Karni Mata Mandir really interesting and thought provoking.

Ian

 

[Psamathe]

Build a few days into your schedule for a dose of 'Delhi Belly'.

Take some imodium which works well depending on what the cause is. I had issues in Varanasi and imodium had no effect no help but on other travels it has helped - immediate and complete and normally causing the opposite problem a few days.

Ian