Buses, Trains, and Planes Oh MY
Buses
Using buses is cheap and relatively comfortable in India. We struggled a little with them when we booked online since the information about where to meet the bus was always a little vague. It was usually a little more expensive to book with an agent but you could at least be sure that you would get on the bus.
One time we had a night bus which was very interesting. The sleeping arrangement was like bunk beds instead of a fold down seat like we have seen in other places. It was comfortable enough to get some sleep after putting on our sleep masks and putting in ear plugs.
Book Buses Online with redBus or MakeMyTrip
Trains
Taking the train can seem a little daunting. If you are planning on reserving your seat in advance, good luck. If on the other hand you plan on just jumping onto the train with the locals you don’t even need to know anything in advance except for where you want to go. Just show up at the train station and buy your ticket.
If like us you are initially hesitant at just showing up at the train station you can purchase your tickets through a booking agent. If you are really tenacious though you can navigate the mire of India bureaucracy. You’ll need to register for an IRCTC account and book directly on there. Most importantly is that you need to sign up either in advance at home or after you get your Indian SIM card which they will use to verify your account.
At this point you need to figure out what all the different acronyms mean that are being used. We Googled our way through the various ones used on the website many times before we started getting a clear picture. There are a large variety of seating types, comfort levels, and depending on whether its a day or night train, different setups.
Finally you have waitlists. These we found really confusing. Basically if you are one of the first people on the waitlist you are pretty much guaranteed to get a seat. If you are one of the last good luck. The weird part is if you are on a wait list you don’t find out if you got a seat immediately and usually not until three hours before the train departs from its first station. We don’t quite understand why it can’t be a little more automated but there you have it.
Planes
Flying into India is also the first time we have needed proof of onward travel. Unfortunately we didn’t have that already prepared so we had to book a flight on the spot in Dubai . Extremely stressful. Once we made it to India, we ended up standing in customs line for like 2hrs. When we got up to the counter it was relatively quick but standing in line, with just a few hours of sleep, was extremely excruciating. You will need to have a visa to go to India and the easiest way to get it is to apply for an e-visa.
We flew twice in India. Right off the bat it was a surprise at how they do things here. First off the actual airport usually doesn’t have any food areas inside the building on the departure side. They’re instead located outside the airport proper at various buildings. The airport itself is strictly business from the get go. Security won’t let you in unless you have a booking and your flight stub gets stamped and checked at least 5-10 times between walking into the airport and sitting down in your seat.
Get a SIM card
While we were traveling through South America we had decided not to get any SIM cards. In India this was not really an option. While in other places you can get by without having a phone number here it was required everywhere. We could not even get onto Starbucks WiFi without a working phone number. Fortunately they were incredibly cheap and we paid under $7 for the entire time we were there. Unlimited calling, texting, and an ample amount of data.
With went with Vodaphone which is a reliable service in India and had great connection the entire time. To get a SIM card you will need to go to a ” Vodaphone Gallery ” which basically is the authorized store. You will need to bring a passport and a passport picture and fill out an application.
Withdrawing Money
Charles Schwab
If you’re from the US and still paying ATM fees, or carrying around cash while traveling to exchange for the local currency you’re suffering needlessly. Charles Schwab (if you’re from the US) gives you market exchange rates when you withdraw money in the local currency, it doesn’t charge international fees, and reimburses any ATM fees you incur. In any given month we get back from $30-$90 in ATM fees while avoiding hundreds of dollars in international transaction fees. The account is free and has no minimum balance. If you don’t live in the U.S. you might want to look into a local card that could provide you with something like that.
Credit Cards with no international transaction fees
Chase Sapphire Preferred
This is the first credit card we got while saving up for our world trip was the Chase Sapphire Preferred. We were buying groceries and paying bills with it and paying it off every week so that we could earn miles for our flights. This card is very affordable and the benefits that we have been receiving from it outweighed the yearly fee. We actually used the points that we collected on this card to buy tickets back home! It was around $700!
Another thing we like about this card is that there are no transaction fees and we are able to pay with it while traveling without occurring any fees. We also rented a car in Chile with the card and received insurance through it.
Perks:
You get 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after opening the card
2X points on travel and dining
You get 25% more value when you redeem your points through Chase Ultimate Rewards
1:1 point transfer
Travel and purchase coverage
no foreign transaction fees
$0 intro annual fee for the first year and after that it’s $95
Chase Sapphire Reserve
After traveling for four months we came back home for Christmas to surprise our family. We heard about this card earlier and didn’t give it much thought. After doing research on it and weighing the pros and cons we decided that this was the best card for us at this moment. We had this card for about four months now and love it! Whenever we fly we are able to relax in select airport lounge and enjoy all the wonderful things that come with it like free food, drinks and comfortable work space as we sit and wait for our flight. We also buy our bus tickets, hotels and everything else travel related. It has been a great card for us and we recommend it if you are planning to travel.
Perks:
You get 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months
$300 Annual Travel Credit
3X Points on travel and dining worldwide
50% more in travel redemption when you redeem through Chase Travel
Travel and purchase coverage
No foreign transaction fees
Premium Travel Benefits like complimentary airport lounge access and TSA Precheck or Global Entry fee credit
$450 annual fee
Addresses in India
We all know how addresses work right? The city is laid out on a grid, every house has a number that is almost unique, followed by the street its on. At this point you have pretty much all you need to know to find it since streets follow a number, or letter scheme. To help the postal guys out there’s the zip code of course.
Yeah forget all that. In India, along with other countries around the world actually, addresses are a bit more freewheeling. Think “12, across from police station, city”. Although we didn’t have to deal with this too much (except for using the aforementioned buses) whenever we saw someones business card it was always a little funny.
Sleeping Hack
In our previous life we lived in a quiet neighborhood, and had blinds on our window. Also, electronics were banned from the room. Going to sleep was consistently easy and straightforward. While traveling, however, all those givens kinda fly out the window.
Most rooms have a TV that even if off has that red power light on. Furthermore, either from underneath the door or through a crack in the window shades, or from our own electronics there is light pollution in the room. Usually there is also some kind of noise, if not outside then from the mini fridge in the room.
We’ve found that our night sleep was greatly enhanced by having both a sleeping mask, as well as ear plugs. I worry a little bit that in the future I’ll get so used to ear plugs that I won’t be able to sleep without them, but since quality sleep is so important I’m ok with that.
Apps We Used
OYO
Oyo is India’s answer to Airbnb. The main problem in India though is that hotels vary widely in quality. In response OYO functions a little more like Uber for hotels. The company standardizes prices and amenities so that you can be relatively confident that you are getting your money’s worth when you book a place. We used this service pretty often and found a few really killer deals this way.
We also used Agoda and Booking when we wanted something different. Agoda is a great site to use in Asia.
Uber
We found it extremely convenient to use Uber in India. It’s not available in every city but when it is it’s the cheapest. If an Uber was pretty far away or if there was a rickshaw right there to take us we would use Uber as a sounding board for seeing what price we should bargain to. Also we found that if going to a lesser known place it was easier to just put in the directions on Uber rather than trying to explain to the rickshaw where exactly we wanted to go.
Ola
In some places Uber wasn’t available and Ola was the next best thing. It tended to be just a little more expensive but in the grand scheme of things still very cheap and convenient. They are India’s version of Uber, function pretty much exactly the same, and have deeper market penetration.
We hope that these few things have been helpful to you in planning your trip to India! Let us know if you have any questions or comments. We would love to hear from you.
India is waiting for you!
Alex and Katie
Want to see how much money we spent in India? Check out our post about it!
If you would like to read other stories from India you can find them in the following category: India
If you would like to read more about our world trip, how we saved, or some things we’ve done check it out: World Trip
You can also read about the places we’ve gone in South America which is a stunning continent with many amazing places, beautiful cultures, and a lot of fun: South America
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