Flat Rock ICT Services

A few tips for those people who will have to go to India because of their jobs/work. Taken from my own, friends and colleagues little bits of experience overthere.

• Make sure you stay in atleast a 5-star hotel. It may sound weird, but anything less is not guaranteed to be hygienic enough. They go up to 7 stars overthere, so don't feel too weird about it.
• Concerning water: Never drink any water other than from a bottle you unsealed yourself. 5 star hotels will all provide you with that. Never take any water from a source you can't verify. This includes ice-cubes in cocktails and other drinks! Be careful when brushing your teeth or taking a shower. It's easy to accidentaly swallow some of the unfiltered water.
• Bring your own laptop. Most likely you won't have your own computer at the office you're being send to. And you won't have a computer at your hotel room. However, there will be internet at the hotel (check before you book!) so your own laptop will make sure you stay connected to the world (home!) and can look up things in an emergency.
• Bring a set of passport size photos. Once you arrive at the hotel, immediately ask the hotel manager to arrange a SIM card for your mobile phone. He'll need 2 photos for that. Do not use your own SIM card, because that'll cost you something like EUR 5,-- per minute to call home, where as using an Indian card is virtualy free.
• Do not use the phone in the hotel room to call back home (unless your boss pays for it ;-) ) because the rates the hotel will charge for that are higher than a flight to the moon.
• Bring some 'virtual corck' medication, to stop/block diarrhea in case you do catch a virus. Make sure you always carry it on you, because when it hits you, it hits you hard and instantaniously.
• Are you staying for more than 2 weeks? Try to take some food very high in fibre with you. The main parts of all the food in India are white rice, and white bread. It is impossible to find anything brown and with fibres. Western stomachs can't cope with that for too long. So if you stay for a bit longer, a little stash of fibre-rich snack-bars or very dense very dark bread (like the German/North-Dutch "roggebrood") would be a wise thing to take with you.
• Make sure to have the address and phone number of the embassy or consulate of your country with you at all times. If anything happens and you end up in police custody or a serious accident, that will be the very first number you are going to dial! (No... your partner can wait)
• If possible, don't go alone. Travel with a colleague. There is not much entertainment outside office hours. If you're on your own you'll be bored out of your mind. Also when going a bit further away from the office or the hotel, either at night or during the weekend, it is far safer to be together.
• White/western people are often regarded as "walking wallets" by the poorer people on this planet. And since there's a lot of those in India, you will be hassled by many of them. Sometimes whole masses at once, especialy at touristy spots like important temples. Be prepared for that, and don't feel ashamed to not give anything and just ignore them.
• Do not tip the hotel staff until the end of your stay. 20 rupees a person is apropriate. Feel free to add more, but realise that a full evening meal at a restaurant is only 35 rupees for them! So 20 may sound horrifyingly low (about 35 euro cents at the time of this writing) but it's worth much more to them.
• If you have your personal driver and car for the whole of your stay (certainly recommended) then do not tip him until the end of the last journey. 300 rupees for 2 weeks of service is appropriate. But again, feel free to deviate in a way you feel appropriate.
• Do not tip taxi drivers. You decide the fare for the journey before the journey starts. The driver has already overcharged you, because you are a foreigner (guaranteed!), and the deal is done.
• The motorised 3-wheel scooter vehicles are called auto-riksha's. Do not travel with them. They are extremely dangerous. And they will never take the shortest journey, but will take you past all the souvenir shops in town, wasting your time.
• All drivers get commision from the souvenir shops. That includes your private driver which is 100% available to you for the weeks you're there (if you arranged that). He will definitely try to take you to souvenir shops. It will sometimes take some strong effort to overrule them with your wish not to go shopping but to go to the place you really want to. Do not feel ashamed to give strong commands, because you are the paying customer and there is a hierarchy there.
• If you are at a souvenir shop to buy things like pashmina shawls, wooden craftwork, silk carpets, etc... you will be overwhelmed by the sales power of those people. If they show you carpets, they won't show you just one, but will easily pull out atleast 70 and spread them out on the floor for you. They'll do anything to convince you fo the beauty and durability and wonderfulness of their products. If you decide that you do want to buy some of their ware, think of the following:
  • Apart from carpets, only buy things which have a price-tag. Anything else and they'll tell you something much higher than the real deal.
  • With carpets, ask how much work it took to make the carpet. Usually a 3x5 foot pure silk carpet takes 1 person 6 months. Combine this with the knowledge that an average salary is 3500 rupees a month, and the carpet should cost no more than 21000 rupees. This is still too high, but it is unlikely that you are going to get any lower than that. But haggle as much as you like!
  • After you worked the price of your souvenirs down to something you might accept, tell the salesman that you don't want the driver to get comission and what that will do to the price. He will take you a bit further away from people who can overhear you and cut you a deal. The drivers are almost a bit mafia-like. If they notice that a shop is not paying them their comission (which they don't really owe them ofcourse) then they won't be happy! Cutting them out of the deal will make you some significant savings.
  • If you buy sandalwood figures, always test for genuinity. First of all there are official government shops that will always sell genuine stuff. But if you happen to find it somewhere else make sure it's not normal wood sprayed with some sandalwood spray. Wear a light shirt or something like that and give the wood a good rub. Does it come off on the shirt? If so, it's a fake.
• This is more of a rumour really, but from all colleagues and friends who flew from The Netherlands to India, most of the ones who used KLM/Air-France lost their luggage and had it delayed for a number of days or in 1 case lost permanently. Nobody who used Lufthansa had any problems.
• Fly business class. It's a long flight (twice!) and you'll need it.
• When dealing with Indian colleagues, be prepared for a lot of 'yes'. They are very friendly and very polite. A bit too much of it really. If you explain something, and ask if they got any questions they often won't have any and will say that they understood it all perfectly. So, interrogate them. Ask them to explain it back to you. Let them solve a problem which they should be able to, with the things you just explained.
• When they shake their head in acknowledgement in India, it looks like they're shaking it as if saying "no" in the western world. Don't get confused but doublecheck by asking a verbal yes or no, and not just a shake of the head.
• Check the prices of drinks and food before ordering at a bar. Some of the modern western-style ones are more expensive than rare champagne in central London.
• Be very weary of buying electronics. The real deal is usually the same price as in the western countries. And very often it is fake. The boxes look nice, and the products have a logo on them, but they're bad copies. Don't buy it, if you're not completely sure it's the real thing.