Spending money - India

India has ATMs so no particular need to specify the amount in advance. Do NOT make the terrible mistake of bringing rupees back with you unless you want to keep them for souvenirs: exchanging them for sterling is not easy when in the UK.

India is insanely cheap and as has been mentioned they have atms (and credit cards) are now widely accepted. Street food, for which you’d obviously need cash, is generally decent and very cheap. I’d go along with the £10 a day for incidentals. You should be able to change Sterling fairly easily in Delhi & Jaipur if you didn’t want to use atms but be aware that red tape often means that this sort of thing takes longer in the subcontinent.

Note that India took R500 & R1,000 notes out of circulation a couple of years ago and these are now worthless. I was there just afterwards and it was mayhem. Check the reserve bank of India website to see which notes are valid. As with any country the locals will try to palm useless notes to foreigners given the chance.

The golden triangle trip is very special. Enjoy.

Only eat street food if you can see it being cooked freshly in front of your eyes.

Before you eat in restaurants, have a quick look at the loo. It might give you a clue as to how clean the kitchen is.

Ballard wrote: »

I thought that Kerala had gone dry but perhaps I’ve misremembered.

Local beers are often very strong (7-10%) and not particularly nice imo. It’s also common for them to be warm which makes them even more unpalatable. It’s generally a good idea to feel any bottle before it’s opened to gauge the temperature. The Hindi for cold is pronounced something like ‘tander’ if they appear to have trouble understanding.

Why's that.....Electricity load-shedding? Only places with generators being able to keep the beer chilled?

It's like that all over Nepal too.

Ballard wrote: »

I’m not sure of the reason. I suspect that busy places just don’t have the fridge space to cater for crowds and quieter places don’t rank cooling drinks partlicularly highly.

I remember on our first trip to Goa that none of the beach shacks had electricity, so all cooking was done on gas rings or in a tandoor. Some had little generators for lighting. As for cold drinks, the staff would arrive in the mornings with huge blocks of ice which would be used in water baths to chill the beer and soft drinks. That was over 20 years ago but, knowing India, probably little has changed,